Sides dig in as Chicago teachers strike looms

Dan Babwin & Tammy Webber:

Teachers picketed outside a district office Wednesday in the shadow of a giant inflatable rat as school board members inside authorized spending $25 million in the event of the first Chicago teacher strike in a quarter-century.

The brinksmanship came just weeks after the two sides reached an agreement on hiring new teachers to allow for a longer school day. That issue once seemed to be the biggest roadblock to a new contract, but the bargaining and posturing has not let up as the two sides come down to the last few weeks before 400,000 Chicago students are all back in public schools.

"We have had 45 sessions of negotiations, and we're still pretty far apart," Karen Lewis, the teachers' union president, told the Board of Education at Wednesday's meeting.

Posted by Jim Zellmer at August 24, 2012 2:32 AM
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