CORE

CORE is a group of dedicated teachers, Para-professionals and other champions of public education. We hope to transform our Union into an organization that actually fights for its members. Below is a proposal for change that we hope you will help us develop and fine-tune. All of our jobs are on the chopping block with 400 teachers fired this year alone. We have seen an 18 percent drop in Chicago Teachers Union membership in recent years and charter schools now control close to 10 percent of the system. What is our union leadership doing? CORE is fighting to stop these attacks on teachers. Please join us.

A suggested plan for a Chicago Teacher’s Union that actually fights for its members:

1. WAGES

We at CORE believe that our leadership has sold us short by not demanding a better compensation package. Years of 2 percent raises under Reece and 4 percent under Deborah Lynch and Marilyn Stewart do not even come close to approximating the amount teachers should be making compared to others in similar professions.

A recent report by the Economic Policy Institute shows that Teachers lost considerable ground during the late 1990s, as earnings of college graduates grew 11% relative to 0.8% growth in teaching.

An analysis of trends in weekly earnings shows that public school teachers in 2006 earned 15% lower weekly earnings than comparable workers.

In 2006, teachers earned 85.7% as much (14.3% less or $154 less) in weekly wages as did those in the group of comparable occupations,

2. IMPROVED FRINGE BENEFITS

Paid and pensionable Family Leave – currently teachers who have children are only allotted sick days and unpaid leave to attend to their needs. We believe that teachers and paraprofessionals must be provided a paid family leave similar to that provided by other industrialized countries. All work pensionable No increases in Health care costs, co-pays or prescriptions A comprehensive dental plan. No alteration of the pension and mandatory 90% contributions by the state and the city.

3. BETTER WORKING CONDITIONS

Contractual language on class size that we can grieve No scripted learning or corporate driven curriculum schemes No High Stakes Testing – an inaccurate and biased tool that is too often used to berate and dismiss teachers and denigrate their students. An Elected School Board with two teacher representatives. This way we can ensure that we get full wind of any plans the board is hatching for us and mobilize to make certain that those “reforms” are screened by teachers. Work in concert with parents and students to protect our public school system. Equal distribution of resources among all schools, and replenishing title 1 funds to schools that use them for security purposes.

4. JOB SECURITY

No more schools closings – get contract language, engage in job actions and build a strike fund to stop charter proliferation Cut officer and field rep pay to match average teacher pay and use the savings to increase our Strike fund. Establish system-wide seniority for all tenured teachers, not to the reassignment pool but guaranteed real jobs. The central office needs to appoint teachers to vacant positions to stop the cronyism of principals doing the hiring.

No merit pay – this is a scheme that has been proven to mainly benefit those who teach children from privileged backgrounds. It is a trick used by the Board to label teachers in low income and minority communities as “failures” and set the stage for privatizing our jobs.

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