What a Real Teachers Union Looks Like--It's About More Than Money

Karen Lewis Speaks at FairTest Event June 4 2015

The Party's Over

One of the great political feats of the late 20th Century was the manufacture by billionaires of a right-wing cabal of crackpots-under-contract so unabashedly fascist that anyone sane and still voting would be left with a single alternative, which, of course, is the now-familiar brand of corporate, anti-democratic dramaturgy known as the Democratic Party.

It's time for something else, and in the short 18 minute film below, a case is made for it.  Watch and learn to think, organize, and act.  You might say--the Party's over:

CTU Launches "Let Us Teach" Campaign

BY BECKY SCHLIKERMAN

Staff Reporter

The Chicago Teachers Union Thursday urged its members and parents to take a stand against standardized tests.

CTU President Karen Lewis announced the “Let us Teach” campaign in Chicago as similar measures were rolled out in cities across the country.

“Why must our public school children be subjected to this battery of pointless standardized testing throughout the year, every year?,” Lewis said.

She said kids are made anxious, frustrated and depressed by the barrage of standardized tests given.

She called for an end of testing of children in the youngest grades.

“We object to the growing trend to mandate unproven standardized tests which are a major drain on classroom time, undermine education and stand in stark contrast to the proven student assessment tools of classroom teacher developed quizzes, exams, checklists and homework,” Lewis said.

Lewis was joined by three mothers who oppose standardized tests and who have opted their kids out of some testing. They urged other parents to do the same.

“Year after year, I have watched my child stress over testing,” said mom Nellie Cotton, who has a special education student at Grimes Elementary School. “Year after year, the stakes have only gotten higher and the intense pressure to attain the magic score continue to grow.”

Chicago Public Schools said it has cut back on standardized testing.

After months of meeting with students, parents, advocacy groups, the union and conducting focus groups, CPS announced in August that it was cutting back some of the standardized tests the district requires for students, especially for the younger ones.

CPS CEO Barbara Byrd-Bennett released a statement Thursday that extolled the decrease in testing.

“As a former teacher and principal, I felt that our parents and educators raised valid concerns around district-wide testing, and our collective work has resulted in 15 fewer tests this school year, adding valuable learning time to the school day to help ensure that every child graduates 100 percent college-ready and 100 percent college-bound.”

Kindergartners, first-graders and second-graders no longer have to take the NWEA MPG (Northwest Evaluation Association Measures of Academic Progress for Primary Grades) test in spring and fall, though their schools must choose from a list of assessments to monitor these primary students’ literacy. 

Second-graders will join third- through eighth-graders to take the NWEA MAP (Measures of Academic Progress) test aligned to the Common Core curriculum in spring but no longer in the fall, too. Eighth graders also will skip the EXPLORE test given in preparation for the ACT in 11th grade. And ninth- through 11th-graders also will sit for the spring session of the EPAS (Explore, Plan, ACT) tests, skipping a fall session.

Most of the reductions come from eliminating fall testing sessions, and leaving spring ones in place.

Email: bschlikerman@suntimes.com

Chicago Corporate Media Ignore Teachers' CORE Candidates

At this point in the U. S., there is one urban teachers' union that represents the social justice agenda of equal opportunity, quality public schools for all, and quality professional teaching before deal cutting and kowtowing to the Gates Foundation.  That is why the corporate media has chosen to ignore them. That, however, will not stop progress.  Please spread the word to every corner of America that teacher organizing is alive and well in Chicago, at least.   From Substance News:
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Plutocrats' press pawns and propagandists from Sun-Times, Tribune and Catalyst ignore major union event... CORE launches election campaign with spirited rally and meeting at the Haymarket, noting the links to Chicago union history

George N. Schmidt - April 15, 2013

With the certification of candidates for the upcoming (May 17, 2013) Chicago Teachers Union election completed as of the April 10 meeting of the union's House of Delegates, CORE, the Caucus Of Rank and file Educators, launched its 2013 re-election campaign with a morning and early afternoon rally and party on Sunday, April 14, at the Haymarket in Chicago. The event heard speeches from the CORE leadership, including the four candidates for elected union office, and organized for the upcoming election.

