Showing posts with label Karen Lewis. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Karen Lewis. Show all posts

Thursday, July 17, 2014

Speculating on Karen Lewis Challenge to Rahm: Who Will Get the Jewish Vote

Two Jewish candidates to square off in Chicago. (If you don't believe me ask Karen to show you her CHI.

Someone emailed me when I was in LA, cocerned that Karen and Chicago crew weren't challenging Randi enough - that was before the Common Core shootout (AFT14 Report - Common Core Debate - Epic Battle B....).


We pretty much got word from Chicago that Karen Lewis will be off and running for Mayor against Rahmbo. Karen often points out that she is not the creator but the creation of CORE which has such a large talent pool. You really have to go to an AFT convention and see Unity and CORE people in action to get the complete picture.

EIA's Mike Antonucci speculates a bit.
It probably wouldn’t be wise to bet on Lewis, but she has a puncher’s chance of toppling Emanuel. If she wins, she would be the first labor union president to hold such a high elected office, since, well, this guy.... Will Karen Lewis Be the Next Mayor of Chicago?

If neither gets a majority in the Feb. 2015 election, there will be a runoff in May. That would be fun, since it would come just as the CTU would be about to negotiate a new contract. Guessing is that CTU VP Jesse Sharkey would take over, though some also look at the always masterful Jackson Potter. Both are impressive.

But given how amazing so many people from the CORE/CTU team we've met have been, I bet they have a lot of possibilities. 

Mike found an interesting nugget to gnaw on:
A spur to all this is an automated poll commissioned by the Chicago Sun-Times that shows Lewis with an 9-point lead over Emanuel. The poll’s methodology is problematic, but Emanuel has high negatives no matter how you measure them. Dave Weigel of Slate suggests the poll actually underestimates Lewis’s support, adding what seems to me to be an insulting evaluation of the city’s African-American voters:
(Lewis) trailed by only 3 points with white voters, led by 4 points with Hispanics, and led by 18 points with black voters—a margin that might increase if Lewis ran and black voters discovered that she, too, was black.
Why does Mike think it insulting to assume some black voters don't know Karen is black? Most Jewish voters don't know Karen is Jewish. (In her first union election in 2010, one Chicago wag told me the only thing the opposition didn't try to use against Karen was anti-Semitism.

Here Mike uses an Ed Notes post to make a point:
Lewis has serious weaknesses. She would be, almost by definition, a single-issue candidate running against a well-seasoned, if greatly disliked, machine Democrat. And last week’s AFT Convention demonstrated that her pull within her own union has been overestimated.
Nevertheless, voter emotion has carried many a challenger to victory over an entrenched incumbent, and teacher union officers often have electoral success at the local and state legislative level.
When 2700 delegates show up and 800 or more are Unity Caucus from NYC, who along with their allies in NY State plus others, make up over 50% of the delegates at the convention, control every aspect of the convention, expecting Karen to gain much support there and compare it to the mayoral race doesn't make sense.


Will Karen Lewis Be the Next Mayor of Chicago?

Link to Intercepts


Posted: 16 Jul 2014 09:55 AM PDT


If Weigel has some evidence that black voters don’t know that Karen Lewis is black, he ought to present it to the rest of the world.

They fare less well in statewide or national elections, although the sample size is small. NEA’s new president, Lily Eskelsen Garcia, ran for Congress in 1998 against a very vulnerable one-term incumbent Republican and lost by 10 points. The Alabama Education Association’s powerful executive secretary Paul Hubbert ran for governor in 1990. He lost by four points to the incumbent Republican.
I haven’t researched it recently, but there was a general dearth of national candidates who have ever even been members of a labor union.
It probably wouldn’t be wise to bet on Lewis, but she has a puncher’s chance of toppling Emanuel. If she wins, she would be the first labor union president to hold such a high elected office, since, well, this guy.
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Friday, May 24, 2013

Obama Cuts Drones But Can't Guarantee Safety of Karen Lewis

"We have Al Qaeda on the run but right now the biggest threat to our agenda is Karen Lewis and the Chicago Teachers Union," said an Obama spokesperson.

Karen Lewis seeking drone
"Our pal Rahm Emanuel has been forced to close 50 schools in retaliation for the strike led by Lewis and now suffers poll numbers so low they are getting close to the interest rate. He is actually being criticized for using money he saves by closing schools to put $100 million into building a new basketball arena where our president and Arne Duncan will be able to shoot hoops once their term in office is over. For that Rahm is being called the most loathsome politician in America? How dare they?"

"And some in the media have started ganging up on some of our allies like Michelle Rhee. And Arne Duncan's poor record in running the Chicago schools for so many years has been re-examined due to the work of Karen Lewis' union.

"And then to top it all our hand-picked crew to beat her in the election got only 20% of the vote despite being supported by our press pals at the Chicago Tribune, thus showing Chicago teachers will not go to the woodshed like the lambs being led by Randi Weingarten, our most important asset, who by the way we have supplied a military escort to protect, but let me point out that we are not using public money for Randi's escort since Bill Gates is paying."

"Getting Bin Laden was so much easier."

Thursday, May 9, 2013

Chicago Teachers Union Plans 3 Day March to Oppose School Closings

....while the UFT does......

The march will begin March 18, the day after the Chicago union elections, a sign that CORE is pretty confident. Expect a vicious attack on them from the mainstream press in the days before the election to try to influence the vote.
I know that some Unity people are rooting against Karen Lewis, especially after she embarrassed the hell out of some of them when she appeared at the UFT last month and talked about how they gave up the perks when they got elected. Oh, sitting in that room at that moment was oh so much fun.

Well we know from some of the Unity comments on the blogs during the elections that they think that these school closings are what the CTU deserve for daring to stand up and strike instead of collaborating. Of course many of the 150 plus schools closed under Bloomberg through 2010 came WITH the UFT collaboration. The rest had court, not street resistance. Given a choice, would Bloomberg prefer the current Unity leadership of a Chicago-like leadership? One MORE reason to come to Saturday's MORE meeting.

