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* UPDATED x1 * Back to school chaos in some districts

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* NBC 5 on Monday…

With cases across the state and within the district surging, CPS reported 35,590 tests were completed between Dec. 26 and Jan. 1, but 24,843 were ruled “invalid,” according to data posted on the district’s website. […]

CPS has encouraged parents to get their students tested for COVID-19 over winter break, with the district distributing about 150,000 take-home test kits to schools in communities hit hard by the pandemic. […]

The deadline to return those kits was originally set for Dec. 28, but was extended to Dec. 30 after parents and the Chicago Teachers Union reported overflowing drop boxes that left some families scrambling.

So, out of 150,000 tests, CPS winds up with just 10,747 valid results? That’s about 7 percent. CPS non-charter enrollment is 290,000 kids. So, those valid results represented about 3.7 percent of all CPS students.

* Yet many people still wonder why teachers don’t trust the CPS plan…

Chicago Public Schools classes are canceled Wednesday as the Chicago Teachers Union voted to refuse in-person work, defying district plans because of post-holidays COVID-19 concerns.

The cancellation came despite a last-minute proposal from city leaders that introduced improved testing and safety measures but wasn’t enough to avoid upending in-person schooling for about 290,000 students at non-charter schools exactly 12 months after another CPS-CTU fight over pandemic safety measures left families in limbo for weeks.

* Meanwhile, in the suburbs…

Even remote learning is not an option for some students at a growing number of suburban schools, where the spike in COVID-19 cases this week has sidelined teachers and staff, suspending classroom instruction amid a critical statewide shortfall of school employees.

At Elgin-based Community Unit School District 46 — the second largest school district in Illinois — officials announced that five of its 57 schools were closed Tuesday because of staffing shortages, which unlike previous classroom shutdowns, does not include pivoting to online instruction. […]

Staffing shortages due to COVID-19 also forced officials at Niles Township School District 219 to halt their plans to resume in-person, classroom instruction this week, and instead, the district will move to a remote learning, adaptive pause through Jan. 14. […]

Staffing shortages across New Lenox-based Lincoln-Way Community High School District 210 also prompted officials to close buildings, and switch to online instruction through Friday.

* A sampling of Downstate news…

* Danville Schools go remote due to COVID-19

* Southwest Illinois schools adapt to COVID surges, including return to remote learning

* Some Metro East schools return to virtual learning amid COVID surge

* Peoria Public Schools extends winter break amid COVID-19 surge, offering lunches for students

* National…

After a fall semester of relative normalcy across much of the United States, Covid-19 made itself felt on Monday in school districts nationwide.

A vast majority of U.S. public schools appeared to be operating as planned this week, including those in New York City, the country’s largest district. But the spread of the highly contagious Omicron variant, along with labor and testing shortages, has led to a growing number of educational disruptions.

Districts in Detroit, Milwaukee, Cleveland and Newark were among those announcing that their schools would switch to remote learning for periods lasting from a few days to several weeks.

*** UPDATE *** Press release…

Senator Darren Bailey Releases Statement in response to Chicago Teachers Union Voting to Not Teach Students in Classrooms

“The Chicago Teachers Union is out of control, and Pritzker needs to stand up and demand in-person education for our children or work with CPS to find teachers who want to teach our kids and ensure they don’t fall behind.”

Bailey continued, “Our children are not political pawns, and their education should not be held hostage by big, politically motivated unions who despise parental involvement in education. When J.B. Pritzker shut our schools down, our students fell behind.

Schools across the nation are attending in-person with masks optional; there is no reason for this. It’s time to end the nonsense and ensure our schools prioritize our children again. As your next Governor, I’ll always stand up for parents and students. I’ll fight to remove the extreme policies from classrooms, and I will remove Pritzker’s mandates and restore local control. We must improve education and prepare our children to chase their dreams and accomplish their next step.”

posted by Rich Miller
Wednesday, Jan 5, 22 @ 9:04 am

Comments

Springfield 186’s attempt to go remote (presumably until at least after Martin Luther King’s birthday) when kids return from vacation next week was defeated at last night’s board meeting.

Comment by NonAFSCMEStateEmployeeFromChatham Wednesday, Jan 5, 22 @ 9:35 am
It’s been almost two years for everyone to get their act together. I’m no longer patient when it comes to disagreements on figuring out what to do. If you haven’t learned by now to be prepared and at the same time flexible then get out of the way.

