Chicago teachers approve new contract with CPS

The Chicago Teachers Union has approved a contract its leaders negotiated with Chicago Public Schools.

The union announced late tonight that over 70 percent of its more than 27,000 members voted to accept the tentative agreement between the union and the school district.

Union President Karen Lewis noted that it took nearly two years to reach a contract with the school district.

The four-year proposal negotiated last month averted a strike that would have affected about 390,000 students. It includes cost-of-living increases in the third and fourth years. It doesn’t require current teachers to pay more toward their pensions—a change CPS was seeking and the union rejected.

The agreement also addresses class sizes for younger grades by assigning an assistant to any class with more than 32 students.

[Source:-Crains]