Karen Lewis has been elected president of the Chicago Teachers Union, and CORE has won the leadership of the 30,000-member CTU by a landslide. Lewis, a Martin Luther King Jr. High School Chemistry teacher, headed the slate of candidates from the caucus called CORE (the Caucus of Rank and File Educators) and won a landslide victory on June 11, 2010, in the hotly contested Chicago Teachers Union runoff election. CORE not only won the top four offices in the union, but the other nine citywide offices, and all of the vice presidencies for high schools (six) and elementary schools (17). By the time the final vote counts were announced in the early hours of June 12, it was clear that CORE had completely defeated the United Progressive Caucus (UPC) and the six-year CTU president Marilyn Stewart.

The CORE victory, the size of which became clear early in the evening during the counting of the votes at the headquarters of the American Arbitration Association at 225 N. Michigan in Chicago, was a landslide. Karen Lewis defeated Marilyn Stewart by a vote of 12,080 to 8,326, with the other three CORE candidates for officers in the 30,000-member union each receiving more than 12,000 votes to fewer than 8,300 for each of CORE’s opponents. The final vote tallies were certified by the American Arbitration Association at 3:00 a.m. on the morning of June 12, 2010.

Senn High School history teacher Jesse Sharkey was elected vice president by a vote of 12,000 (to 8,233 cast for his UPC opponent Mark Ochoa).

Displaced elementary teacher Michael Brunson was elected recording secretary by a vote of 12,016 (to 8,200 cast for his UPC opponent Mary Orr).

Eberhart Elementary School Special Education teacher Kristine Mayle was elected financial secretary by a vote of 12,032 (to 8,191 cast for her UPC opponent Keith VanderMeulen).

All six CORE candidates for trustee were elected. They are: Jackson Potter, Jay Rehak, Lois Ashford, Eric Skalinder, Sara Echevarria, and Albert Ramirez. Their margins over their opponents’ were roughly 11,900 to 8,000.

The three CORE candidates for area vice president were elected. The are Carol Caref (Area A), Jennifer Johnson (Area B), and Norine Gutekants (Area C).

All 17 CORE candidates for elementary functional vice president were also elected. They are: Beverly Allebach; Jeffrey Blackwell, Brenda Chandler, Susanne Dunn, Nathan Goldbaum, Alexandra Gonzalez, Francine Greenberg-Reizen, Lara Krejca, Garth Liebhaber, Joseph Linehan, Cielo Munoz, Annette Rizzo, Wade Tillett, Kevin Triplett, James Vail, Cassandra Vaughn, and Terri Wilford.

*at the time of the broadcast, the CTU provided no details or documentation for their lawsuit. This may be due to the fact that the charges have no legal precedent and the actual transgression had not yet occurred.

An historic moment at Connie's Pizza. CORE's Presidential Candidate Karen Lewis met with caucus leaders Deborah Lynch (PACT), Linda Porter (CSDU), and Ted Hajiharis (SEA) about going forward with bringing UNITY back to the Chicago Teachers Union. All three of those caucuses endorsed CORE in the June 11th Run-Off Election.

Karen Lewis’ speech to the House of Delegates (6/2/2010):

Good afternoon.  I would like to thank PACT, CSDU and SEA for running honest campaigns, based on the issues; and for their support.

I am honored … and exhilarated.  Those of you who are unaligned and voted for CORE, thank you.

Last week’s rally was incredible.  All of us in this room turned out thousands of people to tell Huberman and Daley “No” — stop destroying our neighborhood schools and trying to bust our union.

We should have done this every year for the past six years.

Because for years there has been a well-funded national smear campaign against public school teachers. Gains we won over 70 years of struggle are being stripped away. I have taught in this system for over 20 years and I have never seen this level of attack – scapegoating educators for all that ails urban schools.

But on June 11th we have a  chance to end this business as usual, top-down unionism.

The most important thing Union leaders do is build consensus and organize members to speak and act as ONE.  But who has heard our voice in the past 6 years?  Who has seen a real fight against privatizing Chicago’s schools?  Big business sees K-12 public education as 350 billion dollars they weren’t getting a piece of.  Why haven’t we heard our leadership attack that profit motive – and PROVE IT?  Why has our Union seemed complicit in its silence?