This just in from Diane Ravitch:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT: Stephanie Gadlin
May 9, 2013 312/329-6250
Thousands prepare for a three-day march against school closings as Chicago’s mayor continues his assault on working-class people under the guise of education reform
CHICAGO – As the city braces itself for the largest assault on public education in the country, thousands of parents, students, teachers, clergy, citizens and community leaders are preparing for a “long march” against school closings on May 18, 19 and 20. Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) President Karen Lewis said the non-violent demonstration is necessary because “we have a mayor who refuses to listen to reason, research and logic,” in his campaign to destroy 54 school communities which will impact about 50,000 children.
The 30-plus mile march is themed, “Our City. Our Schools. Our Voice,” and will include simultaneous routes from the West and South sides of the city. Protestors intend to walk each day past many of the 54 school communities slated for closure and their efforts will culminate in a mass demonstration downtown. It is sponsored by the CTU, the Grassroots Education Movement, SEIU Local 1, Unite Here Local 1 and Chicago PEACE, an interdenominational coalition of clergy leaders from across the city. Donations are pouring in from across the country.
“Despite the testimony of thousands of parents, teachers and people who work and live in the school communities impacted, Rahm Emanuel is dedicated to entering the history books as having destroyed the most public schools in one year than anyone,” Lewis said. “He refuses to listen to independent hearing officers, law enforcement officials, educators, researchers, parents and the students themselves. We have no choice but to use the power of organizing and direct action to engage in what will be a long fight to restore sanity to our school district.”
The march kicks off at 10:00 a.m. on May 18 on the South Side at Jesse Owens Elementary School, 12450 S. State St., and on the near West Side at Jean de Lafayette Elementary School, 2714 W. Augusta Blvd.
“School closings hurt children academically and the mayor’s plan will also put thousands of students’ safety at risk and many public school employees may lose their jobs,” Lewis said. “We must do whatever is necessary to stop this assault on the working class and the poor. Instead of just getting angry we must organize. Tell Emanuel, the Board, the school CEO and their corporate sponsors that this is our city, these are our schools and we will use our voice to fight for justice.”
Independent hearing officers reviewed the Chicago Public Schools’ list of 54 slated closings and have recommended removing 14 from the list saying those schools don't meet the state standards and are in violation of the law. The mayor’s hand-picked Chicago Board of Education will vote on the issue on Wednesday, May 22. Shortly thereafter, a massive voter registration drive will commence throughout the city.

Monday, March 18, 2013

Karen Lewis Video at NYCORE: 30 Minutes of Wisdom

Rather than continuing an insider strategy that has netted so little for the rest of labor over the years, the CTU has entered into open opposition with the neoliberal wing of the [Democratic] party." --- Micah Uetricht from Strike for America: The CTU and the Democrats as quoted by Diane Ravitch.

This is an important development. And this is an essay you must read.-- Diane Ravitch
What a treat seeing Diane Ravitch signing on to the analysis that lays waste to the UFT/AFT strategy of never mentioning the word "neo-liberal" and placing the blame on Bloomberg and holding out hope to NYC teachers that once Bloomberg is gone all will be well with a Democrat in office. Sorry, Charlie. Ask Chicago and especially CORE teachers what neo-liberalism is and you will get an immediate response. Go ask the average Unity Caucus member what it means and you will get "duh."

If you viewed the video of Karen and Mulgrew at the UFT Friday night (Karen Lewis and Mike Mulgrew at Left Labor Project), this keynote at NYCORE from Saturday morning is a powerful treatise on organizing and teaching. You see how Karen was a TEACHER and these are the people we want running our TEACHER unions.

People who spend years interacting with students and parents. Leaders who know and understand what we do and can translate that into action to defend the teaching profession and public schools. She even gives some discipline tips (and I was thrilled since I used to do exactly the same thing -- tell the parents of the most difficult behavior problems what a pleasure it is to work with their children.) But most important -- and here is a lesson for MORE -- she talks about how CORE started in 2008 with 8 people studying the issues to try to understand what was happening to teachers and public education. "You need to understand your enemy in order to fight them." And the most fun --- mocking Rahm Emanuel and his stamping of his tiny little feet.


NYCORE Conference 2013 - Karen Lewis Keynote from Grassroots Education Movement on Vimeo.


Diane Ravitch just posted this which resonates with the issues raised by Karen. (Really, for long-time Ravitch watchers, how remarkable to see this coming from Diane.)

How CTU Confronted Antagonists in the Democratic Party

by dianerav
This is a stunning analysis of the relationship between labor unions and the Democratic Party.
It is a must-read.
Many in education have been baffled by the bipartisan consensus around Republican ideology. Micah Uetricht is not baffled. He says without hedging that "Democrats have swallowed the Right’s free market orthodoxy whole. Much of the party appears to have given up on education as a public project."
Teachers unions, he writes, have been unable to articulate a coherent response to their abandonment.
That is, until last September, when the Chicago Teachers Union went on strike. He writes:
"The union has been unafraid to identify the education reform agenda pushed by Mayor Rahm Emanuel and his party nationally as an attempt to exacerbate inequalities within the education system, strip teachers of power and erode their standards of living, and chip away at public education as an institution, and to call such Democrats enemies. Rather than continuing an insider strategy that has netted so little for the rest of labor over the years, the CTU has entered into open opposition with the neoliberal wing of the party."
This is an important development. And this is an essay you must read.

I wanted to share a comment my friend made on the Friday night video that cuts to the core of some of the things Karen is talking about that distinguishes the CORE/CTU from the Unity/UFT approach: the refusal to let the enemy divide us. Divide closing school teachers from safe school teachers. Divide ATRs from the rest. Divide rubber room teachers from the mainstream. Divide small schools from large schools. What Unity does is call people like me and opposition caucuses like MORE dividers because we do not go along with whatever the leadership decides, even if it takes us over the cliff (like running charter schools -- which helps legitimize them -- and worse, co-locating them and undermining the public schools they reside in).
Karen Lewis is amazing. I only saw the initial statement you put up on the blog, but one of the things she seemed to be doing was to actually put her three maxims into effect by the way she was relating to the entire group she was addressing--both MORE and Unity Caucus people (who else was there?).
1. Unite
2. Make yourself stronger
3. Build power

Even her later statements which made Unity squirm were probably meant to do that, especially after she manipulated Mulgrew into echoing her (in the parts of his statement that was videotaped), setting up the contradiction between what he says and what the union actually does. Especially given the missed opportunity of building unity with parents/students/community when it came to closing schools.

For example, the question of union officer salary: How can union leaders really represent (and unite) teachers if our salaries [and job security] are so different from theirs, not to mention members of other unions and parents?

So, what do we have to do to make ourselves strong and unite with others? Let's start working to eliminate whatever we can that divides us (including those of us sitting in the room). Not that we necessarily believe that Mulgrew himself can be "united", but there were many others in the room.
The MOREs in the room Friday night looked at each other and covered their mouths as Mulgrew said stuff echoing Karen that was so far from reality, we felt we were in a comic book.

Here is one more quote from the Micah Uetricht article:

the union has put forth its own vision of reform, both at the bargaining table and in the streets through their engagement in mass action, their September strike, and their formal policy recommendations. It is a vision that explicitly rejects the Democratic Party’s education agenda and offers a strong program to shore up public schools as a public good–stronger than any reform proposals by the two major national teachers unions.
 You mean Randi's "Share Your Lesson" doesn't quite cut it?


Tuesday, September 18, 2012

The Strike is Over: Who Were the Targets? Rahm, Barack, and Randi

There were comments out there that the CTU was being pressured to settle by Randi and the AFT. No doubt. Get this thing off the front pages, FAST, before it infects teachers all over the nation even more than it has.

I know, in this time of unity and joy we should all unite, but I can't resist.

This strike was a revolt against ed deform on all levels, including the national leadership of the teacher unions. A careful observer at the AFT convention would have noticed the tension between the CTU and the Unity Caucus UFTers who opposed Chicago on school closings, charters and testing resolutions. I heard the expression "assholes" more than once from CTUers (I have a great video I have to dig up of a CTU retiree who smashed them to bits).

