Teachers at the highly regarded Chicago Math and Science Academy notified school leaders Wednesday that they have organized into a union and filed for recognition with the Illinois Educational Labor Relations Board to help make an already great school even better.

“Ensuring continued student and teacher success involves creating an environment in which teachers feel secure enough to raise concerns and offer ideas,” said Brian Chelmecki, chair of the school’s math department. “Chicago Math and Science Academy teachers need a strong voice in developing and implementing policies that are good for kids and fair to teachers.”

The Chicago Alliance of Charter Teachers and Staff (Chicago ACTS) is now the collective bargaining representative for 98 teachers at four charter school campuses operated by ASPIRA Inc. The Illinois Educational Labor Relations Board (IELRB) has certified the bargaining unit for these teachers at ASPIRA’s Haugan Middle School, Mirta Ramirez Computer Science High School, Early College High School, and Antonia Pantoia High School. Collective bargaining over the union’s first contract can now begin.

By Trip Gabriel, The New York Times

In the world of education, it was the equivalent of the cool kids’ table in the cafeteria.

Executives from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, McKinsey consultants and scholars from Stanford and Harvard mingled at an invitation-only meeting of the New Schools Venture Fund at a luxury hotel in Pasadena, Calif. Founded by investors who helped start Google and Amazon, this philanthropy seeks to raise the academic achievement of poor black and Hispanic students, largely through charter schools.

Emily Mueller, president of the Chicago Alliance of Charter Teachers and Staff (ACTS), Local 4343, praised the power of unions to affect positive change during the May Day ceremony May 3 in Chicago.
 
“All teachers - charter school and public school teachers - face the same issues and challenges, so we need to stand together in solidarity,” she said. “Only in solidarity can we win the fight for better funding for education. Only in solidarity can we get better resources for our students. Only in solidarity can we achieve better working conditions for teachers everywhere.”