My ears always prick up when the editors of the Wall Street Journal turn their attention to Illinois or Chicago and one of today’s editorials there is about the showdown between the Chicago Teachers Union and Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot. Here are their opening remarks:
The political scandal of the year so far is unfolding in plain sight in Chicago, where the teachers union has effectively shut down the public schools. Will this finally cause President Biden to speak up for children? Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey is showing the way.
Chicago schools were supposed to be open Wednesday, but they shut down after the Chicago Teachers Union voted against in-person learning. The CTU says it won’t relent until the surge in Covid-19 cases has subsided, or the school district signs an agreement “establishing conditions for return†approved by the CTU.
Even Mayor Lori Lightfoot is unhappy, correctly noting that Chicago’s classrooms are safe and accusing the union of an “illegal work stoppage.†She added that teachers who didn’t show up Wednesday would be put on no-pay status. We’ll see how long that lasts given how powerful the CTU is in Democratic politics.
The CTU action comes as we are learning about the full—and unnecessary—costs inflicted on children in the name of Covid prevention. These include mental-health issues, losing ground academically, and the lack of normal socialization. This damage has all been done even though children remain among the least at risk for a severe case of Covid.
On CBS’s “Face the Nation†this weekend, Education Secretary Miguel Cardona also emphasized that schools can be opened safely. “We know what works, and I believe even with Omicron, our default should be in-person learning for all students across the country.â€
They then turn their gaze to Arizona in which I’m not particularly interested. Let’s consider a little additional perspective. In the Chicago Tribune Tracy Swartz and Gregory Pratt report:
Chicago Public Schools and the teachers union have filed unfair labor charges against one another, with each side asking state officials to end the current dispute over in-person learning in their favor.
The latest escalation in the conflict over adequate COVID-19 safety measures in schools comes as CPS saw a new record number of coronavirus cases Tuesday — the last day of classes before the lack of agreement with the Chicago Teachers Union shut down schools districtwide for two days.
Lawyers for CPS are asking the Illinois Educational Labor Relations Board to issue a cease-and-desire order against CTU and hear the case on an expedited basis.
“On Tuesday, January 4, 2022, the CTU illegally directed its members … not to report to work as directed but to work remotely instead from January 5 until the earlier of January 18 or when CPS meets certain health metrics,†CPS lawyers said in the filing.
CTU lawyers separately filed charges alleging CPS violated the law by not negotiating an agreement with CPS about school reopenings after the one they signed in February 2021 expired. They’re asking the state to to order CPS “to honor the statutory right of employees to refrain from working in dangerous conditions and to allow employees to work remotely.â€
while the editors of the Sun-Times lament:
Chicago Public Schools is reliving a bad version of “Groundhog Day,†and 290,000 students are worse off because of it.
Those 290,000 students sat out of school altogether on Wednesday, just two days after returning from break, and will do so again on Thursday because of yet another acrimonious stalemate between CPS and the Chicago Teachers Union over remote learning and COVID-19 safety.
Parents and the public have seen this movie before, most recently with the two-week strike in 2019 and then the impasse over COVID safety and re-opening schools last school year.
Eventually, we fear, the acrimony will substantially erode public confidence in Chicago schools. When labor strife becomes routine and adults can’t figure out how to keep schools open, what else can we expect?
The Centers for Disease Control’s present guidelines are:
- Students benefit from in-person learning, and safely returning to in-person instruction in the fall 2021 is a priority.
- Vaccination is the leading public health prevention strategy to end the COVID-19 pandemic. Promoting vaccination can help schools safely return to in-person learning as well as extracurricular activities and sports.
- Due to the circulating and highly contagious Delta variant, CDC recommends universal indoor masking by all students (age 2 and older), staff, teachers, and visitors to K-12 schools, regardless of vaccination status.
- In addition to universal indoor masking, CDC recommends schools maintain at least 3 feet of physical distance between students within classrooms to reduce transmission risk. When it is not possible to maintain a physical distance of at least 3 feet, such as when schools cannot fully re-open while maintaining these distances, it is especially important to layer multiple other prevention strategies, such as screening testing.
- Screening testing, ventilation, handwashing and respiratory etiquette, staying home when sick and getting tested, contact tracing in combination with quarantine and isolation, and cleaning and disinfection are also important layers of prevention to keep schools safe.
- Students, teachers, and staff should stay home when they have signs of any infectious illness and be referred to their healthcare provider for testing and care.
As I’ve been saying since the very beginning of the pandemic, the public schools serve multiple constituencies including the students, their parents, as well as teachers and school staffs. Importantly, the interests of those groups are not always aligned. To my eye it would appear that the Chicago Public Schools and Mayor Lightfoot’s actions are consistent with federal Department of Education and the CDC’s guidance.
However, to be fair to the teachers there’s a good argument to be made that protestations to the contrary notwithstanding at least some Chicago schools are simply not safe environments. To my eye that claim would have more weight if they’d been complaining about it all along. What aggravates me about the CTU’s position is its passive-aggressive tone. In response to the CPS’s requirement to return to in-person learning I wish they had responded with a plan for accomplishing that rather than simply refusing.
And I haven’t even gotten into the attendant scandal regarding COVID-19 testing. Short version: tens of thousands of tests have simply left to deteriorate. Administering a COVID-19 test is one thing but doing something with the test actually requires somebody to do something.
Returning to the beginning of this post I’m not sure where the priorities in this matter are but I’m pretty sure of where they aren’t: on the students.
I have two kids in high school and one in middle school. All three started today after the winter break – in person with no masking requirement.
It seems that the vast majority of districts around the country are doing that or doing in-person with masking. Chicago a a few other big-city districts with particularly powerful unions appear to be outliers.
“As I’ve been saying since the very beginning of the pandemic, the public schools serve multiple constituencies including the students, their parents, as well as teachers and school staffs. Importantly, the interests of those groups are not always aligned.”
Clearly true. Maybe I’m just old school, but there is always a lot about interests and rights. Responsibilities, not so much. The students are not at the top of the heap in this dispute; the teachers should be paying more attention. Making an analogy between safety from violence and covid doesn’t really cut it in the absence of prior concerns, or walkouts. This has opportunism written all over it.
Looking at the numbers we are seeing I think Omicron may be so infectious your chances of avoiding it arent that good. If you are boosted you are pretty well protected. If you choose to not get vaccinated then you need to accept the risks.
Just to play devil’s advocate a bit, we always talk about the students but who should look after the interests of the teachers? I suspect that if the teachers dont no one else will. That said they need to remember that they have a job and if looking at their needs to the exclusion of everything else means they cant get it done they will eventually get replaced. Unions have disappeared everywhere else.
Steve
I’m not opposed to the teachers; I do think that they have an obligation to propose solutions rather than just reject objectives. I would also note that not all teachers are the same. The risks for an obese 60 year old teacher with COPD are different than those for a fit 22 year old teacher. Trying to find a single solution is an oversimplification but it IS easier to administer.
Had to run answer some calls but yours was a point I wanted to make. What do you do with those oder teachers? Almost 20% are 55 or older. Art that age you are 4 times more likely to be hospitalized compared to healthy 18 y/o. For comparison an 86 y/o is 10 times more likely. I don’t think this is such an easy solution. The easy one from th teacher POV is shut down. The easy one from the student and parent view is stay open.
https://www.childtrends.org/blog/nearly-one-third-of-u-s-teachers-are-at-higher-risk-of-severe-illness-from-covid-19-due-to-age
Steve