The financially embittered Chicago School system is trying to avoid a teachers strike by calling for binding arbitration.

"But the union representing 27,000 educators and support personnel at the third-largest U.S. public school system immediately shut the door on the proposal," reports Reuters.

"We don't need binding arbitration because we can strike," Chicago Teachers Union President Karen Lewis told the City Club of Chicago on Wednesday. "We've got 26 more days to work something out."

In a letter to union president Lewis, CPS executive Forrest Claypool asked for the arbitration to avoid a strike that "would be devastating to our students and parents." He also cautioned that a strike would only empower a state takeover of the system.

Republican Governor Bruce Rauner is pushing for a state takeover of the Chicago public school system, which is struggling with a $1.1 billion budget deficit largely caused by escalating pension payments.

But the union is standing strong.

The arbitration plan surfaced after union officials rejected a nonbinding third-party arbitrator's report released on Saturday that supported the school district's January contract proposal, which the union turned down in February. That contract called for raising teachers' pension contributions, along with moderate salary increases.

The union cannot legally strike until 30 days after the release of the arbitrator's report.

 With tensions rising, Lewis called Gov. Rauner "the new ISIS recruit.  Rauner responded by saying Lewis' rhetroic "has no place in American public discourse and sets a terrible example for our kids."