Back to class as Chicago teachers halt strike

Students at Frazier International Magnet School wait outside before the start of school Sept. 19, 2012, in Chicago after teachers voted to suspend their first strike in 25 years. / Getty Images

Updated at 11:57 a.m. ET

(CBS/AP) CHICAGO - Chicago children returned to school on Wednesday after teachers ended a seven-day strike that disrupted the daily routines of thousands of families and made the city a flashpoint in the debate over union rights and efforts to overhaul the nation's public school system.

Jayton Howard, a 16-year-old student on the South Side, summed up his feelings — and those of many others — in a word: "Great."

Union delegates voted overwhelmingly Tuesday night to suspend the walkout after discussing a proposed contract settlement with those in charge of the nation's third-largest school district. They said the contract wasn't perfect, but that it included enough concessions on proposed new teacher evaluations, recall rights for laid-off teachers and classroom conditions to return to work pending a vote by its more than 26,000 teachers and support staffers in coming weeks.

According to the city, the proposed contract would cost an additional $74 million per year, CBS Chicago station WBBM-TV reports. It also includes the plan for a longer school day and longer school year. No one yet knows when students will make up the class time missed during the strike.

The suspension of the strike was a relief to parents. The strike stranded roughly 350,000 students and left many parents scrambling to arrange alternative care for their children even though the district kept more than 140 schools open for several hours a day for meals and activities.

Some parents expressed hope Wednesday that the tentative contract agreement would benefit students in a district grappling with high dropout rates and poor performance.

"They'll win from the strike," said Leslie Sabbs-Kizer, referring to her children as she walked them to a South Side elementary school.

Her son, 8-year-old Nkai Melton, said he was psyched for another reason: "Going on the playground."

"I'm glad that we'll get to go back to the classroom, and I'll see my classmates," Maddy Ben-Yosef, 15, told WBBM-TV.

She said while she was out of school, "I danced alone at home to some music and did some homework."

For parent Erica Weiss, an end to the strike meant she wouldn't have to take her 6-year-old daughter to work.

"I am elated. I couldn't be happier," said Weiss, who had to leave work in the middle of the day to pick up her daughter from one of the schools that stayed open and then bring her back to her finance job downtown. "I have no one else to watch her. ... I can't even imagine the people who could have possibly even lost their jobs over having to stay home with their kids because they have no alternate care. It just put everyone in a pickle."

Wilonda Cannon, a single mother raising her four children in North Lawndale, a poor West Side neighborhood beset by gang shootings, said she was relieved that her two youngest were returning to class after spending the last seven weekdays with their grandfather.

She said she hoped the agreement was the beginning of something new for Chicago's public school system, which has long struggled with high drop-out rates and low test scores. It will take months if not years before parents and teachers will see whether the changes and contract provisions pay off for students.

"I don't know all the ins and outs (of the contract negotiations) ... but it does seem as though it's a step in the right direction," Cannon said.

Mayor Rahm Emanuel — who filed a lawsuit this week to try to force teachers back to work — called the settlement "an honest compromise."

Union leaders pointed to concessions by the city on how closely teacher evaluations will be tied to student test scores and to better opportunities for teachers to retain their jobs if schools are closed by budget cuts.

"We said that we couldn't solve all the problems of the world with one contract, and it was time to end the strike," said Chicago Teachers Union President Karen Lewis.

With an average salary of $76,000, Chicago teachers are already among the highest-paid in the nation. The district's final proposal included an average 7 percent raise over three years, with additional raises for experience and education.

But the evaluations and job security measures stirred the most intense debate. The union said the evaluation system relied too heavily on test scores and did not take into account outside factors that affect student performance such as poverty, violence and homelessness.

The union also pushed to give laid-off teachers first dibs on open jobs anywhere in the district. The district said that could prevent principals from hiring the teachers they thought most appropriate for the position. The tentative settlement proposed giving laid-off teachers first shot at schools that absorbed their former students and filling half of district openings from a pool of laid-off teachers.

Susan Hickey, a school social worker, said she is eager to learn how the students she counsels fared over the summer.

"How are they? Are they OK?" she said. "I'm glad to be back for all kinds of reasons."

[Sroge1]

Dear Governor Christie,

Cc: Governor Walker, Governor Pat Quinn, Governor Tom Corbett

As someone who has voted Republican all of my adult life, I am truly concerned about the future of my country. I am concerned about all of the anti-public education, anti-teacher, Nazi style propaganda. The same party that for years had opposed the teaching of evolution in the "godless" public schools is now advocating the natural selection of children through a myriad of false pretenses, including fiscal responsibility, a voucher school system with no established structure and minimal funding at best. The same party that also complains about the redistribution of wealth, and demands limited government, is taking money from the public school system and creating its own bureaucracy in the form of charter schools. Speaking of redistribution, the only real solution being offered for education reform is basically a Republican sponsored voucher bait and switch program. This bait and switch program will result in marginally remedial children being absolutely left behind, in favor of students that will give teachers better performance scores. The consequence of education reform will be that teachers will be forced to compete for the best students!

