More than 4,200 note cards filled with personal messages from students all over Chicago were sent to state representatives this week in an effort to stop CPS from making serious cuts to school funding, according to Sabah Hussain, Div. 766, who led the notecard effort at Lane. “We as students of Lane Tech are by no means invincible to these budget cuts,” Hussain said in an email. “Many students don’t take this seriously… When 20 percent of our teachers are laid off and a ton of our courses are cut off, it will be too late.”

Hussain is a member of the Chicago Student Union, which organized the notecard campaign. Other schools such as Whitney Young, Lincoln Park, Lindblom, Westinghouse, Amundsen, Northside, Jones, and Payton also participated. CPS has threatened to lay off 5,000 teachers at the beginning of second semester in order to address a $480 million deficit, according to ABC News.

In response to these potential cuts, students have organized rallies and “study-ins,” principals have called upon parents to call legislators to urge them to preserve the AP Test Fee Program, and teachers have held rallies and voted last week to authorize a strike.

Potential effects at Lane

In a Nov. 9 letter to students and parents, Principal Kathryn Anderson estimated that Lane could lose 20 percent of its budget and as many as 45 teachers and staff.

Anderson also warned of the possible elimination of the fee reduction program for AP tests. If the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) bill is passed, Anderson wrote in a Nov. 18 email, “the AP Test Fee Program will be moved into a ‘block grant’ with many other competing programs, thereby making continued availability of such funding for our students uncertain.”

This is a major problem since Lane students took 5,000 AP tests last year, and more than half of those exams, 2,700, qualified for a fee reduction. If funds are taken away, this could mean low-income students would be discouraged to take these classes because they can’t afford it, even if it’s a class they’re interested in.

Lane students are not content with how that would play out. Esmeralda Orozco, Div. 668, said having to pay for AP exams would affect students’ decisions about taking those classes.

“It would affect me because I receive free or reduced lunch, so basically I don’t have to pay the fees for the AP exams,” she said. “So if that funding was cut, then I would have to pay a lot of money to take the classes and pay for the exams.”

CPS changes course on special ed cuts

Earlier this year, CPS had planned to cut special education funding. According to the Chicago Tribune, Beard Elementary School on the North Side, a school for special needs students, was projected to lose $1.8 million in funding.

According to DNAInfo, Lane was expected to lose about $1 million, which would have affected the 400 special education students and 16-member staff. CPS had been planning to cut over 500 special education teachers citywide.

But on Nov. 25, CPS changed course and said that they would restore and add even more positions in regards to special education. This was because CPS admitted to a “flawed funding formula.”

Student and teacher action

On Oct. 28, CTU members and a handful of students began gathering outside the CPS Headquarters. CTU Vice President Jesse Sharkey addressed CPS on various issues, from the creation of new charter schools to the issues in Springfield with the state budget.

Just a few days later, on Nov. 6, about 400 CPS students met at the Thompson Center in the Loop to protest the proposed cuts and to denounce Gov. Rauner’s futile attempts to reach an agreement on Illinois’ state budget.

The budget in Illinois, or lack thereof, is currently still up in the air. According to 91.9 UIS Springfield, Gov. Rauner said that the threat of layoffs during the school year is the “pressure point” in order to reach an agreement. The stalemate, Rauner said, resulted when democratic lawmakers did not support any of Rauner’s business-centered reforms. An agreement for the 2016 budget still isn’t in place because Rauner and democratic lawmakers have been unable to reach an agreement, one which was supposed tobe decided on last July.

Will teachers strike?

The Chicago Teachers Union is arguing that the Chicago Board of Education has rejected all of their contract proposals. According to the CTU website, Mayor Emanuel doesn’t want to investigate revenue proposals in which banks and LaSalle street took $1.2 million from the city, or make the wealthy contribute more to taxes.

Meanwhile, CPS is calling for changes to unequal funding from the state of Illinois and for teachers to contribute more to their pensions.

Today, three and a half years after the 2012 CTU strike, teachers are planning to take action because of potential cuts to education, according to the Chicago Sun Times. With last week’s strike authorization vote garnering 88 percent of teachers’ approval, the CTU seems ready to follow through with a strike.

While a set date for a potential strike is unknown, the earliest CPS teachers can hit the picket lines is May 2016, according to ABC 7.

CTU and CPS now begin a mediation phase, which lasts about three and a half months, according to WTTW’s Chicago Tonight. After the mediation phase, the CTU will enter a fact-finding period which could last for 105 days. Then teachers can strike.

There have been concerns among Lane students that a strike could interfere with student activities like AP testing and prom. Nicole Glatter, Div. 883, expressed concern that a strike could affect Lane’s 2016 Italy Trip.

Kelsey Gannon, Div. 669, believes that a strike would benefit teachers and students in an effort

to take a stand for a better education. “I think they should strike if necessary to save their job security, and preserve programs in CPS

that are necessary. Also, we can’t let CPS take away our teachers and the money we need for a

good education,” Gannon said.

(Jessica Tredota, Emmett Trumbull, and Vanessa Ullman contributed reporting.)