The Chicago Teachers Union says it will file a lawsuit tomorrow to prevent Chicago Public Schools from expanding class sizes by 20 percent.
Speaking at a press conference this afternoon, CTU President Marilyn Stewart said raising class sizes in Chicago elementary schools from the current maximum of 28 to 35 will destroy public education in Chicago.
High schools could see their maximum size jump from 32 to 35 students.
On Friday Ron Huberman, chief executive officer of CPS, notified CTU about the impending increase.
Stewart said the increase is due to the massive budget problems facing CPS.
“It appears that CPS is willing to sacrifice Chicago’s students in order to balance its budget,” Stewart says. “Budgets get resolved. There are ways of fixing them, but it’s almost impossible to make up for a child’s compromised education.”
Stewart says larger class sizes mean less individualized attention per student. Citing several studies on class size, Stewart says the data shows students perform better academically when they receive greater individual attention from a teacher.
The lawsuit will focus on city law regulating building and room occupancy.
According to the code, school classrooms must allow 20 square feet per individual.
Stewart says allowing up to 35 students in each classroom will violate the law in many cases, creating a health and safety threat to the students, teachers and school support staff.
She added an increase in class size would create a dangerous situation in high schools, which she says are already “packed and more volatile.”
“It’s time Chicago stopped treating its students like widgets on an assembly line. We’re talking about children here,” Stewart says.
Jennifer Poltrock, attorney for CTU, says the lawsuit will force the board to look at every school in the system and prove the plan does not violate the municipal code for every student.
While the increase may not violate the code at some schools, Stewart says CPS cannot apply the class size increase only to those schools. That would create a second school system and cause a return to “the days of separate but equal.”
Despite the budget gap, Stewart says union members are not willing to make concessions on their contracts in order to prevent the class size increase. Chicago teachers are slated for a four percent salary increase, which is worth about $80 million, says Poltrock.
Forgoing the raises would not equal the amount in savings from an increase in class sizes, she says.
Stewart says giving up some benefits in order to reduce or maintain current class sizes would not fix the budget problem, nor would it guarantee the safety of a teachers’ job.
“This is a funding problem for the state and not the fault of teachers or students,” Stewart says,
She also says filing the lawsuit is not an attempt to secure her bid for re-election as the CTUA president.