The strike was not only against Rahm, but Obama, and most importantly for us, against Randi and the AFT and Mulgrew and the UFT and where they have helped lead the union movement.

Ravitch on Karen Lewis tonight -
The union was fortunate in having Karen Lewis as its president. She was one of them. She had taught chemistry in the Chicago public schools for more than 20 years. She is one of the few--perhaps the only--union leader in the nation who is Nationally Board Certified, a mark of her excellence as a teacher.
Sorry, I can't resist this obvious, perhaps unintentional) comparison to you know who.

Even Joe Nocera in today's Times (and though far from perfect, he is the best of the lot on education) put to bed the idea that the ed deform movement has any value (see below) yet Randi has slavered to convince the elites that she wants the unions to be on board, almost apologizing for the kinds of action Chicago took – before they struck, that is.

Randi will slither out of this, but must it gall her that Karen Lewis is being raved about and has become a hero to teachers all over the nation -- along with Diane Ravitch. Will Karen be a threat to Randi nationally? I'm betting not for a long time due to the way the AFT is structured - the control Unity Caucus exerts over it.

There are going to be lots of blog posts and all sorts of articles all over the place so I'll let you find your own. I'm interested in comparisons between Chicago and the rest of the teacher union world, in particular here in NYC.

------
Contract details
The details are posted  online below for  review before voting. Included are pay scales, frequently asked questions and a thank you flyer to the parents and students of Chicago. The text will be voted on in a few weeks. http://www.ctunet.com/for-members/strike-central

Reality-Based Educator commented right out of the box tonight:

Chicago Teacher Strike Suspended

I couldn't be prouder of my fellow teachers.

They stood up to the corporate reformers, they stood up to Rahm "F---ing" Emanuel, they put the Obama education agenda on trial, they got people talking about class size and liberal arts and humanities classes and the absurdity of VAM and the damage poverty does to children.

Then they showed how democracy works by taking the extra two days to read over the contract in detail, talk about this with their colleagues and families, then call for a suspension of the strike.

The concern trolls in the corporate media hated that last part.

How dare they show how a real democratic operation works rather than operate as some top-down organization wherein the members do what the leadership wants!
----
As CTU said in a statement:
“Our brothers and sisters throughout the country have been told that corporate ‘school reform’ was unstoppable, that merit pay had to be accepted and that the public would never support us if we decided to fight. Cities everywhere have been forced to accept performance pay,” the statement said.
“Not here in Chicago. Months ago, CTU members won a strike authorization, one that our enemies thought would be impossible. Now we have stopped the board are imposing merit pay! We preserved our lanes and steps when the politicians and press predicted they were history. We held the line on healthcare costs. We have tremendous victories in this contract; however, it is by no means perfect. While we did not win on every front and will need to continue our struggle into the future, we soundly defended our profession from an aggressive and dishonest attack. We owe our victories to each and every member of this rank and rile union. Our power comes from the bottom up.”
Are you listening, Randi?
How about you, Mike?
I know you are.
Because what happened in Chicago must scare the shit out of you guys...
Nocera
Joe Nocera actually wrote some good stuff today in the Times, being one of the first main-stream columnists to lay the myth of ed deform to rest (unlike Kristof and Brooks to name two. And Paul Krugman, where you on education - fear of having to slam Obama?)
The Chicago teacher strike exemplifies, in stark terms, how misguided the battle over education has become... City Hall is fighting to institute reforms no top-performing country has ever seen fit to use, and which probably won’t make much difference if they are instituted. 
 Yes, Nocera is one of the first to say what Diane and Leonie have been saying for many years. Actually the "reforms" will make a difference -- and have -- negatively.

But Nocera also gets this wrong:
The teachers are fighting for the things industrial unions have always fought for: seniority, favorable work rules and fierce resistance to performance measures.
He lumps these new union leaders in with the old union bosses. Their fight goes so far beyond narrow industrial bread and butter issues. Funny how I get criticized when I promote the idea of social justice unionism -- "stick to the issues that concern teachers" -- like kids and their parents don't concern teachers. And yes this contract we help up partly by teachers who felt the kids were shortchanged but read The Catalyst for details of the debates that took place inside the union yesterday and today and other good reporting.

You might also check out Richard Kahlenberg at The New Republic:

Can the Chicago Teachers’ Strike Fix Democratic Education Reform?

Whatever the particulars of the final resolution to the strike, the dustup will be successful if it shakes up the wrongheaded, yet increasingly bipartisan, sense that teachers and their unions are what ail American education. Students in Chicago and other big cities face significant challenges, including poverty and segregation and, yes, some incompetent educators. But Democrats need to get about the business of real education reform that addresses all of these questions—without demeaning the vast majority of teachers.
How interesting that the writer of Shanker's bio which pointed to how much of ed deform Shanker signed on to and promoted (abandoning the real fight against poverty as a cause of poor school performance and signing on to the "you can improve schools without resources or reducing class size but by improving teaching" essence of the deform movement.

Substance does not have the stories yet but check this one out:

Chicago you are not alone... World-wide support grows for Chicago Teachers Union strike

Below is a full news article:

http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/09/18/13938248-chicago-teachers-agree-to-end-strike-classes-to-resume-wednesday?lite

Chicago teachers agree to end strike, classes to resume Wednesday

Monday, September 17, 2012

Juan Gonzalez: Chicago Teachers Union leader Karen Lewis pushed back — and won

Until this week, no one — not even American Federation of Teachers chief Randi Weingarten — had found a way to turn back the tide of teacher bashing. Then the feisty firebrand Lewis burst on the scene.
Chicago Teachers Union head Karen Lewis has emerged as the new champion for millions of frustrated public school teachers.

Feisty firebrand has emerged as new champion for millions of public school teachers.  

Great piece by Juan Gonzalez.... except for tossing all the credit at Karen Lewis. She will be the first to tell you she is the out front person for a group, CORE, with a deep bench. Just like in the Occupy movement, the press tries to focus on a key person, as if they are the ones to make it happen all by themselves and they get frustrated when they can't pin down the leadership. 

Every Chicago teacher activist I've met is well-informed on a wide range of issues. It takes an educated membership before they can be organized and then mobilized. CORE did not neglect that crucial aspect and I would issue a warning to other groups around the nation looking to follow in CORE's footsteps to take heed of the education aspect.


NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

Monday, September 17, 2012, 6:00 AM










Description: 
 Karen Lewis
Karen Lewis, who last week led 29,000 Chicago teachers on a school strike heard across the nation, has suddenly emerged as the new champion for millions of frustrated public school teachers.

Many of those teachers are sick and tired of being made into scapegoats by politicians and corporate honchos who never spent a single day in front of a classroom.

They are fed up with overcrowded classrooms in rundown buildings, with bureaucrats who keep hiring high-paid consultants despite huge budget deficits, with new state laws that tie teacher evaluation to their students’ test scores, with the constant closing of neighborhood schools and the stampede to charter schools.

But most of all, they are furious at the lack of respect for them and their profession.

Until this week, no one — not even American Federation of Teachers chief Randi Weingarten — had found a way to turn back the tide of teacher bashing.

Then the feisty firebrand Lewis burst on the scene.

