Book Review Part 4

Book Review Part 4: 

Teachers and Reform: Chicago Public Education

By John Lyons

Jacqueline Vaughn became the first African-American CTU President in 1984

This is the fourth and final part of our 4-part series on the history of the Chicago Teachers Union and the Chicago Public Schools. This part will look at how the union and the teachers fought over integration v. black power with the City Machine. This is based on the book Teachers and Reform: Chicago Public Education 1929 - 1970 by John Lyons.

It is very important to know our history - especially our schools and union history so we as teachers can better understand our present situation. What did people fight over? What was permitted or not permitted? This can shape how we respond to events today.

The teachers union in Chicago attained collective bargaining rights  from Big Time Boss Mayor Richard J. Daley as a concession to prevent the bigger fight for integration of the schools. The black schools on the South and West Sides were overcrowded and underfunded, while many white schools on the North Side were under capacity and had better resources.

Like former Chicago Teachers Union President Jesse Sharkey constantly reminding the delegates that they had fought many strikes to get a better contract, former CTU President John Fewkes, who the $48 million Fewkes Tower that the union sold six years ago was named after, constantly reminded the teachers that he had obtained the teachers their pay after the payless paydays of the 1930s and had united the feuding teachers into one union in 1937. His followers were the old-timers who remembered what it was like during the Depression.

But the times were a changing!

Superintendent Benjamin Willis refused to bargain with the teachers union and wanted to control every detail of the school operation without any regard to teacher input. By the early 1960s Chicago teachers pay fell behind other teachers. Salary increases were so low throughout the 1960s that it did not keep pace with the cost of living. Teachers did not even have medical insurance or paid vacation at the time when this country experienced unprecedented prosperity. Teachers believed the principals held too much power and they demanded too much paper work. They also complained about student behavior. In 1964 there were 39 lawsuit cases of assault against teachers and a survey revealed 192 out of 374 CTU delegates reported  severe behavior problems in their classrooms and another 152 reported daily but minor behavior problems. In 1961 Josephine Keane became the first teacher murdered by a CPS student.

Many white teachers believed that the civil rights movement's demand for school integration threatened their working conditions and put at risk classroom autonomy with no respect for teachers. CTU President Fewkes had "little personal sympathy with the demands of the civil rights movement in Chicago." One researcher found "anyone who tried to speak about school integration on the floor of the Union of House of Representatives in the early 1960s was actually hooted down." Fewkes refused to speak out against segregation and the CTU opposed racial integration of the teachers by upholding the right of seniority in teacher transfers. While ignoring racial problems, the CTU rigorously defended teachers and principals against violent attacks by pupils and parents. To highlight classroom violence, the CTU undertook studies, published articles in the union newspaper and sent letters to the Board of Education. While black parents called for removal of uncaring principals and racist teachers, Fewkes supported the teachers. Younger teachers supported the Civil Rights movement and many black teachers promoted racial pride.

The first union opposition to Fewkes emerged in 1958 when Meyer Weinberg ran for president in the first contested union election in a decade on the Independent Caucus who demanded integrated schools and collective bargaining. Mayor Daley gave the CTU collective bargaining to get CTU backing of the Democrat Party, avoid conflict with the teachers union and defeat the civil rights movement that threatened his power base.

Nearly half of Chicago's black public school teachers crossed the picket lines during a two-day walkout in May, 1969, and activists called to set up their own all-black labor union during the Black Power phase when teachers and community activists wanted to improve the inner city schools. CPS had announced a busing program to integrate the schools in 1967 but only for black students to be bused, better pay to encourage white teachers to work in black schools and magnet schools to stem white flight. But thousands of white residents protested the Board of Education's plan. A petition opposing the busing plan gathered 60,000 signatures. "The persistence of residential segregation, white opposition, and lack of will on the part of the school administration had fatally wounded school integration in Chicago."

Mayor Daley did hire more black school administrators and introduce African American studies classes in the curriculum. In 1966 Vice President John Desmond, an ally of Fewkes, narrowly defeated Charles Skibbens from the radical Teachers Action Committee 4,306 - 4,190 for CTU President. Black teachers and young, inexperienced white teachers taught in the segregated schools, and the CTU focused on better pay rather than improving black schools. In 1967-68 CTU obtained Christmas vacation pay and paid spring vacation, a $500 salary increase, fully paid medical insurance, three personal business days, a grievance procedure, severance pay, a preparation period for elementary teachers (high school already had one) and duty-free lunch. All thanks to collective bargaining!

