CHICAGO — As tensions between Chicago Public Schools and Chicago Teachers Union escalate around teachers’ concerns about reopening in-person education amidst a surging pandemic, teachers in the union have announced a strike beginning today. The teachers, who are used to the practice from working in underfunded schools, have reportedly had to pay out-of-pocket for their own picket sign materials.
“Look, I know people are really tired of having to sit nearby while their children stare at a screen, pretending to care if their kid learns to read or not,” said Robert Liebenson, 36, a teacher striking outside Richard Yates Elementary School, “but until CPS takes the safety of students and teachers a little more seriously, we’re striking. We want remote learning until adequate safety measures are vetted and vaccines can be distributed. I’d also really like to be reimbursed for the $9.58 I spent on this sign. I had to go to two stores to get the poster board and the dowel rod.”
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“I asked the young man at the paint counter and he gave me this paint stirrer for free,” said Georgia Stamper, 58, another striking CTU member. At this, Liebenson muttered something about “wishing [he]’d thought of that,” before rejoining his group.
Public school teachers around the nation have long been forced to fill in budgetary gaps in their underfunded public school districts by purchasing their own school supplies out-of-pocket. They are rarely refunded for often-necessary purchases, but are frequently called “cheapskates” and “greedy” by the various school boards and parent groups they serve.
“It’s great to have spent my whole career spending hundreds of dollars a semester to make sure my kids have markers or band-aids for when they cut their hands on the rusty playground equipment, only to have an already-vaccinated politician call me selfish for not wanting to be in a room all day with thirty mouth-breathing kids,” said John Case, 45, a fourth-grade teacher. “And now I have to pay for my own strike materials too! And I had to re-do my sign because I, embarrassingly, put the wrong form of ‘there/their/they’re’ in ‘they’re putting profit over lives.’”
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While CPS has promised more rapid testing, safety measures, and vaccine prioritization to districts with the highest infection rates, the CTU remains steadfast that these measures are not enough and that they’d really rather not risk death for a job that makes them frequently eat lunch at their desks while sharpening their own personal supply of decade-old pencils. Until an agreement is made, the teacher vow to continue to spend their own hard-earned money on signs, flyers, and probably a bullhorn or two.
“When this is all over, the bullhorn’s definitely coming with me back to the classroom,” said Case. “This thing will be fantastic for getting kids’ attention...and I spent $28.99 on the damn thing.”
