CPS teachers and students rally for increased staffing, cleaner schools

CHICAGO - Teachers, parents and students gathered outside Chicago Public Schools headquarters Wednesday morning, demanding the board do more to clean the city's schools.

They say some students are going to dirty schools with overflowing garbage cans as well as mice and roaches.

They also claim the schools are understaffed, with a shortage of substitute teachers and nurses and that CPS has not done enough to protect children with weekly COVID-19 testing as the pandemic continues.

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Chicago Teachers Union president Jesse Sharkey says enough is enough.

"This is the reason why we cannot accept the continued underfunding. The continued neglect of the public schools which we see under this mayor and we've seen all too commonly over the course of the last more than a decade in Chicago Public Schools," Sharkey said.

This summer, Mayor Lori Lightfoot's CPS team promised to funnel roughly $535 million of Chicago's $2.6 billion in federal COVID relief to fund city schools.