Teachers unions trying to take back O.C. Board

By GLORIA ROMERO 

April 27, 2016

In addition to making known their presidential preferences, Orange County voters on June 7 also will make critical decisions impacting the continued on a path of supporting greater parental choice in public education and jump-starting education reforms in local schools.

Orange County Board of Education Trustees Kenneth Williams and Robert Hammond are seeking re-election. The board has become a model for championing choice and opportunity for students and taxpayers alike. Williams and Hammond served as the minority on the five-member board until the previous election cycle, when they were joined by Linda Lindholm, forming a refreshingly candid and courageous new majority.

Not beholden to county teachers unions or other special interests, they saw to it that petitions were no longer summarily denied to grant rights to independent charter schools seeking to start schools in Orange County. This switch came much to the chagrin of teachers unions, and even some school board members, because it meant an end to a default geographically based monopoly for school enrollment.

With charters, parents can “vote with their feet” and choose the school – rather than being forced by their address to enroll their child in a school that even the state of California recognizes as chronically underperforming. Teachers unions also oppose charter schools because charter school teachers and staff are not mandated to pay union dues as a condition of employment.

The new OCBE majority quickly drew the ire of old-guard interests. Two political action committees have been established to defeat Hammond and Williams on June 7, targeting them for having the audacity to prioritize the interests of students over the interests of adults employed by school districts. A series of private meetings have been held recently to discuss the opposition’s “victory” plan, as depicted in a six-page PowerPoint presentation I obtained.

So, voters, beware when you receive mail from something called “Teachers for Local Control,” which claims to be looking out for you, as Hammond and Williams are portrayed as scoundrels intent on destroying local control, devastating public education and usurping and overturning the wisdom of locally elected trustees.

The name “Teachers for Local Control” undoubtedly was poll tested and determined to be a resonant mantra with Orange County voters. What backers probably won’t reveal is that Teachers for Local Control is a chameleon group for the Santa Ana Educators Association, a local affiliate of the powerful Sacramento-based California Teachers Association, which has fought virtually every public education reform and law granting parental school choice in California.

In fact, the legal phone number for Teachers for Local Control provided to the California Secretary of State’s Office is the same number as for the Santa Ana teachers union office.

Whoops.

To oppose Hammond and Williams, local teachers unions picked Tustin Councilwoman Rebecca Gomez and Irvine school board trustee Michael Parham to advance their position that approving charter schools “undermines local control.” Hopefully, voters will understand that the “local control” they seek to protect is control by those who used to control the OCBE until voters threw out their cronies and elected independent candidates, like Hammond, Williams and Lindholm, who aren’t afraid to support local parents and students.

Miles Durfee of California Charter Schools Association Advocates hailed the Orange County Education Board members’ support for quality educational choices, highlighting that “in an environment, where a school district board and superintendent is calling for an illegal moratorium on charter school options, the county board members have played a vital leadership role [by]… focusing on kids rather than adults.”

Your vote is your voice.

Gloria Romero is an education reformer and former Democratic state senator.

Teachers Unions Bully The Very Teachers They Claim To Protect

Connor D. Wolf

02/27/2016

Rebecca Friedrichs spoke with fellow teachers and right-to-work advocates Saturday about her case against forced union dues and her years of allegedly being bullied for speaking out.

Friedrichs spoke at the Concerned Educators Against Forced Unionism (CEAFU) conference about her experience with the California Teachers Association (CTA). The same experience that led her and nine other teachers to argue before the U.S. Supreme Court against mandatory union payments. Friedrichs recalled how she was once bullied by the very union entrusted to represent her.

“My entire experience, my 28 years being forced into this union, I have been bullied,” Friedrichs said. “I have been bullied the entire time.”

Friedrichs tried to leave early on after she found out it was impossible to fire an abusive colleague just because of the union. She felt the union didn’t represent her values and its policies put students in harm’s way. She could leave but she was forced to keep funding its activities. She then rejoined in the hopes of changing the union culture as a representative but found that didn’t help either.