However, black teachers got a bad deal. The union did not help to get certification for Full-time Basis Substitutes (FTBs), which was given to teachers who did not pass the Chicago Board of Education teacher certification examination. They had no security of tenure, transfer privileges, and lower pay than fully certified teachers. In 1963 5,000 teachers or a quarter of the workforce were FTBs, and 90 percent were black! Plus, black teachers said the teacher oral exam deliberately discriminated against them, believing examiners did not like "unprofessional" black southern accents. The mother of Emmett Til who was murdered in Mississippi failed the exam accusing her of being on an 'ego trip.' Plus, it was a way to keep black teachers in black schools when they could not transfer. Harold Charles had worked as a biochemist at the University of Chicago and was chair of his science department, but had been an FTB because he failed the oral exam continuously. When his white principal complained, he passed! Plus FTBs did not have full membership in the teachers union. A group called Concerned FTBs formed to get full rights in the union. Unlike the CTU, the UFT in NY supported school integration and black civil rights. Black parents and activists turned their attention away from seeking school and faculty integration and toward an increased focus on quality of public education. The violent pushback from the white people against integration horrified black people and confirmed to many they were safer staying in black neighborhoods and black schools. The Black Teacher Caucus formed in 1966 as a black nationalist group that tried to influence the CTU  open only to black teachers. They wanted smaller classes in black schools, and more black trustees on the Board of Ed, and black principals and immediate certification of all FTBs! They said only black teachers should teach in black schools. The Teachers for Radical Change in Education was formed in 1968 by new left white radicals. They were a militant group that wanted to unite all the teacher groups and focus on educational issues, not wage demands. 

It was shown that the written and oral tests to be fully certified teacher was biased in favor of white teachers, but some white teachers resented this thinking it lowered standards if they did not have to pass the test. The Concerned FTBs staged three 'sick-ins' in 1967 when 1300 teachers stayed at home and in 1968 they went on strike for two weeks demanding Chicago teaching certificates after two years of satisfactory service. The CTU opposed the strike. They then filed a class action lawsuit claiming equal protection under the 14th Amendment which was denied. 

The CTU went on its first official strike on May 22 and 23, 1969. 3/4s of the teachers supported the union. Many striking teachers held classes for students in make-shift tents and at YMCA and Chicago Boys Club. About 23 percent of teachers crossed the picket lines; 45 percent of black teachers crossed the lines. The strike ended when all the CTU demands were met: $100 monthly raise for teachers, recruited 750 more teachers in overcrowded schools and reduce class size, and the Board of Ed agreed that after three years of satisfactory work FTBs would gain Chicago certification without an exam. The members voted 9,776 to 523 to accept the agreement.

The CTU then put more black teachers on election slates and in positions of power, including making Jacqueline B. Vaughn the vice president in 1972 before replacing Robert Healey as CTU President in 1984, to become the first African American woman and elementary school teacher to become CTU president, where she served until 1994 when she died of cancer. The Chicago Teachers Union delegates hall at its headquarters is named after Jacqueline B. Vaughn. 

Book Review Part 3

Book Review Part 3: 

Teachers and Reform: Chicago Public Education

By John Lyons

Mayor Martin Kennelly had a good relationship with the CTU.

This is the third part of our 4-part series on the history of the Chicago Teachers Union and the Chicago Public Schools. This part will look at how the union worked with the City Machine and the huge difference between two mayors and their relationship to the CTU. We also highlight the fight for equal pay between elementary and high school teachers and the beginning of segregation. Our report is based on the book Teachers and Reform: Chicago Public Education 1929 - 1970 by John Lyons.

After the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor on Dec. 9, 1941, the CTU pledged to fully support the war effort and several Chicago Public High Schools were turned over to the National Defense Training Program to prepare thousands of people to work in the defense industry. Staff and students collected scrap metal and grew food in 'victory gardens' on school grounds. In June 1942 the CTU and CPS staged a Flag Day parade of 400,000 people that stretched over 50 miles throughout the city.

Ira Turley became the next CTU President and continued John Fewkes focus on pay and benefits. He agreed to not criticize Chicago Machine Mayor Ed Kelly who in return would rescind teacher pay cuts. While the AFT and CTU agreed to not strike during the war and did not defend its members, there were many strikes in the country. The CTU fired its reform activist executive secretary Kermit Eby to allegedly appease the Mayor who then restored the final part of the teachers' pay that had been cut during the Depression and beefed up police security at schools with violent student behavior.

The next fight was the demand for elementary school teachers to be paid the same as high school teachers which the CTU was reluctant to support. In the 1943 CTU election Susan Scully, a member of CTU Executive Board, ran on single salary schedule and won 48%. The union then fought for equal pay which many male high school teachers opposed. The Mens Teachers Club MTC fought against equal pay by blaming 'feminist groups' and declared equal pay 'Communist'. By 1952 only Chicago and Boston with strong men teacher unions were large cities with no equal pay. The Chicago Board of Education finally adopted equal pay for elementary and high school teachers in Jan. 1954.

