Parents scrambled to find places for their children as public school teachers in Chicago started their first strike in 25 years on Sept. 10. Job security, evaluation procedures, benefits, and classroom conditions are key to the strike, while pay is not as big an issue, according to the teachers.
“We are demanding a reasonable timetable for the installation of air conditioning in student classrooms—a sweltering, 98-degree classroom is not a productive learning environment for children,” said Chicago Teacher’s Union President Karen Lewis in a press release.
Chicago’s school system is the third largest in the country. In response to the strike, the school system opened 145 schools, but for only four hours, from 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.
In Chicago, 84 percent of public school students qualify for the federal free lunch program, so breakfast and lunch were offered at the open school sites.