“If you are lockstep with the union, if you do exactly what they want, if you don’t question anything, if you are just fine with the status quo, well then they don’t bully you,” she recalled. “But if you’re independently minded and speak up or you dare to question what their doing, you’re bullied.”

She alleges she was ostracized just for disagreeing with the union. Union officials and members shunned and harassed her and other vocal teachers just for speaking out. When she did try to fix the culture she only became more alienated from her colleagues.

“Even when I was a union rep I went to an annual union conference, myself and other teachers in the room were bullied by the CTA president at that time,” she added. “We were shutdown and treated as though we were bigots if we didn’t agree with their stance in politics or collective bargaining.”

The teachers made their case Jan. 11, since then, major upsets have occurred that put their chances of winning in question. Justice Antonin Scalia passing away Feb. 13 created a major upset in several open cases, including theirs. Scalia was believed to be the deciding vote against required dues.

President Barack Obama is likely to appoint a liberal-leaning justice, making a decision in favor of the union more likely. Nevertheless, without a majority decision the ruling will default to whatever the lower court decided. The lower court upheld mandatory union dues by ruling in favor of the union.

The CEAFU is a project of the Nation Right To Work Legal Defense Foundation with the aim of challenging compulsory unionism in education.

Bill would prohibit teachers unions from bargaining on school year calendar

By Brian McVicar | bmcvicar@mlive.com 

February 19, 2016

State legislation would strip teachers of the right to bargain on the school year calendar, a move that unions oppose but one group says could provide more flexibility for districts to pursue changes such as year-round school.

The proposal's sponsor, Rep. Daniela Garcia, R-Holland, said the adjustment would ensure that schools can meet state-mandated changes to the calendar year.

This school year, for instance, all districts must provide 175 days of instruction, a number that will rise to 180 days next year. That requirement, though, doesn't apply to districts where a collective bargaining agreement designating a different number of instructional days was in place as of June 2014.

"I felt it was necessary to provide some flexibility so that our school districts could actually meet the mandates that we're putting into law," Garcia said.

The legislation is opposed by the Michigan Education Association (MEA), the state's largest teachers union. MEA spokesman David Crim said teachers are on "the front lines" of education and are best suited to judge whether changes in a school's calendar would benefit students.

"Teachers who are on the front lines have a sense of, in terms of calendar, what best fits the students' needs," he said. Later, he added, "When (teachers) don't have the input, then the students' voices and what's best for the students, their voice is left out as well."

Garcia said teachers would still have a voice on the school calendar if the legislation is approved.

"Superintendents and school boards engage in conversations with their teachers and educators in their district all the time," she said. "Just because (the school calendar year) is being pulled from the collective bargaining table doesn't mean that those discussions are going to end."

She added, "In all of the teachers that I've spoken with on this particular legislation, they have not been able to say why schedule and calendar need to be part of the collective bargaining process because they can't answer how it benefits children."

According to the National Education Association (NEA), four states – Connecticut, Indiana, Kansas and Maryland – "explicitly" prohibit bargaining on school year and calendar.

Wisconsin prohibits bargaining on all topics except total base wages, according to the NEA, while the Alaska Supreme Court has "found the school year calendar to be non-negotiable."

Great Lakes Education Project, a pro-charter schools group, supports Garcia's legislation. Gary Naeyaert, the group's executive director, said unions have held the "school calendar hostage to contract demands that are unrelated to the school calendar."

Garcia's legislation would enable school administrators to "set the calendar without being held up," he said.

Naeyaert also said the legislation could also make it easier for schools to move to a year-round calendar, also known as the balanced calendar.

Unions "are hostile to change and they are hostile to what our kids really need, which is a longer school day and a longer school year," Naeyaert said.

Under a balanced calendar, students are still required to be in school for the number of days mandated by state law, currently 175.

