Teacher Strike
Filmmaker’s Statement
This film was based on the research discovered about this topic and structured around the point of view of the students within the Chicago public school system. When making the effort of portraying empathy, we quickly realized that there would be much decision making within the film. Things like what kind of content and narration. Some examples include: Feelings that parents, students, and teachers have toward the strike. The whole purpose of the strike, obstacles that come with having a strike in a public school and using statistics to help learn more of the purpose. Staff members of a public school going on strike is a big deal. Students miss out on their education; parents of these children are forced to look for other places for them to be to prevent leaving them home alone. Teachers are fighting for what they feel like they deserve. But shouldn’t every person be rewarded for the work that they do? Education is important in this country. When children are being forced to not go to school because of a strike, kids see it as a blessing. In reality, they’re learning to attach more to their bad habits and avoid any thought of school while the strike is happening. The parents of these children are only gaining unnecessary stress. When school is out for a week or two, it’s hard to find a place for their children, or a babysitter to watch over them while the parents go off to work. But the teachers and staff of the CPS work really hard. There are some things that come in the way of teaching like oversized classrooms, low budget materials/ programming, disciplinary, and other contributions. It is only right that employed staff and teachers get the pay and benefits that they deserve. If college students are forced to pay back large amounts of money to the government after the student is finished with college, teachers of public schools deserve to gain more financial stability.
Chicago public schools are one of the highest paid education systems in the nation, so while teachers in Chicago are on strike for an increase in funding's, this may alter other states perspective on the education system. This may include things such as: increase in funding's for public schools, increase in hiring employees, and a safer environment overall for the students, and others in the building. The strike in CPS is very important and sends a strong message to the nation. Teachers in public schools are forced to put up with constant day-to-day stress as they continue to work in a public-school environment... especially the ones in Chicago. We need to understand the feelings of the teachers on strike. To truly understand their constant day-to-day struggles, we need to put ourselves in their own shoes. Educating children is personally harder than educating a student who is in college and already has an understand on how the education and financial aid system work. All a kid knows to do is to follow direction and do the homework they were assigned. Sometimes they don’t even do their 4th grade reading log. That could lead to a state of doubt for teachers towards the student. Not only that, but also the amount of time that is wasted on students that don’t choose to learn can have a great impact on a teacher's state of mind.
Throughout the twenty first century, the Chicago Public School System has undergone various issues regarding teacher salary, conditions, and overall environment of the school setting. In today’s news, The Chicago Public School System is going through another teacher strike where the teachers are fighting for the well being of students by requesting nurses, counselors, and even psychologists to be present within the schools every day. This film will focus on the student point of view through the progression of this issue an see how it affects the student mentally, academically, and emotionally. Although not having to go to school because of a teacher strike seems like a dream to us, students in Chicago began to realize how difficult things would be not going to school. Not only was their education pushed back an entire eleven days, but their lives at home required adjusting as well. Many children relied on meals provided by the school, luckily however, schools remained open solely to provide food service for the students. Aside from this, issues concerning children staying at home became prominent to many parents. Many grew agitated and upset because they pay so much money and their kids are not in school for a portion of the time. They expect full teaching services for their children and cannot accept paying for an education that their children are not receiving. Adding to the issue, The mayor of Chicago has decided that the student are not requires to makeup nine of the eleven days that were missed due to the strike. All of these issues add to the overall empathy of the film because of how easy it is for any of this to happen to everyone within this school. We can all relate to these kids and thus, makes us feel sad for them.
Questions
Roles
-Researcher (Meg)
All thanks to a little noticed provision in the teachers’ new tentative contract had everyone start talking. Since 2011 teachers have been calling in sick when they are not, Chicago public schools have seen a 58% increase in teacher absences, sick days, personal business days and religious holidays. That works out to 3.5 additional days off per teacher, from 6 days to 9.5. But with this new contract being recently introduced, teachers will be allowed to accumulate as high as 244 sick days. Which then they can put toward an earlier retirement with a full pension. This means that if a teacher never calls in for a sick day, they can retire 244 days earlier in other words making up to about a year early retirement. The Chicago sun times even feel for the students stating in one of their articles “The teachers’ excessive use of sick days has created a problem for Chicago’s public schools at a time when it’s increasingly difficult to line up substitute teachers, given competition from the gig economy. And even the best substitute teachers can’t make up for the loss of continuity in learning. Chicago’s schoolchildren have paid the price. It’s unfortunate that things ever got to this point. It’s regrettable that teachers apparently need a little more incentive to call in sick only when they are genuinely under the weather.”
Loo, Nancy, director. Parents of CPS Students React to Anticipated Teachers Strike. YouTube, YouTube, 2019, www.youtube.com/watch?v=0HOFdRuJH6s.
About 361,000 students attend public schools in Chicago. Most come from lower-income households, with 78 percent of them meeting the federal government’s standards to qualify for free or reduced-fee lunches.Of some 640 public schools, only a small number have full-time social workers on staff. Social workers, nurses, and other critical support staff typically are shared among multiple schools.The challenges that face Chicago do not stop at the school's main entrances. From persistent poverty and stubbornly high homicide rates to residential segregation and gangs, each of these issues often find their way into classrooms to negatively impact student behavior and performance.
CPS is the nation’s third largest school district. CPS has a higher proportion of students of color, low-income students, and English learners as compared to the city’s population as a whole and to school districts in the rest of the state. CPS is the nation’s third largest school district.CPS graduation rate improved four times faster than the national rate between 2013 and 2017. During that time period, CPS’ 4-year graduation rate improved 15.6 percentage points. The students are disproportionately low-income as compared to the rest of the state. Students defined as low-income are students aged 3 through 17 who come from families receiving public assistance, live in institutions for neglected or delinquent children, are supported in foster homes with public funds, or are eligible to receive free or reduced-price lunches. As part of our plan to modernize Chicago schools, we are beginning a three-year $75 million investment to ensure all high schools have state-of-the-art science labs. And to ensure we are providing our children equitable access to cutting-edge technology; we will invest $50 million in capital funds this year to increase internet bandwidth and purchase new classroom computers and devices for our highest need schools to bridge the digital divide and enhance instruction. This is the first phase of a four-year $125 million investment plan. This was as of the 2019 budget
For the budget for 2020,CPS is providing $31 million in equity grant funding for 219 elementary and high schools with low or declining enrollment. This ensures that students in these schools receive the same world class education as their peers attending larger schools. $280 million to complete maintenance projects and interior improvements, ensuring students in all parts of the city can learn and grow in high-quality learning environments. This investment also includes $10.5 million to kick off a five-year plan to ensure the first floor of every CPS school is ADA accessible for all students and adults with disabilities. $45 million to upgrade playgrounds, install athletic fields, and create learning gardens around the district.There are approximately 2.7 million people and 1 million households in Chicago, the third largest city in the United States. An estimated 23.0 percent of the city’s population is under 18 years old
https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/breaking/ct-cps-chicago-teachers-strike-union-ratify-20191111-aikr5k44njgljl2nplqat72jhq-story.html
-Editor (Waleed)
-Writer (Carlos)
-Camera Guy/Content finder (Dylan)