Chicago Public School teachers are set to take part in a one-day strike for the second Friday in a row.
Other labor unions will join the teachers to protest education cuts and inadequate state funding.
"A protest has worked in this country, it has again and again," CTU Vice President Jesse Sharkey said.
The strike means schools will be closed for the second Friday in a row after the district closed classrooms for a furlough day last week in an effort to save money. The district called the strike an illegal “wildcat” walkout.
"Tomorrow was an instructional day with full attendance and that's why we find this so disappointing that kids are being robbed of a critical day of instruction," CPS CEO Forrest Claypool said.
CPS is working with parks, libraries and churches for kids who have no place to go. Teachers who don't show up tomorrow won't be paid; a sacrifice many union members are willing to take.
"We're at a crisis point so we either do something now or it's going to be worse later," CTU President Karen Lewis said.
Mom Lakesha Hawkins -- whose six-year-old Chyna is one in 340,000 CPS students who won't be in the classroom tomorrow -- isn't happy about it.
"I hope it gets resolved. It needs to, quick fast and in a hurry," Hawkins said.
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No child will be turned away at the more than 250 locations part of CPS' contingency plan, but early registration is encouraged.
