No one wanted another strike–but many people wondered how and were doubtful that the district could meet the CTU’s financial demands. So when Rahm, Forrest, and Co. were able to make it happen at the eleventh hour, many parents, community members, and even some students were able to breathe a sigh of relief. But how long will it be before…
Category: Hall Pass
Reason #4 on Why CPS Teachers Shouldn’t Go on Strike: Everybody Else in Town is Already Paying More for Schools
“Stubborn”. That’s what my mom calls it. My cousin says it’s “petty”. “Unreasonable”, if you ask my education policy friends. But no matter how many ways I hear it; I can’t get beyond the fact that after every other stakeholder in funding and support of Chicago Public Schools has carried a share of the burden, the Chicago Teachers Union still…
Reason #3 on Why CPS Teachers Shouldn’t Go on Strike: We Need to Work Together to Save the District
You don’t cut off your nose to spite your face. That’s what my grandmother told me when I skipped an entire week of my freshman year of high school because I was upset with my mom and dad. Sometimes anger can cause people to lash out in ways that are ultimately far more harmful to them than to the object…
Reason #2 on Why CPS Teachers Shouldn’t Go on Strike: It’s ALL About Money! (5-part Series)
Regardless of what you might hear in the news, understand this one thing: If the Chicago Teachers Union goes on strike, it will be about money…period. Now, if you have been listening to the TV news or consuming a ton of social media, you might think that the pending strike is a referendum on all things Chicago Public Schools. You…
A Tale of Two Cities: How Race and Poverty Shape Educational Outcomes and the Need for Reform
In recent weeks Chicago Unheard has posted two open letters. The letters reflect two very different perspectives and two different experiences in Chicago’s education system. While both of the letters come from people within the same Chicago Public School District, it seems that they come from two different worlds. In one of these worlds, middle-class families (mostly white) endeavor to…
Why isn’t Chicago’s violence crisis treated like suburban heroin epidemic?
We are accustomed to seeing grieving mothers who have lost a son to violence. Hardly a day goes by that we don’t come upon a video on a newspaper website, on social media or local TV news of a woman at the scene of a shooting, screaming to hold her child one last time. Her tears are genuine and her…
Dear BBC: Chicago Doesn’t Need Another Documentary. We Need Solutions.
Yesterday BBC released a mini documentary entitled “The Lost Streets of Chicago” and as a citizen born and raised in the Windy City, I’m highly offended. In 2014 Noisey launched a 8-part documentary entitled “Welcome to Chiraq”. Hosted by Thomas Morton (writer and contributing editor to Vice magazine), I faithfully watched every episode searching for hope. I found none. They simply…
Back to School in Chicago Got a Big Ole BUT
It’s back to school for the largest majority of Chicago’s school children, the near 400,000 who will attend Chicago Public Schools. Never in my lifetime has the beginning of a school year been marked with so much uncertainty. One can almost not mention the dawning school year without a great big BUT showing up. I have been talking to a…