Teachers, students, parents and community members demonstrated their anger at open budget hearings Tuesday, Aug 18th at Lane Tech HS and Wednesday, Aug 19th at Westinghouse HS. Another hearing will take place tonight, Thursday, Aug 20th, at Corliss HS (821 W 103rd St).

Xian Barrett - another exemplary teacher summarily fired without cause.

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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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Karen Lewis on Moving Forward June 3, 2010.

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An historic moment at Connie's Pizza. CORE's Presidential Candidate Karen Lewis met with caucus leaders Deborah Lynch (PACT), Linda Porter (CSDU), and Ted Hajiharis (SEA) about going forward with bringing UNITY back to the Chicago Teachers Union. All three of those caucuses endorsed CORE in the June 11th Run-Off Election.

Karen Lewis’ speech to the House of Delegates (6/2/2010):

Good afternoon.  I would like to thank PACT, CSDU and SEA for running honest campaigns, based on the issues; and for their support.

I am honored … and exhilarated.  Those of you who are unaligned and voted for CORE, thank you.

Last week’s rally was incredible.  All of us in this room turned out thousands of people to tell Huberman and Daley “No” — stop destroying our neighborhood schools and trying to bust our union.

We should have done this every year for the past six years.

Because for years there has been a well-funded national smear campaign against public school teachers. Gains we won over 70 years of struggle are being stripped away. I have taught in this system for over 20 years and I have never seen this level of attack – scapegoating educators for all that ails urban schools.

But on June 11th we have a  chance to end this business as usual, top-down unionism.

The most important thing Union leaders do is build consensus and organize members to speak and act as ONE.  But who has heard our voice in the past 6 years?  Who has seen a real fight against privatizing Chicago’s schools?  Big business sees K-12 public education as 350 billion dollars they weren’t getting a piece of.  Why haven’t we heard our leadership attack that profit motive – and PROVE IT?  Why has our Union seemed complicit in its silence?

My opponent charges that we aren’t experienced despite the fact that we worked to stop 12 school closing and saved a thousand jobs. We had to sue the Board for budget and TIF details so we DON’T have to reopen the contract. You can’t talk numbers if you don’t have real information.  We have the former vice-president of CTU, Howard Heath, who has not only negotiated a contract, he’s a mathematician who can crunch the numbers with the best of them.  We’ve got lawyers and old contracts so we’re ready!

Let me share something with you.  You already know that I’m the wife and daughter of CTU members and I went to Chicago Public Schools. But I am the only Black woman in the class of 1974 at Dartmouth College and  I got that degree when I was 20 years old.  I know how to stand strong in the face of adversity and win.  I am not afraid.   Never have been.

The current leadership claims that the safe bet now is to stay the course.

Clearly members didn’t buy that.

Two-thirds voted against the very candidate Huberman has backed in secret meetings over the last couple months.

On May 25 we said NO to repeating “the Marilyn experience” that cost 6,000 members their jobs.  We said NO to pension raids.  We said NO to the unchecked powers of abusive principals. We said No to rising class sizes.

We’re going to bring real technology to this union so our members have access to relevant information.  We’re going to have real delegate training so everyone knows how to run an election smoothly, help the members in our schools and provide professional development that makes us more effective educators and unionists.

We will have a political strategy that is based on our ability to initiate and take the lead on legislation, not wait until the hammer drops – especially after the beating we just took in Springfield with the pension raid, the diabetes fiasco and a voucher bill that just won’t die.  We’re ready.

So, I ask you today, will we stand united?  Will we stop the attacks on our members? An injury to one is an injury to all.  CORE represents what called us to the teaching profession in the first place.  That commitment must be fused in out Union’s work every day.  Let’s rebuild our spirit, our public image and harness the power of 30,000 members.  Reclaim the joy of teaching and learning.

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The current president of the Chicago Teachers Union is facing an uphill re-election battle. And it just got a little more difficult. That could shake things up in Chicago education.

Just 500 votes separated CTU President Marilyn Stewart from her toughest challenger in last Friday’s election. More than 19,000 teachers cast ballots. Stewart didn’t get enough votes to avoid a runoff.

Last night, third place finisher Deborah Lynch announced she’s throwing her support behind challenger [CORE Candidate] Karen Lewis. The fourth place finisher [CSDU] has also endorsed Lewis.

Lewis is a member of CORE—a group that’s opposed school closings through lawsuits and protests. They’ve also challenged CPS on issues the union rarely talks about, like overuse of standardized tests and recapturing TIF funds for education.

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Huberman, Daley, and the CPS are in for a fight when 30,000 members are united.

In a display of unity that is uncommon in an election season, all five caucuses of the CTU came together to march against Huberman’s threats of ballooning class sizes to 35 and major cuts to educational programs. Koco, Teachers for Social Justice, Pilsen Alliance, Blocks Together, and other GEM partners  organized students, parents, and community members to march in unity with the Union teachers who are integral members of their communities.

CORE Presidential candidate Karen Lewis talking to young people at rally.

One police officer on duty estimated 5,000 protesters, making this one of the largest educational protests in decades.

Initially, CORE planned to organize the rally with their GEM partners, but realized that this was an event that would be bigger than a caucus, and made a resolution at the May House of Delegates meeting for the event to be a Union event; a show of unity against Huberman and Daley. Although it was a political risk to organize members to an all-caucus event while on the campaign trail, CORE made it a priority to build this event, and it paid off.

