Chicago students stage walkout to protest teacher pensions

Chicago students stage walkout to protest teacher pensions | EAGnews.org:
CHICAGO – Union efforts last month to train teachers on creating student activists to fight for its cause seems to be paying off, as hundreds of Chicago Public Schools walked out of class Friday in protest.
Between 200 and 300 Lincoln Park High School students walked out of before their third period classes toting protest signs and chanting for more money for education as part of their “Fed-Up Friday” rally, CBS Chicago reports.
Their qualms echoed battle cries often heard from the Chicago Teachers Union, which held teacher training sessions late last month on how to “empower” students to “express purposeful dissent” and “engage in civic action to bring about desired social change,” according to CTU flier titled “Teachers Empowering Students for Social Change.”
...Lincoln Park High School faced about $375,000 in budget cuts last week, a sliver of the $120 million district officials slashed to address a massive budget shortfall for the current school year, Progress Illinois reports.
CPS leaders opted for the budget cuts after officials with the Chicago Teachers Union rejected a contract offer that would have ensured teachers received raises, prevented layoffs, and capped the expansion of charter schools – the union’s direct competition.
The deal would also have required CTU members to pay their own portion of their pension costs, instead of the district paying both the employer and employee contributions, but union’s negotiation team shot down the offer, the Chicago Sun-Times reports...”