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Education Wed Mar 17 2010
Teachers, Tear Down This Contract
Schools chief Ron Huberman continues to beat the drum of financial meltdown if there aren't drastic cuts to the CPS budget: yesterday he announced that classes should be increased to 37 students per teacher. The Chicago Teachers Union came just short of characterizing Huberman's scenario as a negotiating ploy:
Under the current contract, if CPS declares a budget "emergency,'' it can move to reopen negotiations with the CTU and seek union agreement to forestall $169 million in teacher raises or to impose furloughs.
"If this is a negotiating ploy, there will be no negotiations in the press,'' said CTU spokeswoman Rosemaria Genova."I can't begin to speculate what Mr. Huberman's objective was in terms of briefing principals. . . For a man who is promoting a 'culture of calm,' this is not the way to do it."
One of the union's independent caucuses, the Caucus of Rank and File Educators, dispute the accuracy of Mr. Huberman's projections.