There will be other consequences to this education reform. Catholic schools will be affected as well. Parochial schools will be overrun with new students obtaining vouchers. Catholic teacher unions will eventually revolt and demand better pay, unable to handle the massive new enrollment and paperwork requirements. Will Catholic teacher unions also be considered public sector unions, since they are receiving state money, or will the separation of church and state still apply? This will result in a total mess for both public and private education, not to mention the judicial system. Furthermore, for many frustrated parents, home schooling isn't even an option, especially for families where there are two working parents.

The same party that is so concerned about future generations of children being burdened with a trillion dollar deficit, ironically, thinks nothing of sacrificing children of this generation for its grand privatized education experiment.

I understand that the Tea Party is popular indeed; however, this is a representative republic, not mob rule. This makes it more prudently every voter's business. Like you, I also understand the importance of private education, having gone to through parochial grade school and high school. I did not vote Republican in the last election or in any previous election for that matter to see the education system in this country destroyed, and remade in someone else's image. Finally, as a Catholic parent who has a child in a suburban public school that I specifically desired and chose, just remember, if you don't put my child first, don't expect me to put your party first either next election day. I will vote from my child's perspective next election day. I will be sure to bring him with me when I vote, just as a reminder! I will make it my business!

[mav547166]

Extortion at its finest...I wonder how long before we hear about the Detroitization process of Chicago.

[nomorelibs]

"With an average salary of $76,000, Chicago teachers are already among the highest-paid in the nation." ------------- Not that it's their fault, but talk about overpaid babysitters. Sorry, I don't get their beef with the salaries and benefits. Seems that they are well paid for being "public servants."

[mari1963]

All the deadbeat dads can go back to their girlfriends and the bars. The single moms will be stepping up again and taking care of their children and working every day. Back to business as usual in Chicago.

[YorkTownDoc]

What a poor view of the world you have, Mari. Sounds to me like you used to be one of those girlfriends at the bar - until you let a deadbeat knock you up!

[1notrub11]

"It meant the end of hassles trying to find alternative activities for their children, or dropping them at one of more than 140 schools the district kept open for several hours a day so they could be safe and eat breakfast and lunch."

The above speaks volumes.

[lillyhorton]

Its what I've been commenting on all along. It is not about the childrens education that have officials in a bind. Teachers are professionals who have a minimal of 5 years of education not counting the seminars they are required to attend yearly not uneducated people off the streets hire to babysit.

[1notrub11]

Actually, Lily, I was referring to the fact that they are provided breakfast(why not at home?) and lunch (this is not bought or brought?)and so they can be "safe"? That is what speaks volumes.

[Bear589]

Gee! Aren't the folks in Chicago honored that their teachers deigned to go back to doing what they should have been doing all along! It must be a real privilege to be in their presence!

[lillyhorton]

I don't know where your sarcasm comes from. Why are you so angry? They were teaching every child but 40% of those children think of teachers as babysitters. 40% of those children lack respect for teachers. 40% of children in some Chicago schools will drop out. Why are drop out rates higher in some schools than others? Obvious. Some Chicago schools teach predominately middle class students who respect teachers. The students who normally would have dropped out in an inner city school don't because dropping out isn't cool. Their friends stay and so do they. In inner city schools kids drop out because their siblings did or their friends did. It is normal not to finish high school. They feel the odds are stacked against them and they won't amount to anything anyway so why try. What do you say to hungry, desperate, young people who see the world as corrupt. How can you convince a hungry, desperate, young person that earning an honest dollar is better than earning $100. selling illegal drugs and risk prison time?

[nomorelibs]

Lilly-While agree with you, this wasn't about teachers ability to teach unteachable children with pathetic parents. It was about better pay and benefits. Two things that have no bearing on teaching. I do agree that most teachers get into the profession because "they care", but the unions care more about pay and benefits for teachers than the children. And while I realize the unions soul purpose is the welfare of the teachers. The teachers are in lock step with the union. So it seems, whatever the unions says, the teachers must follow. Schools are broke and it isn't for lack of funds. It's high salaries and benefits for teachers, superintendents and bureaucrats. The kids lose and the teachers, and all other public jobs, need to feel the pain that the rest of us feel. It may be pay cuts, or less benefits. But they have the municipalities by the balls, and they don't seem to care about that.

[tsigili]

Who cares? Not the teachers, that's for sure.

[lillyhorton]

When parents don't care it is hard for teachers to influence their children. When parents have absolutely no respect for teachers as professionals students treat teachers as scum. When teachers have to struggle for a students attention how do you think they can teach effectively? If I have to call out Pauls name several times because he is looking down at his D&&k laughing how can I teach a lesson. Some of those schools have several pauls who show up to class armed with phones but not homework. Who are you to critisize when you have no idea what goes on in those classrooms.

[YorkTownDoc]

I think most teachers *do* care. Just picking this profession means you probably care. Teachers' hands are tied! When schools are allowed to discipline disruptive students (i.e. remove them from the classroom and have them sit in some type of detention, without phones or other electronic devices, WITH homework assignments), then things will get better. Kids that are too disruptive to even do that need to be kicked out of school.