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Jobcutting leads to possible lawsuit in Chicago--and the children? No mention.
Teachers union chief warns of lawsuit over planned job cuts
February 13, 2004
BY ROSALIND ROSSI Education Reporter
A plan to eliminate 1,000 school jobs to help plug an estimated $200 million Chicago public school deficit is an "outrage'' that could trigger legal action by the Chicago Teachers Union, CTU President Deborah Lynch said Thursday.
Lynch said a budget shortfall was never mentioned during this fall's contract talks, and instead the union was assured the system had enough money to fund this year's 4 percent teacher pay raise.
So, she said, threats of job cuts reflect either "bad-faith bargaining,'' which could trigger an unfair labor practice complaint, or budget "ignorance.''
An angry Lynch, who faces re-election in May, denounced Wednesday's announcement that the nation's third-largest school system plans to cut 1,000 school-based jobs, including some teachers, to plug $60 million of an estimated $200 million budget gap.
Before her press conference, a slate of opponents to Lynch from the new Frontline Caucus handed out fliers blaming the threatened job cuts on her inability to protect their jobs better during contract talks.
Chicago Schools CEO Arne Duncan said later that teachers "needed and deserved'' a pay raise. He said he hopes the 1,000 job cuts -- from a system that employs more than 45,000 -- will be absorbed by the loss of:
*900 non-teachers and up to 1,100 teachers who are expected to retire early;
*200 teachers due to a projected drop of 5,000 in student enrollment, and
*up to 500 teachers not fully certified.
Some but not all of those 2,700 positions will be filled, Duncan said. "The bottom line is, are we going to have to fire any teachers? I don't think we're going to have to.''
But the net decrease in CTU positions indicates "once again it will be our members and our children who will pay the price,'' Lynch said. She said the system should target the "fat'' in its central office and its "mini-bureaucracies'' of 24 area instructional offices.
However, Duncan said he is planning to cut administrative costs at nearly five times the rate of school-based ones. Including the streamlining of some school-based programs, he expects to trim 2.2 percent of the $3.6 billion school-based budget, or $80 million, but 10 percent of the $200 million administrative budget, or $20 million.
Even if Gov. Blagojevich increases the per-pupil funding level by another $250 this year, netting the system another $60 million, Duncan conceded he still needs another $40 million in cuts, saying "This is just the beginning of the budget process.'' Earlier Thursday, Duncan joined suburban and city school leaders in pushing for increased state funding. Even suburbs are so pressed for cash, said Northbrook-Glenview District 30 Supt. Harry Rossi, that they have been forced to make a "Sophie's Choice'' between saving gifted education, increasing class size or fixing roofs.
— BY ROSALIND ROSSI Education Reporter
Teachers union chief warns of lawsuit over planned job cuts
2004-02-13
www.suntimes.com/output/news/cst-nws-skul13.html
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