Chicago Students Head Back To Class, Teachers End Strike

Public school instructors accept compromise on three-year contract

The week and a half long summer break extension for 350,000 kindergarten, elementary and high school students in Chicago comes to an end Wednesday, as their teachers and support staff voted to end their strike and will accept a compromise agreement with Mayor Rahm Emanuel. Representative of the 29,000 Chicago public school employees said the full membership of the union will vote in the next two weeks to formally ratify a new three-year contract, which raises pay an average of 17.6 percent and creates a new teacher evaluation system based in part on their students’ standardized test scores. Teachers reportedly fear that the agreement will result in the closure of up to 140 schools, according to an estimate by a local education information service, Catalyst Chicago. (Reuters)

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