Half of Chicago public school teachers required to attend class preparation did not show up in defiance of city orders, the city said Tuesday.
Just 49.7% of all Chicago public school teachers who were required by the city reported to work Monday, Chicago Public Schools (CPS) head Janice Jackson said Tuesday, NBC Chicago reported. Including paraprofessionals, 60.2% of all staff attended work Monday in preparation for the city’s school reopening plan.
“We have sent notices to staff who did not return to ensure that our expectations are clear. And we are optimistic that more staff will report to work in the coming days,” Jackson said, according to NBC Chicago. “If staff choose not to attend and support the students who are relying on them, we will handle those on a school-by-school and case-by-case basis.”
Jackson added that the city might institute a discipline policy that could potentially result in termination if teachers continued to stay home when required to show up, NBC Chicago reported.
Monday’s attendance figures represented a marked decrease compared to last year, according to The Chicago Sun Times. In January 2020, 83% of all CPS staff attended the first two days following winter break.
The Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) has strongly opposed Chicago’s plan to return to in-person class instruction. The union hosted press conferences on Monday and Tuesday to sound the alarm on the dangerousness of returning to schools.
“Rank and file CTU members across the city are rejecting CPS’ effort to force thousands more back into unsafe buildings beginning this Monday,” the union said in a statement Sunday.
While Monday’s attendance was low, Jackson said it was still “significant, considering the fact that they were pressured” by the CTU not to attend, according to NBC Chicago.
In December, CPS announced a phased return to in-person instruction after months of remote learning. Pre-K students will return to in-person classes on Jan. 11, K-8 students will return on Feb. 1 and there is no set date for high school students’ return, according to the reopening plan.
“We know that the best place for your child to learn is in the classroom, and we have been working tirelessly to prepare our buildings to welcome students and staff back to school,” Jackson and LaTanya D. McDade, CPS chief education officer, wrote in a letter.
Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot said Tuesday that teachers should be prioritized to receive the coronavirus vaccine during the next phase of vaccinations, NBC Chicago reported.
“We want to make sure that teachers are in the queue for the next round,” Lightfoot said, according to NBC Chicago.
Content created by The Daily Caller News Foundation is available without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a large audience. For licensing opportunities of our original content, please contact [email protected]
They should be fired just like anyone else that is told to return to work; if they refuse, they should be fired immediately and not be eligible for unemployment and subject to the loss of all benefits including retirement benefits. What would they do if half of the doctors, nurses, and other healthcare providers refuse to show up; or what if all of the truckers who deliver food and other essentials refused to deliver them; or the workers in our grocery stores, pharmacies, etc., all refused to show up.
The Teacher’s union should be decertified, the teacher’s all told to clean out their desks, and to leave the premises. New teachers should be hired and the system be properly built from the ground up. Like this country, the people own education, not the teachers or unions. Teachers are hired to implement education not subvert it. People take back your child’s classrooms.
Police/fire/EMT can go to work…bus drivers and grocery clerks can go back to work, but teachers can’t? Give 5hem 2 weeks with no pay and see how many scuttle back to the classroom. Those that don’t, fire them, then de certify the union. Works for me…
Damn, I agree that the education system needs working, a lot of working, since the teachers believe that they are more important than the students. WRONG!!! The students should always come first, but too many of the teachers are there, at school, for a paycheck, and not our children. The major problem that our education system encounters, are the Unions. Most of the Unions are more interested in power and money, not the education of our children. Maybe the school districts go back to the system where the PTAs worked with the Districts to better them, not as now, mostly jokes and not respected. Agendas are to make education better, not what everyone wants, but what everyone needs.
Teachers that refuse to work, should receive what everyone else being fired receives, NOTHING (that means a loss of retirement, no unemployment, no health insurance, a lost of tender), and shown the door.