Solidarity Matters.

So I went to the University of Chicago: a notorious home to nerds, really disturbing economic theory, classrooms sealed with lead because of radiation from experiments before the Manhattan project, and law professors who become Presidents and Supreme Court justices.

Our campus had air-conditioning, because summer in Chicago sucks.  There's nothing like walking home after last call at 2:00am and passing a time/temperature sign reporting that it's still over 100 degrees.

It is not too much to ask Chicago Public Schools to get a timetable for air-conditioning all schools.  Nor is it too much to ask that negotiated and approved wage increases be given, not taken away on suspicious economic grounds.  And compensating teachers for extra hours of classroom time seems reasonable (also?  One of the reason Chicago had "short" school days is because most schools had no recess whatsoever.  When you look at the actual instructional minutes, well, let's just say it's clear that Rahm Emmanuel's kids never went to CPS schools, because he'd complain less if he had the facts.

CTU isn't just fighting for Chicago's schools and students, though.  They're also taking on the usual suspects - charter schools, for-profit charter schools, investment bankers who want to do for public education what they did for the housing market - for all of us.

Please consider supporting their strike fund.