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class=Apple-style-span><FONT size=3 face="Times New Roman"><A
href="http://socialistworker.org/2010/06/14/new-day-for-chicago-teachers">http://socialistworker.org/2010/06/14/new-day-for-chicago-teachers</A></FONT></SPAN></SPAN></DIV>
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<DIV
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class=story-label><SPAN
class="sw-label-header sw-analysis">ANALYSIS</SPAN>:<SPAN
class=Apple-converted-space> </SPAN><SPAN class=sw-label-name>LEE
SUSTAR</SPAN></DIV><BR style="CLEAR: both">
<H1
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 1; MARGIN: 0px 0px 0.3em; FONT-FAMILY: Georgia, serif; FONT-SIZE: 29px; FONT-WEIGHT: normal"
class=headline>A new day in the Chicago Teachers Union</H1>
<DIV
style="MARGIN: 0px; FONT-FAMILY: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; COLOR: rgb(51,51,51); FONT-SIZE: 16px"
class=introduction>
<P style="LINE-HEIGHT: 1.4; MARGIN-TOP: 0.5em; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0.9em"><SPAN
style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold" class=sw_author>Lee Sustar</SPAN><SPAN
class=Apple-converted-space> </SPAN>looks at the far-reaching impact
of the reform victory in the CTU.</P></DIV>
<P
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 1.4; MARGIN: 1em 0px; FONT-FAMILY: Georgia; COLOR: rgb(104,104,104); FONT-SIZE: 1em"
class=dateline>June 14, 2010</P>
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class=image-330
title="Karen Lewis, president-elect of the Chicago Teachers Union, speaks after the CORE victory was announced (Labor Beat)"
alt="Karen Lewis, president-elect of the Chicago Teachers Union, speaks after the CORE victory was announced (Labor Beat)"
src="http://socialistworker.org/files/imagecache/330/files/images/k_lewis_victory.jpg"></SPAN></P>
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<P
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 1.5; MARGIN-TOP: 0.5em; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 1em; FONT-SIZE: 1.2em"><SPAN
style="PADDING-BOTTOM: 0px; MARGIN: 0px 0px 0px 0.5em; PADDING-LEFT: 0px; WIDTH: 330px; PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; FLOAT: right; PADDING-TOP: 0px"
class="sw image inline-right"><SPAN
style="TEXT-ALIGN: left; PADDING-BOTTOM: 0px; LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 0px; PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; DISPLAY: block; FONT-FAMILY: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; COLOR: rgb(102,102,102); FONT-SIZE: 12px; PADDING-TOP: 0px"
class=caption>Karen Lewis, president-elect of the Chicago Teachers Union,
speaks after the CORE victory was announced (Labor Beat)</SPAN></SPAN></P>
<P
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 1.5; MARGIN-TOP: 0.5em; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 1em; FONT-SIZE: 1.2em"> </P>
<P
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 1.5; MARGIN-TOP: 0.5em; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 1em; FONT-SIZE: 1.2em"> </P>
<P
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 1.5; MARGIN-TOP: 0.5em; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 1em; FONT-SIZE: 1.2em">KAREN
LEWIS didn't waste any time laying out her vision for the Chicago Teachers
Union (CTU)--and challenging the political and business interests driving
corporate school reform.</P>
<P
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 1.5; MARGIN-TOP: 0.5em; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 1em; FONT-SIZE: 1.2em">"Today
marks the beginning of the end of scapegoating educators for the social
ills that all of our children, families and schools struggle against every
day,"<SPAN class=Apple-converted-space> </SPAN><A
style="COLOR: rgb(142,4,4); TEXT-DECORATION: none"
href="http://www.wbez.org/Content.aspx?audioID=42553">she said at a press
conference</A><SPAN class=Apple-converted-space> </SPAN>the morning
after the slate of rank-and-file reformers she led won a decisive union
election victory, taking just over 59 percent of the vote. She
continued:</P>
<BLOCKQUOTE style="LINE-HEIGHT: 1em; FONT-SIZE: 12px">
<P
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 1.5; MARGIN-TOP: 0.5em; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 1em; FONT-SIZE: 1.2em">Today
marks the beginning of a fight for true transparency in our education
policy--how to accurately measure teaching and learning, and how to