Comment by Just Me 2 Wednesday, Jan 5, 22 @ 9:36 am
If I was the Governor I would ask all schools to go all-remote until the King holiday. Not just due to Covid but also due to today’s blowing snow in northern Illinois, plus bitter cold starting today until at least Saturday.

Comment by NonAFSCMEStateEmployeeFromChatham Wednesday, Jan 5, 22 @ 9:43 am
School bus driver shortages nationwide due to COVID have prompted this from the US Dept. of Education and the US Dept. of Transportation-

“Today, the U.S. Department of Transportation announced, in coordination with the U.S. Department of Education (Department), that the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) is giving states the option of waiving the portion of the commercial driver’s license (CDL) skills test that requires applicants to identify the ‘under the hood’ engine components. All other components of the written and road test will remain.” https://www.ed.gov/news/press-releases/us-department-education-announces-joint-temporary-action-us-department-transportation-help-address-school-bus-driver-labor-shortage

Comment by Anon221 Wednesday, Jan 5, 22 @ 9:44 am
Eliminating that portion of the CDL requirements seem quite reasonable and something that was never needed.

Comment by Blake Wednesday, Jan 5, 22 @ 10:02 am
Keeping schools closed as frequently as they have been was a mistake. See the recent No Way to Grow Up in the New York Times that children face may face more risk from closed schools than open ones.

Comment by Blake Wednesday, Jan 5, 22 @ 10:09 am
I understand remote learning stinks, especially for elementary students and parents who have to work, even if they’re able to work from home. But it’s better than the alternative.

Comment by Cheryl44 Wednesday, Jan 5, 22 @ 10:20 am
Remote learning until at least Omicron crests and comes down to a reasonable level is also better than the alternative.

Comment by PublicServant Wednesday, Jan 5, 22 @ 10:32 am
If public school teachers are truly essential workers expected to soldier through this (hopefully temporary) surge, they should be getting “surge rates” the same way health care workers are currently getting (not THAT much, realistically, but basically, we cannot keep expecting teachers to be essential, non-remote workers and not have their actual paychecks reflect that designation).

Comment by ZC Wednesday, Jan 5, 22 @ 10:51 am
Parent of two kids in jr high and middle school.

Hard pass on remote school. Been there, done that. It doesn’t work for the students. The one thing that works - masks.

Use testing and mitigations and keep kids in the classroom. My son sat at a shared desk with a student who tested positive. We went with the test and stay procedure and after three days of negative tests (all taken in school) he was cleared and remained in the class room.

Why - both students were masked.

Comment by Cool Papa Bell Wednesday, Jan 5, 22 @ 10:53 am
I would also consider pausing school sports and extracurriculars for at least the next couple weeks too, at least until Omicron eases up.

Comment by NonAFSCMEStateEmployeeFromChatham Wednesday, Jan 5, 22 @ 11:00 am
Every student should be supplied a N95 mask that they get out of their paper bag at the beginning of the day and it goes back in at the end of the day). Ideally there would be 5 paper bags for each student from M-F. So each student would get 5 N95s for a semester to be replaced as strings break etc. Unfortunately the Feds do not have the wherewithal to provide this to school districts as part of pandemic fighting and the districts tend to live on tight budgets and the state cannot afford such an expenditure either (plus there are supply issues). This, however, would mean no spread (or virtually none) spread in schools. Until lunch. Lunch should be eaten outside as there is no way to safely take off your mask in Omicron times. Unfortunately it is too cold for that. And I have no other ideas other than making sure the central lunch room is heavily ventilated (think wind tunnel) and the lunch shifts staggered (10% of the students eat at 10:30, 15% at 11:00…10% at 2:00)

Comment by cermak_rd Wednesday, Jan 5, 22 @ 11:12 am
We are hearing rumblings about a possible shutdown, or return to remote learning, in the district is now sending home devices every night, just in case.

But what has been new to me has been the level of vitriol that parents are bringing to local discussion areas. People are absolutely furious at people who will not vaccinate their children, they are furious at people who travel over the Christmas holidays, and they are furious at people who are having social gatherings. In the past there was much more of an, we’re all in this together (locally). But the local discourse has suddenly taken a turn, and people who have been following the rules are very very angry at people who are driving the local surge through irresponsible behavior. One school in particular is getting attacked by parents in the district for having a very low vaccination rate, while the rate at other schools in the district is considerably higher. I started to see demands to exclude unvaccinated children from school until they get vaccinated, which I have not seen before in local groups where all the parents know each other.