For a week, she went toe-to-toe against Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, the former Obama White House chief-of-staff known for his short fuse, foul mouth and take-no-prisoners style.

And by any measure, Lewis came come out a winner.

Saturday, September 15, 2012

Exclusive Video: Karen Lewis, at the AFT Peace and Justice Caucus, AFT Convention 2012

Don't call them reformers or even deformers. Call them what they are: privatizers. Don't call them Stand for children. I call them Stand on children. -- Karen Lewis
Karen was a panelist discussing rank and file teacher movements in a video I taped on July 27, 2012 at an AFT P&J caucus meeting. All the panelists were excellent.

In this video, which I edited down to 12 minutes, Karen touches on organizing efforts of CORE from their beginnings in 2008 with 8 people, each of whom recruited 8 more. Two years later they were running the union.




http://youtu.be/wvn32-AXMOU

Friday, September 14, 2012

Karen Lewis Slams "Chicago Cash Strapped" Bull and Phony Charter Demand

The mayor loves to tout unsubstantiated statistics about how popular charter schools are among Chicago parents. Today he used a new number: Now apparently the waiting list is whopping 19,000 students. Wow—that’s a lot of children who were “so unfortunate” to not get a seat at a coveted charter school.

Really? Then why did only a few hundred families show up at last year’s New School Expo, even though Chicago’s corporate elite spent so much money on promotional advertisements and even provided a free shuttle bus to Soldiers Field. Why did the UNO Charter School Network admit at the press conference at St. Scholastica last month that its organizers were going to go door-knocking in the neighborhood to try to recruit a couple hundred families to open the school this fall? Why did Andrew Broy of the Illinois Charter School Network say this week that there are several thousand slots still available at Chicago charter schools for parents who didn't want to wait out the strike?

Chicagoans need to understand what is happening to our school system. The mayor and his hedge fund allies are going to replace our democratically controlled public schools with privately run charter schools. This will have such disastrous results; people need to rise up and refuse to allow this to happen. --- Karen Lewis
We've been saying the same thing here. That there is artifical/phony demand pumped up by the charter lobby. Make charters show us the names of people who sign whatever it it they throw in people faces.

Don't mistake it, the strike had to do with charters and TFA in many ways -- I have to elaborate more in this --- and don't expect that the CTU won a moratorium on charters --there was no way to stop that train at this time but it will stop as the weight of crooked charters drag the charter movement down the drain --- and don't think that the charter teachers aren't supporting the strike.
 
By the way the Chicago/CORE group put up a resolutions at the AFT calling for a moratorium on charters and closing schools and a great testing accountability reso for the corporate leaches) and guess who rigorously opposed all these resos? Yes our pals in Unity Caucus with people like Jackie Bennett and Queens HS Dist Rep playing a big role -- so the next time you read or hear their bullshit just ask then what they did in Detroit.

Here is my morning post on more land grabs by Eva and Hubby Eric in Williamsburg Greenpoint (I'll report on the big enchilada, Washington Irving HS in Grammercy Park later): Parent Brooke Parker Won't Back Down as Eva and Eric Keep Glomming Up School Buildings (Condos, Here We Come)

  ---------

Letter from CTU President Karen Lewis: ‘Students Suffer in Low-Performing Charter Schools’

http://www.inthesetimes.com/working/entry/13846/letter_from_ctu_president_karen_lewis/

By Karen Lewis

Karen Lewis (Chicago Teachers Union / Flickr)

The Chicago Public Schools (CPS) is so cash-strapped that it plans to close and consolidate under-utilized schools, with rumors that it could be upwards of 120 schools this coming year. Many people would consider this to be fiscally prudent. Mayor Emanuel is of course going to blame the soon-to-be agreed upon new union contract.

What the public does not understand, however, even though both the Chicago Tribune and the Chicago Sun-Times have been writing about it for months, is that CPS is also simultaneously planning to open 60 new charter schools in the next few years. That decision was made last year under the “Gates Compact” in which CPS went into an agreement with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to increase charter schools in Chicago.

The CPS district has seen declining enrollment over the last decade, as have many other urban districts, because urban sprawl is sending our families to far-flung suburbs like Oswego where the housing is much larger and much cheaper than in the city. This is not because Chicago schools are “failing”—this is an urban planning phenomenon that we have seen many times in the last century. Illinois’ farmlands are being converted into towns, and just as the highways of the 1940s and 1950s allowed for suburban commuters to live comfortably outside the city and quickly get to work downtown every day, the Metra and I-355 have been expanded out to Oswego and other suburbs to help push that housing development.

Thus, the decline in enrollment in CPS District 299 is a natural phenomenon. Populations ebb and flow over the decades.
But, what is not natural is the city’s push for unprecedented charter expansion. The mayor loves to tout unsubstantiated statistics about how popular charter schools are among Chicago parents. Today he used a new number: Now apparently the waiting list is whopping 19,000 students. Wow—that’s a lot of children who were “so unfortunate” to not get a seat at a coveted charter school.

Really? Then why did only a few hundred families show up at last year’s New School Expo, even though Chicago’s corporate elite spent so much money on promotional advertisements and even provided a free shuttle bus to Soldiers Field. Why did the UNO Charter School Network admit at the press conference at St. Scholastica last month that its organizers were going to go door-knocking in the neighborhood to try to recruit a couple hundred families to open the school this fall? Why did Andrew Broy of the Illinois Charter School Network say this week that there are several thousand slots still available at Chicago charter schools for parents who didn't want to wait out the strike?

Chicagoans need to understand what is happening to our school system. The mayor and his hedge fund allies are going to replace our democratically controlled public schools with privately run charter schools. This will have such disastrous results; people need to rise up and refuse to allow this to happen. As a parent, do you really want your child wearing a three-piece polyester suit every day to school and pay a fine every time your child’s tie isn’t on straight? Do you really believe that it’s okay for a school to punish your child with a three-hour detention because he or she wanted to eat some Flaming Hot Cheetos?

And then of course, there is the dismal achievement outcome of the majority of charter schools. Urban Prep brags about its 100 percent college-bound rate when the average ACT score of its student is only 16. Where are those students going to college?

Finally, and most importantly, there is the cost. Mayor Emanuel says we will have to close and consolidate public schools to save money to pay for the new union contract. Does anyone in the public have any idea how much money it costs to open a brand new charter school and pay for the first few years while the school gets up and running? Hundreds of millions of dollars! CPS has an entire department dedicated to soliciting charter proposals, reviewing them, and then supporting the charter during its “incubation period." During this incubation period, the school is not held accountable for its test scores, because CPS understands that of course the school will not do well initially.

This is what we want for our children? Parents don’t want their kindergartner, 5th-grader or 9th-grader acting as a guinea pig for a charter school that might eventually become a good school. There is not a single charter management network that can say that all of its campuses are doing well.

Mayor Emanuel and his charter -school friends are complaining that the Chicago Teachers Union strike has kept students out of school for a few days—what about the years that students suffer in low-performing charter schools that are still trying to figure out how to manage themselves as an academic institution? Even the hedge fund billionaires that are behind this push admit that every charter school is not going to succeed—so why are we doing this? Why aren’t we simply looking at what already works, at the 30 percent of CPS’ neighborhood elementary schools that are scoring 85 percent and above—some at 100 percent—on state tests? Why aren’t we replicating that?

