Chicago Teachers vs. Billionaire Privatizers
The Chicago teachers' strike is about who will shape Chicago: billionaires who buy politicians to privatize schools, or working-class communities who want affordable housing, decent jobs, good schools, and justice. Here are some of the private equity barons and luxury developers in Chicago whom the teachers are up against.
Chicago public school teachers and their supporters march through the Loop in Chicago, Illinois.Joe Brusky / Milwaukee Teachers’ Education Association / Flickr
Around 25,000 teachers are on strike in Chicago, the nation’s third-largest school district. Their union — the Chicago Teachers Union, or CTU — declared the strike on the evening of October 16. An astounding 94 percent of teachers voted in favor of going out on strike last month. The striking teachers are joined by around 7,500 Chicago Public Schools support staff from SEIU Local 73.
The CTU strike comes on the heels of a wave of recent teacher strikes in Los Angeles, Oakland, West Virginia, Oklahoma, Arizona, and elsewhere. It’s the first CTU strike since the union’s historic 2012 strike, which some say provided the model for today’s growing teacher militancy.
The CTU’s message is clear: teachers are not just striking for better pay and working conditions for teachers, but for better conditions for their students and their communities. They are demanding smaller classroom sizes, more nurses and counselors, more librarians and social workers, protection for immigrant students, and more affordable housing.
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