Dylan Matthews intends to wrap up the Chicago teachers strike with an assessment of what both sides got out of the contract “in one post.” Here’s a list, in one post, of some of the things he left out, culled mostly from what the CTU informed its members was in the contract.
• Arts, music and physical education teachers: Over 600 additional teachers will be hired permanently under the agreement. The city didn’t want to increase staff at all. In addition, more support staff may come in the form of additional social workers and nurses, contingent on state revenue.
• Special Ed. The issue of special education teachers having oversized workloads moves to a committee tasked with finding “solutions,” which probably doesn’t mean too much but you never know. But there is $500,000 per year toward hiring additional special education professionals to reduce caseload.
• Health care. This was, as I understand it, the big sticking point