Will CPS Cancel the Rest of the School Year?
By Jim Vail
Rumors continue to circulate that the Chicago Public Schools are planning to cancel the school year early.
When I first heard this I dismissed it out of hand.
I thought that CPS just told the public how they were making all these contingency graduation plans in the event that the teachers walked off the job in mid-May.
How could CPS then decide to cancel school early and piss off all the parents?
The date people are hearing is June 10th for the last day of school.
CPS mandated 3 furlough days, thus ending school on June 21.
So much for the longer school day that Mayor Rahm Emanuel trumpeted after his initial election about how much he cared about the kids.
It was really all about the fight against the union and how billionaires and multi-millionaires represented by Rahm are better than horrible unions.
But now we hear June 10th.
First, the CTU told delegates last week that CPS has the legal right to cancel the last 10 days of the school year.
So CPS can legally end the school year on this date.
Second, administrators and office clerks are saying that something is up with deadlines pushed up. They say this is the first time they can remember when CPS wants certain paperwork done earlier before the end of the year.
So move up graduation?
Hmmm?
It could be used as a cynical ploy to say we're too broke to give teachers what they demand (despite recent privatization actions to give millions away to outside contractors as recently as the last board of education meeting last month), and use the "forced" school closure as a bargaining chip to get the money from Springfield.
The fight in Springfield is fake.
People may think it's between a right-wing semi-billionaire hedge fund hack wanting to kill unions via right to work vs. a powerful speaker of the house defending unions, for now at least.
It's about power, as it always is.
So hold onto your seats, folks. This bumpy ride is continuing to hit turbulence.
By Jim Vail
 |
| A fake fight between two corporate hacks! |
Rumors continue to circulate that the Chicago Public Schools are planning to cancel the school year early.
When I first heard this I dismissed it out of hand.
I thought that CPS just told the public how they were making all these contingency graduation plans in the event that the teachers walked off the job in mid-May.
How could CPS then decide to cancel school early and piss off all the parents?
The date people are hearing is June 10th for the last day of school.
CPS mandated 3 furlough days, thus ending school on June 21.
So much for the longer school day that Mayor Rahm Emanuel trumpeted after his initial election about how much he cared about the kids.
It was really all about the fight against the union and how billionaires and multi-millionaires represented by Rahm are better than horrible unions.
But now we hear June 10th.
First, the CTU told delegates last week that CPS has the legal right to cancel the last 10 days of the school year.
So CPS can legally end the school year on this date.
Second, administrators and office clerks are saying that something is up with deadlines pushed up. They say this is the first time they can remember when CPS wants certain paperwork done earlier before the end of the year.
So move up graduation?
Hmmm?
It could be used as a cynical ploy to say we're too broke to give teachers what they demand (despite recent privatization actions to give millions away to outside contractors as recently as the last board of education meeting last month), and use the "forced" school closure as a bargaining chip to get the money from Springfield.
The fight in Springfield is fake.
People may think it's between a right-wing semi-billionaire hedge fund hack wanting to kill unions via right to work vs. a powerful speaker of the house defending unions, for now at least.
It's about power, as it always is.
So hold onto your seats, folks. This bumpy ride is continuing to hit turbulence.
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