Arthur Walz became next CTU president and was close to Fewkes and Turley and preferred to work with the Mayor.

From 1940 - 45 the school enrollment dropped with fall in birth rate, rise in Catholic schools and migration to suburbs.

Union membership reached 14.5 million after the war, and all-time high of 35 percent of the labor force in the country.

Teachers saw their living and working conditions decline after the war: "How can teachers teach democracy to children when they themselves have no opportunity to take part in any decisions as to school policy ..."

Decade after WWII led to rapid population growth and huge school enrollment increases and the Red Scare during the Cold War sought to limit academic freedom and promote conformist attitudes in classroom. The AFT condemned communism in schools and concentrated on bread and butter issues.

The National Education Assoc. NEA made a report that showed how the city politicians used the public schools for their own needs, getting jobs through political connections and how the board transferred or demoted teachers who opposed the Mayor and giving favors to union leaders. The explosive report forced Mayor Kelly to not run for re-election. The CTU did nothing to get Kelly out.

Mayor Martin Kennelly was against the Chicago Machine and promised to keep the schools free of political influence and teachers no longer depended on political connections to get a job. The new board president Harold Hunt worked with the CTU and gave more classroom autonomy to teachers and allowed committees made of principals and teachers to choose textbooks. He even appointed union members and critics to his administration.

In 1947 Arthur Walz stepped aside to allow John Fewkes to be CTU president again after he had returned to the classroom to be a P.E. teacher at Tilden High School. He received 64% of the vote. In Nov. 1950 the delegates amended the CTU Constitution and removed the restriction that the president could succeed himself only once. Fewkes was elected nine more times and served until 1966.

Fewkes worked with Mayor Kennelly and got a teacher raise. Paid sick leave increased from 5 days to 10 days in 1955 and accumulated sick leave total increased from 15 days to 120 days in 1960.

The insanity of the Red Scare was highlighted when Chicago aldermen, local press and white resident associations accused Chicago Housing Authority and its head Elizabeth Wood of communism for allocating public housing to black families in previous white neighborhoods. Today the CTU lists housing as a mayor platform to fight for. The Chicago Tribune condemned communist teaching and campaigned to remove liberal textbooks from the public schools, many that were pro-union and pro-New Deal. The Trib campaigned to remove a book edited by former AFT president George Counts called I Want to be Like Stalin, but which condemned the Soviet Union. In one case a teacher was accused by students at Senn High School of being a communist, even though she was just a liberal and Roosevelt supporter; students and faculty defended her and Board President Hunt supported her. Using informants and police detectives, the Chicago Police Dept. Red Squad compiled files on teachers' political beliefs and passed them to the Board of Education. The CTU defended CPS curriculum from anti-communist attacks while always pointing out their opposition to communism. The CTU supported an AFT vote to not defend any teacher proved to be a communist, but opposed any kind of loyalty oath.

Mayor Richard J. Daley defeated Martin Kennelly and restored the Chicago Machine in 1955. He served until his death in 1976 at a time when the city schools became segregated as the black population greatly increased. A minority of Chicago teachers aligned with the Civil Rights, but most white teachers saw civil rights movement and school integration as a threat to classroom autonomy. While demanding he improve conditions for black people, Mayor Daley agreed to give teachers collective bargaining rights.

Black school enrollment increased from 21 percent in 1950 to 47 percent in 1963. Both the students and teachers attended highly segregated schools. The black schools suffered greater overcrowding and poorer conditions compared to white schools. Mayor Daley opposed integration of the schools. Daley felt black people moving into white neighborhoods threatened to push white residents, his electoral power base and main source of tax revenue, out of the city. He appointed members to the Board of Education who supported segregation. To keep the schools segregated, the board shifted attendance boundaries, issued transfers to white students and built new schools and additions. CPS Superintendent Benjamin C. Willis who replaced Hunt was the symbol of segregation and racism. His legacy lives on today when we see mobile units called Willis wagons on school grounds that were additions built during his time in order to prevent black students at overcrowded schools from transferring to a white school. Chicago built 208 new elementary schools, 13 high schools, a junior college and new teachers' college between 1953 to 1962, earning Willis the title "Ben the Builder."

He built the schools to keep black and white students separate!