What's different is school days are spread more evenly across the year, leading to more frequent breaks but a shortening of the traditional summer break. The National Association for Year-Round Education says such a calendar can "stem learning loss and allow educators the opportunity to get the most out of the 180 days that most states mandate for instruction."

In Michigan, schools are required to start after Labor Day unless they receive a state waiver. This school year, 100 districts and charter schools received a waiver from the Michigan Department of Education (MDE) to start school before Labor Day.

The majority of those schools are on a balanced calendar, meaning they have no longer than six weeks off in the summer, as opposed to the traditional summer break which can be as long as 12 weeks, said Brian Ciloski, an analyst at MDE.

Crim said the MEA doesn't oppose a year-round calendar, pointing out that the administrators and teachers have come together at the bargaining table to create such a school year.

"We just think that it makes sense to have a teacher's perspective," he said.

Act 10: Teachers unions shift focus, mission

Patti Zarling

USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin

2/14/2016

Green Bay area teachers unions have taken on new — if diminished roles — in the five years since a Wisconsin law curbing their authority was set in motion.

Faced with a $2.7 billion budget shortfall in early 2011, newly elected Republican Gov. Scott Walker proposed providing school district officials with "tools" to help them control costs: stripping government workers unions of most of their collective bargaining power and requiring public workers to pay more for health insurance and benefits. He also trimmed state aid to schools.

His introduction of Act 10 on Feb. 11 of that year took public workers by surprise. They quickly organized protests at the sate Capitol that drew thousands of teachers, their families, union members and other supporters  from throughout Wisconsin. The first major protest took place five years ago Monday.

Those against the governor's proposal also carried signs near the Green Bay School District offices, as well as Chappell Elementary School when Walker made an appearance there. Students at Bay Port High School in Suamico walked out of school to show solidarity with teachers.

"It definitely was a shock to me," said Lori Cathey, president of the Green Bay Education Association. "How could we go from a state that was so pro-education to one that saw teachers as the problem, that we are sucking up taxpayer money? That was kind of a huge blow."

The measure passed despite the largest protests Madison had ever seen, and Walker later survived a historic recall election.

Today, teachers and their unions have adjusted to the new status quo. Union leaders say they have lost significant numbers of members since Act 10, which made membership voluntary, but they also say the governor's actions have led them to be proactive in touting the importance of good schools and strong teachers.

The Wisconsin Education Association Council, the state's largest teachers organization, lost almost half its members, from 97,000 before Act 10 to about 50,000 today. The Green Bay chapter retained about three-fourths of its 1,800 members, Cathey said.

In addition to voluntary membership, Act 10 also added new requirements for unions to recertify. The rules now say local unions must hold an election — at their own expense — each year to recertify and become the bargaining authority for teachers. Union members who do not cast ballots are counted as "no" votes.

The GBEA has recertified each year, Cathey said. For this school year, about 75 percent of GBEA members favored recertification. Just seven members placed ballots with a "no" vote, the rest were no-shows, she said.

"I think that shows amazing support for our organization," Cathey said. "They see we have an amazing relationship with the Green Bay School District. We are able to work with the school district on issues, and it isn't adversarial."

Continuing role

WEAC spokeswoman Christina Brey said local unions still play a role throughout the state, even if some choose not to recertify.

"They've created so many hoops for us to jump through," Brey said. "It's clear the motive was to destroy unions, but we're still here."

But the influence of unions has diminished in Madison. WEAC spent about $2.3 million on lobbying in the two legislative sessions leading up to the passage of Act 10. But by 2013-14 the union spent just $175,540, and so far has spent $93,481 in 2015-16.

Union leaders say they instead are focusing on local communities. The associations also invest in training and other support services for members.

"We offer professional development for things like license renewal, classroom management or teacher effectiveness," said Cathey, who also is a Wisconsin representative on the National Education Association's board and was in Washington, D.C., last week. "In the past it was more about politics, but now it's more community oriented.We want to talk about our schools and share who we are with the community."

Despite drops in membership numbers, Cathey said GBEA is more active than before Act 10.

