The Chicago Public School system is broke. Instead of coming up with creative solutions, the system's board of education is taking the easy way out: fire teachers. This is a terrible idea for many reasons. Student learning depends a great deal on continuity and a positive bond with teachers. Any plan that takes trusted educators out of the classroom in the middle of a school year is going to be terribly disruptive to the curriculum and to learning outcomes. Furthermore, the number of students stays the same. The only way you can fire teachers is to increase class sizes. That's entirely counter-productive to learning. Students who need individual attention will not get it. Even strong students are likely to lose motivation and become distracted within a crowded class. Please join me in asking the Chicago Public Schools Board of Education not to lay off teachers as a way of dealing with the budget crisis.
I was really sad to learn that you are preparing to solve the budget crisis by laying off teachers. Have we learned nothing from the past? If you think you will be able to hire decent teachers at any point in the future after doing this, please do some research. Studies show that this kind of hatcheting is destructive to the teaching profession as a whole. And that's before we consider what you are about to do to students. Many students develop a strong bond with their teacher, and that bond is essential to teaching and learning. If you disrupt that bond in the middle of the school year, you will definitely hurt learning outcomes. Just about any method of balancing your budget would be better. Fire administrators, fire secretaries, fire yourselves. Don't fire teachers.