Thursday, September 13, 2012

Parents and Other Unions Support Chicago Teachers

The people running the Chicago union today were at the top level of their profession as teachers when they were elected 2 years ago. I got to know many of them when they were still in the classroom and much of their conversation was about the kids. They were as much driven by what ed deform was doing to their kids as what it was doing to teachers.....Even if they end up settling for relatively few gains on the surface, they have won already in the minds of teachers all over the nation.  – Ed Notes
 buoyed by energetic rallies in which even parents inconvenienced by the strike waved placards in support. Other unions were joining in, with school custodian representatives saying their members will walk off the job this week as well. -- NY Post
"This union figured out they couldn't assume the public would be on their side, so they went out and actively engaged in getting parent support," Bruno said. "They worked like the devil to get it." --Robert Bruno
 To get this level of support amongst the members, a union leadership has to engage the membership who will then engage the parents. To do that requires breaking the level of cynicism that exists amongst the rank and file towards the leadership. And there was plenty of that in Chicago before CORE took over in 2010, only two years after their founding. To inspire trust in the leadership the rank and file has to sense that the leadership is on their side. Maybe some view it as symbolic, but the large cuts in salary Karen Lewis and the others took made an impact. And helped balance the budget of a union in debt when they took over. They used money saved to hire organizers to prepare the teachers for whatever come. I know some of these organizers and still much of their talk is about the kids.

A leadership also has to be democratic both at the union level and within the caucus that runs the union. Don't discount the fact that CORE has to run for re-election this May and at last count there were 4 other caucuses. As far as I can tell, the leadership has mobilized the entire union in this strike and in the outreach to the community.
To win friends, the union has engaged in something of a publicity campaign, telling parents repeatedly about problems with schools and the barriers that have made it more difficult to serve their kids. They cite classrooms that are stifling hot without air conditioning, important books that are unavailable and insufficient supplies of the basics, such as toilet paper.
"They've been keeping me informed about that for months and months," Grant said.
It was a shrewd tactic, said Robert Bruno, professor of labor and employment relations at the University of Illinois at Chicago.
"This union figured out they couldn't assume the public would be on their side, so they went out and actively engaged in getting parent support," Bruno said. "They worked like the devil to get it.
In a short time, an upstart group of relatively young teachers convinced 92% of browbeaten teachers under 17 years of mayoral control, that a strike, even in Leo Casey's vaunted you have to consider "the climate of the times," was not only feasible, but offered an opportunity to reverse the direction of ed deform and turn it into real reform.

Will they succeed? It depends how you define success. There are many dangers in what they are doing and sometimes in the midst of an action like this, logical political direction can get buried. But a national debate has been opened up that was not taking place before. Not only about the policies of ed deform but about the direction the national and many local teacher unions have been taking (Anthony Cody vs. Randi Weingarten on NPR). Even if they end up settling for relatively few gains on the surface, they have won already in the minds of teachers all over the nation.

I hear here all the time from cynical older teachers how the young teachers have no union tradition or interest in the union. Maybe here in New York (and I'll let you guess why). Have you seen how young so many of the Chicago teachers are? How did they get to this level of consciousness and knowledge -- every Chicago CORE member I met is incredibly astute. At the chapter leader meeting yesterday I had conversations with people in Unity Caucus who barely had an idea of what was going on in Chicago. And don't forget how Unity opposed every progressive resolution on testing, charter schools and closing schools coming out of Chicago at the AFT convention.

The people running the Chicago union today were at the top level of their profession as teachers when they were elected 2 years ago. I got to know many of them when they were still in the classroom and much of their conversation was about the kids. They were as much driven by what ed deform was doing to their kids as what it was doing to teachers.

And parents and community seem to sense that.
As the teachers walk the picket lines, they have been joined by parents who are scrambling to find a place for children to pass the time or for baby sitters. Mothers and fathers - some with their kids in tow - are marching with the teachers. Other parents are honking their encouragement from cars or planting yard signs that announce their support in English and Spanish.
Unions are still hallowed organizations in much of Chicago, and the teachers union holds a special place of honor in many households where children often grow up to join the same police, firefighter or trade unions as their parents and grandparents. -- NY Post
So how did the CTU in a time of much vilified teacher unions manage to get public support?
To win friends, the union has engaged in something of a publicity campaign, telling parents repeatedly about problems with schools and the barriers that have made it more difficult to serve their kids. They cite classrooms that are stifling hot without air conditioning, important books that are unavailable and insufficient supplies of the basics, such as toilet paper.
"They've been keeping me informed about that for months and months," Grant said.
It was a shrewd tactic, said Robert Bruno, professor of labor and employment relations at the University of Illinois at Chicago.
"This union figured out they couldn't assume the public would be on their side, so they went out and actively engaged in getting parent support," Bruno said. "They worked like the devil to get it.
To those that disparage this fact, I don't see Stand For Children (last) out there being able to mobilize parents to march against the teachers. I heard their leader debating Diane Ravitch on NPR yesterday and he claimed to be grass roots. He must be smoking that grass.


Update: SCHOOL JANITORS FILE NOTICE TO JOIN STRIKE

Mark Naison: Can Michelle Rhee lead 50,000 people through the streets of Chicago? Bill Gates? Arne Duncan? Jonah Edelman? Hell no! But Karen Lewis can! And that's the message that needs to go out to teachers around the country! They are not condemned to be passive victims of Corporate Ed Reformers! United, they have the power to fight back and defend their students from policies that will deaden their minds, weaken their bodies and make them hate school!

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The opinions expressed on EdNotesOnline are solely those of Norm Scott and are not to be taken as official positions (though Unity Caucus/New Action slugs will try to paint them that way) of any of the groups or organizations Norm works with: ICE, GEM, MORE, Change the Stakes, NYCORE, FIRST Lego League NYC, Rockaway Theatre Co., Active Aging, The Wave, Aliens on Earth, etc.

Wednesday, September 12, 2012

WSJ and NYT On Karen Lewis

Ms. Lewis "has thrown down a national gauntlet, of sorts, and said mayors and other reformers won't define teaching—teachers will define it," said Barbara Radner, director of the Center for Urban Education at DePaul University. "This is about the soul of teaching and who is going to define it going forward." -- WSJ
This is a good report from the WSJ and does a better job than the NY Times. The national press is getting the message that this is no typical teacher strike and is as much over ideology and the soul of teaching as anything else. They are also getting the message that the public supports them. You don't see any of the astroturf groups out there protesting the teachers. That is due to the amazing work in the community the union has done.

One thing the press isn't reporting is Karen Lewis' salary. When she took over the new union leadership cut salaries severely and at one point Karen was making less than the old guard field reps. They managed to close an almost $4 million deficit left by the old Unity style corrupt UPC. Basically, Karen earns a teacher salary plus the equivalent of per session pay to cover all the extra time she puts in. It's less I bet than a 100 people in the UFT.

