In the battle over education - with the longheld dream of Republican lawmakers for vouchers, fulfilled with the confirmation of Betsy DeVos as the new secretary of education, now comes the fly in the ointment over advocates for school choice: a first ever strike by charter school teachers in the nation, in its third largest city Chicago, could happen in 10 days.
In a statement Educators at ASPIRA charter schools have set a strike date of March 17, citing “a standstill with management in both economic and non-economic issues.”
The strike would be the first of a charter school network in the nation. ASPIRA runs four publicly funded Chicago charter schools serving roughly 1,800 mostly Latino students. ASPIRA educators – all members of ACE, “A Council of Educators” with ChiACTS Local 4343 – have been negotiating for a new contract for ten months. Recently, 99% of voting bargaining members voted to strike on Feb. 22
“Our priority is our students’ education -- and all of us, from our principals and vice principals to mentors and support staff, work tirelessly to support our students’ intellectual, social, and emotional growth,” said Marines Martinez, acting president of ACE. “Together, we are the backbone of great schools that deserve management’s support and respect -- and while we don’t want to strike, we will if we must to take a stand for our students and our larger communities.”
They announced that teachers will rally on Thursday at 4:30 pm at ASPIRA Business & Finance High School, 2989 N Milwaukee Ave. -- just before the beginning of the educators’ next bargaining session at that location.
In what is now familiar territory, to date, management they say has “balked at providing an additional $135,000 next year in economic support for teachers in a four-school charter network with an annual budget of more than $15 million dollars.”
That’s less than 1% of ASPIRA’s annual charter school budget, which they note delivers a surplus in public dollars to ASPIRA’s overall organizational budget, including its non-charter school operations. And, their administrative overhead is one of the highest of all charter networks according to recent records.
Again, on familiar territory, to public schools, negotiations have also stalled over non-economic issues that include reducing the school day and year for educators -- but not students.
In addition, teachers argue that theirs is one of the longest work days and years for educators in Chicago’s charter school system. They also face the self-imposed mandate of educating the city’s Hispanic students. As they noted, ACE educators have historically worked considerably longer work days and put in more non-academic hours than peers in Chicago’s public schools and other charter networks out of an embrace of ASPIRA’s founding principles to serve the Hispanic community. The schools have 1400 students, and who are mostly Latino.
To fulfill that mission, their educators have taken less compensation than peers at other public schools to support ASPIRA’s mission “to nurture the leadership, intellectual, and cultural potential of Latino youth.”
“We’re forced to deal with chronic staff vacancies, too much turnover among experienced educators who simply cannot afford to work for ASPIRA schools under these conditions, and substitute teachers rather than full-time, dedicated educators,” said ACE member Tito Rodriguez. “At the same time, we’re doing jobs that management is responsible for, from student recruitment and janitorial upkeep to fundraising for our students’ classroom needs, while management has cut support for critically important non-academic programs that range from music to athletics. If we have to strike to get management on track and preserve excellence in our students’ educational growth, we’re prepared to hit the picket lines.”
Closely related to one of the charges against charter schools are frequent turnover and teacher retention leading to student achievement and instability and lack of accountability and even at the executive level. In the last 6 weeks alone, they note “the charter network’s CEO and Chief Academic Officer have been removed, only one school has the same principal and vice principal who began the school year, and the system’s COO – who had essentially been running the charter school network – recently resigned.”
The recent complaints of public school teachers are echoed by the ACE complaint and which seems to be indicative of a war on teachers as professionals. “Our ACE educators are simply asking that they be afforded the basic rights any teacher deserves,” said Chris Baehrend, President of Chicago ACTS Local 4343.
“That includes the right to earn a living wage that respects our teachers’ experience and commitment, the right to working conditions that lift up and support our students’ academic achievements and our teachers’ dignity, and the right to work under policies and best practices that create an empowering, supportive school culture.”
In a concluding statement, Bernard said, “If it takes a strike to convince senior management of the critical importance of these most basic of rights -- rights that are grounded in our educators’ commitment to the well-being and success of our students -- then our educators will strike.”
In a statement Educators at ASPIRA charter schools have set a strike date of March 17, citing “a standstill with management in both economic and non-economic issues.”
The strike would be the first of a charter school network in the nation. ASPIRA runs four publicly funded Chicago charter schools serving roughly 1,800 mostly Latino students. ASPIRA educators – all members of ACE, “A Council of Educators” with ChiACTS Local 4343 – have been negotiating for a new contract for ten months. Recently, 99% of voting bargaining members voted to strike on Feb. 22
“Our priority is our students’ education -- and all of us, from our principals and vice principals to mentors and support staff, work tirelessly to support our students’ intellectual, social, and emotional growth,” said Marines Martinez, acting president of ACE. “Together, we are the backbone of great schools that deserve management’s support and respect -- and while we don’t want to strike, we will if we must to take a stand for our students and our larger communities.”