My opponent charges that we aren’t experienced despite the fact that we worked to stop 12 school closing and saved a thousand jobs. We had to sue the Board for budget and TIF details so we DON’T have to reopen the contract. You can’t talk numbers if you don’t have real information.  We have the former vice-president of CTU, Howard Heath, who has not only negotiated a contract, he’s a mathematician who can crunch the numbers with the best of them.  We’ve got lawyers and old contracts so we’re ready!

Let me share something with you.  You already know that I’m the wife and daughter of CTU members and I went to Chicago Public Schools. But I am the only Black woman in the class of 1974 at Dartmouth College and  I got that degree when I was 20 years old.  I know how to stand strong in the face of adversity and win.  I am not afraid.   Never have been.

The current leadership claims that the safe bet now is to stay the course.

Clearly members didn’t buy that.

Two-thirds voted against the very candidate Huberman has backed in secret meetings over the last couple months.

On May 25 we said NO to repeating “the Marilyn experience” that cost 6,000 members their jobs.  We said NO to pension raids.  We said NO to the unchecked powers of abusive principals. We said No to rising class sizes.

We’re going to bring real technology to this union so our members have access to relevant information.  We’re going to have real delegate training so everyone knows how to run an election smoothly, help the members in our schools and provide professional development that makes us more effective educators and unionists.

We will have a political strategy that is based on our ability to initiate and take the lead on legislation, not wait until the hammer drops – especially after the beating we just took in Springfield with the pension raid, the diabetes fiasco and a voucher bill that just won’t die.  We’re ready.

So, I ask you today, will we stand united?  Will we stop the attacks on our members? An injury to one is an injury to all.  CORE represents what called us to the teaching profession in the first place.  That commitment must be fused in out Union’s work every day.  Let’s rebuild our spirit, our public image and harness the power of 30,000 members.  Reclaim the joy of teaching and learning.

Download this flyer and distribute to teachers, parents, and other community members.

CORE Candidate for Area Vice President Norine Gutekanst delivers FOIA request to the Attorney General's office, surrounded by members of CORE and the Grassroots Education Movement (GEM)

On April 28th, the Grassroots Education Movement, CORE and more than 50 teachers from 10 different schools throughout the city held a press conference in front of the State of Illinois building to force the Chicago Public Schools to adhere to the Freedom of Information Act. The gathering spoke first about the need for transparency before any budget cuts are in place after which everyone proceed to move inside of the building and request a meeting with Attorney General, Lisa Madigan.

The letter was received by the Assistant Public Access Counselor who quickly notified CPS that they were in non-compliance of the FOIA law and must provide the documents that I, on behalf of CORE and GEM, requested on March 27th. Thanks to the efforts of this gathering, there may finally be a way to determine whether or not Huberman and his financial appointees are telling the public the truth or hiding a surplus to justify draconian teacher cuts in the fall.

Representative from Attorney General's Office receives letter.

Click here or on the newspaper clipping above for the full story.

Grassroots Education Movement

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

April 29, 2010

Student Leaders and GEM to CPS:

Name the Names on Contracts.  Public Budget Debates Now.

No Student or Teacher Cuts.

Student leaders and members of GEM, the Grassroots Education Movement, called for Chicago Public Schools to provide line-item budget details and hold immediate public hearings before the Chicago Board of Education casts its budget vote.   Later in the day they will call upon Illinois State Attorney General Lisa Madigan to fast track their FOIA requests for all communications surrounding CPS’s budget deficit projections as well as TIF collections and expenditures.

Members of Chicago Youth Initiating Change (CYIC) and other CPS student leaders who led 900 students from 13 schools on a walkout April 8, 2010 returned to CPS headquarters April 27 to meet with CPS Budget Director Cristina Herzog to demand that “CPS takes this devastating budget off the table.”  According to Javier Lara Mendez, a senior at Little Village Lawndale High School, students demanded an “equitable, transparent budget with no cuts to students or teachers.”