Comment by Suburban Mom Wednesday, Jan 5, 22 @ 11:26 am
CPS probably dodged a particularly bad week of trying to staff schools and classrooms with 1/4 of faculty and staff out due to Covid-19. Saying you are open and having significant chunks of staff out isn’t a solution to anything–it’s a recipe for a fair amount of chaos.

Comment by ArchPundit Wednesday, Jan 5, 22 @ 11:32 am
Can’t speak to bus drivers and the CDL engine parts test but for good paying logistics jobs that require a CDL the big problem has been candidate inability/unwillingness to pass the required Federal drug tests for marijuana.

Comment by ChicagoBars Wednesday, Jan 5, 22 @ 11:43 am
Why not pivot as schools finalize calendars for the next school year and plan for a longer winter break? Last May and June were the safest month with regard to COVID so why not alter calendars moving forward until we are truly past the point where we are all scrambling as winter and its viral tsunami set in?

Comment by Vincent Vega Wednesday, Jan 5, 22 @ 11:44 am
I can’t help but feel a lot of the resistance to home-based learning is from parents who don’t care so much about education as they do about teachers being cheap day care for their kids. And if that’s the case, they should be demanding more vaccinations and masking. Can’t have it both ways.

Comment by Give Us Barabbas Wednesday, Jan 5, 22 @ 11:49 am
===parents who don’t care so much about education as they do about teachers being cheap day care===

There may be some who think that way, but it’s kinda elitist to make that assumption.

People have jobs and most of those jobs can’t be done remotely, and there’s no extra federal help right now if you quit your job because you have to be at home with your kids. But many will have to quit or be fired if kids are sent home for an extended period of time. And then they’ll risk losing their car, their residence, etc. Remember, there’s also no more eviction moratorium.

So, unless the federal government ramps up again right away, schools going remote will have a devastating impact on parents and, therefore, on kids.

Comment by Rich Miller Wednesday, Jan 5, 22 @ 11:55 am
=If I was the Governor =

Speaking for schools (and no one elected me to do so) we are glad you are not governor then.

As usual, irrationality is the norm for the day when it comes to schools.

While there are districts that are not enforcing masking, especially in the south and western part of the state, but most are. As with the early part of the pandemic, school are not the source of spread. The current situation is a prime example. Kids and families did not follow mitigations over break. Couple that with a more transmissible variant burning through the country and this is what you get.

A longer break will only make it worse, not better this time around.

I do support suspending fan attendance (not needed) for extra curricular events. The adults have been our biggest problem. As usual.

Comment by JS Mill Wednesday, Jan 5, 22 @ 11:58 am
===If I was the Governor I would ask all schools to go all-remote===

Right because your own job can be done remotely. Not all parents have a job like yours. Try to think of people besides your own self and your fellow state workers. There’s a whole other world out there that your self-centered views allow you to consistently ignore.

Comment by Rich Miller Wednesday, Jan 5, 22 @ 12:00 pm
-lot of the resistance to home-based learning is from parents who don’t care so much about education as they do about teachers being cheap day care for their kids.-

Besides what Rich points out there are some kids who do not do well with remote learning. I have 1 son who is a straight A student at school but can’t stay focused at home. I don’t know what percentage of kids struggle with remote but it’s a false assumption that parents don’t care about kids education.

Comment by Mason born Wednesday, Jan 5, 22 @ 12:00 pm
==Right because your own job can be done remotely. Not all parents have a job like yours. ==

My state job cannot be done remotely.

Comment by NonAFSCMEStateEmployeeFromChatham Wednesday, Jan 5, 22 @ 12:12 pm
===My state job cannot be done remotely. ===

Then you’ll get paid.

Comment by Rich Miller Wednesday, Jan 5, 22 @ 12:14 pm
As a parent of a k-8 student I can anecdotally attest to the fact that there is unacknowledged school spread. Teachers at my student’s school are having kids do group work; there is spread within these groups but because the seating plan the nurse has does not indicate these students sit near each other, the spread from the group goes undocumented. This happened multiple times in November and December. My high school children are never notified of close contacts because in their not distanced and totally unmasked lunch period the students flit about, as they should, though there was tremendous spread in December as a result of this. Masks work to a certain degree but group work and lunch throw lots of mitigations out the window. With that being said, remote learning is terribly undesirable. It will be surprising to see if schools with vexed and boosted staff can remain open when they become impacted in a similar manner to how healthcare facilities are currently with numerous sick employees who are unable to work.

