Class Size Victory in Chicago

The Chicago management tried to use threats of class size increases to get parents riled up against teachers but the new Chicago Teacher Union leadership - CORE and the parent -PURE- alliance held.

Leonie sent this:

Even though the Chicago Teachers Union has no power to negotiate class size limits, they may end up w/ smaller class sizes than we have in NYC!

A (partial) victory for the new CTU leaders and for teacher-parent cooperation:

From PURE:

http://pureparents.org/index.php?blog/show/First_and_partial_victory_for_new_CTU_and_for_parentteacher_cooperation

First (and partial) victory for new CTU and for parent-teacher cooperation

No to 37!

It really didn't take that long - CEO Huberman has already backed down on the 37/35 in a classroom threat.

Elementary class sizes are back to 2010 levels, though Huberman is still saying that high school class sizes have to go up from 31 to 33.

And he thinks the teachers should make up the rest of the supposed deficit by giving back the 4% pay raise called for in their contract.

To their great credit, the Raise Your Hand group, which CPS had invited to join Huberman at the press conference, disagreed, according to the Sun-Times, saying it was up to "lawmakers and Mayor Daley, not teachers, to work on filling the remaining budget gap."

Parents and teachers working together - so far, so good.