CTU President Marilyn Stewart said increasing the average class size to 34 from 28 violates Chicago’s health and safety codes and puts students in danger.
The Chicago Teachers Union filed a lawsuit Tuesday to prevent the Chicago Public Schools from moving on a proposal to increase class sizes this fall.
CTU President Marilyn Stewart said increasing the average class size to 34 from 28 violates Chicago’s health and safety codes and puts students in danger.
“If you have a classroom with too many students and a fire breaks out the results could be catastrophic,” Stewart said. “Essentially, if CPS wants to increase class sizes then we want them to prove that it is not against the law.”
Monique Bond, a spokeswoman for CPS, said safety is the school district’s first priority. “We will meet any requirements, and we will never compromise students’ safety,” she said. By increasing class sizes CPS is expected to save $125 million, which could help reduce its growing deficit, which is now at $600 million.
Bond said if teachers would forego their scheduled 4 percent raise next school year, it could stave off the school district increasing class sizes.
“We have cut to the bone and have continually asked CTU for shared sacrifices,” Bond told the Defender.
Regardless of costs Stewart said it is wrong for CPS to use students as a way to correct poor fiscal management.
“A child’s education should not be comprised to save a few bucks,” she said. “This union will not stand by and let them balance their budget on the backs of our students.”
Legally CPS has the right to increase class sizes even “as educationally and morally reprehensible as that action may be,” Stewart, who faces a June 11 run-off for re-election, told the Defender. On Friday 700 teachers received layoff notices as a result of school closures, consolidations and turnarounds. Stewart said these layoffs do not include the 2,700 teachers CPS previously predicted might need to be laid off as part of budget cuts.
Raising class sizes to the proposed levels represents a 20 percent increase and according to the city’s Title 13 Buildings and Construction code, school classrooms should have 20-square-feet per person. However, Larry Langford, a spokesman for the Chicago Fire Department, said as long as there is sufficient space in the classroom it does not pose any safety hazards.
According to Bond, most of the schools already meet the space requirement to accommodate 35 people in a classroom.
According to Bond, 90 percent of the schools have classrooms with at least 700 square feet, “so space is not an issue.”
CTU attorney Jennifer Poltrock agreed that there could be some schools large enough to accommodate 35 students per classroom.
Still, Stewart said increasing class sizes minimizes educational opportunities for students. “Raising class sizes is an educational disaster. The larger the class the less individualized attention a teacher can give a student,” Stewart said at a Monday news conference. “And it is impossible to make up that lost time.”
Copyright 2010 Chicago Defender.
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