The Chicago Teachers Strike, Week 2
by Frederick M. Hess • Sep 17, 2012 at 8:39 am
Cross-posted from Education Week
Cross-posted from Education Week
Up until Sunday, word on the street was that the Chicago strike would definitely end over the weekend. If you'd asked me on Thursday or Friday, I'd have put the likelihood that kids and teachers would be back in school today at better than 95%. (This is why I try to limit my gaming.) But the union decided not to accept the latest contract deal on Sunday night, and now CTU president Karen Lewis is saying the earliest kids might get back to school is Wednesday. As this thing bleeds into its second week, the story gets thornier.
First, the CTU is looking like it might come out of this astonishingly well. Karen Lewis is becoming the anti-Michelle Rhee for teachers who've yearned for a fire-breathing anti-evaluation, pro-LIFO champion. Despitelosing even the New York Times editorial page last week, and with a confused initial message that seemed to suggest the strike was mostly about personal pique, with the grab bag of demands (air conditioning, retaining a short school day, social workers, etc.) mostly a rationalization, the striking teachers are holding fast--and seem to be in no hurry to get this done. The longer they hold out, and the more desperate Chicago families become, the more serious the CTU starts to look. Indeed, I'm now hearing murmurs that Lewis may be