AFT

AFT Annual Convention

By George Milkowski

 

      My wife, Rhonda Berow, and I were elected recently to be delegates to the AFT and the IFT conventions in 2022.  We attended the AFT Convention held July 13-17 that was in Boston.  There were over 2,352 delegates representing 1,775,000 members from across the nation.  Here is my report.

 

      Over the course of the Convention there were numerous speakers.  The politicians and notables who spoke included Michelle Wu, Mayor of Boston, Elizabeth Warren, senior senator from Massachusetts, U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona, Ed Markey, junior senator from Massachusetts, Pres. Biden (via video), Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey who is running for governor and is endorsed by the AFT.  There were a number of other speakers from various union organizations, too.  

    Jessica Tang, president of the Boston Teachers Union, lauded Wu for her work in helping to stop the State from putting Boston schools into “receivership”.

    Secretary Cardona reminded the assembly that there is a program to cancel student debt for those in public service positions but the deadline is October 31, 2022.  He said that over $8 billion of debt has been forgiven so far.  This was personal to Half Hollow Hills Teacher Association president Richard Harris.  He said he taught and has been paying his student loans for 21 years and still owed $20,000!!

    Darline Williams vice president of the Public Employees Federation (New York) thanked the AFT.  At the height of the pandemic they were using the same face masks for a week at a time until the AFT donated thousands of masks two years ago.

    Not to be overlooked was our own Stacy Davis gates, newly elected CTU president. 

    In her opening remarks, AFT president Randi Weingarten criticized recent Supreme Court decisions and the HUGE profits oil corporations are currently reaping.  She said the top five oil corporations reaped $35 billion in the first quarter of 2022, more than 30% higher than the previous year. She expressed concern for the gun violence that is tearing into our society and the role that politicians are taking to tell teachers what they can and cannot teach.  She said the Union has set up an “AFT defense fund for any teacher who is punished for teaching the truth”.

    At the last AFT convention a retiree committee had been established and the AFT has started having Retiree Divisional Meetings.  One of its subcommittees is aimed at getting retirees to come out and vote and to work to get others to come out and vote.  There is also a subcommittee on voter suppression.  The AFT is working to set up more local retiree councils.  There are thousands of retirees in Florida but only one local council to cover the whole State.  DeSantis won his last election by less than 1% so a group of organized retirees may have a big in pact on the election.  Lastly, a health subcommittee is working to repeal the Windfall Eliminations Provision (WEP) and the Government Pension Offset (GPO).  Both of these programs greatly cut into a retirees expected pension.  Even if a teacher (OR THE TEACHER’S SPOUSE) con-

tributed to at least the required minimum 40 quarters into Social Security, these programs would cause their benefits to greatly be reduced or totally eliminated and they wouldn’t know of this until they retire.

    The various speakers gave a brief background about themselves and generally they all favored a lot more investment in education, decried the Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade, and insisted that more realistic gun control laws are needed.  Sen. Markey brought up two other points that the others did not mention.  First, he said the filibuster needs to be eliminated (I agree) and that the Supreme Court needs to have an increased number of justices (I disagree).

    We missed part of the remarks of Sen. Warren as we were in line for one hour and forty-five minutes due to very tight security as Dr. Jill Biden was coming to address the convention.  After getting into the hall, I heard Sen. Warren urge public workers to apply for Federal Loan Forgiveness.  She said under the Trump administration only 3% of the 200,000 who applied for it got it.  So far under Biden, almost $8 billion in loans have been cancelled to those eligible under the program.  She compared it to the G.I. Bill enacted at the end of World Ward II that enabled millions to get college educations that would have been impossible to do with out the law.  Economists estimated that for every dollar spent under the G.I. Bill, $7 was returned to the economy.  She also cited figures about the current program that followed white male borrowers who, after twenty years, still owed an average of 6% of their original loan but Black borrowers still owed 90% of their original loan!

    Dr. Biden spoke and admitted she is a member of our national rival, the NEA, so Randi Weingarten made her an “honorary” AFT member.  Dr. Biden cited that 150,000 individuals have received loan forgiveness so far.  She said people have to get involved to express the “will of the people”.   She concluded by saying that “We can change the world so let’s get to work!

    There were also a few panel discussions including one on gun control.  That panel had a young man who was a student at Marjorie Douglas Stoneman School in Florida who has been active in mobilizing young people to vote.  

    Chris Smalls, who was fired for complaining about conditions at Amazon Fulfillment Centers (a.k.a. warehouses), addressed the crowd.  He went on to form the non-affiliated Amazon Labor Union and said “There is a war goin’ outside every day against us”.  The AFT donated $250,000 to the Amazon Labor Union to help them establish an office.

