CHICAGO (AP) – Chicago’s mayor is accusing leaders of the city’s teachers union of holding up the resolution of a contract over political issues as a strike keeps classrooms closed.
Mayor Lori Lightfoot said Tuesday that Chicago Teachers Union officials have demanded that she support state legislation affecting the district’s appointed school board and labor laws.
Lightfoot says those demands are a major block to reaching a deal that would end the strike that has kept students out of class for nine days in the nation’s third-largest school district.
The strike by 25,000 union members began Oct. 17.
Chicago Public Schools CEO Janice Jackson says the union is demanding more preparation time for teachers that would force the school day or school year to be shortened. She says that would jeopardize students’ academic progress.
