- A Message from the Executive Board: CPS School Closings
As professional teachers who have dedicated our lives to educating the children of Chicago, the Chicago Alliance of Charter Teachers and Staff strongly condemns the mayor’s decision to destroy 54 public schools. We consider it no coincidence that this number is so near the number of new charters proposed (61), and we suspect the true motivation is to facilitate a land-grab for the benefit of the corporate education reform movement. Whether the motivation is greed, total ignorance of best educational practices, the arrogant attitude that the ultra-wealthy know what is best for everyone else’s children, or some combination of the above, it doesn’t really matter: as educators, it is obvious to us that this unprecedented, undemocratic, and radical school closing action will not give Chicago’s young people the schools they deserve and will in fact greatly diminish the quality of education they receive.
Read More - Another Big “Yes” in NLRB Charter School Election
After two years of jurisdictional battles, the teachers at Latino Youth High School, a charter school in Chicago, were finally able to vote on a union yesterday. The 10-1 balloting provided an overwhelming “yes” for unionization.
Thus the stage was set for this week’s NLRB-run election at Latino Youth. It was the second charter school election run by the NLRB since December. Outcomes of both elections were strongly pro-union. Read More
The commitment of LYHS teachers was never in doubt; they had filed cards with the Illinois Educational Labor Relations Board in September 2011, and the public labor board had certified their union. But the charter school’s management organization appealed to the National Labor Relations Board even as the NLRB was considering a similar challenge from another charter school in Chicago. In a seminal finding last December, the NLRB ruled that charter schools may be considered private sector employers.WSJ: Organizing at UNOUnions’ Charter-School Push
By STEPHANIE BANCHERO and CAROLINE PORTER
CHICAGO—Charter schools have spread across the country while generally keeping organized labor out, with operators saying they can manage schools better when their staffs aren’t unionized. But labor groups are now making a big push to get a stronger foothold in this educational realm.
Here in Chicago, a branch of the American Federation of Teachers is looking to organize one of the nation’s largest nonprofit charter-school groups. Under an agreement last month, the United Neighborhood Organization, which runs 13 charter schools in the city, agreed to provide the union with contact information for its 400 teachers and to let union organizers meet with them on school grounds, even as the charter-school group didn’t take a position on whether the teachers should organize.
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