#ctu strike

On October 17th the Chicago Teachers Union will strike. Public school teachers and staff will always have my full support. As a former public school classroom teacher, I know first-hand how fucking hard their job is and how impossible it is made when they don’t have the resources, support, and pay that they need and deserve. 

I’ve made a few posters for wheat pasting, stickering, sign-making, whatever and I’m encouraging you to get out there and show your support for CTU. 

Click for download

Yes, I’m in Chicago. Yes, my kids go to a CPS (Chicago Public Schools) school. Yes, my kids don’t have school. Yes, I’m behind the teacher’s strike 100%, inconvenient though it may make things for a few days.

The good news is I’ve got some childcare options while my wife is away speaking at a conference in San Francisco. Last Thursday we took them to the YMCA for the “school days out” program, something they have available during school holidays/in service days. Fortunately they opened up the program for the teacher’s strike.

Also our Taekwondo school runs a summer camp, and always with a quick eye to increase school revenue they jumped on the opportunity to re-open their “summer” camp for kids unable to attend a CPS school due to the strike. That’s my daughter on the far left. I’m ... sure my son is there somewhere?

I personally cannot watch this without squirming, but I'm posting it because I'm really proud of all the work that made this action possible. We wrote and illustrated this story in two days while still picketing at 6:30 in the morning and going to rallies in the afternoon.

This story was written as a rebuttal to the argument that Chicago doesn't have the money to pay for every school in Chicago to have the resources every student needs. We decided to highlight just one way the city of Chicago shows it's hypocrisy. They choose to fund expensive developments around the city with tax payers' money, yet cry broke and make teachers, parents and students fight for basic necessities.

Monday's show is another good one. Micah Uetricht joins us to talk about the Chicago Teachers Union, which he has been covering extensively. He also has a deep radio voice, which is an added bonus.

Read these three pieces of his and you'll know a lot more about the CTU, and why the scare the hell out of the Democrats. 

Strike for America: The CTU and the Democrats, in Jacobin

Democratic to the CORE, in In These Times (That title might not mean what you think it does)

Advanced Placement, in The American Prospect