truly improve our schools and how to evaluate the wisdom behind our
spending priorities. This election shows the unity of 30,000 educators
standing strong to put business in its place--out of our schools.</P>
<P
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 1.5; MARGIN-TOP: 0.5em; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 1em; FONT-SIZE: 1.2em">Corporate
America sees K-12 public education as a $380 billion trust that--up
until the last 15 years--they haven't had a sizeable piece of. So this
so-called school reform is not an education plan. It's a business plan,
and mayoral control of our schools and our Board Of Education is the
linchpin of their operation.</P>
<P
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 1.5; MARGIN-TOP: 0.5em; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 1em; FONT-SIZE: 1.2em">Fifteen
years ago, this city purposely began starving our lowest-income
neighborhood schools of greatly needed resources and personnel. Class
sizes rose, schools were closed. Then standardized tests, which in this
town alone is a $60 million business, measured that slow death by
starvation. These tests labeled our students, families and educators
failures, because standardized tests reveal more about a student's zip
code than it does about academic growth.</P>
<P
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 1.5; MARGIN-TOP: 0.5em; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 1em; FONT-SIZE: 1.2em">And
that, in turn--that perceived school failure--fed parent demand for
charters, turnarounds and contract schools. People thought, "it must be
true, I read it in the papers. It must be the teachers' fault." Because
they read about it, every single week. And our union, which has been
controlled by the same faction for the last 40 years--37 out of
40--didn't point out this simple reality.</P>
<P
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 1.5; MARGIN-TOP: 0.5em; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 1em; FONT-SIZE: 1.2em">What
drives school reform is a single focus on profit. Profit. Not teaching,
not learning, profit.</P></BLOCKQUOTE>
<P
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 1.5; MARGIN-TOP: 0.5em; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 1em; FONT-SIZE: 1.2em">Lewis'
statement left the Chicago press corps literally speechless. Only one
reporter managed a couple of questions. The local media simply isn't used
to an assertive teachers' union leader--certainly not one who declares
that she's standing up to the politicians and business interests that have
made Chicago a laboratory for "school reform" for the last 15 years.</P>
<P
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 1.5; MARGIN-TOP: 0.5em; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 1em; FONT-SIZE: 1.2em">And
with Chicago Schools CEO Ron Huberman demanding union concessions to cover
what he says is a $600 million budget deficit, Lewis and other CTU
officers will have to go into battle the moment they take office July
1.</P>
<P
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 1.5; MARGIN-TOP: 0.5em; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 1em; FONT-SIZE: 1.2em">-
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -</P>
<P
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 1.5; MARGIN-TOP: 0.5em; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 1em; FONT-SIZE: 1.2em">LEWIS
IS co-chair of the Caucus of Rank-and-File Educators (CORE), a group that
formed a little more than two years ago to fight school closures when the
CTU incumbent officers failed to do so. CORE was able to build on the
experience of a previous reform group, the ProActive Chicago Teachers
(PACT), which ran the CTU for one term between 2001-2004.</P>
<P
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 1.5; MARGIN-TOP: 0.5em; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 1em; FONT-SIZE: 1.2em">While
several PACT veterans helped found CORE, much of its support came from
younger teachers new to union activism. Yet despite its short history,
CORE was able to unseat the incumbent United Progressive Caucus (UPC),
which has controlled the union for 37 of the last 40 years.</P>
<P
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 1.5; MARGIN-TOP: 0.5em; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 1em; FONT-SIZE: 1.2em">The
UPC was ousted after it failed to resist attacks that have included 70
school closings and the loss of 6,000 CTU members over the last decade.