GEM member Karen Lewis, CORE’s Presidential candidate in the upcoming Chicago Teachers Union election, questioned the veracity of CPS’s announced deficits.  “Exactly why should we believe CPS’s deficit numbers?  There’s no line-item detail.  CPS dances around how much Mr. Huberman makes and we’re just supposed to believe these numbers?  Today we demand a line-item accounting of CPS’s budget.  Let’s focus first on outside contractors – each one – name the names on those contracts. Then let’s have public community debates NOW before the Board votes on this disaster.”  Ms. Lewis added that “35 students in a classroom is inhumane and it nearly guarantees school and student failure.  So what’s Huberman really talking about here?  Is this about funding or is it about profit?”

Alejandra Ibanez of Pilsen Alliance pointed to a source of revenue for CPS.  “It’s unconscionable that Mayor Daley asks CPS teachers to ‘go on a diet’ and put 35 students in a classroom when TIFS take $250 million away from schools each year which are then deposited to the Mayor’s  private slush fund.  We’re tired of the hypocrisy.”

“These cuts will affect the everyday lives of hundreds of thousands of students like me.  It’s a shame that we have to fight for education and extra-curricular activities with all the hardships and violence the youth of Chicago are going through right now,” said Charles Handcox, a junior at Percy L. Julian High School.  “We are tired, angry, and ready to take a stand!”

# # #

Grassroots Education Movement (GEM) is a coalition of Chicago-based education and community organizations that includes Blocks Together, Caucus Of Rank-and-file Educators, Chicago Youth Initiating Change, Designs for Change, Kenwood Oakland Community Organization, Parents United for Responsible Education, Pilsen Alliance, South Side United Local School Council Federation and Teachers for Social Justice.

* * * * *

NO CUTS! OPEN THE BOOKS!

ALL BUDGET DATA ON THE TABLE NOW!

Rally 4 p.m. / Press Conference 10 a.m.

Wednesday April 28th, 2010

We’ve seen the raises for Huberman and his friends …

we’re supposed to just trust him on the rest?

4 p.m. RALLY! Ask IL Attorney General Lisa Madigan to fast-track data release!

Thompson Center (State of Illinois Building) Plaza
100 West Randolph Street (Corner of Randolph and Clark)

Bring signs and a fighting spirit!

The Attorney General office’s motto is “ensuring open and honest government.” Will she fast-track our Freedom of Information Act requests to CPS?

10 a.m. GEM/CORE Press Conference/Hearing Testimony

125 S. Clark.  To speak at hearing, show up at 6 a.m. to sign in!

* * * * *

Public educators are winning battles across the U.S. In Chicago, we saved 12 schools from closing and CORE’s EEOC discrimination case against turnarounds is moving forward. In Florida, teachers won the Governor’s veto on a bill that would have tied teachers’ salaries to test scores and eliminate tenure. In LA, union teachers won 29 of 30 new school contracts, cutting non-union charters off at the knees. In DC, the union is back in the courts fighting teacher cuts made on budget deficit lies. Could we have the same situation here, now?

In a $5.5 billion CPS budget, the money’s there.  It’s about priorities.

Today’s Education Committee hearing ended up being quite a show! Several aldermen gave scathing accounts of their view of R2010, and Alderman Munoz forced the committee chair to change her mind and hear public testimony from a small representation of the many folks who came out to support the R2010 school closing moratorium. It was a powerful day.

When the public was allowed to speak, representatives from CORE and our GEM partners spoke in favor of the Moratorium Resolution, co-sponsored by Aldermen Lyle and Dowell. This resolution would,

…requite that a moratorium of at least one year be place on current and future school closings, consolidations, turnaround, and phase outs until a comprehensive strategy of transparency, community involvement, and public accountability can be developed, which will include the recommendations from the Chicago Educational Facilities Task Force.

From Catalyst:

…members of the audience said they wanted the education committee and the City Council at large, to vote on the resolution. Jesse Sharkey, a member of the Caucus Of Rank and File Educators, a group of progressive teachers, said at least then people would know where their alderman stood on the issue.

CORE Vice Presidential Candidate Jesse Sharkey speaking to the City Council Education Committee

Jesse was recently elected as CORE’s Vice Presidential candidate. Jesse’s testimony available at the “read more” link.

During public participation, hundreds of students, parents, and teachers from schools slated for closure arrived and filled the board chambers.

School communities entering city hall

Jonathon Jackson of Operation Push and protestors outside City Hall.

