{"id":24765,"date":"2019-10-18T18:39:03","date_gmt":"2019-10-18T18:39:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.englishforums.com\/news\/?p=24765"},"modified":"2019-10-18T18:39:03","modified_gmt":"2019-10-18T18:39:03","slug":"chicago-teachers-on-protest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.englishforward.com\/news\/chicago-teachers-on-protest\/","title":{"rendered":"25k Chicago teachers mass action affects 300k students"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong><em>Today marks the second day of the Chicago teachers protest.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<h2>Chicago teachers voice out their concerns<\/h2>\n<p>Last Thursday, some <a href=\"https:\/\/edition.cnn.com\/2019\/10\/18\/us\/chicago-teacher-strike-friday\/index.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">25,000 Chicago teachers started a protest<\/a> concerning their poor welfare from state-provided benefits. Around\u00a0 300,000 students from different schools were affected during the protest which is expected to last till the weekends.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>We understand the hard part on the parents.\u00a0 But it&#8217;s a short term protest only in exchange for what we see as a long-term impact to educational justice in this city.<br \/>\n<strong><em>-Jess Sharkey, President of The Chicago Teachers Union<\/em><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Chicago teachers are asking the government for smaller class sizes, additional support staff, salary increase, and additional school budgets. The teachers union had a bargaining team to voice out the side of Chicago teachers during a 10-hour discussion last Thursday.<br \/>\nIn addition to the concerns of the teachers, the union also adds several school concerns like additional librarians, counselors, social workers, and medical staff.<\/p>\n<h2>Series of unrest among universities<\/h2>\n<p>The same scenario happened at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.englishforums.com\/news\/union-workers-strike-averted-settlement\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">The University of Oregon where around 5000 workers<\/a> planned a walkout due to worker rights concerns.<br \/>\nSome noted sentiments from the teachers part of the strike:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>I earn less than $30,000 a year for the past 5 years I have been a teacher. There are times that I have to take an extra job at Walmart to add up to my monthly budget. I have a family of four that I have to provide for.<br \/>\n<strong><em>-Willie Cousins, Assistant teacher<\/em><\/strong><br \/>\nStudents deserve a smaller class size. We need nurses and social workers. Students deserve billingual educators.<br \/>\n<strong><em>-Linda Perales, Special Education teacher<\/em><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<h2><strong>Chicago&#8217;s generous offer<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Chicago&#8217;s Board of Education responded to the bargaining team with a counteroffer to their demands.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>16% salary increase for all employees<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>An additional $400,000 per year budget intended for hiring medical staff, counselors, and social workers.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>$1 million budget for reducing class size on fourth to twelveth grade levels.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>We have tried to provide\u00a0 the best deal that&#8217;s fiscally responsible, which is\u00a0 fair for both teachers and tax payers. Without question, this is the best deal we can offer to them.<br \/>\n<em><strong>-Mayor Lori Lightfoot, Chicago<\/strong><\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Today marks the second day of the Chicago teachers protest. Chicago teachers voice out their concerns Last Thursday, some 25,000 Chicago teachers started a protest concerning their poor welfare from state-provided benefits. Around\u00a0 300,000 students from different schools were affected during the protest which is expected to last till the weekends. We understand the hard [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":24771,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[23,25],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.englishforward.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24765"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.englishforward.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.englishforward.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.englishforward.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/21"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.englishforward.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24765"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.englishforward.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24765\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.englishforward.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24771"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.englishforward.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24765"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.englishforward.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24765"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.englishforward.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24765"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}