The Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) responded to a newspaper editorial on Friday chronic absence of teachers in Chicago Public Schools (CPS) when they receive an average salary of $95,000.
“CPS teacher Roxanne Piersanti cites the Tribune Editorial Board’s recent criticism of teacher absences, pointing out how it unfairly targets working mothers and ignores the realities of caregiving, illness and the physical toll of teaching,” wrote CTU on their X account.
“Have they thought about how often educators – especially the 75% of whom are women – are on the front lines of both their classrooms and their families? Does the Trib think employees don’t deserve sick days, FMLA and parental leave? They don’t just teach; they sacrifice, care and persevere. It is time for the Tribune to reflect the facts,” the CTU wrote.
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Even as union membership has declined since 2000, an increasing number of Americans approve of unions, a 2022 Gallup poll shows. (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)
The union also highlighted Piersanti’s comment to the Tribune’s editors.
“The editors feel very one-sided and absolutely misogynistic. Do better,” Piersanti wrote in an article criticizing the Tribune.
Piersanti added that the Tribune is “missing facts about why teachers take time off.”
“What about COVID-19? Do board members work with more than a hundred different children per day? How would their immune systems hold up?,” she added.
That’s what the Tribune editorial staff wrote on Nov. 25, it found that more than 41% of teachers were absent from their classes for 10 or more days during the 2023-2024 school year, citing state data. The outlet added that 10 days of absence represents a statistical measure used in the profession to monitor chronic absenteeism among teachers.
Brandon Johnson, Mayor of Chicago, during an inauguration ceremony at Credit Union 1 Arena in Chicago on May 15, 2023. (Jamie Kelter Davis/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
“Alarmingly, this poor record of CPS teachers on the job is a new and recent phenomenon. For example, in the 2022-2023 school year, CPS teacher performance was even worse, with 43% absent at least 10 days. however, that year the rate was significantly better: in the 2016-2017 school year, chronic absenteeism among CPS teachers was 31%. From then on, the numbers deteriorated slightly, leading to the pandemic, but it was still better than what we see now,” the editors wrote.
Chicago teachers get an average salary of $95,000, significantly more than what teachers in the suburbs get and more than “any other major school district in the country,” according to the Tribune.
The Tribune added that it was a “bizarre ask” for the CTU to demand a 9% annual pay increase.
CTU President Stacey Davis Gates wrote an op-ed on Nov. 29 responding to the editorial, saying the board “continues its agenda to denigrate the Chicago Teachers Union and degrade itself with a series of half-truths and cherry-picked statistics.”
“If numbers are not leveraged to advance an agenda, teacher attendance on CPS tracks will trend statewide,” Davis Gates wrote. “They call this ‘chronic absenteeism’ and insinuate that teachers should be ashamed of it.”
Stacy Davis Gates is president of the Chicago Teachers Union, Executive Vice President of the Illinois Federation of Teachers, Vice President of the American Federation of Teachers and President of United Working Families. (YouTube/screenshot | Fox News Digital)
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“In CPS and across the state, teachers are using their allotted sick time more than before the pandemic. Even looking at districts with more or less generous leave policies, Chicago neither the highest nor the lowest when it comes to teachers’ use of paid leave,” she added.
CTU, Davis Gates and the Tribune immediately responded to a request for comment.