Many of us here in NYC are very familiar with the people running CORE.

See NY Times on Karen: Teachers’ Leader in Chicago Strike Shows Her Edge


The press loves to emphasize the leader and ignore that there is a real force behind Lewis and in fact she is the person out front. That is not an easy place to be but she was chosen because she can handle it. There are so many other strong voices in CORE. And she is responsible to them. CORE is so different from Unity and has given those of us working in MORE a model to work from. If you watch the Al Ramirez (one of the 2 originals in the group that became CORE) you will see the leadership and organizing abilities they bring to the table.

MORE Chicago Solidarity Event - Aug 23 2012

I have a great Ed Notes exclusive video of Karen appearing as a speaker at the AFT Peace and Justice caucus in Detroit which I will put up. You get Karen unfiltered through the press. (I also taped Karen in Seattle in 2010 just a few days after CORE took over the union - if I can find that I can put up an edited piece).

In Chicago, Standoff Built Over Two Years

By STEPHANIE BANCHERO

CHICAGO—A teachers strike that shut down the nation's third-largest school district for a second day Tuesday had its roots in the election two years ago of union head Karen Lewis, who harnessed growing teacher anger over school reform efforts here that were targeting teachers' performance and closing poor-performing schools.
With rank-and-file support to launch Chicago's first teacher strike in 25 years, Ms. Lewis, a high school chemistry teacher, has positioned herself as a champion of resistance to the national education-reform movement, making Chicago a central battleground over control of U.S. public schools.
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Zuma Press
Chicago Teachers Union president Karen Lewis, in Chicago on Tuesday, harnessed growing teacher anger over school reform efforts in the city.
Thousands of teachers picketed Tuesday, staging boisterous rallies at the Chicago Public School headquarters and calling for Mayor Rahm Emanuel's ouster. City leaders said the two sides were close to agreement. But union officials said dozens of issues in the contract negotiations remained unresolved.
Parents struggled to juggle children and work. Many fretted over the disruption. Krystyna Sobek, a maintenance worker in downtown Chicago, said she had to ask her parents to watch her 11-year-old daughter.
"I feel that she should be in class," she said. "I'm thankful because I do have my mom, and without her, where would I take her? Pay for day care? That would be hard for me."

Related Video

Description: http://m.wsj.net/video/20120910/091012chistrike/091012chistrike_512x288.jpg
Chicago teachers take to the picket lines for the first time in 25 years in dispute over Mayor Rahm Emanuel's longer school day, job security and class size. WSJ's Caroline Porter and Douglas Belkin report. Photo: AP.
Other parents joined picket lines. Erica Clark, a member of Parents 4 Teachers, brought her 16-year-old son. "The main point is that parents, teachers and communities are rallying together, doing what they need to do," she said.
City officials said 18,000 of the school system's more than 350,000 students had attended more than 140 schools staffed to provide basic activities and serve meals on Monday. The city announced it would extend the program to six hours a day to make it easier for working families.
Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, the 1.5 million-member national group that includes the Chicago union, joined the heads of other public-sector unions, including those representing nurses and police, in an appearance Tuesday to show support. The leader of a union that represents some school custodians said his members might start striking Friday in solidarity.
"To say that this contract will be settled today is lunacy," Ms. Lewis said, dismissing opponents as "rich people who think they know best."
Mr. Emanuel said Tuesday the strike was unnecessary. "It's not about getting rid of people, it's about raising the standards, raising the qualities in the schools," he told a news conference.
Ms. Lewis, the daughter of teachers, had been little involved in the union over two decades of teaching. In 2008, she joined the fledgling Caucus of Rank and File Educators.

Teachers on Strike

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Jean Lachat/Reuters
Teachers walked the picket line outside Anthony Overton School in Chicago Monday.
The group felt union leaders were doing too little to fight the overhauls favored by then-Mayor Richard M. Daley and Chicago schools chief Arne Duncan, who is now President Obama's Secretary of Education, including the expansion of charter schools and closing low-performing public schools.
Ms. Lewis took the top union job in June 2010 with a mandate to take a more adversarial role. She has since reveled in the spotlight, with a cheeky and sometimes aggressive style.
Reform efforts by Mr. Emanuel and others to tie teacher salaries and tenure to student test scores were unfair, she said, and didn't address larger problems created by poverty, poor curriculum and a shortage of counselors and social workers.
Ms. Weingarten, while showing solidarity with Ms. Lewis on Tuesday, has embodied a more collaborative approach to national school reform. She has supported teacher contracts—including one in Cleveland—that effectively weakened tenure rules and linked teacher evaluations to test scores.
The Chicago teachers' previous contract, negotiated by Ms. Lewis's predecessor, gave teachers a total wage increase of 19% to 46% over the contract period from 2007 to 2012, according to a fact finders report issued in July. Chicago's average teacher salary is now $71,000 a year, according to the city.
But some teachers were angry because they felt the union didn't do enough to prevent the closure of dozens of poorly performing schools and increase the number of charter schools, which generally hire nonunion teachers.
Advocates say schools that are too dysfunctional should be closed so students can go elsewhere. They say charters offer an important alternative to low-performing public schools and can experiment with new teaching approaches without the constraints of union contracts.
Campaigning in early 2011, Mr. Emanuel pledged he would institute a longer school day at Chicago schools, which he said was among the shortest in the U.S. Once elected, he appointed a district chief with a track record of challenging unions, and appointed a school board whose first vote was to rescind a 4% raise slated for last year.
Ms. Lewis derided Mr. Emanuel's longer school day as "baby sitting and warehousing."
Earlier this year, Ms. Lewis orchestrated rallies and sit-ins across the city, including one at Mr. Emanuel's home, to protest the mayor's policies. In June, when their contract expired, teachers voted to authorize union leaders to call a strike.
To address teacher anger over the longer school day, Mr. Emanuel in July agreed to rehire more than 400 laid-off teachers.
The city is now offering teachers a new four-year contract that includes salary increases of 3% in the first year, and 2% annually for the remaining years. In addition, teachers are eligible for raises based on years of service.
Union leaders have said salaries aren't a sticking point. They said they were fighting over proposals to change teacher evaluations, and the union's call for job security for dismissed teachers—as well as other issues including more school counselors and more air-conditioning.
Ms. Lewis "has thrown down a national gauntlet, of sorts, and said mayors and other reformers won't define teaching—teachers will define it," said Barbara Radner, director of the Center for Urban Education at DePaul University. "This is about the soul of teaching and who is going to define it going forward."
—Caroline Porter contributed to this article.
Write to Stephanie Banchero at stephanie.banchero@wsj.com
 

Karen Lewis: Why We're Striking in Chicago



'Join Our Fight for Education Justice,' says CTU President Karen Lewis

Teachers, paraprofessionals and school clinicians in Chicago have been without a labor agreement since June of this year. Following the inability of the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) and the Chicago Public Schools (CPS) to reach an agreement over benefits, the role of standardized tests in teacher evaluations, and physical improvements to schools that teachers say are harming both teacher and student performance, the CTU has announced that a city-wide stirke will begin today -- the first teachers strike in 25 years. Pickets are expected at 675 schools and the Board of Education. The following are remarks from CTU President Karen Lewis.