African American women have lost their jobs in disproportionate numbers,
Lewis noted on election night.</P>
<P
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 1.5; MARGIN-TOP: 0.5em; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 1em; FONT-SIZE: 1.2em">CORE
won by bringing attention to such problems. "We've broken apart this
mantra of reform that charter schools and firing so-called bad teachers is
the solution to our education woes," said Jackson Potter, who co-chairs
CORE with Lewis, and who was elected to the union's executive board as
trustee. "I think this whole thing is coming off the rails, and this
[election result] is a sign of that."</P>
<P
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 1.5; MARGIN-TOP: 0.5em; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 1em; FONT-SIZE: 1.2em">Indeed,
the significance of CORE's victory is national. Education Secretary Arne
Duncan, who dramatically accelerated school closings and privatization as
boss of Chicago schools, no doubt got a case of heartburn upon hearing the
election results.</P>
<P
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 1.5; MARGIN-TOP: 0.5em; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 1em; FONT-SIZE: 1.2em">Duncan's
supposed success in Chicago was part of the motivation for Race to the
Top, the federal program that allowed budget-strapped school districts and
states to compete for a share of $4.3 billion in federal funds--as long as
they agreed to impose merit pay on teachers and accelerate the creation of
charter schools.</P>
<P
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 1.5; MARGIN-TOP: 0.5em; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 1em; FONT-SIZE: 1.2em">Now,
however, Chicago teachers have said loud and clear that corporate-driven
"school reform" doesn't work--in President Barack Obama's hometown, no
less.</P>
<P
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 1.5; MARGIN-TOP: 0.5em; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 1em; FONT-SIZE: 1.2em">The
CORE victory will also turn heads in the Washington headquarters of the
American Federation of Teachers (AFT), the CTU's parent union.</P>
<P
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 1.5; MARGIN-TOP: 0.5em; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 1em; FONT-SIZE: 1.2em">AFT
President Randi Weingarten has collaborated with Race to the Top and other
White House education initiatives, even at the cost of retreating from the
union's opposition to merit pay and defense of tenure as the basis for
teacher job security. But the election in the CTU--the third largest
teachers' union local in the U.S.--is a clear signal that rank-and-file
teachers have different priorities.</P>
<P
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 1.5; MARGIN-TOP: 0.5em; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 1em; FONT-SIZE: 1.2em">CORE's
decisive win comes after the caucus stunned UPC incumbents in the first
round of the elections held May 21. The upstarts won just 500 fewer votes
than the UPC in a five-way race.</P>
<P
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 1.5; MARGIN-TOP: 0.5em; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 1em; FONT-SIZE: 1.2em">A
big, noisy union rally to save jobs, held four days later, shed light on
the reason for CORE's strong showing. CORE's victory isn't simply the
result of a throw-the-bums-out sentiment by a sullen and resentful
membership: Teachers are furious, and they're looking for a way to fight
back.</P>
<P
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 1.5; MARGIN-TOP: 0.5em; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 1em; FONT-SIZE: 1.2em">Outgoing
CTU President Marilyn Stewart tried to use the powers of incumbency to
head off the insurgents, monopolizing the microphone at the May 25 protest
rally and sending union mailings and holding conference calls in the days
before the vote. Stewart's campaign also got some last-minute help from
the<SPAN class=Apple-converted-space> </SPAN><I>Chicago
Sun-Times</I>, which published a front-page photo and headline about the
union's lawsuit opposing increased class sizes.</P>
<P
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 1.5; MARGIN-TOP: 0.5em; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 1em; FONT-SIZE: 1.2em">But
Stewart also stooped to gutter politics, Chicago-style. That wasn't
unexpected: In 2008, Stewart removed her onetime closest ally from union
office and expelled him from the CTU.</P>
<P
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 1.5; MARGIN-TOP: 0.5em; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 1em; FONT-SIZE: 1.2em">In
an attempt to fend off CORE, Stewart sought to whip up fears about the
"radical" caucus and accused Lewis of being a militant--as if that were an
insult. George Schmidt, the retired teacher who covers the CTU
exhaustively as editor of the Substance newspaper and<SPAN
class=Apple-converted-space> </SPAN><A
style="COLOR: rgb(142,4,4); TEXT-DECORATION: none"
href="http://www.substancenews.net./">Web site,</A><SPAN
class=Apple-converted-space> </SPAN>wrote that it was the dirtiest
CTU election campaign he had ever seen.</P>
<P
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 1.5; MARGIN-TOP: 0.5em; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 1em; FONT-SIZE: 1.2em">CORE
activist Jim Vail, an elementary school teacher, agreed. The incumbent
UPC, he said, "ran on calling us the socialists, communists, radicals.
They tried to divide our union--'elementary school teachers, come on,
you've got to support the union leadership, because these militant high
school and CORE people want to run everything into the ground.' And that
was rejected. Because everyone knows this is our last stand to fight this
whole disaster."</P>
<P
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 1.5; MARGIN-TOP: 0.5em; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 1em; FONT-SIZE: 1.2em">The
fear campaign flopped. With the backing of three other caucuses following
the first round of elections, CORE won a sweeping victory in the second
round of voting. The caucus gained control not only of all the high school
vice presidential slots, but also all of the vice presidents representing
elementary schools, the historic base of the UPC. That's the vast majority
of seats on the new executive board.</P>
<P
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 1.5; MARGIN-TOP: 0.5em; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 1em; FONT-SIZE: 1.2em">-
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -</P>
<P
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 1.5; MARGIN-TOP: 0.5em; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 1em; FONT-SIZE: 1.2em">CORE
COMES into office having already developed many of the alliances that are
necessary for a fight against budget cuts, school closures and the
proliferation of charter schools.</P>
<P
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 1.5; MARGIN-TOP: 0.5em; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 1em; FONT-SIZE: 1.2em">In
January 2008 and 2009, CORE initiated meetings that attracted hundreds of
teachers, parents and community activists fighting school closures. It
also pushed for a more responsive and effective union, working with
displaced teachers and other union members on grievances and issues
neglected by Stewart's UPC operatives.</P>
<P
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 1.5; MARGIN-TOP: 0.5em; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 1em; FONT-SIZE: 1.2em">Now,
as it pledges to take power, CORE promises to make the CTU democratic and
accountable. Officer salaries will be cut to standard teacher pay, and
resources will be poured into organizing and defending union members.
