Taking on City Hall

They say you can't fight City Hall. Tell that to Karen Lewis, newly elected president of the Chicago Teachers Union. In a landslide election, Lewis won on a platform (among other things) to fight mayoral control of the schools, to provide equal funding for the city schools, to stop the over-emphasis on testing, and to keep class size low.

Chicago teachers are not taking it anymore. Tired of the union sitting back while the Chicago Public Schools (CPS) closed schools, fired teachers, and let class size rise to 35, Lewis is rallying union members to demonstrate at the CPS headquarters to ask them to open their books. CPS is claiming a $600 million dollar budget deficit, and laid off 2700 teachers this week. They promised 4% raises to remaining teachers, using monies they plan to borrow with approval of the school board. CPS hopes that the raise averts a teacher strike, which could be the first since 1995.

The fear of a strike is real now with Karen Lewis as union leader. She is a force to be reckoned with. She was a high school chemistry teacher, who before being elected, was part of the Caucus of Rank and File Educators (CORE) which started with a small group of teachers who were tired of their union compromising and not representing their interests.  Now Lewis plans to fight for transparency on the school budget, a voice for teachers in policy-making, and protection of local communities against school closures and funding loss.

Chicago's union is unusual. In Washington DC, teachers just voted for a contract that includes a merit pay system and the end of seniority and tenure rules. New Haven, Connecticut ratified a similar contract not along ago. Watch what happens in Chicago. It will be interesting to see what's next.

Photo credit: union person