Believe it or not, late Friday afternoon the scuttlebutt was that the Chicago Public Schools and Chicago Teachers Union were close to agreeing on a contract.  Progress was the word of the day well into Sunday.  And we all know how all that turned out. Rumors, about how close the sides are to reaching an...

Many facts are important to understanding the strike and the demands of the Chicago Teachers Union. Here are just two of them: 1. Chicago teachers are already the highest paid in the nation when compared to the 10 largest school districts in the country, according to the National Council on Teacher Quality. The salary data below cuts...

As of tonight, teachers in the Chicago Public Schools are expected to go on strike, and regular classes will not be held Monday morning.

CPS will be draining cash reserves this year just to stay afloat, and will be $1 billion in the red next school year. The 30 percent raise CTU originally asked for is out of the question.

This will hardly come as news to most readers of this blog, but an occasional reminder is still useful: the ties between unions and the Democratic Party are numerous and strong. That goes for the Chicago Teachers Union and the administration with which they are bargaining. As Randi Weingarten, the head of the CTU’s parent...

On Labor Day, the Chicago Teachers Union held its protest in preparation for a strike that is set to begin on Sept. 10, unless negotiations with Chicago Public Schools result in a contract.The protest served two functions: first, as a sort of threat display designed to demonstrate to CPS officials and Mayor Rahm Emanuel that...

As thousands of families throughout Chicago watched anxiously, the process of negotiating a collective bargaining agreement turned melodramatic at a Chicago Teachers Union Labor Day rally. CTU President Karen Lewis called Mayor Rahm Emanuel “a liar and a bully”, while teachers and representatives of several other unions chanted “enough is enough” and other slogans intended...