Chicago public school students “got the shaft” under a union contract that ensured labor peace and guaranteed teachers annual 4 percent raises, Mayor Rahm Emanuel said Thursday.
The remark came as Emanuel sought to frame the debate on his newly appointed Chicago Board of Education’s vote Wednesday to take away the blanket raises.
“I can’t in good conscience continue an implicit understanding between parties that left our children on the side of the road. I won’t do that,” Emanuel said.
The mayor also noted that he inherited a Chicago Public Schools deficit of more than $700 million from Mayor Richard Daley and that three-fourths of teachers will still get some kind of raise under the contract.
Teachers union President Karen Lewis said Emanuel has always been aggressive.
“Why would this be any different? It’s a very aggressive move and not unexpected,” Lewis said of the decision to rescind the raise.
Emanuel marked his first month in office with a City Hall news conference to tout his early accomplishments. The mayor talked in his office with a large poster checklist as his backdrop, showing things he said he has already accomplished after four weeks on the job.
In all, 20 boxes were checked, including the one next to “put an additional 500 cops on the street.”
Shortly after taking office May 16, Emanuel announced he was dissolving two special Chicago Police Department units as part of a commitment to returning more officers to beats. But that particular checkmark has rankled Fraternal Order of Police officials, who countered that the 500 were already on the street and shouldn’t count as additional manpower.
Emanuel gave himself an overall grade of “incomplete” for his job performance so far.
The mayor also briefly addressed the resignation of Lewis Jordan, the Chicago Housing Authority CEO whose use of a city-administered credit card to pay for meals and gifts for employees prompted Emanuel to suspend card use at several agencies.
“I respect what he’s done. I wish him well in his future,” Emanuel said. “But I’ve been clear about what I think is important for my administration and the qualities and standards I want to set about how we are going to be accountable to the taxpayers and what we do here in our time in public service.”
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![The Arlington Heights Village Board granted developers of the planned Arlington 425 project in downtown Arlington Heights another construction-related extension – making this at least the second one – even as financing for the work has still not been secured. The mixed-use development, planned for 225 W. Campbell St., has been in the works for five years. “We’re looking to get it going,” Stephen Messutta, general counsel for Norwood Builders of Park Ridge, told the board at the April 15 meeting. The developer requested a zoning extension for the proposed redevelopment on the longtime empty land parcel located just steps […]](https://www.chicagotribune.com/wp-content/uploads/migration/2023/05/09/E6SSECNLL5F4JLRU4GG4CNMQ2A.jpg?w=535 "The Arlington Heights Village Board granted developers of the planned Arlington 425 project in downtown Arlington Heights another construction-related extension – making this at least the second one – even as financing for the work has still not been secured. The mixed-use development, planned for 225 W. Campbell St., has been in the works for five years. “We’re looking to get it going,” Stephen Messutta, general counsel for Norwood Builders of Park Ridge, told the board at the April 15 meeting. The developer requested a zoning extension for the proposed redevelopment on the longtime empty land parcel located just steps […]")