This is exactly the kind of Unionism that CORE wants and the membership deserves.

On May 21, 2010, 65% of all Chicago Teachers Union members voted against their incumbent President, Marilyn Stewart.  In the election booth and in the streets, our members declared that our Union can no longer be complicit in the destruction of public schools.  This protest on May 25^th was initiated by rank-and-file teachers and Union delegates to break the current Union leadership’s silence.

Letter from CORE Presidential Candidate Karen Lewis:

Dear Teachers, PSRPs, clinicians, and supporters,

Tuesday May 25, 2010 will go down in history as the beginning of a new way.

We had thousands of people in the streets telling Huberman “No” to 35 in a class, “NO” to cuts in programs and “NO” to balancing their budgets on the backs of educators and students. What made this possible was that members of all five caucuses came together to show unity.  I would like to thank all the members of PACT, CSDU and SEA for running campaigns that focused on the pressing issues we all face.  We appreciate the expressions of support we have received from the leadership and membership of those caucuses.  It is an honor to be among people who care passionately about the direction this Union must take.

As I rode back on the bus a parent said to me, “…And this is just the beginning.”

She was absolutely right.

In solidarity,

Karen Lewis

CORE Candidate for CTU President

National Board Certified Teacher

Thousands of Teachers, PSRPs, and Clinicians are a force to be reckoned with!

Click here to read the press statement on the rally.

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SUIT FILED 5/20/10

Huberman won't come clean with the actual budget numbers.

From The Chicago Tribune:

Teacher’s group sues CPS over access

May 20, 2010

A union group that is vying for power in Friday’s Chicago Teachers Union election has filed a lawsuit against the Chicago Board of Education, claiming it is in violation of the Illinois Freedom of Information Act.

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Download this flyer and distribute to teachers, parents, and other community members.

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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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(left to right) Barrett and CORE Communications Secretary Kenzo Shibata standing in solidarity with their brothers and sisters at SK Tools when they were on strike in Summer of 2009.

Saturday, February 27th, 2010, Sean (Xian) Barrett spoke at Operation Push, asking the audience to support the Chicago Public Schools, even in the wake of the Board’s claims of a budget shortfall that will force major concessions from the CTU and from the students we teach. His marks are reprinted below.

Good Morning Rainbow Push and the good people of Chicago. When Rev. Jonathan Jackson walked into my classroom, I was a little surprised—I was in the middle of giving a quiz on Japanese Grammar. Now, as a high school teacher, I don’t really feel comfortable speaking to crowds over the age of 18, but as Reverend Jackson emphasized, we must all stand up and speak to defend these schools or be complicit with injustice.

My name is Xian Barrett and I’m a teacher at Julian High School and a proud member of CORE—a group in the Chicago Teachers Union not afraid to fight for the community and the students of Chicago. Most of all, I’m an adult ally for Chicago Youth Initiating Change, a student group some of whose leadership you’ll hear from today that has been fighting Ren2010 and school closings over the last several years.

I found success with these amazing youth through a simple strategy: I listened to my community. I learned from the experienced African American teachers, and the wisdom of the community leaders who surround Julian. I learned the most by listening to our outstanding students.

The mayoral-controlled CPS board does the exact opposite. It discusses its plans behind closed doors with members of the elite and inflicts them upon the communities of color of our city. In many ways, it’s not a new story. These same elites and powerbrokers have abused our communities since before many of us in this room were born. They are hoping that we will be so desperate that we will again swallow their lies and turn on each other.

It’s happening even this very moment. CEO Ron Huberman is telling “Chicken Little” stories that we have a billion dollar deficit and that we will may have to increase class size to 45 students per classroom. Of course, last year, when there was no deficit, I had 46 students in an introductory Japanese course. And there were some math classes with 60. Yet, he continues to blame the experienced Black teachers instead of his own mismanagement of the funds. Look at CPS’ own budget which this year boasts a $422 million increase in “Other Charges”.

This is a lie to divide us. The CPS leadership is like a gambling addict, trying to blame the unpaid light bill for why there’s not enough money to feed the kids. They have gambled our children’s education away through expensive, experimental programs like charters and turnarounds. The data says they have failed. Our hearts know they have failed. Why do you think there are no charters and turnarounds in rich white communities?

They have fired thousands of outstanding black teachers while hiring more failed business people from outside our community as consultants and managers. They are food bank operators who sit with their friends in the office eating prime rib while the people starve outside.

There are two differences between us and them. First, we are motivated by love. I spend 16 hour days away from my lovely wife out of love—love for my students and love for her as I want to be able to face her when I get home. The students get up at 5 in the morning and continue their activism after school out of love. You all support your community school and came out today out of love. And love conquers tyranny.

Secondly, we have the courage to see this through. Unlike the board, who ignored the community to approve the destruction of 8 schools, we have the courage to meet each other in sunlight and have the tough conversations about what our children need. Unlike those who are too scared to even come out to our neighborhoods, we come together to improve those schools.

And yet, as of today, the official record still says that come June those communities will be destroyed. We must not allow this atrocity to occur. We must stand together—parent, student, community member, teacher and union leader and do whatever it takes to defend our children and our schools. We have all seen the devastating effects of turnaround and closure and we must join together and say, “Not one more school!”

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