CTU says contract talks with CPS broke down without deal

CHICAGO (WLS) -- The Chicago Teachers Union said Thursday it's not close on reaching an agreement on a new contract with Chicago Public Schools.

The two sides had been meeting two or three times a week, and just a couple days ago, it appeared a deal would get done. But now, the CTU said they reached an impasse.

"Initially we thought we might be close to a deal, but today we have found out that their bargaining rhetoric is as empty as their bank accounts," said CTU President Karen Lewis.

There was some agreement, according to the union, including on pension and salary. The one-year deal would include no raise. But the union said there was a clash over non-money issues, including class size, job protections, and control over grading and testing.

"We're not asking for a big raise. We'd be willing to consider no general increase, but only if that's tied to things that actually make the schools better," said CTU Vice President Jesse Sharkey.

On Wednesday night, the school board approved more than $1 billion in borrowing to pay teacher pensions.

On Thursday, a statement from Mayor Rahm Emanuel said, in part: "We urge CTU leadership to come back to the bargaining table. After years of our academic gains, now is not the time to shortchange our children by eliminating evaluations for tens of thousands of employees or lowering teachers' performance standards."

"Instead of making a deal with us, they've made threats, threats to terminate 3,000 educators, threats to increase class sizes," Lewis said.

The current teacher contract expires at the end of the month. The union said it'll continue to work under the terms of the current deal, but for now, talks are off.