Comment by Vincent Vega Wednesday, Jan 5, 22 @ 12:19 pm
==Then you’ll get paid.==

That’s right. And I have been back in the office in person continuously since late in the stay-at-home period.

Comment by NonAFSCMEStateEmployeeFromChatham Wednesday, Jan 5, 22 @ 12:22 pm
Let’s hope this get resolved in a manner that parents, children, teachers, and staff can stay on predictable schedule. CPS has made great efforts to keep the schools clean and safe for children.

Comment by Steve Wednesday, Jan 5, 22 @ 12:22 pm
=== school are not the source of spread ===

I believe this statement to be inaccurate. Covid can and does spread in schools, and while masks help minimize the spread of covid, they are nowhere near 100%. So covid is most certainly spreading in schools, and with Omicron being so transmissible, and currently at it peak, the spread that masking does minimize to an extent, is occurring more than ever in schools.

CPS screwed up the tests that were sent home as Rich pointed out earlier, and testing protocols have not been delineated sufficiently. Since we’re near the peak of the Omicron surge, and the “over the holidays” testing program was such an unmitigated fiasco, closing schools and allowing remote learning for a couple of weeks is the prudent thing to do now. Baring that, test every student with a rapid test, if positive, that student needs to be sent home. Then test all students at least weekly, until the community spread of Omicron is below a certain level. Kids are getting sick, and are being hospitalized with covid, and we need to be as mindful of that, as we seem to be about the efficacy of remote learning.

Comment by PublicServant Wednesday, Jan 5, 22 @ 12:29 pm
==If I was the Governor =

You’re decision making reflects how you would govern yourself and nothing more. The governor is responsible for 12M+ people. By all means you do you, but realize that governing is not the simple exercise you’d like it to be.

Comment by Pundent Wednesday, Jan 5, 22 @ 12:32 pm
My school district offered free COVID testing Monday and Tuesday for our 17,000+ students and over 2000 staff members. Unfortunately they ran out of tests the first day, only 2000 were offered. You can’t have safe schools if you can’t provide needed testing and proper masks, social distancing. We start back with in-person learning tomorrow.

Comment by Wensicia Wednesday, Jan 5, 22 @ 12:44 pm
=I believe this statement to be inaccurate.=

You work in a school?

The CPS testing “system” was bizarre to me. We do not test all students right now, but we are a smaller district. CPS should have joined the SHIELD program. It would have allowed them to test everyone once or twice a week if they felt the need. That system is available to all districts. We use the binax test because we are only doing limited testing.

But again, this recent spike comes after two weeks away from school. Pretty obvious where the spread is happening.

Comment by JS Mill Wednesday, Jan 5, 22 @ 12:44 pm
===I can’t help but feel a lot of the resistance to home-based learning is from parents who don’t care so much about education as they do about teachers being cheap day care for their kids.===

My resistance to home-based learning — although my husband and I both work remotely — is that one of my children is autistic. Missing 18 months of necessary (and legally-guarnateed) therapeutic supports for his education while he was at home was AWFUL. It was miserable for him; it was miserable for me, having to try to be mom AND teacher AND a team of five therapists with specific expertise, and it was bad for his education and mental health.

We are lucky parents of a child in special education, in that we are both college-educated, we have access to adequate internet services at home to support distance learning, and our child has no daily medical needs that require nursing support. There are a lot of parents of children in special ed who are not so lucky. Schools are where services for special ed students are provided. If your kid isn’t in school, you are screwed. There’s no “backup plan” for when your child doesn’t have access to a speech therapist or mobility therapist through school. You just get nothing.

Comment by Suburban Mom Wednesday, Jan 5, 22 @ 12:46 pm
Does anyone know if SHIELD is turning around results for schools in 24 hours? They were sending Chicago-area tests to Normal as of a month or two ago with results returned in 48-72 hours. This is certainly better than CPS’s testing fiasco but it is far less than ideal. New Trier and the Glenbard system had testing services last year that provided results before school the following day. That mandatory testing protocol seems ideal under the current circumstances; why aren’t schools doing that anymore?

Comment by Vincent Vega Wednesday, Jan 5, 22 @ 12:51 pm
JS, you made an unequivocal statement. “Schools are not the source of spread”. I called you on it.

