The Chicago Lecturers Union (CTU) on Friday responded to a newspaper editorial about lecturers’ persistent absences in Chicago Public Faculties (CPS) when they’re paid a median wage of $95K.
“CPS trainer Roxanne Piersanti calls out the Tribune Editorial Board’s latest criticism of trainer absences, stating the way it unfairly targets working moms and ignores the realities of caregiving, sickness, and the bodily toll of educating,” CTU posted on their X account.
“Have they thought of how typically educators — particularly the 75% of whom are ladies — are on the entrance traces of each their school rooms and their households? Does the Trib assume staff don’t deserve sick days, FMLA and parental go away? Educators don’t simply train; they sacrifice, care, and persevere. It’s time for the Tribune to mirror the info,” the CTU wrote.
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Regardless of union membership declining since 2000, a rising variety of People approve of unions, in accordance with a 2022 Gallup ballot. (Picture by Scott Olson/Getty Photos)
The union additionally highlighted Piersanti’s comment aimed on the Tribune’s editorial board.
“The editorial feels very one-sided and completely misogynistic. Do higher,” Piersanti wrote in an article criticizing the Tribune.
Piersanti added that the Tribune is “lacking info about why lecturers take the break day.”
“What about COVID-19? Do members of the board work with 100-plus completely different youngsters a day? How would their immune techniques maintain up?”, she added.
The Tribune editorial wrote on November twenty fifth that over 41% of lecturers had been absent from their lessons for 10 or extra days through the 2023-24 faculty yr, citing state information. The outlet added that 10 days of absences characterize a statistical benchmark used within the career to observe persistent absenteeism amongst lecturers.
Brandon Johnson, mayor of Chicago, throughout an inauguration ceremony on the Credit score Union 1 Enviornment in Chicago on Might 15, 2023. (Jamie Kelter Davis/Bloomberg by way of Getty Photos)
“Alarmingly, this poor document of CPS lecturers exhibiting up for work has been a brand new and up to date phenomenon. Within the 2022-23 faculty yr, for instance, CPS lecturers’ efficiency was even worse — 43% had been absent a minimum of 10 days. Earlier than that yr, although, the speed was significantly higher: within the 2016-17 faculty yr, persistent absenteeism amongst CPS lecturers was 31%. The quantity worsened barely from there main into the pandemic however nonetheless was higher than what we’re seeing now,” the editorial board wrote.
Chicago lecturers are paid a median wage of $95,000, considerably greater than what lecturers are paid within the suburbs and greater than “another giant faculty district within the nation,” in accordance with the Tribune.
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The Tribune added that it was an “outlandish ask” for the CTU to demand a 9% annual increase.
CTU President Stacey Davis Gates penned an op-ed on November twenty ninth responding to the editorial board, saying that the board “continues its agenda of denigrating the Chicago Lecturers Union and lowers itself with a sequence of half-truths and cherry-picked statistics.”
“When numbers aren’t juiced to advance an agenda, trainer attendance at CPS tracks with statewide tendencies,” Davis Gates wrote. “They name this ‘persistent absenteeism’ and insinuate that lecturers ought to be ashamed for doing so.”
Stacy Davis Gates is President of the Chicago Lecturers Union, Govt Vice President of the Illinois Federation of Lecturers, Vice President of the American Federation of Lecturers, and Chair of United Working Households. (YouTube/screenshot | Fox Information Digital)
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“In CPS and throughout the state, lecturers are making use of their allotted sick time greater than earlier than the pandemic. Even when districts with roughly beneficiant go away insurance policies, Chicago is neither the very best nor the bottom in the case of trainer utilization of paid break day,” she added.
CTU, Davis Gates, nor the Tribune instantly responded to a request for remark.