The leaders and leading candidates of CORE took the stage at the Haymarket in Chicago on April 14, 2013. Left to right, Al Ramirez (caucus so-chair), Kristine Mayle (CTU financial secretary and candidate for re-election), Karen Lewis (CTU president and candidate for re-election), CORE co-chair Nate Goldbaum, Michael Brunson (CTU recording secretary and candidate for re-election), and Jesse Sharky (CTU vice president and candidate for re-election). Substance photo by Howard Heath.After the event began with the singing of the union song "Solidarity Forever," led as be CORE tradition by Michelle Gunderson, the candidates for re-election as CTU officers were introduced by the co-chairmen of CORE, Al Ramirez and Nate Goldbaum.

Michael Brunson told the group about many of the issues facing the union and the need to re-elect the leadership that had brought the union's members to the first strike in a quarter century and a contract that provides more powers at the local school level than every before.

Kristine Mayle, recording secretary, reminded the group that the struggle against the school closings was still a priority, telling everyone how she first worked with CORE as a result of the move by the Board of Education to close De La Cruz Middle School, where she was working at the time. Vice President Jesse Sharkey provided some historical detail on recent union elections. "No candidate that brought a contract to the membership has been re-elected since 1998," Sharkey said. Tom Reece (and the United Progressive Caucus, UPC) brought in the 1998 contract at the behest of Mayor Richard M. Daley, and was defeated by Deborah Lynch (and the ProActve Chicago Teachers, PACT caucus) in the May 2001 election. After the contract that Lynch negotiated in 2003 disappointed the membership, Lynch was defeated by Marilyn Stewart and what was then calling itself the "New UPC" in the 2004 election. Stewart did not have to negotiate a contract during her first term, and so her contract wasn't finalized until after the 2007 union election, when she was re-elected. But in the 2010 election, Stewart and her "New UPC" were ousted by CORE.

Now, in 2013, the CORE incumbents are facing a coalition composed of the two former adversaries, Deborah Lynch's PACT people and the remnants of the UPC (Marilyn Stewart is retired and not active). The new group, calling itself the "Coalition To Save Our Union" is headed by two former UPC stalwarts (Tonya Saunders Wolffe and Mark Ochoa) and two people from PACT (Mary Ellen Sanchez and Kelly McFarlene). Sharkey reminded those at the Haymarket that they will have to work very hard between now and election day to ensure that the history doesn't again repeat itself.

Karen Lewis's speech was an outline of all the challenges still facing the union in the aftermath of the first strike in a quarter century and the complex contract that she and her team negotiated with the help of an unprecedented "Big Bargaining Team" consisting of members from every major group in the union.

The crowd, which continued growing until early afternoon, not only enjoyed the event, but also continued planning for the election campaign. At the end of the event, Al Ramirez reported that more than $1,000 had just been raised for the election campaign.

The CORE election launching party, which was advertised to Chicago's corporate media, saw present only ABC News (which sent a camera but no reporter) -- plus Labor Beat, Socialist Worker, and Substance. More than 100 people (including several children of the CORE candidates and supporters) took their time off on a Sunday morning (and early afternoon) facing the parking challenges of Halsted and Randolph on the day of the Greek parade. In contrast to the February announcement of the "Coalition to Save Our Union" (which was reported as news on the front page of the Chicago Tribune), the CORE event was ignored by the ruling class media. The URL for the Substance story about the February "Coalition" coverage is: http://www.substancenews. net/articles.php?page=4004§ion=Article

One of the leading organizers for CORE in the 2013 election, and a candidate for Area Vice President, is southeast sider Sue Garza, whose father joined Karen Lewis at the April 14 event. Ed Sadlowski was a leader of the Steelworkers Union for most of his life before retiring. Substance photo by Howard Heath.Each of the four candidates for union officers gave a brief speech, people talked and planned at length, and the election campaign now goes into the schools for a Chicago-style election campaign which will last for the next four weeks. The voting will take place in all schools on Friday, May 17.

Several present noted an irony in the manner in which the election has so far been covered by Chicago's corporate media. On February 20, 2013, the Chicago Tribune, the Chicago Sun-Times, and Catalyst all covered the announcement that the new opposition group -- the "Coalition to Save Our Union" -- were going to try to run. That day, the Tribune and Sun-Times featured photographs of the four candidates for union office from the "Coalition to Save Our Union" -- striding down the Merchandise Part hallway towards the union offices. Catalyst provided equally extensive coverage. All Chicago media were informed of the April 14, 2013 CORE event, and were told that not only could their reporters interview Karen Lewis and the four officer candidates, but that dozens of rank-and-file members of CORE -- all classroom teachers or school-based PSRPs -- would be available to talk about the issues.

More than 50 of those at the Haymarket on April 14 were candidates for the Chicago Teachers Union executive Board or candidates running on the CORE slate for the convention delegations to the national convention of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) in July 2014 and the convention of the Illinois Federation of Teachers (IFT) next year. [Disclosure: This reporter is a member of the CORE steering committee and a candidate for AFT/IFT convention delegate].

The selection of the Haymarket for the event was conscious, the leadership making sure that CORE activists and candidates understood the place that their militant union and union leadership have in Chicago and labor history. During and after the event, several people walks across the Kennedy Expressway to the site of the so-called "Haymarket Massacre", where striking workers and police confronted one another on May 4, 1886 and where a bomb exploded, killing seven police officers and four others.

Although there was no evidence that any of the organizers of the rally at the Haymarket (which had been organized in support of striking workers at the McCormick Reaper plant on the city's southwest side, the organizers were indicated and convicted to conspiracy, a common charge against union leaders by the plutocracy, both then and since. The resulting legal lynching of labor organizers helped prompt the launching of May 1 as the annual "International Workers Day" around the world. One of the widows (Lucy Parsons) remained a leader in the socialist, communist and labor movements until her death in Chicago during World War II.

Born a slave in Texas, Lucy Gonzalez Parsons (above) remained a labor activist for more than a half century after her husband Albert Parsons was legally lynched by Chicago's ruling class, egged on by the Chicago Tribune. following the "Haymarket Riot" of May 4, 1886. The memory of both Parsons was alive and well during the April 14, 2013 Haymarket event by CORE. Lucy Parsons died in Chicago in 1942.Several of those at the CORE event noted that the launching of the 2013 CTU election campaign on the site of the Haymarket was a reminder that generations of union activists have proudly called Chicago home, and that the campaign for the eight-hour day which began in Chicago was what birthed the May Day celebration around the world. CORE leaders also noted the poignant confluence of labor, women's, African American, Mexican American and working class histories at the site, especially in the context of the memory of Lucy Parsons:

"Lucy (or Lucia) Eldine Gonzalez was born around 1853 in Texas, probably as a slave, to parents of Native American, African American and Mexican ancestry.[1]" Wikipedia reports. "In 1871 she married Albert Parsons, a former Confederate soldier. They were forced to flee north from Texas due to intolerant reactions to their interracial marriage. They settled in Chicago, Illinois.

"Described by the Chicago Police Department as "more dangerous than a thousand rioters" in the 1920s, Parsons and her husband had become highly effective anarchist organizers primarily involved in the labor movement in the late 19th century, but also participating in revolutionary activism on behalf of political prisoners, people of color, the homeless and women. She began writing for The Socialist and The Alarm, the journal of the International Working People's Association (IWPA) that she and Parsons, among others, founded in 1883. In 1886 her husband, who had been heavily involved in campaigning for the eight-hour day, was arrested, tried and executed on November 11, 1887, by the state of Illinois on charges that he had conspired in the Haymarket Riot — an event which was widely regarded as a political frame-up and which marked the beginning of May Day labor rallies in protest..."

Rahm and the Fat Cats

Let's Be Thankful for Karen Lewis: Hear a Real Union Leader's Vision for Education

You won't get this kind of honesty and genuine care from the mealy-mouthed sellouts who run AFT and NEA.

Karen Lewis speaking at the City Club of Chicago on November 20:

Chicago Teachers and Support Staff: Lots of Thank Yous and a Couple of Warnings

First, some thank yous.  

1. Thank you for the exercising the courage, care, and conviction that have been banished by the national union leadership of the NEA and AFT. 
2. Thank you for reminding us what leadership looks like.
3. Thank you for re-focusing the teacher union movement on the social justice mission for children, which is our calling, our mission, and the fire we carry.
4. Thank you for demanding respect, rather than cowering and cutting deals to assuage corporate hacks stuck in a Reagan time warp.
5. Thank you for your energy, your pluck, your pride, your determination that makes us all proud again to claim the title of teacher.
6. Thank you for explaining the effects on children of teacher evaluation based on test scores, class size extremes, environmental needs of children, resource shortages, personnel cuts, school closures, corporate charter schools.
7. Thank you for doing what so many have feared to do and must be done.  
8. Thank you for your model of impassioned professionalism.
9. Thank you for making us look up again, rather than down.

Now, for some warnings.