"In the election for our board of directors, usually there might be one or two people running, and now we have six," she said. "There are a huge number of people stepping up. And it's not just the same people, it's new people."

In the wake of Act 10, GBEA worked with the district to develop a new handbook, which replaced contracts, and kept items such as "just cause" meaning teachers could not be fired without reason.

"That was huge," she said.

Like other communities, Green Bay teachers are leaving the district for new opportunities more often. In the past, Cathey said seniority and pay often kept teachers within one district.

"You see it especially with new teachers or those with a specialty," she said. "Special ed teacher, bilingual, or tech ed. In an open market, if they can make $5,000 a year more, or for psychologists $25,000 a year more, it's hard to argue against it."

Ned Dorff, who teaches first and second grade at Green Bay's Aldo Leopold School, remains a GBEA member.

"I'm a member because unions support their members by staying up to date on changing state and federal legislation, negotiating our contracts, helping us through special circumstances like maternity and paternity leave, and helping mediate conflicts among personnel," he said. "It's easy to feel lost or alone without the expertise and support of our union staff."

He also participated in protests in Madison five years ago.

"I remember being really shocked, and really concerned about my family's financial future," he said. "That was just about the time my wife and I got married."

His wife also was a teacher, but after Act 10 and the birth of their first child, Dorff said they agreed that, with the cost of child care, she would drop out of teaching.

"A lot of people think we make lots of money," he said. "We have a family of four, and we don't go out, we don't drink, we don't have cable. And still we aren't putting away money for our kids' college.

"We get into this because we love kids and teaching, not to make money."

Many teachers were disheartened during the debate before and after Act 10's passage, Cathey said.

"I think five years ago teachers really felt under attack, but I think things have changed," she said. "I think now everyone sees we all want to do what's best for kids."

WV teacher ‘unions’ are right-to-work in action

By Joshua D. Brumfield

Over the years I have heard teachers complain about West Virginia teacher unions being weak and ineffective. I have heard my colleagues say the union only halfway fights for respectable teacher salaries.

Where are the unions on the current PEIA cost increase? Shouldn’t they be fighting the Legislature on this? Why are we required to do more and more each year and never get any compensation for the work?

Regrettably, I find it difficult to totally disagree with some of the naysayers on this issue. I understand their frustration with teacher unions. I understand that the unions are not juggernauts like the Teamsters or the UMWA. I also understand that teacher unions, while not perfect, have made progress and have done a lot of good work for the profession. However, I believe many teachers fail to understand why the American Federation of Teachers and West Virginia Education Association have not been effective.

Look no further than right-to-work. Essentially, teacher unions in West Virginia already match RTW. All teachers benefit from union progress, yet teachers aren’t required to pay union dues. Nonpaying teachers benefit exactly the same from gains the union negotiates with the Legislature (pay raises, sick days, insurance, planning time, etc.).

The point is, West Virginia teacher unions are weaker because of this RTW structure. Imagine the negotiating power teacher unions would have with the Legislature if every single teacher was a dues-paying member. Some states, such as our neighboring Maryland, have the ability to bargain collectively. This statutory authority allows unions to more effectively lobby lawmakers and pass laws that are in the best interest of teachers and students.

As a result, teachers experience higher pay, have fewer teacher shortages and most importantly have a greater overall satisfaction in their profession. Because of the overall lack of support West Virginia teacher unions receive from the teaching profession at large, it should not surprise anyone that teacher pay in this state is among the worst in the country, that we have a major teacher shortage, that lawmakers consistently pass legislation that most teachers disagree with and that the financial shortfall with PEIA, if left up to Republicans in the Legislature, will be passed on to teachers and other state workers.

The bottom line is, if workers want an effective union that truly represents their interests, then all employees must contribute. Workers should understand that RTW legislation abolishes this fundamental union principle. Once employees vote to unionize, all employees should respect the decision of the majority. This is the foundation of our democracy.

