The Chicago Teachers Union House of Delegates is the supreme decision-making body of the CTU. However, this has been a record year in the erosion of the power of that body. Over the course of the 2008-2009 school year the membership of the CTU has witnessed so many cancellations, preemptions, and early adjournments that a CORE members were forced to petition for a special meeting to talk about issues of substance such as turnarounds and staffing issues. The regular meetings have been a bully pulpit for the current leadership. CORE member Jen Johnson documents one such “regular meeting” here.
To open the decision making body to the scrutiny it deserves, CORE has been sending quick text blasts over its Twitter account. The link will take you to the CORE Twitter, where we will be issuing updates on actions and meetings, links to important pieces on education, and a blow-by-blow of House of Delegates meetings.
This past meeting (an extremely important one as it was a vote on the CTU budget) drew the attention of education writer Alexander Russo, who linked the CORE Twitter on his This Week in Education Blog and is District 299 Blog. His Post on the District 299 Blog is particularly interesting as his comments section opened a dialogue on what is going on in the House of Delegates.
