CTU Plans City Hall Protest As CPS Begins 1,400 Layoffs
CHICAGO (CBS) -- The Chicago Teachers Union planned to protest outside Mayor Rahm Emanuel's office on Thursday, as the Chicago Public Schools begin cutting 1,400 jobs.
The union said the district's cutbacks are counterproductive, and will lead to fewer resources for educators. The Emanuel administration has said the cuts will save $200 million for a district reeling from paying $634 million in pension obligations.
The 1,400 jobs being cut include 350 vacant positions that will go unfilled. CPS officials said most of the job cuts would be at the central office, and "very few" teachers would be laid off.
Pay for elementary school coaches will be eliminated, busing will be reduced, and special education vacancies will be eliminated.
"It is clear that what cuts have been specified would do real damage to our schools," CTU Vice President Jesse Sharkey said.
Details of the layoffs and cutbacks were released a day after the district paid a $634 million pension bill it could not afford. To meet the June 30 deadline for that payment, the district had to borrow more money, and make significant spending reductions.
"Chicago Public Schools is at a crossroads, and the financial crisis knocking on the doors of our classrooms is threatening to jeopardize the tremendous progress our students are making," CPS interim chief executive officer Jesse Ruiz said Wednesday.
Mayor Rahm Emanuel said the cuts were necessary because state lawmakers, who can't agree on the state budget, rejected a proposal that would have given CPS more time to come up with a longer-term pension solution.
"I want Springfield to be clear, as it relates here, to get off their duff, start providing the political leadership to make decisions, to right the decades' worth of political wrongs that have existed over the years that got all of us to this point," Emanuel said.
Emanuel outlined two options, the first of which would create a uniform pension system throughout the state. The second option would include restoring the property tax pension levy to the pre-1995 rate of .26, having teachers contribute full nine percent into their pensions, and having the state increase education funding by 25 percent.
The mayor offered to raise property taxes by $225 million, if it's part of the larger deal he's seeking.
CTU officials said there's a better way, and they'll emphasize that message at their protest on Thursday.