Chicago Teachers Union Takes Over Downtown In Protest
Since he became mayor, Rahm Emanuel, has been at war with public education in Chicago as budget cuts, school closings, disputes over teach salaries have been ongoing. This Thursday, the Chicago Teachers Union organized a mass protest of thousands of teachers, students, parents and residents of Chicago. They took over downtown Chicago for the day.
The Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) describes the reasons for the protest writing:
The march came two days after Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s handpicked Chicago Public Schools (CPS) CEO Forrest Claypool declared war on public school educators by threatening $100 million in classroom cuts—roughly 1,000 layoffs—and just one day after the CTU withdrew nearly $1 million from Bank of America. The CTU closed its BOA savings account in protest of that bank and other financial institutions that sold CPS toxic interest rate swaps, and are demanding a payout of at least $228 million—almost the exact same amount as cuts enacted by the Chicago Board of Education to schools and special education.
Polls show the CTU has the support of the public:
Tribune poll: Chicago Teachers Union has triple the public support of Mayor Emanuel https://t.co/eUsIATbk3N pic.twitter.com/h2x6SVSbN3— Chicago Tribune (@chicagotribune) February 4, 2016
The protest began at Bank of America of La Salle Street in downtown Chicago. Chicago Now reports that the Chicago Public Schools (CPS) “just sold $725 million in bonds as a Toxic Debt’ Wednesday, a Debt that has a lower chance of being repaid with interest the CPS rate was at an 8.5% interest rate; that’s 141 times the rate paid on a typical bank Chicago Teachers Union Takes Over Downtown In Protest | PopularResistance.Org:
