U.S. District Judge David H. Coar today declared that the firing of tenured teachers under the Board’s June 15, 2010, resolution granting CEO Ron Huberman the power to fire teachers without regard to seniority or tenure was illegal. The judge further barred the Chicago Board of Education from “conducting future layoffs or ‘honorable discharges’ in a similarly unlawful manner.” The judge ordered the Chicago Board of Education to negotiate a set of recall rules within the next 30 days.

“Teachers unions were formed in the first place to protect mainly female teachers from retaliatory actions, political firings and crony hirings. Nothing’s changed. The need for strong unions to protect teachers, students and academic freedom, especially in Chicago, is upheld today. Through these illegal firings, the Chicago Board of Education tried to silence our tenured teachers who are the strongest advocates for students’ educational rights and the real fighters for better learning environments. Chicago Public Schools should stop slurring our teachers, suggesting that those fired somehow were less than exemplary teachers. The court appears to agree – tenure is necessary to academic freedom,” said Lewis.

CTU court order

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It was the PACT (Pro-Active Chicago Teachers and School Employees) caucus that won the day with their filing in federal court as Lynch vs. Huberman. Within days, federal judge Amy St. Eve issued a temporary restraining order preserving our right to campaign. This decision was crucial in our joint effort to change the CTU’s leadership.

Since that time, PACT and their lawyers have been busy closing the issue. The PACT web site reports that a preliminary settlement of the suit has been reached. Details of the settlement are to be withheld by agreement until final approval by the Board in August.

CORE owes a debt of gratitude to the PACT team for their efforts to promote democracy in the CTU and defend the rights of all members to campaign. We are grateful, as well, for their far-sighted support (along with CSDU and SEA) of CORE in the runoff election to move the CTU forward.

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CORE’s imagination has allowed us to look beyond business-as-usual failed practices. Although CORE only allows CTU members to vote on official business, we have created coalitions with parents and community groups to give the Union added strength.  We have built and will continue to build alliances with Chicago Unions and be active members of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) and the Illinois Federation of Teachers (IFT).  We believe in having and maintaining a hard working field staff, one that is accountable to the members.  We believe that through solidarity, the 30,000 members of this Union will prevail against the Board of Education’s budget cuts.

Imagination is powerful.

• Imagine a Union that listens to its own membership and involves them in decision-making.
• Imagine a Union that operates by the rules all the time, every time.
• Imagine a Union that builds respect for our profession through effective public relations and outreach.
• Imagine a Union where leaders engage in original, academic education research.
• Imagine a Union that uses modern technology thoughtfully.
• Imagine a Union that brings students, parents, families, and communities together to fight for teachers and students.

Imagine a Union that intimidates the Board of Education with its strength of unity.

Candidates Michael Brunson (Recording Secretary), Karen Lewis (President), Jesse Sharkey (Vice-Presidcent), Kristine Mayle (Financial Secretary)

On June 11, vote CORE, and feel the Power of 30,000.

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6/8/2010 WGN-9 News

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

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

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

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

Representative from Attorney General's Office receives letter.

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CORE FOR CTU Ad on Vimeo.

Presidential Candidate Karen Lewis at the Curie HS Town Hall Meeting

Press from the 2009 School Closings Protest

Recording Secretary Candidate Michael Brunson at the Board of Education

Financial Secretary Candidate Kristine Mayle at the Guggenheim School Closing Hearing

Presidential Candidate Karen Lewis

CORE Co-Chair Jackson Potter at the Martin Luther King Jr. Day Rally

CORE Budget Committee Chair Kurt Hilgendorf at the Martin Luther King Jr. Day Rally

The Struggle Against Renaissance

Arne Duncan/Advance Illinois Protest

Public Dollars, Public Schools

Opening Commentary by Vice Presidential Candidate Jesse Sharkey

Stop School Closings!

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

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

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

From Catalyst:

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

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

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

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

School communities entering city hall

Jonathon Jackson of Operation Push and protestors outside City Hall.

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

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

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

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

What that means is anyone’s guess.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Are you an African-American and/or veteran CPS employee who has lost their job due to Turnaround?

CORE has filed discrimination charges against the Chicago Board of Education for its “turnaround” policy, which has a disparate effect on African American and veteran teachers.

If you feel that you were also negatively affected by this policy, send an e-mail to:  corelawsuit@gmail.com with your contact information. We will help you seek justice.

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