Chicago Public school teachers struck for what was the longest teacher strike in decades. The call for change from teachers lasted a total of 11 days, causing a mix of reactions from all of those affected.

CPS is the third-largest school district in the nation, serving approximately 361,000 students in over 600 schools. Therefore, it’s natural that there would eventually be a number of issues that would arise because of the massive amount of people involved who are all seeking to have their school, and personal needs met. 

Although, the issues teachers raise are important ones that need to be dealt with, I can’t help but feel that the strike caused the biggest disturbance and inconvenience for the ones who they’re supposed to be serving.  

According to The Atlantic,  union members are “…arguing for higher pay to keep up with Chicago’s mounting cost of living,… with smaller class sizes, more school nurses and librarians, funding for bilingual education, and access to affordable housing for teachers and their students, an estimated 16,450 of whom are homeless”.

 I truly understand the issue teachers are raising, and them feeling an obligation to do something to bring about certain changes, but I still wonder if it was all really worth it if students seemed to suffer the most in the process

It’s obvious that all the ways in which the strike would affect students were not completely considered by the union when they decided to strike. For seniors trying to manage all the stress of applying this strike was an added burden.

According to The Chicago Tribune “Mayor Lori Lightfoot noted in an unrelated media “Right now normally would be the time when CPS is going full bore to make sure that our young people have their applications ready for Nov. 1 so they could apply for federal financial aid,” Lightfoot said. 

Students looking for assistance in college applications, or any preparation for their lives after high school could not go to their college or high school counselors. Therefore, they had to look to outside sources for the support that their schools should be providing. For example, students looked to meeting with advising corps and the U. of C. to get support.

Although there was some outside help,  I’m sure many other students were left to their own devices and didn’t even know where to begin in looking for additional support.

Then you have the biggest inconvenience of them all which is if student applications to colleges don’t meet deadlines! Although many colleges will be gracious and not penalize students for their teachers being on strike that doesn’t change the fact that the competition is intense and having your applications in later than the competition surely does not help the process whatsoever.