So if unions are forced to compete with limited funds against corporate lobbyists with unlimited funds, they will never get the attention of our lawmakers. The fact is, West Virginia teacher unions do the best they can without overall financial support from the entire teaching profession. The sad truth is, once RTW passes, this will be the reality for all labor unions in the state.

Republicans are determined to pass RTW during this 2016 session, even if it requires overriding Gov. Tomblin’s veto. Labor unions that have had success in the past such as the UMWA and Teamsters will unfortunately start to experience the same frustrations that teacher unions encounter. Sadly, the final result of RTW means less union bargaining power with the Legislature to make jobs more desirable for West Virginia workers.

Republicans will tell you this is about choice. They will tell you it will raise wages. They will tell you it will bring more jobs.

Tell them that the choice to be a nonpaying freeloader has directly put West Virginia teachers at the bottom of almost every category nationwide.

Tell them you understand their underlying motivation to bust all unions by breaking their financial ability to lobby. Tell them if Republicans truly cared about people and good-paying jobs, they would pass laws prohibiting the financial influence major corporations have on lawmakers, instead of passing RTW that goes after the very organizations, labor unions, which advocate for workers, not corporate profits.

Democrats and unions scramble to contain Detroit teacher protests

By Nancy Hanover 

18 January 2016

The emergence last week of coordinated teacher protests in Detroit, organized independently of the Detroit Federation of Teachers (DFT), came as a shock to state and local authorities, the news media and the trade union apparatus. Having long relied on the DFT and other unions to suppress opposition to the decimation of public education and other essential services, there was a clear disorientation in the official response, which varied between denunciations and phony claims of sympathy.

Three straight days of “sick outs” led to the shutdown of 93 of the district’s 97 schools. Teachers used social media to expose the intolerable conditions in their decaying schools and to demand increased staffing and resources to lower class sizes, address chronic poverty among schoolchildren and recoup years of lost wages and benefits negotiated by the DFT.

Within leading corporate and political circles there was fear the spreading protests and open defiance by teachers of the union and legislators’ threats of fines and dismissal could become the catalyst for a far broader movement of the working class. Detroit has been the epicenter for the attacks on the working class, including the 2013-14 bankruptcy when both parties, with the full support of the unions, looted city worker pensions and public assets on behalf of Wall Street bondholders. In nearby Flint social anger is at a boiling point over the lead poisoning of the water supply—by the very same emergency manager overseeing the Detroit schools—and late last year thousands of autoworkers engaged in a near rebellion against the pro-company contracts pushed through by the United Auto Workers.

Every section of the political establishment—from Republican Governor Rick Snyder and the Republican-controlled state legislature, to the Democrats, including Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan, city and state officials, all the way up to President Obama—are hostile to the teachers’ demands. All of them defend the “right” of the banks, wealthy bondholders, and for-profit education businesses to decimate public education and teachers’ living standards.

After recovering from their initial shock, the enemies of teachers regrouped and began a counter-assault last week. This included:

*On Wednesday, January 13, Judge Steven Rhodes—notorious for his role in imposing the Detroit city bankruptcy by voiding the state constitutional protection for city workers’ pensions—began working out of Governor Snyder’s office, meeting with dozens of Republican House members to assist in gaining support for reorganization legislation.

Politicians have seized upon the announcement two weeks ago that DPS debt will balloon to $26.8 million a month, and now the teachers’ effective protests, to ram through the reorganization efforts, which have been stymied in the state legislature since last spring.

*Also on January 13, Mayor Duggan announced that all DPS schools were to be inspected by the end of April, claiming—for the first time—that if violations are found, the city would take “appropriate steps” to rectify them.

*On Thursday, January 14, Michigan state senator Goeff Hansen (R-Hart) introduced Senate Bills 710 and 711 for the purpose of legally dissolving the Detroit Public Schools, establishing a new Detroit Community School District directly under the thumb of the Michigan Treasury and a financial control board appointed by the governor and mayor.

