The Sun-Times reacts to the arbitrator’s report by demanding that Mayor Emanuel and the CPS clean up the mess they’ve created:
To date, CPS has been ruthless about taking bargaining subjects off the table. We support bargaining limited to core subjects but if CPS blindly sticks to this strategy, Mayor Rahm Emanuel and Schools CEO Jean-Claude Brizard will have to dramatically scale back or kill the longer school.
They simply cannot have it all.
There is also much for the teachers’ union to give on, including agreeing to plans to scale back an overly-generous severance package and moving away from automatic raises for earning an extra degree, no matter its usefulness.
In his report, arbitrator Benn said CPS “caused this problem by lengthening the school day and year to the extent it did when it was having serious budget problems.â€
Benn is right, though CPS did it for good reason, to give schools the time that school and union leaders have long sought.
But good intentions are not enough. CPS and Emanuel created this mess. It’s time for them to clean it up.
I wonder why they think the Chicago Teachers Union would back down at this point?
Although I live in the suburbs, and my daughter is about to enter a private high school, my reflexive love for the city of Chicago makes me feel ill.
This is going to be ugly.