School communities file into City Council chambers to hold their representatives accountable as CORE Co-Chair Jackson Potter looks on

School communities storm the fifth floor to hold the "Education Mayor" accountable

Since the "Education Mayor" refused to speak to students, teachers, and parents, the group decided to sing songs against school closings.

Afterword, they filed up to the fifth floor, demanding to speak to the Mayor. Daley refused to leave his office and sent out a representative who insisted that Daley “has been the ‘education mayor’ for the last 21 years.”

What that means is anyone’s guess.

Mr. Mayor, please don't close our school.

There’s a lot of fads in school reform, just like there’s a lot of fads in weight-loss—and the belief that turnarounds—that is firing the whole staff of a school and bringing in a fresh but inexperienced team is every bit as discredited as crash dieting. In Chicago we saw substantially the same policy, which was called ‘reconstitution’ fail in 1997, re-engineering fail in 2000, we undertook turnarounds in 2006—and there’s a lot of evidence that this latest face on an old fad is doing us more harm than good.

We have now seen enough of this experiment on our schools; we have evidence that is too persuasive to ignore: (1) turnarounds have been associated with increased violence, as we saw at Fenger H.S., (2) the turnaround process has pushed veteran black educators out of the teaching force as they are fired and replaced with predominantly white novices, and (3) the turnaround process has actually destabilized the teaching force and displaced a significant number of students in many of the schools where it is tried—and therefore even the legitimate test score gains that CPS claims—and not all of them are legitimate—are based on a quick fix, that actually reduces the health of our schools overall, and will lead to a sad, but predictable reversal.

Without going on for too long, I want to go through each of these three claims in a little more depth.

1. Violence. No one is blaming school violence on turnarounds—that’s a social epidemic that does not begin and will not end in the schools. But there’s good reason, and plenty on anecdotal evidence to show that destabilizing a school by firing its veteran staff is a bad idea. In early September, Derrion Albert, who attended the Fenger turnaround was killed outside of school after weeks of gang violence dominated the beginning of the school year. No one knows if the tragedy at Fenger High School could have been averted if a veteran staff, who knew the neighborhood, and had a history with those kids, had still worked in the building.

2. The turnaround process has pushed veteran black educators out of the teaching force as they are fired and replaced with predominantly white novices. It is moreover the case that this is taking place in schools that serve the African American community—so not only do turnarounds have a negative impact on the diversity of the Chicago teaching force in general, the policy has the effect of depriving students of role models who look like them, and share their background. Chicago has 2,000 fewer African American teachers than we did in 2002. Turnarounds are a big part of this. In fact, the EEOC has upheld a complaint, filed by CORE on behalf of black teachers whose schools had been turned around. This is a disparate impact case—meaning that driving veteran black educators out of Chicago’s classrooms may not be the intent, but it is certainly the effect, expect the Department of Justice to take up the investigation soon.

3. Finally, turnarounds do not achieve the goal of creating a stable, skilled teaching force at the schools in question. Take for example, AUSL, which is Chicago’s most important turnaround operator. According to data compiled by Catalyst, the large majority of AUSL graduates are not still at the turnaround school three or four years later. This is not too surprising; nearly fifty percent of new teachers don’t make it—but it does not serve these schools well.

Finally, I want to say something more about the historical parallel between turnarounds and reconstitution, which was tried and then abandoned in the late 1990’s. In both Chicago and San Francisco, where reconstitution was first used in 1984, there was an emphasis on recruiting the best teachers for the targeted schools—as well as curricular and other supports which went into place after the school was reconstituted. And in both these cases the program was abandoned because those schools wound up with most of the same difficulties which they faced before the reconstitution—in fact, one of this year’s turnaround targets, Marshall, was reconstituted in 1997! But this leads to the question—if a school system is going to make an effort to hire skilled teachers, as well as provide training and curricular supports for a school—why do you have to fire the entire staff in order to do that?

The turnaround process is like a fad diet—we’re trying it because we’re desperate for results. But like any diet that hurts our health, we’d be better off asking our doctor and using a little common sense. In this case take the advice of educators, not venture capitalists with a product to sell. Do not fire your most dedicated, veteran teachers who work at your toughest schools. Stop Turnarounds.