By Steve Gunn
EAGnews.org

CHICAGO – There will be no improvements for Chicago Public Schools unless the teachers union somehow benefits from it.

That became even clearer last week when the school district and union cut a deal allowing Mayor Rahm Emanuel to meet his goal of giving students more classroom instructional time.

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Under the new arrangement, school days for high school and elementary students will increase by more than an hour. That’s a big step forward for an underperforming school district with one of the shortest instructional days in the nation.

But here’s the catch: Elementary teachers will not have to spend any more time in the classroom, while high school teachers will only spend 14 extra minutes at work every day. That’s because the district agreed to call back as many as 477 laid -off teachers to carry the extra workload.

We fail to understand why the existing teaching staff can’t absorb the extra work time, particularly since the union is insisting on a large pay raise during current contract negotiations to make up for the longer school day. If the existing teachers are not going to put in the extra work, why should they get a raise?

The school district is battling with a $665 million deficit, with runaway labor costs one of the major reasons. It really can’t afford any type of raise for anyone at the moment.

In an editorial published this week, the Chicago Tribune argues that the money that would have been spent on a raise should now be used to help cover the $40 to $50 million it will take to pay the recalled teachers.

“Haven’t the teachers just taken off the table their strongest argument any raise in the contract?” the editorial said. “They didn’t want to work more hours without more pay. Bingo. Elementary teachers won’t have to work a single day longer. High School teachers will spend just 14 more a day in schools. But shouldn’t every dollar available then go to the cost of those (recalled) teachers instead of raises?”

The newspaper also thinks the school district should cast a wide net in search of quality teachers to fill the new positions, instead of just relying on callbacks.

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“No doubt many fine former teachers will be in that (recall) pool,” the editorial said. “But if everyone was thinking about the best interests of kids, they’d be casting the widest net for the best teachers in the community, if not the country, to fill those jobs.

We couldn’t agree more.

Union wants a self-serving callback policy

As it turns out, union officials were not satisfied with their ability to force the callback of hundreds of teachers to do the work that should be assigned to current teachers.

They now say they want to push for a policy in the new contract that would guarantee financial security and call back rights for all teachers affected by layoffs.

In the past, teachers laid off for non-performance reasons remained in the payroll for an incredible 25 months, costing the district an alarming amount of money. The teachers also retained the right to be appointed to vacancies for which they had the proper certification.

A 1995 law ended that madness. Laid off teachers were put into a reassignment pool and received a full salary for ten months, which is still rather generous for employees who are supposedly cut from the payroll. But they are not automatically entitled to positions they may be certified for.

The district decided that it’s more important to have the best possible teacher in the classroom, even if that means passing up someone who had been laid off.

CTU filed a lawsuit over that policy change, but the Illinois Supreme Court eventually ruled that the school board has no legal responsibility to give hiring preference to laid off employees or negotiate a recall procedure with the union.

But now the union is demanding a negotiated recall procedure. CTU officials want to make layoffs nothing more than long vacations with full pay and benefits, with a guarantee of a job as soon as something opens up.

CTU leaders seem very serious about attaining a new layoff policy during the current contract negotiations. According to ProgressIllinois.com, they recently rejected a third-party fact-finder report that called for a generous 18 percent raise because it didn’t include a recommendation for such a policy.

Schools lay off teachers and other employees when they can no longer afford to keep the on the payroll. They need to save money for student needs, so they cut the payroll to free up dollars. What’s to be gained when laid off teachers are allowed to draw full compensation for more than two years?

Automatic callbacks also cheat students. During hard economic times, school districts have few opportunities to recruit talented young teachers. At layoff time, union rules require they dismiss the last hired, even if they are some of the best teachers in the system.

Shouldn’t they at least have the opportunity to hunt for the best talent when positions open up?

Bottom line: The union would rather provide money to non-working teachers than use it preserve the best possible curriculum for students. And finding the most qualified candidates when teachings positions open up is not the union’s concern. The CTU exists to serve the interests of its members, not the best interests of children.

Chicago Public Schools need to improve. It must be obvious to any clear-thinker that CTU is an obstruction improving the quality of education in the district, not an ally.