 

Chicago Teachers Union President Karen Lewis speaks at a press conference Sunday night. "We have failed to reach an agreement that will prevent a labor strike." ( E. Jason Wambsgans, Chicago Tribune / September 9, 2012 )

Negotiations have been intense but productive, however we have failed to reach an agreement that will prevent a labor strike. This is a difficult decision and one we hoped we could avoid. Throughout these negotiations have I remained hopeful but determined. We must do things differently in this city if we are to provide our students with the education they so rightfully deserve.

Talks have been productive in many areas. We have successfully won concessions for nursing mothers and have put more than 500 of our members back to work. We have restored some of the art, music, world language, technology and physical education classes to many of our students. The Board also agreed that we will now have textbooks on the first day of school rather than have our students and teachers wait up to six weeks before receiving instructional materials.

Recognizing the Board’s fiscal woes, we are not far apart on compensation. However, we are apart on benefits. We want to maintain the existing health benefits.

Another concern is evaluation procedures. After the initial phase-in of the new evaluation system it could result in 6,000 teachers (or nearly 30 percent of our members) being discharged within one or two years. This is unacceptable. We are also concerned that too much of the new evaluations will be based on students’ standardized test scores. This is no way to measure the effectiveness of an educator. Further there are too many factors beyond our control which impact how well some students perform on standardized tests such as poverty, exposure to violence, homelessness, hunger and other social issues beyond our control.

We want job security. Despite a new curriculum and new, stringent evaluation system, CPS proposes no increase (or even decreases) in teacher training. This is notable because our Union through our Quest Center is at the forefront teacher professional development in Illinois. We have been lauded by the District and our colleagues across the country for our extensive teacher training programs that helped emerging teachers strengthen their craft and increased the number of nationally board certified educators.

We are demanding a reasonable timetable for the installation of air-conditioning in student classrooms--a sweltering, 98-degree classroom is not a productive learning environment for children. This type of environment is unacceptable for our members and all school personnel. A lack of climate control is unacceptable to our parents.

As we continue to bargain in good faith, we stand in solidarity with parents, clergy and community-based organizations who are advocating for smaller class sizes, a better school day and an elected school board. Class size matters. It matters to parents. In the third largest school district in Illinois there are only 350 social workers—putting their caseloads at nearly 1,000 students each. We join them in their call for more social workers, counselors, audio/visual and hearing technicians and school nurses. Our children are exposed to unprecedented levels of neighborhood violence and other social issues, so the fight for wraparound services is critically important to all of us. Our members will continue to support this ground swell of parent activism and grassroots engagement on these issues. And we hope the Board will not shut these voices out.

While new Illinois law prohibits us from striking over the recall of laid-off teachers and compensation for a longer school year, we do not intend to sign an agreement until these matters are addressed.

Again, we are committed to staying at the table until a contract is place. However, in the morning no CTU member will be inside our schools. We will walk the picket lines. We will talk to parents. We will talk to clergy. We will talk to the community. We will talk to anyone who will listen—we demand a fair contract today, we demand a fair contract now. And, until there is one in place that our members accept, we will on the line.

We stand in solidarity with our brothers and sisters throughout the state and country who are currently bargaining for their own fair contracts. We stand with those who have already declared they too are prepared to strike, in the best interests of their students.

This announcement is made now so our parents and community are empowered with this knowledge and will know that schools will not open on tomorrow. Please seek alternative care for your children. And, we ask all of you to join us in our education justice fight—for a fair contract—and call on the mayor and CEO Brizard to settle this matter now. Thank you.
Karen Lewis
Karen Lewis is the president of the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU).

Monday, September 10, 2012

Karen Lewis Promo for Ed Notes: She Reads Ed Notes Every Day, But I Bet Not Today

One of the driving forces for the Chicago strike is that all the leaders have directly experienced the impact of ed deform on themselves and their friends. So anyone who wants to compare Karen Lewis to Randi is talking apples and kumquats. But one thing they do have in common: both have been readers of Ed Notes.


I actually saved a phone message from Karen Lewis urging me not to stop doing Ed Notes. So I guess she actually reads some of the crap I write. But I bet not today. I didn't even have my camera on when Karen introduced me to some of the teachers from Chicago at a rally for Detroit teachers at the AFT convention in July. (Funny but I was on the same bus with Randi and we had a nice chat walking over to the rally). Karen told them that she reads the blog every morning and I turned on the camera and asked her to do a promo. Later that night she said the same thing at the AFT Peace and Justice meeting. It is an honor.

Karen is a delightful lady with a giant and warm personality. Could Chicago have found a more perfect union leader? And the remarkable thing is until 2 years ago she was teaching chemistry for over 20 years. I think as I said above, that coming directly from classrooms that have been under assault to running the union has hardened them to not offer any more givebacks. I'll get to some of the issues like the ed eval and the demand that laid off teachers (the ATR equivalents) be hired before the 5-week TFA wonders. I wonder how many TFAers will be used as scabs?

------
If you don't read the comments, you missed that Howard Dean left a comment on this post: Randi and Howard Dean Report #2
saying his son does not run charter schools. Hmmm, would be be ashamed if his son did run charters? I would be too.
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Let me add this link from Diane Ravitch:
Superintendent J.C. Brizard says a strike will only hurt the kids.
This teacher tells Superintendent Brizard what really hurts the kids in Chicago public schools.
Those who are saying the worst thing is to close the schools in a strike while they are perfectly willing to accept open schools with conditions that they wouldn't want their own children to be in.

============
The opinions expressed on EdNotesOnline are solely those of Norm Scott and are not to be taken as official positions (though Unity Caucus/New Action slugs will try to paint them that way) of any of the groups or organizations Norm works with: ICE, GEM, MORE, Change the Stakes, NYCORE, FIRST Lego League NYC, Rockaway Theatre Co., Active Aging, The Wave, Aliens on Earth, etc.

Tuesday, August 28, 2012

Will Randi and AFT Join Rahm Emanuel in End Run Around Chicago Teachers Union?

Emanuel to use "senior people" [from AFT?] to negotiate ---- or is this a red herring attempt coming from Emanuel camp to sow divisions between local and national?
Early next week, sources said the mayor plans to step it up a notch by having a "second level of negotiations with more senior people" away from the same cast of characters currently at the bargaining table.

The second tier of negotiations is likely to include Beth Swanson, Emanuel's point person on education, and "
someone from Washington, D.C., who is a more moderate, outside senior level" expert capable of "driving this home," sources said.

"People who've been in those meetings for weeks have war wounds. It's hard to break through that," the Emanuel confidant said.  ---
Chicago Sun Times
Given some history of how the UFT and AFT have acted in the past this is certainly believable. And so it begins. What is a second tier of negotiations that doesn't include "People who've been in those meetings for weeks have war wounds"?

Yeah, war wounds. People who have been chopped to bit and won't take it anymore. And who could this be? "someone from Washington, D.C., who is a more moderate, outside senior level" expert capable of "driving this home."

People who are more moderate. Randi? Leo? They can explain to the CTU that they can't win and should compromise. Watch this one very closely.

