While newspaper editorial boards, right-wing pundits and school privateers are criticizing Chicago’s 29,000 public school teachers and educational professionals who were forced out on strike, Chicagoans—especially parents—are backing the teachers. 

The latest poll shows the teachers with 55 percent approval from "voting Chicago households" and 66 percent support from parents of public school students. “The kicker,” writes Laura Clawson on Daily Kos, “is that the poll was done by We Ask America, a generally Republican pollster, on behalf of Capitol Fax.”

Earlier this week, a Chicago Sun-Times poll found an eight-point edge in favor the teachers (47 percent in support vs. 39 percent opposing and 14 percent undecided). The same poll showed just 1 in 5 respondents saying Rahm Emanuel has done a good or excellent job in dealing with the negotiations and the dispute with the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU).

Negotiations are continuing today and, according to news reports and the Chicago Teachers Union, progress is being made. 

On Monday morning, for the first time in 25 years, more than 29,000 teachers and education professionals of the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) were forced out on strike to gain a contract that provides students with the education they deserve.

Photo by Orlando J. Velez, director of Chicago Federation of Labor "Community Services Activities" - Labor Liaison with United Way of Metropolitan Chicago.

CTU expressed disappointment in the school district’s refusal to concede on issues involving resources for students, job security and compensation—including the district’s decision to strip teachers and paraprofessionals of an agreed-upon 4 percent raise.