The legislation would create a Detroit Education Commission, appointed by the mayor and governor, which would hire a chief education officer with dictatorial control over school openings and closures. One revision made since the original proposal last April calls for the existing Financial Review Commission created under the Detroit bankruptcy to also have fiscal oversight of the old and new districts instead of creating a new oversight panel.

*The same day, Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers union—the DFT’s parent union—flew into town to address a mass meeting of angry and militant teachers, many of whom were looking for the sanctioning of a strike. While feigning support, Weingarten opposed a strike authorization vote. Instead, she said the AFT would be buying a full page ad in the local newspaper, launching a petition to emergency manager Darnell Earley and Governor Snyder calling for the “full funding” of Detroit schools, and holding a meaningless “protest” at the Detroit Auto Show. When these toothless proposals were met by hostility, Weingarten began interrupting and shouting over teachers who were attempting to speak.

*On Friday, January 15, the hypocritical attempts at damage control continued from additional corners. State Superintendent of Education Brian Whiston met with Earley and other district officials, purportedly to encourage teachers to “report problems to principals,” something teachers have, of course, done for a very long time. This suggestion was then hailed by David Hecker, president of the American Federation of Teachers-Michigan, who applauded Whiston for “prioritizing Detroit.” Hecker added, “We look forward to positive outcomes from their meeting. … They are desperately needed and needed now.”

*Most seriously, in fact of critical importance to the Democrats and Republicans in Lansing—finance industry experts in The Bondbuyer noted on Friday that Moody’s has labeled Snyder’s proposed restructuring “credit positive.” The publication approvingly reports that, “Under the proposal, the former DPS entity would remain intact to continue collecting tax revenue until its debt is repaid. Those debts include $1.5 billion of unlimited general obligation bonds, $199 million in borrowing from the state’s School Loan Revolving Fund, and $259 million in limited GO [General Obligation] debt paid by district operating revenues, rather than a dedicated debt service levy.”

The chief aim of the reorganization is to secure the interests of the hedge fund owners and investors in municipal bonds. As in the bankruptcy of Detroit, the ruling elite is overseeing the transfer of huge resources from the working class to the banks, in this case through the destruction of public education. “The state sends its checks to the district after holding out money to repay short-term borrowings. Whatever is left is available to pay teachers, buy books and turn on the lights,” explained the Citizen Research Council.

“It’s upsetting to see the poor conditions of the Detroit school system, but as bondholders, we are largely insulated because of the strong support provided to the bonds by the state,” explained Paul Mansour, the head of Conning’s municipal research which oversees $11 billion of state and local debt, including some of Detroit’s.

The reorganization of Detroit schools envisioned by Senate Bills 710 and 711 will not just “insulate” the bondholders, it will enforce the drastic shrinking of the public schools, the further impoverishment of teachers and other school workers, and the elimination of school services, all to more firmly secure the debt. As the bill’s sponsor pointed out, “We want to establish stringent academic standards and strict financial measures [emphasis added] in the city’s public school system. That is our goal in this legislative process.”

An inseparable part of this effort is growing the for-profit education business sector in the city. That this is also a major goal of the legislation was demonstrated when the main spokesperson for the charter school industry in Michigan, Dan Quisenberry, signaled his approval of the legislation, calling it “a step in the right direction.”

For tactical reasons, the hated emergency manager will be removed, but Wall Street and other corporate interests will maintain their dictatorial hold. The state will impose its fiscal control and increasing privatization on the new Detroit Community District in several ways. This will take place first through an interim nine-member school board appointed by the governor and mayor. Second, the appointed school board will hire the superintendent of schools who cannot be removed even once an elected board takes office in January 2017. Most fundamentally, the city’s financial review commission will have complete oversight powers over spending. Finally, the bottom 5 percent of schools will be entirely under the direction of a state-appointed CEO, which it appears could either continue the hated Education Achievement Authority or potentially turn it into charters.

Reportedly, the legislation does not address a source of funding for the $515 million in short-term debt.

