Chicago Teachers Union Archives

Democrats Want ‘Climate Literacy’ in Schools as Actual Literacy Slips

September 23, 2024 Daily Caller News Foundation

The Democratic Party is pushing to increase “literacy” on climate change-related material in America’s schools while students are performing poorly with respect to actual literacy.

The party’s education platform mentions the importance of “climate literacy” for American K-12 students several times, emphasizing the purported need for students to be able to understand and interpret information relating to climate change. Meanwhile, the average reading score for both fourth and eighth grade students in 2022 had fallen by three points relative to 2019, according to the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP).

Teachers Union Issues List of Climate Demands as Students Struggle to Read at Grade Level

June 15, 2024 Minnesota Sun Staff

The Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) is making climate-related demands in contract negotiations as the city’s students continue to struggle mightily in the classroom, according to E&E News.

The CTU will push the city to include initiatives like electric school buses, green jobs training programs for students and reducing emissions from buildings with solar panels and other retrofits, among other initiatives, according to E&E News. Those demands are being made while 2023 testing data shows that about 75% of Chicago’s public school students were unable to read at grade level and 83% of students were behind grade level proficiency in math, according to the Illinois Policy Institute.

Commentary: A Tumultuous School Year Winds Down

May 25, 2024 Minnesota Sun Staff

As the school year nears completion, a quick look at recent developments shows an education system in turmoil. The unions are more political than ever, their demands are shameless, lawsuits against the establishment abound, and school choice is rapidly expanding.

Report: Mother’s Death Chicago Teachers’ Union Claimed Was Due to COVID-19 Was from Alcoholism

March 12, 2022 Susan Berry, PhD

A Cook County Medical Examiner’s toxicology report states a parent the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) claimed died due to the spread of COVID-19 from the classroom to her home, actually died from chronic alcoholism.

Chicago City Wire said it obtained the report from the medical examiner that stated Denisha Henry, 32, died in September at Stroger Hospital in Chicago of “chronic ethanolism.”

Commentary: The Outcome if Government Unions Get Control of an Entire State

February 14, 2022February 13, 2022 RealClearWire

Chaos. Disruption. Uncertainty.

The Chicago Teachers Union provides a real-world example of what happens when a government union has too much power.

CTU has gone on strike three times in three school years. In the latest work stoppage, over 330,000 schoolchildren missed five days of school. Parents were notified of the walkout after 11 p.m. on a school night, leaving them just hours to develop a back-up plan after the union decided not to show up.

Chicago Public Schools Forced to Cancel School After Teachers Union Votes to Move to Remote Learning

January 6, 2022 Admin

The Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) voted Tuesday to move to remote learning Wednesday, citing concerns over safety amid the rise in COVID-19 cases, the union said in a press release.

The CTU’s elected House of Delegates voted in favor (88%) of a resolution to return to remote education amid the surge of COVID-19 cases and the rise of the Omicron coronavirus variant, citing a lack of safety guarantees, a union press release said. In the membership-wide vote, 73% of CTU’s members voted in favor of virtual learning, passing the two-thirds threshold required to enact the resolution.

The resolution outlines plans to work remotely until Jan. 18 or until the current COVID-19 wave falls below last year’s threshold for school closures, according to the resolution.

Chicago Teachers Union Plans to Use ‘Delta Variant’ as Excuse to Shut Down Schools Again

August 8, 2021August 7, 2021 Minnesota Sun Staff

The Chicago Teachers’ Union (CTU) declared its belief that schools should be shut down again if the India Variant of the coronavirus, also known as the “Delta variant,” continues to spread, as reported by the Daily Caller.

In a letter published on Thursday addressed to Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot (D-Ill.), the union demanded that the mayor “acknowledge the changing dynamics of the COVID-19 virus” and make further bargains with the CTU regarding conditions for possibly returning to school.

“Parents are concerned,” the letter states in part, “and they deserve assurances that our union and the [Chicago Public Schools] team are working…to ensure safety in hundreds of school buildings across the city.” In fact, many parents have been critical of CTU and other teachers’ unions across the country, which have sought to extend school shutdowns for as long as possible for the teachers’ pleasure, often including absurd and unreasonable conditions in their requirements for returning to in-person instruction.