Lightfoot: We won’t bail out CPS, pay for everything teachers union wants

LEFT: Lori Lightfoot speaks to the Sun-Times editorial board Wednesday. RIGHT: Teachers rally outside her budget address as City Hall.

As Chicago Public Schools classes were canceled for the sixth consecutive day during a strike by teachers and support staff, Mayor Lori Lightfoot vowed that the city would not bail out the school system to secure a teachers contract.

Speaking to the Chicago Sun-Times Editorial Board after her first budget address, the mayor showed no signs of caving to end the work stoppage that put 300,000 students out of class and led to tens of thousands of striking Chicago Teachers Union and SEIU Local 73 members shutting down the Loop during her first budget address to City Council Wednesday.

“What we’ve been very clear about, is they’ve got to live within their means, whatever those means are and they can’t exceed that, and look to the city to bail them out,” Lightfoot said. “And I think that message has been delivered loud and clear to [CPS CEO] Dr. [Janice] Jackson and her team and we also need the CTU to hear the same thing: There is not an unlimited pot of money to fund everything they want.”

The union’s requests, including staffing guarantees and smaller class sizes, have been estimated to cost $2.4 billion over three years.

Based on the district’s current offer on the table, about $500 million per year would be added to the district’s costs by the end of a potential five-year deal in 2024. The start of the agreement would be cheaper, but ramped-up staffing over time would make it more expensive. The current CTU contract costs $2.6 billion annually.

Lightfoot declined to predict when the current strike might end or whether it will go longer than the last major walkout in 2012, when teachers picketed for seven school days during Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s first term.

Asked if she was embarrassed by the downtown rally that could be heard inside City Hall and in surrounding skyscrapers Wednesday, Lightfoot said, “Protest is a part of Chicago history. ... And I don’t embarrass easily.”

Lightfoot announced Wednesday that she was declaring $300 million in surplus tax increment financing, and said $163 million of that would go to CPS as part of her proposed city budget. But she said that money has already been accounted for in the current offer to CTU, which means the country’s third largest school system likely will continue borrowing to pay for anything else it agrees to add to the contracts with the CTU and SEIU. Lightfoot also said CPS would likely refinance debt at lower interest rates.

Lightfoot declares $300 million TIF surplus — largest in Chicago history

And asked whether later years of the contract would lead to a property tax increase, beyond the usual annual raise on CPS’ levy to a cap allowed under state law, Lightfoot only said, “We will live within the means that CPS has.”

‘Not a bailout’

Late Wednesday, after bargaining had ended for the day, CTU vice president Stacy Davis Gates criticized the mayor’s characterization of the union’s demands as a bailout.

“A bailout on smaller class sizes? That’s not a bailout, that’s an investment in the future of our country,” Davis Gates said. “So the paradigm has to shift. She has to get out of the way of success [and] a monumental, legacy-building contract that she will benefit from as a hero.”

On the city’s record TIF surplus, Davis Gates lamented that Chicago teachers “won’t see it back in our classrooms because we’re paying for things the city paid for last year.”

Davis Gates said that while CTU wants to reach an agreement that would end the union’s strike, it will remain at the bargaining table until they reach a just settlement.

Still, the city and teachers union reached 80 tentative agreements Wednesday, Davis Gates said, but all were on minor technical issues, like translation services for meetings with families and small facets of teacher evaluations.

Discussions were ongoing on the major proposals, however, including class size, staffing and special education. The union said there wasn’t much progress on either topic. Davis Gates said the city still wouldn’t agree on enforcement language to make sure that any of these agreements would be met.

Major march

Earlier in the day, as Lightfoot’s budget address got underway, thousands of striking teachers and staff sat down in the streets surrounding City Hall after they marched from four different locations and converged there.

The rally shut down multiple streets in the Loop as drivers rushed to beat the crowd and honked in support and frustration at the gridlock. Some workers downtown paused to take pictures and shout words of encouragement to the strikers, but most hurried about their day, noting the protest with passing glances as they navigated crowded sidewalks and streets.

After the mayor’s budget address ended, most protesters made their way to the Thompson Center for a planned rally where Davis Gates spoke to the crowd alongside several progressive aldermen and City Treasurer Melissa Conyears-Ervin, a mainstay at CTU rallies the past couple weeks.

Ernest Radcliffe, a Morgan Park High School security guard and baseball coach — and a member of SEIU — said not getting paid during the strike is a hardship for him and his family of twelve, but it’s all necessary.

