Chicago Public School Teachers Threaten 'Ditch Day' on April 1st to Protest Pension Reform

How CPS students will lose if their teachers ditch class

"You know, like, look at it as an extra holiday, right? I mean, just look at it that way. That's the only thing I can tell them to make them feel better." - Chicago Teachers Union President Karen Lewis, March 7, 2016

March 11, 2016

Chicago Tribune Editorial - Karen Lewis breezily tells parents not to worry if teachers ultimately decide to skip work on Friday, April 1. Even though it's scheduled as a school day. Even though students are expected to attend their classes.

Where will teachers be if not in classrooms? Union leaders haven't said. Will teachers be on the picket line? In the Loop for another of those raucous red-shirt rallies? Should children show up for school? What do working parents do?

Not sure yet, we'll get back to you, Lewis says about the union's "Shut It Down" event — billed on the CTU website as "a march and a day of direct action ..."

We hope teachers don't abandon their students to show their pique against Mayor Rahm Emanuel, Gov. Bruce Rauner and CPS leaders. If so, they would demonstrate a breathtakingly heedless disregard for the instruction that about 22,000 union members — they're educators, remember — provide to students.

Teachers should be making the most of every precious minute in the instructional day. There are only 178 of those days in a school year. They go fast. Children fall behind when they're not in class. They lose their momentum, their eagerness to learn.

Yet teachers and their union leaders could squander April 1 with little more than a shrug: School's out, kids. We're declaring our own furlough day ...

Students don't learn only in the classroom. They learn by watching adults. Their parents. Their teachers.
No matter what teachers try to teach, CPS students are learning about what matters most to many of the adults entrusted with their education.

If teachers walk, students would learn an acrid lesson about the teachers union's astonishing disrespect for the value of classroom instruction. Think about that.

Children would learn how a labor union, deep in contract negotiations, throws a tantrum because it won't accept a new pact that phases out a lavish 7 percent pension payment pickup the district can no longer afford. CPS still would be responsible for its employer contribution to the pensions. But it would stop paying most of the employee contribution.

Students would learn that when money and education are in play, some adults put education second to their real priority.

Remember: CPS is broke. CPS CEO Forrest Claypool declared three furlough days for teachers and administrators to make ends meet. On Wednesday, he told principals to pare back spending because the district is short of cash to finish the year. "In this fiscal crisis, please only fill jobs that are absolutely essential for students," CPS told principals.

Essential for students. CPS has its priorities straight.

Under state bargaining protocols, the teachers union can't yet legally strike. That day won't come until mid-May.

But what teachers can do, legally or not, is churlishly abandon their students on April 1.

No, it's not a holiday, as Lewis suggests.

It's a school day.

And what about all those single parents who work, who expect that their kids will be in class, who would have to scramble to find child care or just miss a day of work?

Sorry, parents, you won't count. Neither would your child's education. Teachers could abandon their students because they don't like those furlough days or CPS' last contract offer.


If contract talks break down, if teachers walk, they probably figure they'll have many parents on their side. But how would leaving thousands of parents in the lurch on Teacher Ditch Day generate sympathy for the teachers' cause? 

In 2011, Mayor Rahm Emanuel and CPS leaders battled the teachers union over adding precious time — 52 minutes for elementary schools, 46 minutes for high schools — to the instructional day. Back then, Chicago cheated students with one of the shortest school days in the U.S.

Those extra minutes pay off for children. In higher standardized test scores for many CPS students. In CPS' improving graduation rates.

Teachers know that an entire lost school day is irretrievable. So, will they be with their students on April 1?

We hope so. If not, teachers, good luck explaining your little tantrum to your students. Tell them why your protest is more important than their education.