How will Chicago teachers' strike affect education reform?
Go Deeper.
Create an account or log in to save stories.
Like this?
Thanks for liking this story! We have added it to a list of your favorite stories.
With the Chicago teachers' strike in its second week, what's the broader significance of the strike on education reform and union battles in the United States?
From the Associated Press:
Teachers in the nation's third-largest city will pore over the details of a contract settlement Tuesday as the clock ticks down to an afternoon meeting in which they are expected to vote on ending a seven-day strike that has kept 350,000 students out of class.
Some union delegates planned to take a straw poll of rank-and-file teachers to measure support for a settlement that includes pay raises and concessions from the city on the contentious issues of teacher evaluations and job security. But many warned the outcome remained uncertain two days after delegates refused to call off the walkout, saying they didn't trust city and school officials and wanted more details.
Turn Up Your Support
MPR News helps you turn down the noise and build shared understanding. Turn up your support for this public resource and keep trusted journalism accessible to all.
Mike Petrilli, executive vice president at the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, will join The Daily Circuit Tuesday to look at the implications of the strike.
"There's no doubt that this hurts President Obama," Petrilli said in The New York Times. "He needs teachers to be energized and to go out and knock on doors and man phone banks for him. Right now they're watching his former chief of staff go toe to toe with the teachers' union in Chicago. This is not a position that the president wants to find himself in."
Adam Loredo, head of the English-Language Arts Department at Ogden International in Chicago, and Andrew P. Kelly, a research fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, will also join the discussion.
"The Chicago teachers strike is no ordinary labor dispute," Kelly wrote for The Atlantic. "It's a part of a larger war between the teachers unions and a growing coalition of education reformers who have pushed for rigorous teacher evaluation and tenure reform across the country. As the Chicago Tribune argued in yesterday's editorial page, 'the strike is not only--or even mostly--about money. It's about who controls schools and classrooms.'"
Join the conversation on Facebook.
