school shutdown

Chicago Public Schools families have logged four days of canceled classes and counting this month. Citing the December COVID surge, the botched rollout of take-home testing over the holidays, and low numbers of families opting for their kids to be regularly tested or to get their shot, the Chicago Teachers Union voted last Tuesday to work remotely through January 18. The city called that vote an illegal work stoppage. The district canceled classes and blocked union members from accessing their work. This is the third standoff Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot has had with the union. The mayor and her public health commissioner and CPS CEO Pedro Martinez have insisted schools are just as safe as, or even safer than, staying home. This week's guest, Stacy Davis Gates, the vice president of the Chicago Teachers Union, responds to the mayor’s charge that the work stoppage is a political play. She also discusses whether this learning interruption will send CPS families packing for private schools or the suburbs, her own family’s experience of instability in the district and her possible interest in running for mayor in 2023.