Chicago teachers advocate for eco-friendly school upgrades, healthy drinking water
CHICAGO – Chicago teachers wanting healthy green school improvements, especially in lower income neighborhoods, held a rally Tuesday night to make their voices heard.
One of the many stories WGN News heard Tuesday was pre-k students at Talcott Elementary having to walk underneath a ceiling with peeling lead paint to go outside every day.
Officials said that problem is being remediated, but members of the Chicago Teachers Union want Chicago Public Schools to address many other issues.
The CTU rallied outside CPS headquarters Tuesday night calling on CPS to commit to green initiatives for schools, including the removal of lead, asbestos and mold from all schools and the installation of lead-filtering water fountains in hundreds of schools.
The green initiatives also include scratch-cooking kitchens and securing state and federal funding for solar panels.
These are just some of the contract proposals from the CTU amid its ongoing negotiations with CPS; they've been without a contract since June.
"I can challenge (CPS CEO) Pedro Martinez to work out of George Washington classroom, where in the summer it can be 80 degrees, it can be humid, eating the modular lunches our kids have to eat, drinking from the water fountains that are lead-infested and hanging out with the mice that are also receiving an education for some reason in our classrooms," said Emily Ayala of the Southeast Environmental Task Force.
CPS said it is dedicated to creating school environments that are safe and sustainable while prioritizing marginalized communities. It added drinking water at CPS schools meets and exceeds all federal, state and local regulations.
According to CPS, it would cost $14.4 billion to tackle immediate critical needs, accessibility requirements and facility upgrades. The latest budget passed in July allocates $611 million for improvements to mechanical systems that control indoor environments and air quality, roofing systems, ADA accessibility upgrades and restroom modernization, among other things.
"There is billions of dollars right now in the infrastructure act, the inflation reduction act that is for this purpose – replace lead pipes, make our water fountains purified and free of lead, make sure that Talcott (Elementary) doesn't have peeling lead paint in a pre-k space," CTU Vice President Jackson Potter said.
The CTU hopes to move the needle further on these environmental and heath concerns soon.
