Over 1500 teaching jobs in Chicago have been slashed, and many teachers are being forced to train their own replacements.

The teachers will be laid off before the new school year begins.

Hundreds of teachers received layoff notices in the mail this week. The Chicago Teachers Union is meeting with school officials Friday to discuss the layoffs.

About 400 teachers and 200 staff members got letters this week. AT the end of June, 239 teachers were dismissed. The Chicago Teachers Union is demanding that the laid off teachers get rehired before new teachers are brought on.

The schools are facing a $370 million defecit. Student to teacher ratios are increasing, and high school classes are being increased from 28 to 33 students. Precious programs, including bilingual programs, gifted programs, and afterschool programs are being cut.
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A new state capital plan will help create jobs in Chicago, particularly in the construction and education-related industries. Click here to learn more about Chicago jobs.

A five-year capital program from the State of Illinois will provide the money needed for critical local infrastructure projects. Under the program, Chicago Public Schools will receive $400 million for school construction, the Chicago Transit Authority will receive $900 million and the Chicago Park District will receive $41 million. Money also will be allocated for work on roads and bridges.

“I want to thank (Governor Pat Quinn) and the General Assembly for meeting the challenge of passing a capital program that will create jobs, fix our schools and roads, support mass transit and pump new spending into our economy at the very time that we need it most,” Mayor Richard M. Daley said. “Combined with the federal economic stimulus legislation that has begun to deliver much-needed support to people all across the country, this new state program is a critical step in helping get our economy moving again.”

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Several Chicago education jobs will soon be lost.

Officials at Chicago Public Schools recently announced that they plan to lay off 500 workers within the next few weeks and another 500 workers during the next year. The cuts aren’t expected to affect classrooms, but instead will take place among the 5,300 employees in the school’s management and administrative positions.

According to an article by the Chicago Tribune, the job cuts will help fill a budget deficit estimated to be between $475 million and $600 million. The layoffs could help save up to $100 million.

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If you’ve always wanted to work in education, now may be the time to look into a Chicago teaching job.

Many people often switch careers to take on jobs as teachers, but this has become more true with the current economic recession bearing on many other industries. According to an article by The Associated Press, people who switch careers make up about one-third of new teachers.

“One of the only benefits of living in such tough economic times now is that you have folks getting laid off and looking for work,” Arne Duncan, former Chicago Public Schools CEO, who is now President Obama’s education secretary, said in the article.

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While the Chicago school system is looking to restructure in hopes to save money, one group feels it’s not worth the cost to students or those with Chicago education jobs.

Two recent studies state that the Chicago Public Schools plan to close and reorganize schools has not led to improvements and has only focused on poor neighborhoods undergoing gentrification. The report was completed by the Grassroots Education Movement, a coalition of community, parent and teacher groups.

According to an article by the Chicago Tribune, Chicago Public Schools plans to close and reorganize 22 schools under the district’s Renaissance 2010 initiative. The initiative, which began in 2004, calls for the creation of 100 new schools in Chicago to be put under the control of private groups. Of the schools to be closed, 16 have underenrollment. Staff members at six of those schools will have to reapply for education jobs.

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