Layoffs in Chicago District Amid an Uncertain Future# Parenting - 为人父母
a*g
1 楼
With a difficult financial road ahead, Chicago' school district sent layoff
notices to 227 employees late last week and announced that it was also
closing 180 vacant positions.
Fifty-seven of the employees who received the layoff notices will be able to
reapply for 35 positions, the district said. The district also said that it
had taken other measures that have cut compensation by $14.5 million.
News of the layoffs followed some tough talk from Republican legislators in
the state capital of Springfield, who, publicly, are showing no willingness
to bail out the financially strapped school district, which is the third
largest in the country.
Two Republican legislators and GOP Gov. Bruce Rauner put forward a proposal
last week that would allow the state of Illinois to take over the district.
The proposal would also allow the district to declare bankruptcy.
Both Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, who appoints the members of the school
board, and Karen Lewis, the president of the Chicago Teachers' Union, who
are normally at odds, have pushed back against the takeover idea.
The district's financial future is murky. Chicago schools' current year
budget has a $480 million shortfall, and the district had been counting on
the state to help plug the gap. The district also has a $1 billion
structural deficit and has suffered a series of credit-ratings downgrades
over the last year. And with the teachers' union contract still unsettled,
there is fear of a looming strike. Eighty-eight percent of eligible union
members voted in December in favor of a strike if no contract agreement is
reached.
No teacher layoffs were announced in last week's round of dismissals, but
last year, Chicago schools' CEO Forrest Claypool said that without state
assistance teacher layoffs were possible.
notices to 227 employees late last week and announced that it was also
closing 180 vacant positions.
Fifty-seven of the employees who received the layoff notices will be able to
reapply for 35 positions, the district said. The district also said that it
had taken other measures that have cut compensation by $14.5 million.
News of the layoffs followed some tough talk from Republican legislators in
the state capital of Springfield, who, publicly, are showing no willingness
to bail out the financially strapped school district, which is the third
largest in the country.
Two Republican legislators and GOP Gov. Bruce Rauner put forward a proposal
last week that would allow the state of Illinois to take over the district.
The proposal would also allow the district to declare bankruptcy.
Both Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, who appoints the members of the school
board, and Karen Lewis, the president of the Chicago Teachers' Union, who
are normally at odds, have pushed back against the takeover idea.
The district's financial future is murky. Chicago schools' current year
budget has a $480 million shortfall, and the district had been counting on
the state to help plug the gap. The district also has a $1 billion
structural deficit and has suffered a series of credit-ratings downgrades
over the last year. And with the teachers' union contract still unsettled,
there is fear of a looming strike. Eighty-eight percent of eligible union
members voted in December in favor of a strike if no contract agreement is
reached.
No teacher layoffs were announced in last week's round of dismissals, but
last year, Chicago schools' CEO Forrest Claypool said that without state
assistance teacher layoffs were possible.
