The Chicago Teachers Union called on the Chicago Public School system to rehire laid-off teachers before hiring any new ones.  CPS begins its budget talks on Friday.

From a press release:

“In the past few weeks, CPS’s Human Capital department cruelly fired over 239 fully certified and highly qualified teachers with decades of service to CPS.  These are the best in our city but they were treated them like chattel.  These loyal teachers are not data points – they are family, community. They were fired without warning, without due process, and cut off without benefits.”

According to the CTU, 239 teachers have been cut.  The majority, 214, are city-wide teaching coaches recognized as “teachers of teachers.”  Another 17 were home/hospital based and 14 city-wide Office of Specialized Services teachers.

Mrs. Lewis demanded that as the CTU joins CPS for budget talks to begin July 23, 2010, these teachers be the first hired before any new hires, including Teach for America novices, are considered. 

UPDATE (7/22): Four hundred teachers and 200 educational support personnel will lose their jobs this week in the first round of CPS layoffs.