In a press briefing earlier this week, President Joe Biden said, “We know that our kids can be safe when in school, by the way. That’s why I believe schools should remain open. They have what they need. . . . We provided the states with $130 billion to specifically keep our students safe and schools open.”
The Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) wasn’t
listening.
Instead, the CTU voted this week to stop doing their jobs. Eighty-eight percent of the CTU’s House of Delegates and 73 percent of its members voted to halt in-person teaching. They insisted that while Chicago’s teachers really, truly “want to be in their classrooms with their students,” Chicago’s dastardly mayor and the Chicago school system leadership “have put the safety and vibrancy of our students and their educators in jeopardy.”
In a too-rare instance of a big-city educational
leader standing up to this kind of union bullying and double-talk, Chicago
schools CEO Pedro Martinez announced that the system would reluctantly cancel
classes today but would keep schools open. Martinez said
on Tuesday, “I am not closing the schools. . . . Staff will be welcome to come
to school because we are going to have a plan for our families. I am not going
to let our parents down.”
Further, Martinez dryly explained to teachers and staff, “If you want to be compensated, you have to show up for work. It’s really that simple.”
Martinez pointed out that the district is hardly being cavalier about the safety of students or staff. He noted the immense negative consequences for students and families of abrupt school closure, and then had the district take pains to document some of the safety precautions it has already put in place. Its extensive release on the matter noted that 91 percent of staff are vaccinated as are more than 100,000 students, and that the district is offering another 33 vaccination events this week.
The school system
requires universal masking and social distancing, is providing 200,000 KN95
masks for staff use, offers in-school testing at every campus, has spent more
than $15 million on HEPA air filters and $141 million on mechanical system
upgrades, and its website reports on a third-party evaluation of the air
quality of every classroom in every building.
As Hayley Sanon and I noted a year and a half ago:
There are plenty of essential workers across the land — cops, firefighters, sanitation workers, grocery clerks, nurses, and the rest — who have been going to their jobs every day. Many of these workers are parents who don’t have the luxury of staying home to supervise their children. And, as much as firefighters might prefer to shelter at home through the end of 2020, no one is suggesting that providing online tutorials to those confronting a house fire is a viable option.
Martinez wasn’t the only Chicago leader to exhibit some backbone. Mayor Lori Lightfoot said, “I have to tell you, it feels like ‘Groundhog Day,’ that we are here again,” going on to accuse union leaders of “politicizing the pandemic.” Lightfoot added, “There is no basis in the data, the science, or common sense for us to shut an entire system down when we can surgically do this at a school level.”
In his previous turn as superintendent down in San Antonio, Martinez exhibited a similar willingness to take tough stands when it came to doing right by students and families. Especially as union pressure and media-fueled hysteria risk prompting too many school leaders to ignore the public health science, shutter their doors, and repeat the devastating overreactions of 2020–2021, this kind of leadership needs to be noted — and lauded.
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