Are you saying that covid is not spreading in schools?

Given that you state that CPS is “bizarre” and not doing what you think they should have done by joining the Shield program, what do you think should be done now?

Comment by PublicServant Wednesday, Jan 5, 22 @ 12:53 pm
Saliva testing via SHIELD or New Trier’s previous provider seems to be the way to go with Omicron. https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.01.04.22268770v1

Comment by Vincent Vega Wednesday, Jan 5, 22 @ 12:56 pm
While I agree the CPS testing strategy was a total failure, it’s hard to take CTU seriously when they keep demanding strategies that have been proven over and over again to be ineffective (temperature checks, daily health screeners).

This is also just so impractical—for the reasons Rich mentioned above where parents are not being given job protections/financial assistance to stay home with kids, but laptops were not distributed like last time, and efforts have not been made to ensure families have access to the internet, like last time. We also have documented losses in learning and increases in mental health issues as a result of school closures. I just don’t see how we keep going like this without perpetuating huge disparities for the children and families of Chicago.

Comment by Bronzeville Dweller Wednesday, Jan 5, 22 @ 1:04 pm
Shield, by the way, was the UIUC saliva test. UIUC requires all students to be fully vaccinated. In spite of that, due to Omicron, they are going remote. Here is an excerpt of their statement:

“The University of Illinois will temporarily switch to remote learning in January before welcoming students back to classrooms.

Students and staff in Champaign-Urbana and Chicago will also need to show negative COVID-19 tests.

The Champaign-Urbana campus will be online Jan. 18-23. The Chicago campus will go online for two weeks, starting Jan. 10, with some exceptions.

“With the omicron variant fueling a rapid rise in COVID-19 cases across Illinois and the nation, and a likely surge in the coming weeks based on the speed of transmissibility, holiday travel and gatherings, we decided to start the spring semester with two weeks of online instruction,” UIC administrators said in a letter to faculty, staff, and students.”

I am saying that I think the best course of action is for CPS to do the same.

Comment by PublicServant Wednesday, Jan 5, 22 @ 1:15 pm
=Are you saying that covid is not spreading in schools?=

Not to weigh in on this debate, but as the parent of a junior high kid this has been my observation. We experienced an “outbreak” at the start of the school year and another following the return from the holiday break. In both instances it was off campus activities that were to blame.

The schools are able to do things that as a society we still resist. Kids are kept apart, they wear their masks, and there’s very little complaining. What it has shown me is that if we followed the example set by our schools things wouldn’t be nearly as bad as they are. And I do agree with JS that adults are the problem here.

So can Covid spead in schools? Probably. But society as a whole benefits from our kids being in school AND following the example they set around mitigation.

Comment by Pundent Wednesday, Jan 5, 22 @ 1:30 pm
==lot of the resistance to home-based learning is from parents who don’t care so much about education as they do about teachers being cheap day care for their kids==

Wrong. This parent resists it because it wasn’t good for my kids. They did awful and my 16 year old had a mental breakdown last year. I want my kid in school. It’s where he belongs and it’s where the teachers belong. Remote learning was a failure. Period.

Comment by Demoralized Wednesday, Jan 5, 22 @ 1:35 pm
==And I have been back in the office in person continuously since late in the stay-at-home period.==

What is your point? You’ve been moaning and complaining about this for 2 years now. It’s clear from all of your commentary that you believe everything should be shut down all the time and we should all be cowering in our basements afraid of the world. That isn’t reality. If you want to do that then by all means do it. But stop making your constant ridiculous suggestions to always shut things down. Move on already.

Comment by Demoralized Wednesday, Jan 5, 22 @ 1:39 pm
I tried to post earlier, but, somehow, ran afoul of the censoring algorithm, so I’ll try one last time.

UIUC created the Shield program. It is a great screening test. However, Omicron’s transmissibility makes it a new ballgame. UIUC also is requiring all students on campus to be fully vaccinated. In spite of the above, UIUC issued the following:

===
The University of Illinois will temporarily switch to remote learning in January before welcoming students back to classrooms.

Students and staff in Champaign-Urbana and Chicago will also need to show negative COVID-19 tests.

The Champaign-Urbana campus will be online Jan. 18-23. The Chicago campus will go online for two weeks, starting Jan. 10, with some exceptions.