Chicago Mayor Emanuel to 'ratchet up' his role in preventing teachers strike

http://www.suntimes.com/news/metro/14682523-418/mayor-emanuel-to-ratchet-up-his-role-in-preventing-teachers-strike.html

Mayor Emanuel to 'ratchet up' his role in preventing teachers strike
BY FRAN SPIELMAN City Hall Reporter fspielman@suntimes.com August 24, 2012 1:02AM

Mayor Rahm Emanuel, pictured Thursday at an unrelated event, is preparing to 'ratchet up' teacher negotiations in a bid to get schools to start on time. | Brian Jackson~Sun Times

Schools to start on time; union won't file strike notice today

Updated: August 24, 2012 8:25AM

Mayor Rahm Emanuel is preparing to "ratchet up" negotiations with the Chicago Teachers Union to seal a deal needed to guarantee an on-time Sept. 4 opening of Chicago Public Schools and preserve his signature plan for a longer school day and year, City Hall sources said Thursday.

"He owns this anyway, and he's gonna need to ratchet it up to close it," said a mayoral confidant, who asked to remain anonymous.

Emanuel is already visiting several schools a day to drive home the point that 140,000 kids have already started school and cannot be left in the lurch by a teachers strike.

Early next week, sources said the mayor plans to step it up a notch by having a "second level of negotiations with more senior people" away from the same cast of characters currently at the bargaining table.

The second tier of negotiations is likely to include Beth Swanson, Emanuel's point person on education, and "someone from Washington, D.C., who is a more moderate, outside senior level" expert capable of "driving this home," sources said.

"People who've been in those meetings for weeks have war wounds. It's hard to break through that," the Emanuel confidant said.

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The opinions expressed on EdNotesOnline are solely those of Norm Scott and are not to be taken as official positions (though Unity Caucus/New Action slugs will try to paint them that way) of any of the groups or organizations Norm works with: ICE, GEM, MORE, Change the Stakes, NYCORE, FIRST Lego League NYC, Rockaway Theatre Co., Active Aging, The Wave, Aliens on Earth, etc.

Saturday, August 25, 2012

MORE Chicago Solidarity Update

Thursday  night there was a great turnout for the MORE Chicago Solidarity event -- SRO.

See Sean Ahern's report at Substance.
http://www.substancenews.net/articles.php?page=3533&section=Article

And I'm editing a video of the event which I will put up.

Some brief numbers:  around a hundred  attendees...over $650 raised for CTU solidarity fund (contribute here if you haven't already)... 


Kim Bowsky and Al Ramirez on Skype

Sean proudly wears the CTU shirt

Here's more on the Chicago story:

Chicago teachers hold practice strikes (video and story) at HuffPo.

Chicagoteacherspicket
Members of the Chicago Teachers Union hold an informational picket outside Willa Cather Elementary School, calling attention to ongoing contract talks with the Board of Education on Monday, Aug. 20, 2012 in Chicago. The union says it is still trying to reach an agreement on wages, health benefits, and job security. (AP Photo/Sitthixay Ditthavong)

Here is a good report from Fred Klonsky:

CTU’s ten-day strike notice

When the House of Delegates of the Chicago Teachers Union met yesterday at Lane Tech, they voted to file a ten-day strike notice. CTU President Karen Lewis told the reporters in the parking lot next to Lane that the leadership was given authority to choose the date of a strike if one becomes necessary.
I think the vote sends three messages:
  • It is a legal requirement.
  • It puts pressure on the board, CEO JC Brizard and, of course, Rahm Emanuel.
  • It says that the interim agreement, signed several weeks ago on the longer school day, is not working as promised.
Frankly, when I read the interim agreement I took note that it did not specifically say that the teachers that were to be rehired were to be music, art or PE teachers. It seemed to me then that the agreement required and would be a sign of whether there was honest intent on the part of the board and the Mayor.
That question has been answered in the negative.
If the longer day was to be a better day, than CPS has had ample time to demonstrate that with the opening of E-track schools.
Lewis made clear that the board has failed.

Lewis gave a litany of grievances at this morning’s press conference including that the interim agreement on a longer school day has not meant a “better day” but instead was rolled out “haphazardly and ridiculously.” For example, part of the deal is that CPS would give jobs to 477 recently laid off teachers. But the union says they are in the dark about this hiring process.

CPS is also allegedly ignoring matters dear to CTU like a reduction in class size and a desire for more social workers. “We have in this city 400,000 children and 370 social workers,” Lewis says. “No one in the city should think this is tolerable.”


http://youtu.be/j7QGOzfEL4w



Wed Aug 22, 2012 at 12:40 PM PDT

Tea Party Opportunist Attacks Chicago Teachers for Exposing His Anti-Union Work with Mayor

 

 

Monday, July 30, 2012

@AFT - Chicago Teachers Protest RTTT During/After Biden Speech

UPDATED WITH VIDEO:




Substance REPORTS: Some AFT delegates protest Race To The Top while majority don 'Obama Biden 2012' tee shirts during speech by Vice President Joe Biden 

UPDATE: Read Biden speech, NYC Educator style:

Good Day AFT


MORE UFT Members Lisa and Gloria show solidarity with the CTU
We took most of these pics right after the Biden speech as CTU members handed out leaflets outside the hall. The first few were taken as Biden began to speak. Karen Lewis, CTU President and an AFT Ex Bd VP did not join the other AFT Veeps on the stage. Below she crosses her arms, showing displeasure at an unconditional endorsement.

Note that while most people in the audience wore blue Obama/Biden tee-shirts, most CTU members wore their red shirts.

This came in from an ed notes reader:
I just learned that Joe Biden's brother operates a charter chain in Florida I think teachers should not vote for Obama. I think the push should be to get as many teachers as possible to state they will not vote for Obama as long as he supports RttT and refuses to affirm support for public schools in a meaningful manner, and, addresses the issue of Biden's brother operating a charter chain and the possible affects in may have on this administration's education policies.

(SEE SUBSTANCE ARTICLE BELOW PICS)










David Stone writes  at Subsatnce:

Trying to send a message to U.S. Vice President Joe Biden when he addressed the American Federation of Teachers on Sunday, July 29, 2012, delegates from the Chicago Teachers Union joined by other delegates held signs protesting Race to the Top. The CTU members wore CTU red shirts, while the majority of AFT delegates were wearing blue shirts with an Obama/Biden message.
The AFT has taken no official stands against the Obama Administration's under-funded, coercive, test-driven Race to the Top education program. The resolution passed by the convention against high-stakes testing and test abuse mentions "No Child Left Behind" (the program of the Bush administration) as creating test abuse, but does not mention "Race To The Top" (the current program of the Obama administration), which requires even more testing.




 Chicago Teachers Union delegates to the AFT convention (above) refused to wear the blue "Obama Biden" tee shirts that were being given away to delegates or hoist the "Obama Biden" signs, instead wearing Chicago's distinctive red tee shirts and silently holding up signs reading "Stop Race To The Top" during the July 29 speech by Vice President Joe Biden. Substance photo by George N. Schmidt.