Striking Teachers Begin to Turn on President
CHICAGO (CBS) – The Chicago teachers’ strike will head into its third day on Wednesday, after the latest round of talks ended Tuesday night without a deal to bring teachers back to work, and the head of the Chicago Teachers Union describing their progress as “glacial.”
Talks between Chicago Public Schools officials and the union ended around 8 p.m. Tuesday, after negotiators spent all day trying to hammer out an agreement on a new teacher evaluation system.
After negotiations ended Tuesday night, Chicago Teachers Union Karen Lewis said progress toward a deal was “glacial.”
CBS 2′s Dana Kozlov reports it was clear even before talks officially ended for the day that no deal was likely on Tuesday, and perhaps not even on Wednesday.
“We have been working hard on evaluations all day. There has not been as much movement as we would hope,” Lewis said shortly before 6 p.m. Tuesday. “There’s been – let’s put it this way, centimeters, and we’re still kilometers apart.”
Lewis also said there hasn’t been enough movement towards that goal to make her think an agreement could be completed on Wednesday. She said the union has only signed off on six of 49 articles within the contract. However, Chicago Board of Education President David Vitale claimed Tuesday night that there was agreement on more than just six issues, but the union was not officially signing off on those matters to make it appear publicly as if the two sides are further apart.
After talks ended for the night, Vitale said the district has presented an updated proposal to the union, in an effort to address their concerns on the teacher evaluation system, as well as other issues.
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