“With the omicron variant fueling a rapid rise in COVID-19 cases across Illinois and the nation, and a likely surge in the coming weeks based on the speed of transmissibility, holiday travel and gatherings, we decided to start the spring semester with two weeks of online instruction,” UIC administrators said in a letter to faculty, staff, and students.
===

No one is arguing that in-school instruction isn’t the way to go. But given that we’re at the peak of the Omicron surge, pausing in-person learning until the surge subsides is reasonable. The CPS population of students has a relatively low vaccination rate compared to suburban districts, so testing is all the more important, and isn’t being done adequately by CPS. Teachers want to be in school teaching, and students being in school learning is the gold standard. But ignoring Omicron is foolish and risky.

Comment by PublicServant Wednesday, Jan 5, 22 @ 1:55 pm
“…the big problem has been candidate inability/unwillingness to pass the required Federal drug tests for marijuana.”

The big problem is the needless test…not the cannabis…for the truth.

Comment by Dotnonymous Wednesday, Jan 5, 22 @ 1:55 pm
=JS, you made an unequivocal statement. “Schools are not the source of spread”. I called you on it.

Are you saying that covid is not spreading in schools?=

You are correct. My statement was unequivocal which was just lazy on my part. I should have been more accurate.

Schools are not the primary source of spread. There is some spread in schools. But most schools have minimized spread due to consistent mitigations. The vast majority is happening outside of school. The more time kids spend in schools with better mitigation the less the spread will be and the safer students will be.

=Given that you state that CPS is “bizarre” and not doing what you think they should have done by joining the Shield program, what do you think should be done now?=

SHIELD would be my recommendation. They can still join. Sorry that was not more clear.

No cost to anyone. They come on site and give the tests. No mailing required.

Given the other options (SHIELD being the best) they should have known better than to send tens of thousands of test kits home. This outcome was foreseeable.

Comment by JS Mill Wednesday, Jan 5, 22 @ 2:54 pm
Amidst the back-to-school chaos, there’s a set of professionals in education for whom I’ve seen very little recognition locally, statewide, and nationally since this pandemic began.. and that’s school nurses.

Let’s not forget about them in the midst of all this chaos.

Comment by Zoomer Wednesday, Jan 5, 22 @ 3:26 pm
And…into year 3 of Covidicy we go. We just HAD to have family holiday gatherings and parties. We just HAD to act like things were normal. We just HAD to have in-person learning again, and staffed offices public and private, and open bars and sports venues. And we got exactly what the docs and scientists said would happen…more cases, hospitalizations, and deaths–and not just the unvaxxed. Time for the Feds to issue a nationwide mandatory vaccination order and a mandatory masking order. Both can be done under Presidential authority via FEMA provisions. This is a national natural disaster, and it’s long past time to treat it as such. Our schoolchildren, businesses, government, and society cannot continue the current half-measures. We won world wars and walked on the Moon with total commitment; let us do this as well with the same vigor, sacrifice, and effort.

Comment by thisjustinagain Wednesday, Jan 5, 22 @ 4:28 pm
Maybe this will finally be the point where public sentiment turns against the CTU. Terminate their contract and hire classroom aids for every class and one certified teacher per class/subject that teaches the entire district virtually in the classroom until a new teacher can be hired. Current CTU members are welcome to apply at 80% of current pay, raises capped at the CPI and tier 2 pensions.

Comment by Jed Wednesday, Jan 5, 22 @ 6:41 pm
===Terminate their contract===

Is that you, Bruce?

Terminate their contract. lol. C’mon.

Comment by Rich Miller Wednesday, Jan 5, 22 @ 6:45 pm
Hey, Jed, you got 22,000 fresh new people with college degrees eager to work for a teacher’s salary, or are you just talking out of you backside?

Oh, right, your backside.

And that’s before the billion-ish dollars in lawsuits for failing to provide legally mandated special ed.

But you keep talking, I do like to laugh.

Comment by Suburban Mom Wednesday, Jan 5, 22 @ 9:59 pm
=Maybe this will finally be the point where public sentiment turns against the CTU.=

I think that’s happened. Largely by entitled folks like your self who in most instances don’t live in the city or have kids attending CPS. You know, the folks who’s opinion don’t matter in any of this but feel free to share them anyway.

The reason that CTU generally has positive public sentiment is that their actual constituents support them even if you don’t. Those same educators taught me that despite what a person may believe themselves, they aren’t always right. Our most recent former governor struggled mightily with that concept.

Comment by Pundent Thursday, Jan 6, 22 @ 7:26 am