Chicago Teachers Approve New Contract With Public Schools

CHICAGO (AP) — The Chicago Teachers Union has approved a contact its leaders negotiated with the Chicago Public Schools.

The union announced late Tuesday that more than 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 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 Chicago Public Schools 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.

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