What Next: Chicago’s Public School Meltdown

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News, Business, Society & Culture

3.9 • 1.1K Ratings

🗓️ 11 January 2022

⏱️ 19 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Chicago Public Schools canceled classes for three consecutive days this year, following a vote by the teachers union to defy in-person teaching orders amid a rise in COVID-19 cases. The union wants additional safety measures in place as teachers and students return to school. Meanwhile, Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot said the union’s actions are “illegal,” and the public schools system said the refusal to teach in-person amounted to a strike. How will the showdown end? And when will students get back into the classroom? Guest: Sarah Karp, education reporter at WBEZ in Chicago. If you enjoy this show, please consider signing up for Slate Plus. Slate Plus members get benefits like zero ads on any Slate podcast, bonus episodes of shows like Slow Burn and Dear Prudence—and you’ll be supporting the work we do here on What Next. Sign up now at slate.com/whatnextplus to help support our work. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey everyone, the show today is about Chicago's public schools and how a dispute between teachers
0:06.6	and the city's mayor meant school was shut down for days.
0:10.9	Right as we were putting the final touches on this show, however, Chicago mayor Lori
0:15.9	Lightfoot announced a deal with teachers.
0:18.4	It's going to reopen schools on Wednesday, but today's show is still worth listening to
0:23.4	because it explains why reaching that agreement has been so hard.
0:28.4	All right, here we go.
0:33.9	Sunday night, Sarah Carp was so busy, she slept next to her phone with the notifications
0:41.3	still dinging.
0:42.6	This has been like a marathon right now.
0:44.7	It's like, I've been on, I've been working since I don't know why.
0:50.2	Sarah covers education for WBEZ, Chicago's public radio station.
1:00.3	Schools here have been shut down and teachers have been locked out since last week.
1:06.1	The city has been negotiating around the clock.
1:08.9	Yeah, last night, the mayor, like, totally, she's like, well, I might have an update
1:12.9	in the middle of the night.
1:13.9	So even though I was sleeping, I kept like getting up and like looking at my phone
1:17.4	to be like, oh, did she say something?
1:20.2	The educators and parents in Chicago are worried about what the parents and educators
1:24.8	are worried about everywhere right now.
1:27.8	COVID, kids are getting sick, teachers too, and it's hard to know what's safe.
1:34.0	How hopeful are you that schools are going to open up in Chicago this week?
	...

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