Unions Force Chicago Schools to Hire People to Supervise Kids in Class While Teachers Work Remotely

Last Updated on December 18, 2020

The Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) has decreed that their rank and file will not return to the classrooms with the students in January citing “concerns” about COVID. This has forced the Chicago Public Schools (CPS) system, which is constantly low on money, to hire individuals to watch students while teachers attempt to do their jobs remotely.

The terminally cash-strapped CPS has put out a call to hire 2,000 new employees that will serve as “classroom supervisors” to help in the classrooms while the union teachers work remotely.

BREAKING: The Chicago Teachers Union has released a list of demands it wants met before members return to schools, including lower COVID-19 test positivity rates, testing and vaccination protocols and changes to both hybrid and remote learning. https://t.co/hzv8XEgktH

— Chicago Sun-Times (@Suntimes) December 10, 2020

1,000 of the new employees will be categorized as “cadre substitute teachers.” This means that they possess a license to teach in the State of Illinois. They will also receive benefits and be eligible as prey for CTU membership.

The additional 1,000 new hires will be considered part-time employees. They will be ineligible for benefits and will not be paid for their 45-minute lunch breaks. They will not be eligible prey for the CTU.

One of the primary tasks for the lower-tier 1,000 hires will be student supervision, including supervising “students who are learning in person if [the] classroom teacher is teaching remotely.”

Of course, this verbiage calls into question myriad issues including what that in-person instruction entails and how that will square with the CTU contract with CPS.

“Chicago Teachers Union Vice President Stacy Davis Gates said, “CPS can try to exploit low-wage temporary workers to fill in for staff who are not willing to sacrifice their lives for their livelihoods, when they must instead come to the table and bargain collaboratively to land what we need to return to our school buildings and our students safely – enforceable safety standards and real equity for Black and Brown school communities starved of equity for years before this pandemic.”

Prior to the move, CPS mandated mask requirements, social distancing between students’ desks, student temperature sampling, the installation of new air purifiers, upgraded ventilation, and a sea of COVID-based upgrades in line with other major school systems around the United States.

CTU blusters about “staff who are not willing to sacrifice their lives for their livelihoods” in the face of a virus that has a 98.18 percent survival rate among those who have been diagnosed with COVID and a 99.905 percent survival rate national, and two vaccines have been deployed against the “dreaded” virus.

CTU had earlier blamed the pressure to reopen schools by parents and administrators on sexism, misogyny, and racism.

Chicago Teachers Union deletes tweet labeling push to reopen schools as 'rooted in sexism, racism and misogyny'https://t.co/FtyPRz5MfD

— Sara A. Carter (@SaraCarterDC) December 7, 2020