Put it in writing: More support staff for schools

To my dismay, I cannot agree with the Sun- Times editorial “Take the deal, teachers. You’ve won” (Wednesday).

The teachers have made it clear that schools are in desperate need of support staff. They have done a good job of shedding light on that need, performing a public service by bringing it to our attention, and apparently they cannot be bought off with more money.

They demand that the promised increases in support staff be written into the contract, knowing perfectly well that otherwise it won’t happen.

To assert that it’s unreasonable to put such a promise in writing is to admit the hypocrisy of the promise. Children and their education are a top priority — until they are out of the headlines and we can forget about them.

This could be a chance for the light-bringer-in-chief to show that at least some of her campaign rhetoric was sincere.

Put it in the contract!

Rebecca Wolfram, Lawndale

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‘All CPS employees deserve more respect and support’

I am writing to thank reporter Nader Issa for his article “Is a generous pay offer enough to ward off a teachers strike? Union says it’s fighting for more than money.”

It is important for the public to know that Chicago Public School teachers are very concerned about the education and welfare of their students.

Demands for better class size and a nurse, social worker and librarian in every school are as important as the issue of pay raises, which the board can now easily grant due to a change in school funding.

Without these additional resources, a teacher is forced to work extra long hours to cover tasks that should be assigned to full-time professional staff.

An overburdened teacher, no matter how dedicated and hard working, cannot do both their primary job of educating their students and necessary support work without one or both of these suffering.

All CPS employees deserve more respect and support than they are getting, whether teachers, paraprofessionals or building maintenance staff.

John Obeda, Andersonville

Republicans turn their backs on Constitution

The actions of President Donald Trump, independent of Congress, are what the writers of the U.S. Constitution, in structuring the separation of the three branches of government, attempted to avoid.

The “originalists” in the Federalist society had better consider that during the time of America’s founding, kings conducted foreign policy as they pleased, allocated money from their nations’ treasuries as they pleased and raised money through tariffs as they pleased.

Today, all of these actions are being conducted by the Trump administration without the consent of Congress. Republicans, with their conservative thought patterns and their conservative backers, should be most critical of the Trump administration.

They are the ones who wish for a conservative and originalist interpretation of the U.S. Constitution. Trump wishes to rule as a tyrant, but the only people who have finally called him to account are the liberal Democrats.

That Trump would conduct foreign policy on the basis of his demanding political favors from a another country’s leader (Ukraine) is a violation of the U.S. Constitution and a betrayal of America’s founding document and thought.

Shame on the spineless Republicans in control of the Senate.

Tom Teune, Wheaton