Teachers, paratroopers and educational staff: create the Chicago Educators Core Committee! Don’t let the union bureaucracy isolate your fight to stop all school closures and get the real raises you deserve! To obtain more information on the base committee, fill out the form at the end of this article.

Chicago educators find themselves at a critical moment. After keeping rank-and-file teachers on the job without a contract since June, Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) leadership is seeking to conclude its closed-door negotiations with Chicago Public Schools and Mayor Brandon Johnson and present teachers with a labor agreement. clearance sale principle.

CTU officials said this week that “additional movement” on the raises was needed from the district’s original. That means they likely agreed to a salary of around 4 to 5 percent, which would be a significant pay cut given the 23 percent increase in the cost of living since the last contract was signed in 2019. .

Johnson, a former CTU lobbyist, insisted that “sacrifices will have to be made” to pay for the billion-dollar budget deficit for this year and next. The CPS has already listed 70 others that should be consolidated or closed. Even if Johnson and Democrats propose a plan to partially offset the deficit, it will be financed by regressive taxes that increase the burden on educators and workers and by diversion of funds from other essential public services.

The Acero Charter network threatens to close seven schools by the end of the year, displace more than 2,000 students, many of whom are migrants and refugees, and threaten the jobs of more than 270 staff members, including teachers and school staff. Any claim that Johnson is an ally in the fight against school closures is belied by the fact that the mayor’s Board of Education accepts school closures as inevitable.

In its resolution on Acero last week, the CPS board calls on Acero to simply “explore” dilatory the school closes within a year. The school board is apparently offering Acero an incentive to keep its state funds unspent if it chooses to close its schools in 2026 rather than 2025.

Teachers, school staff and parents must oppose the capitulation that is happening behind their backs with the Johnson administration and the Democratic Party. They must reject the claim that there is “no money” for public education, while both corporate-controlled parties spend trillions on war and offer bailouts and endless tax cuts to business and financial elites.

The Chicago Educators Rank-and-File Committee (CERFC) insists that social and democratic rights must take precedence over the profit interests of big business. But it means organizing educators, working-class parents, and students independently of the CTU bureaucracy to fight on the basis of the following agenda: