How Will Chicago Pay For Strike Deal?

" The financial ramifications of the teacher strike remain a big question as Chicago Public Schools students and teachers returned to class Wednesday after seven days of picketing over a still-tentative union contract.

Parents called the return a "big stress relief" and a smiling Mayor Rahm Emanuel said taxpayers emerged from the strike as winners, paying less than they did in previous contracts and getting more for their kids.

"This is an exciting day for the city of Chicago," Emanuel said Wednesday at Frederic Chopin Elementary School, "most exciting because our kids are back and you can see it in their eyes."

How much will the new contract cost? Pay raises and hiring nearly 500 new teachers to implement the longer school day has a higher price tag -- as high as $295 million -- that some say could lead to higher property taxes.

The mayor, though, avoided specifics.

"We have other tough things to do," he told reporters. "I never denied that we did have tough things to do, but I can't sit here and say within the first five minutes of this contract being negotiated, that I could tell you exactly what's going to happen four or five months from now." "

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