• Vote NO on any contract that contains ANY percentage of teacher evaluations based on value-added modeling (VAM) or test scores.  It is most destructive of teacher-child relations, and it is an unscientific, unsupportable, and anti-teacher devise to control what happens in the classroom and to weed out more expensive and experienced teachers.  Any system that contains this element will demand observations that are scored on a rubric that is designed to laser focus on raising test scores.  So if it 90 percent or 10 percent of the evaluation count, teacher evaluation based on test scores or VAM is a non-starter.

• Vote NO if any contract contains an explicit or implicit statement of support for the Common Core State [sic] Standards, which are, in fact, a national corporate plan to establish content, teaching methods, and assessments.  Most importantly, Common Core is the testing delivery system for the post-NCLB era, and the rationale for the continuing spread of corporate charter schools.  Repudiate Common Core, for it is the biggest threat to learning, knowledge diversity, teacher autonomy, and a school environment not based on testing.

Parents and Teachers Everywhere: Watch and Understand that Chicago's Education Problems are America's Education Problems

Please send the video link or embed it and post everywhere you can, in every county, state, and country.  

Advice to Chicago Teachers: Steer Clear of Weingarten

President of the AFT, Randi Weingarten, emerged today with a statement to the New York Times that  feeds that vitriol that corporate ed deformers are trying to promote against Chicago teachers:

“You have a situation where the teachers feel totally and completely disrespected,” said Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, the parent union of the striking teachers. In this case, she said she blamed Mayor Emanuel for an aggressive push to extend the length of the school day and for a promised raise that was later rescinded. “He created the seeds of a lot of frustration and mistrust,” she said.

Why does Randi try to make this about money issues, when it is not?  Because the real issue of corporate control of public schools and the crackpot scheme for evaluating teachers based on test scores have already been embraced by Weingarten.  How could she come out in support of a strike that is all about a policy that she and the NEA prostisuits have already signed on to.  

My advice to Chicago:  don't have Randi Weingarten anywhere close to the microphones in Chicago.  She has shown her fealty to the oligarchs, and she and Dennis Van Roekel of the NEA cannot be counted on to advocate for children or teachers.

The real issues?  From the same NYTimes article:

Outside the schools here, though, in the lines of marchers, the issues seemed ever broader. Many teachers said they were troubled by a new evaluation system and its reliance on student test scores. Teachers spoke of rising class sizes, much-needed social workers, a dearth of air-conditioned classrooms and slow-to-arrive reference books, and, again and again, a sense of disrespect.

Chicago Teacher on Ed Show to Explain Issues

It is not about the money!

Issues: Lower class size, teacher evaluation with quack science of VAM test scores, services to children with special needs, air conditioning, rights of teachers to be rehired who have been laid off due to economic reasons.

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Chicago Teachers Fight for Our Lives

As New Orleans is once again under water, as the Republican lie machine works overtime in Tampa, and real journalism or reporting is MIA in the corporate media owned airwaves, a social studies teacher is using email to spread the word about what's happening in Chicago and to teachers and public education all across the country. 

"Friends and Family across the United States-

As most of you know Chicago Teachers Union has been in a fight to win a contract that requests not only fair compensation, but also great teaching and learning conditions in the face of mass privatization and charterization.  Our mayor has promised 250 more charter schools in place of traditional public schools.  Our mayor has promised more testing for our kids, and rating teachers based on those tests.  Our mayor has promised merit pay, and a longer day.  This is also a mayor who has seen a 70% increase in the murder rate in Chicago in only one years' time, and an increase in public dollars to private corporations.

We are fighting for experienced teachers over expendable ones; fair pay for longer days; for the arts, P.E., foreign languages, and vocational studies.  We are fighting for social services in our schools.  We are fighting for dignity in the workplace and classroom, and the whole world is watching.  A strike is looming, and the Board has yet to come to the table with respect for our members and the teaching and learning process.

I spent my summer traveling the US from east coat to west coast spreading the message of what we are trying to do, and listening to the similar concerns of educators everywhere.  BOTH major teachers unions recognized that this is a fight in which everyone must throw in their hat, and passed support resolutions encouraging their locals to follow suit.  I have attached a sample resolution, and ask that if you can, to pass one among your congregations, whether that body be composed of teachers, parents, faculty, nurses, school board members, principals, doctors, steel-workers, coal-miners, and anyone in between.  Everyone has a civic stake in public education.  We need your voice on this. 

I ask you to watch and share this video detailing the what we are fighting for.  

I implore you to send us letters of support. 

I invite you to donate to the CTU Solidarity Fund. 

I entreat you to join the nationwide fight for better public schools."

Thank you,

Adam Heenan

High School Social Studies

Chicago  

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