The news that CPS
was laying off 443 teachers this week hit me in the gut as it always does.
As a young
teacher I was a victim of Reduction in Force every year for the first four
years of my teaching career. Nobody said I was a bad teacher. They just said I
was fired.
For a young
teacher the first years are brutal anyway. This pandemic year? I can’t even
imagine. And then be hit with a RIF (Reduction in Force) Notice. Widget. Cog in
a wheel. Thing. Nobody.
CPS says that
they have no choice since they don’t know what the enrollment will look like in
the Fall. But they also say that they will likely add 2,000 positions when
schools open. This is likely true. So the layoffs make no sense.
It is also likely
that the teachers who are let go have no guarantees that they will be among the
2,000 who are rehired. And I can tell you that being told you will likely be
called back doesn’t make the feeling of being fired less painful. It was
painful even the fourth time they let me go. Only to call me back again in
August.
What kind of
system treats its employees this way? Who fires people every year knowing they
will likely ask them to return. And then fires them again. Brings them back.
And fires them again.
The teachers
union leaders complain each year but they never seem to want to challenge the
basic assumption. They’d rather try to make points in their continuing battle
with the mayor. Everything I read says there is a teacher shortage. Enrollment
in college teacher prep programs is down 22%. Senior teachers are retiring and
there’s fewer new teachers in the pipeline to replace them.
Where is the
incentive to enter the teaching profession? It’s certainly isn’t the salary or
the Tier 2 pension reductions or a sense of stability or empowerment. The
assumption that needs to be challenged by our union leaders is why are we
laying off any teachers at all?
I say keep them
all and find a place for them to do what they are trained to do: teach! What’s
the worst that could happen? A group of kids would have two
professionally trained educators in a classroom available to them instead of
one?
Imagine!
https://preaprez.wordpress.com/2021/06/23/teacher-layoffs-every-year-makes-no-sense/
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