The conspiracy by both big business parties, the financial aristocracy and the unions can only be defeated if rank-and-file teachers fight to mobilize the full strength of the working class—in metro Detroit and throughout the US and internationally—to conduct a common fight to defend public education and other social rights. For their part, autoworkers and other workers should follow the example of teachers by organizing their struggles independently of and in opposition to the trade unions.

Teacher contract dispute deepens, tests state law before union strike vote

Juan Perez Jr.Contact Reporter Chicago Tribune

The school board has rejected the Chicago Teachers Union's demand to move contract talks to a final stage, setting up a new fight as teachers prepare to vote later this week on whether to authorize their leaders to call a strike.

The union filed an unfair labor practice on Monday with the Illinois Educational Labor Relations Board, demanding talks proceed to a fact-finding phase. Three of the board's five members were appointed this year by Gov. Bruce Rauner, who has made it his mission to weaken public employees' unions.

The move could test a law enacted before the 2012 teachers strike that governs how contract talks can unfold.

The city and the CTU agreed in August to enlist a mediator's help to reach a new contract as part of that legal process. CTU believes those talks have run their course and wants to move negotiations to a three-person fact-finding panel. CPS says the mediator's work should continue.

"We have to let the mediator do his job and actually mediate between the parties, which has not yet begun," said district CEO Forrest Claypool, who spoke to reporters Monday about the district's budget and labor talks.

The union's attorney accused the district of trying to delay talks to avert a possible strike until the end of the school year.

"For them to say three months is not a reasonable period (of mediation) today is just maneuvering," CTU attorney Robert Bloch said. "They're trying very hard to slow down the process and prevent the union from exercising its rights under the law.”

Despite more than a year of negotiations to replace a contract that expired June 30, the two sides remain far apart on several issues.

According to the district, CTU wants more than 1,000 new school nurses, psychologists and social workers; hundreds of counselors and case managers; a 3 percent salary increase; and pay for snow days. The district also asserts it would have to hire more than 5,000 teachers to accommodate a union demand to shrink classroom sizes.

The union's wish list would cost well over $1 billion, CPS says.

CPS says that is unrealistic as it considers a combination of new borrowing and layoffs next year if it doesn't get state help to deal with a half-billion dollar budget shortfall.

CTU Vice President Jesse Sharkey didn't dispute the district's summary of the union's position.

"There's a degree to which CTU's contract demands reflect everything people on a school level think are needed," Sharkey said. "I'm not saying that at the end of the day those things are going to stay in our package."

Sharkey said the school board "has rejected every demand to improve conditions in our schools and asked for a contract that amounts to $653 million in cuts, not counting the staff cuts."

The union formally demanded a start to the fact-finding process late last month, the same day it rallied members in Grant Park.

Under state law, both sides must move to appoint a panel within three days of a fact-finding demand by either party.

CPS doesn't want the process to begin until February. "The mediator is supposed to be engaged with the parties, helping them prioritize what their demands (are). Helping them to figure out how to narrow things. That's what mediation is, and that process hasn't even begun," school board labor attorney Joseph Moriarty told the Tribune.

The 2011 state law requires 75 percent of all CTU members to authorize a strike. CTU's roughly 27,000 members will begin a three-day vote Wednesday.

That vote wouldn't allow teachers to walk off the job until the state-mandated legal process plays out. CPS' strategy to delay fact-finding would keep teachers in classrooms until nearly the end of the school year.

"Consider whether pushing the impasse procedures to that time of year makes sense," Bloch said. "(CPS) would be graduating seniors who may not be able to conclude their courses and get the grades they need to go to college. A number of students need help at the end of the semester to pass their classes."

Claypool repeated his stance that the union should join CPS' efforts to pressure state lawmakers into rescuing the district's dire finances and overhauling how Illinois pays for education.

"It is that unequal funding that is at the core of this crisis," Claypool said.

"So the answer is not a strike. The answer and solution leads through Springfield and getting equal funding for Chicago's schoolchildren."

jjperez@tribpub.com

Twitter @PerezJr

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