“God is on my side, I’m blessed. We’ll be fine ... We’ll make it work. We’ll have to eat rice and beans,” he said with a smile.

“We need our money but we also need the right things to be in place,” he said. “We need Lori Lightfoot to get on board with the CTU and SEIU. We are marching in solidarity. We have to do it.”

Action continues Thursday

On Thursday, the CTU plans to hold “civil disobedience training” for members “to combat the mayor’s stonewalling,” according to a memo sent to teachers.

The union message encouraged members to go to the CTU’s Near West Side headquarters at 3 p.m. to “learn the lessons of the civil rights movement” and receive training on blocking intersections, disrupting office lobbies and other nonviolent efforts.

Union spokeswoman Chris Geovanis said “every tool, every tactic, every strategy that we employ is ... designed to advance bargaining and break the logjam at the table.

”Many of our members have experience with nonviolent civil disobedience, but not all of our members have that experience,” Geovanis said. “This is designed to either give those who want a refresher or want to strengthen that muscle to develop that tool for the toolkit.”

Thousands of striking Chicago Teachers Union and SEIU Local 73 members and their supporters march around City Hall before Mayor Lori Lightfoot was scheduled to deliver her first budget address during the monthly Chicago City Council meeting, Wednesday morning, Oct. 23, 2019. | Ashlee Rezin Garcia/Sun-Times

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Striking members of the Chicago Teachers Union and SEIU Local 73 and their supporter rally outside the Thompson Center, Wednesday morning, Oct. 23, 2019. | Max Herman/For the Sun-Times

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A woman crosses the street in front of striking members of the Chicago Teachers Union and SEIU Local 73 on Dearborn Street in the Loop, Wednesday morning, Oct. 23, 2019. | Matthew Hendrickson/Sun-Times

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Chicago Teachers Union Vice President Stacy Davis Gates speaks at a rally for striking CTU and SEIU Local 73 members and their supporters at the Thompson Center, shortly after Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s first budget address during the monthly Chicago City Council meeting at City Hall, Wednesday morning, Oct. 23, 2019. | Ashlee Rezin Garcia/Sun-Times

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Thousands of striking Chicago Teachers Union and SEIU Local 73 members and their supporters rally at the Thompson Center after marching around City Hall during Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s first budget address during the monthly Chicago City Council meeting, Wednesday morning, Oct. 23, 2019. | Ashlee Rezin Garcia/Sun-Times

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Members of the Chicago Teachers Union and SEIU Local 73 march on Dearborn Street as they head to a union rally at at City Hall, Wednesday morning, Oct. 23, 2019. | Matthew Hendrickson/Sun-Times

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A member of the Chicago Teachers Union stands below the Willis Tower ahead of a march for striking workers to a rally at City Hall., Wednesday morning, Oct. 23, 2019. | Matthew Hendrickson/Sun-Times

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Ald. Daniel La Spata (1st) holds up a copy of the 2020 Budget Recommendation as he speaks at a rally for striking Chicago Teachers Union and SEIU Local 73 members and their supporters at the Thompson Center, shortly after Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s first budget address during the monthly Chicago City Council meeting at City Hall, Wednesday morning, Oct. 23, 2019. | Ashlee Rezin Garcia/Sun-Times

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Striking members of the Chicago Teachers Union and SEIU Local 73 and their supporter rally outside the Thompson Center, Wednesday morning, Oct. 23, 2019. | Max Herman/For the Sun-Times

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Ald. Carlos Ramirez-Rosa (35th) speaks at a rally for striking Chicago Teachers Union and SEIU Local 73 members and their supporters at the Thompson Center, shortly after Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s first budget address during the monthly Chicago City Council meeting at City Hall, Wednesday morning, Oct. 23, 2019. | Ashlee Rezin Garcia/Sun-Times

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Striking members of the Chicago Teachers Union and SEIU Local 73 and their supporter rally outside the Thompson Center, Wednesday morning, Oct. 23, 2019. | Max Herman/For the Sun-Times

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Chicago City Treasurer Melissa Conyears-Ervin speaks at a rally for striking Chicago Teachers Union and SEIU Local 73 members and their supporters at the Thompson Center, shortly after Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s first budget address during the monthly Chicago City Council meeting at City Hall, Wednesday morning, Oct. 23, 2019. | Ashlee Rezin Garcia/Sun-Times

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