Lewis said that she hopes teachers will return to school this fall feeling
"protected and empowered," adding, "We're going to tell the truth all the
time."</P>
<P
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 1.5; MARGIN-TOP: 0.5em; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 1em; FONT-SIZE: 1.2em">The
truth won't always be pleasant. The union machinery is dysfunctional and
its treasury depleted, in part because of high salaries like Stewart's
$272,000 combined income from multiple union salaries and the expense
account scandal that surfaced in the UPC's internal faction fight.</P>
<P
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 1.5; MARGIN-TOP: 0.5em; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 1em; FONT-SIZE: 1.2em">And,
thanks to a sneak attack in the Illinois state legislature earlier this
year, the Chicago teachers' pensions funds were drained of $1.2 billion to
cover current state operating costs. The new law will also require newly
hired teachers to have to work until they're 67 to qualify for a
pension--and teachers aren't eligible for Social Security.</P>
<P
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 1.5; MARGIN-TOP: 0.5em; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 1em; FONT-SIZE: 1.2em">"Currently,
teachers work 34 years, and they're out the door," said Jay Rehak, who,
along with another CORE candidate, earlier won election to the CTU's seats
on the pension board.</P>
<P
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 1.5; MARGIN-TOP: 0.5em; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 1em; FONT-SIZE: 1.2em">Rehak,
who was also elected as a union trustee on the new executive board, says
that the legislature's repeated raids on the fund could destroy it in 10
or 15 years. "It's going to run out unless something is done to replenish
it," he said. And given Illinois' severe budget crisis, legislators may
try to reduce the teachers' already modest $39,000 annual pension.</P>
<P
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 1.5; MARGIN-TOP: 0.5em; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 1em; FONT-SIZE: 1.2em">But
all this has led not to despair, but anger. "Teachers are fed up with
being victims," said Kenzo Shibata, a member of the CORE steering
committee. "We're fed up with having to take this abuse from the central
office and the lack of protection of the union."</P>
<P
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 1.5; MARGIN-TOP: 0.5em; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 1em; FONT-SIZE: 1.2em">CORE
will also reach out to young teachers, many of whom were fed anti-union
propaganda as part of their training, and who have been alienated by an
unresponsive and ineffective CTU.</P>
<P
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 1.5; MARGIN-TOP: 0.5em; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 1em; FONT-SIZE: 1.2em">"A
lot of our younger teachers don't understand the importance of unions, and
this will give us an opportunity to teach them--and that will make our
union stronger," said Kristine Mayle, who was elected financial secretary
on the CORE slate. "I think all teachers' unions in the country are
looking to us right now, and I think this will make everybody a bit
stronger."</P>
<P
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 1.5; MARGIN-TOP: 0.5em; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 1em; FONT-SIZE: 1.2em">Those
changes can't come soon enough for Patricia Breckenridge. Despite having
15 years teaching in the Chicago Public Schools, she's now displaced--for
a second time--because of a weakness in the CTU contract and the
unwillingness of the old union leadership to enforce her rights under
state law. Many others were displaced for similar reasons.</P>
<P
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 1.5; MARGIN-TOP: 0.5em; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 1em; FONT-SIZE: 1.2em">Breckenridge
became active in CORE, she said, because no other union caucus took her
struggle seriously. "There was no other caucus that was standing up for
teachers and their state rights more than CORE was," she said after the
June 12 press conference, which she attended to support the new
leadership. "They [union officials] clearly knew that our state rights
were being violated, but nobody would stand up. Nobody at the [Board of
Education] meetings, nobody personally, nobody at our grievance
hearings."</P>
<P
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 1.5; MARGIN-TOP: 0.5em; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 1em; FONT-SIZE: 1.2em">Responding
to the needs of teachers like Breckenridge will be a central task for CORE
as it readies for a showdown over layoffs and budget cuts. But the new CTU
leaders knew that when they launched their campaign. If they're
successful, they could point a new direction for teachers unions across
the country as they face their greatest challenge in
decades.</P></DIV></DIV></DIV></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE></DIV></SPAN></SPAN></BODY></HTML>