They announced that teachers will rally on Thursday at 4:30 pm at ASPIRA Business & Finance High School, 2989 N Milwaukee Ave. -- just before the beginning of the educators’ next bargaining session at that location.
In what is now familiar territory, to date, management they say has “balked at providing an additional $135,000 next year in economic support for teachers in a four-school charter network with an annual budget of more than $15 million dollars.”
That’s less than 1% of ASPIRA’s annual charter school budget, which they note delivers a surplus in public dollars to ASPIRA’s overall organizational budget, including its non-charter school operations. And, their administrative overhead is one of the highest of all charter networks according to recent records.
Again, on familiar territory, to public schools, negotiations have also stalled over non-economic issues that include reducing the school day and year for educators -- but not students.
In addition, teachers argue that theirs is one of the longest work days and years for educators in Chicago’s charter school system. They also face the self-imposed mandate of educating the city’s Hispanic students. As they noted, ACE educators have historically worked considerably longer work days and put in more non-academic hours than peers in Chicago’s public schools and other charter networks out of an embrace of ASPIRA’s founding principles to serve the Hispanic community. The schools have 1400 students, and who are mostly Latino.
To fulfill that mission, their educators have taken less compensation than peers at other public schools to support ASPIRA’s mission “to nurture the leadership, intellectual, and cultural potential of Latino youth.”
“We’re forced to deal with chronic staff vacancies, too much turnover among experienced educators who simply cannot afford to work for ASPIRA schools under these conditions, and substitute teachers rather than full-time, dedicated educators,” said ACE member Tito Rodriguez. “At the same time, we’re doing jobs that management is responsible for, from student recruitment and janitorial upkeep to fundraising for our students’ classroom needs, while management has cut support for critically important non-academic programs that range from music to athletics. If we have to strike to get management on track and preserve excellence in our students’ educational growth, we’re prepared to hit the picket lines.”
Closely related to one of the charges against charter schools are frequent turnover and teacher retention leading to student achievement and instability and lack of accountability and even at the executive level. In the last 6 weeks alone, they note “the charter network’s CEO and Chief Academic Officer have been removed, only one school has the same principal and vice principal who began the school year, and the system’s COO – who had essentially been running the charter school network – recently resigned.”
The recent complaints of public school teachers are echoed by the ACE complaint and which seems to be indicative of a war on teachers as professionals. “Our ACE educators are simply asking that they be afforded the basic rights any teacher deserves,” said Chris Baehrend, President of Chicago ACTS Local 4343.
“That includes the right to earn a living wage that respects our teachers’ experience and commitment, the right to working conditions that lift up and support our students’ academic achievements and our teachers’ dignity, and the right to work under policies and best practices that create an empowering, supportive school culture.”
In a concluding statement, Bernard said, “If it takes a strike to convince senior management of the critical importance of these most basic of rights -- rights that are grounded in our educators’ commitment to the well-being and success of our students -- then our educators will strike.”
UPDATE: Educators at ASPIRA’s charter schools came to a tentative agreement, on Thursday, with management tonight, averting what would have been the first strike of a charter school network in U.S. history. “This tentative agreement acknowledges the vital importance of union educators in the quality of education in our schools,” said acting ACE president Marines “Mari” Martinez. “This has always been about, first and foremost, creating working conditions that support the sustainability of four great schools and the students who rely on us for a quality education. We think this tentative agreement advances those goals.The tentative agreement includes:
For 2016-2017, a 3.25% raise retroactive to the start of 2nd semester.
For 2017-2018 a 3.0% raise.
Maintenance of the 2% employee pension contribution with 7% pension pick-up paid by management.
A reduction of the 2016-2017 school year by 1 1/2 day with NO impact on educational time for students.
A reduction of the 2017-2018 school year by 4 days with NO impact on educational time for students..
A reduction in the 2017-2018 school day from 8 hours to 7 hours and 35 minutes with NO impact on educational time for students.
Minimal increase in insurance costs.
An increase of four weeks of vacation time, plus 13 additional PTO days for 52-week counselors and mentors (these members were recently added to the bargaining unit in via an election in June 2016).
An increase in salary from $33,000 to $40,000 for two 52-week mentors.
Educators also maintained a strong layoff policy that prohibits layoffs after the last day of the school year.
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