When is Monique Davis' trial?

Posted By: Johanna Brocker on Fri May 5, 2007 at 11:47:57 PM

My understanding is that the charter expansion discussed in Aaron's article was part of the bill for education funding that was voted down 177 to 0 yesterday. Completely left out of the story was the fact that when Senator Jones orginally added language to the funding bill expanding charters (see April 20 Chicago Tribune) the CTU, AFT, and AFL-CIO withdrew support for the bill. After the compromise was reached, the morning of the pro-edcuation funding rally in Springfield the CTU again agreed to support the bill that included the Gross Tax Reciept Tax.

Aaron's article makes it sound as if there is a proposed stand alone charter expansion bill. Maybe there now is, but I have not yet seen it. By the way Republicans supported Bills for education funding included the complete elimination of any cap on Charters.

Now that the education funding bill has sunk, it is not at all clear that the CTU/Jones deal is still in place. CTU needs a funding bill to be able to cut a deal with CPS for pay increases. Right now there is no funding bill in sight that can pass the General Assembly. The main reason for the compromise was to get money to CPS, now that deal is gone. Will a stand alone deal on specific charter school expansion in return for limiting individual charters from having mulitple sites under one charter be worth it for the CTU? I would guess it might not. Because in two years the whole issue can start again with calls for more charters, so the deal is basically meaningless.

If the collapse of the school funding bill hurts CTU's hopes for pay increases it is in fact an even greater problem for charter schools. Charter schools operate on a far tighter margin than do CPS schools and many appear to have assumed that they would recieve an increase in the per student funds sent to them under the new funding bill. This is a problem for EMOs, some are for profit companies, that are running some charters and expect to make some money based on fees. With many charter school teachers being paid near what is starting level pay for CTU teachers a failure to get a cost of living increase is really hard to take. Moreover some charters have borrowed significant funds to rehab buildings and the failure of this bill puts them under more pressure.

Posted By: Rod Estvan on Fri May 5, 2007 at 05:47:50 PM