Chicago parents scramble to find safe place for students as teacher strike rolls into 2nd day

CHICAGO - Rose Davis wasn't about to let her two young grandchildren walk alone through one of the city's most violent neighborhoods, even though they were going to a school kept open for students who needed a safe haven while teachers walked the picket line.

So Davis, who has a painful diabetic condition that affects nerves in her legs, walked with them Monday the six blocks to Benjamin E. Mays Elementary Academy in Englewood — about five blocks farther than the school they normally attend — where they ate breakfast and lunch, read books, worked on computers and played games. She went back four hours later to escort them home.

"They had to go out of their home zone, and you never know what gang violence is going on on the other side of the zone," said Davis, 47, who said she will continue making the difficult trek until teachers return to the classroom.

But Davis and other parents and caregivers who scrambled Monday to figure out what to do with more than 350,000 idle children must do it all again Tuesday — and perhaps longer — after the teachers union and district failed to reach a settlement to end the first strike in a quarter century.

Chicago School Board President David Vitale said he thought an agreement could be reached on Tuesday. But Chicago Teachers Union President Karen Lewis sounded less optimistic, saying the district has not changed its offers on the two most contentious issues, performance evaluations and recall rights for laid-off teachers.

The walkout — less than a week after most schools opened for fall — has created an unwelcome political distraction for Mayor Rahm Emanuel. In a year when labor unions have been losing ground nationwide, the implications were sure to extend far beyond Chicago, particularly for districts engaged in similar debates.

"This is a long-term battle that everyone's going to watch," said Eric Hanuskek, a senior fellow in education at the Hoover Institution of Stanford University. "Other teachers unions in the United States are wondering if they should follow suit."

Parents and caregivers said they were upset that the two sides can't seem to agree.

"I don't' see a (reason) for a fight," Davis said. "They could have come to decision before kids even started school because my grandkids love going to school, they don't want to be out."

About 11,000 students showed up at the 144 schools kept open by the district to offer breakfast, lunch and activities; another 7,000 attended activities at other sites, including churches, park district buildings and libraries.

That meant the vast majority of Chicago Public Schools students either stayed home or their parents made other arrangements. That included April Logan, who walked her 5-year-old daughter, Ashanti, to Mays Elementary but turned back once she realized she didn't know which adults would be watching her child. She said that the kindergartner just started school last week.

"I don't understand this, my baby just got into school," she said.

Renee Conley, whose husband dropped off their two elementary-age children and a granddaughter at Mays Elementary — where some picketers yelled "don't go in!" — said she doesn't blame the teachers and thinks Emanuel should give them what they want "because he's not in the classroom with those kids."

"They need to be at school and learning," she said. "I don't want my children or others to get off track."

Teacher Kimberly Crawford said she is most concerned about issues such as class size and the lack of air conditioning.

"It's not just about the raise," she said. "I've worked without a raise for two years."

So teachers walked the picket lines at the schools in the morning, then thousands of educators and their supporters took over several downtown streets during the Monday evening rush. Police secured several blocks around district headquarters as the crowds marched and chanted.

Emanuel, who recently agreed to take a larger role in fundraising for Obama's re-election, dismissed Romney's comments as "lip service."

But one labor expert said a major strike unfolding in the shadow of the November election could only hurt a president who desperately needs the votes of workers, including teachers, in battleground states.

"I can't imagine this is good for the president and something he can afford to have go on for more than a week," said Robert Bruno, a professor of labor and employment relations at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

For two decades, contract agreements have slowly eroded teachers' voices, Bruno said. "But this signals to other collective bargaining units that the erosion of teachers' rights isn't inevitable. They (the union members) are telling them, `You don't have to roll over.'"

Emanuel, who has engaged in a public and often contentious battle with the union, is not personally negotiating, but he's monitoring the talks through aides.

Emanuel, who promised a longer school day during his campaign, attempted to go around the union by asking teachers at individual schools to waive the contract and add 90 minutes to the day. He halted the effort after being challenged by the union before the Illinois Educational Labor Relations Board.

The district and union agreed in July on a deal to implement the longer school day, crafting a plan to hire back 477 teachers who had been laid off rather than pay regular teachers more to work longer hours. That raised hopes the contract dispute would be settled soon, but bargaining stalled on the other issues.

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