    Additionally, three Starbucks workers, Richard Bensinger, Kylah Clay, and Jordiie Adams spoke to the delegates.  Jordie’s store just voted to form a union the day before.  Kylah said that seven months ago there were zero union stores and now 190 nationwide have voted to organize.  Hers was the first store to unionize in Massachusetts.  The next step is to get a contract.  By chance we ran into Jordie and Kylah as the convention broke for lunch and we ate together at a nearby restaurant.  It was refreshing to do so as these two young women are very energetic and optimistic about their future.  By the way, if you frequent a Starbucks location, consider giving your name as “Union Yes” and tell them to call you loudly when your order is ready as you are “hard of hearing”.  

    Nancy Pelosi was there to receive the AFT's Women's Rights award.  She was warmly welcomed although her acceptance remarks came via video.

    A large part of the convention was work done in committees.  I had requested to be on the Political Action/Legislation Committee but was instead assigned to the Labor and the Economy Committee.  The other committees were: Constitutional Amendments, Educational Issues, Higher Education, Human Rights and International Relations, Organizing and Collective Bargaining, Public Services, Retirement, Registered Nurses/Healthcare Workers and Healthcare Access, Schools and Colleges Support Staff Issues, and Women’s Rights.

    The job of the committees is to go over resolutions submitted by the various locals and vote to recommend their acceptance, to propose amendments to the resolutions, or recommend that they are not approved.  All approved resolutions become the official policy of the AFT.         

    After going through the various resolutions, each AFT committee then has to vote and prioritize just three of them to bring to the convention floor for debate and final approval.  Those resolutions that are not sent to the convention floor but were approved by committees are sent to the AFT Executive Council.  I have heard conflicting comments as to what happens to them there.   One person said that they are usually approved by the Council but another maintained that that is where they are sent to die.  All of the resolutions that were presented on the floor passed; almost all of them unanimously, since most of the work had been done in the committees.

    The committee on constitutional amendments recommended that a joint AFT Militancy/Defense Fund funded by $.95 per capita starting September 1, 

2021 and $1.00 per capita starting September 1, 2023.  Also, starting September 1, 2021 each local would have paid a per capita tax of $19.98 per month and that will go to $20.18 per member per month starting September 1, 2023.

    I would like to point out that about 52% of the CTU’s budget goes for required “pass throughs” like this to the AFT and to the IFT.  However, some of that is returned to the CTU and the IFT through the AFT’s Solidarity Fund.  Since the last convention two years ago Illinois received a return of $1,842,480.39 from this fund.  The money has been used to help pay for court costs and has been used to try to elect pro-union politicians.

    One last duty I had was to vote for the three officers of the AFT and for 43 members to serve on the Executive Council.  The number of votes a delegate has depends on the number of members in the local.  A local with 150 members who sent three delegates to the convention would mean each delegate would have 50 votes.  There was only one slate of candidates, the United Progressive Caucus, so Randi Weingarten and her group was elected.  Stacy Davis Gates and Dan Montgomery, president of the IFT, joined this caucus to get on the ballot and so they were elected to the Executive Council.

    Rhonda and I left as the last resolution from the last committee report came up because we had to evacuate our hotel room. I have no doubt they passed as almost every resolution passed unanimously or with just a few "nay" votes.

Book Review Part 2

Book Review Part 2: 

Teachers and Reform: Chicago Public Education, 1929 - 1970

By John Lyons

John Fewkes was the first CTU President

This is the second part of our 4-part series on the history of the Chicago Teachers Union and the Chicago Public Schools. We now take a close look at the 1930s and 1940s and the union's dilemma of fighting or joining the Chicago Machine. The CTU also joined the fight to purge communists. This is based on the book Teachers and Reform: Chicago Public Education 1929 - 1970 by John Lyons.

They say history repeats, and boy is this true for the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU). 

In the recent May election teachers voted either for the Members First caucus who focus on pay and benefits v. CORE, who want to fight for progressive legislation and social justice. It was the same choice for teachers after the CTU formed in 1937. The President was John Fewkes and he showed little interest in political and educational reform and wanted the union to focus on better salary and working conditions v. the new union executive secretary Kermit Eby who wanted the CTU to play a major role in Chicago politics and reform the public school system.

The CTU was formed under Mayor Edward Kelly who built one of the most powerful political organizations in U.S. history. His democratic machine took control of Chicago politics and public education in the mid 1930s. He was in office from 1933 - 1947. He and Patrick Nash who was head of the Cook County Democratic Party enjoyed popular support from President Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal to put people back to work during the Great Depression.

Mayor Kelly appointed seven new members to the 11-member Chicago Board of Education made up of trustees who were self-made businessmen with little experience in education and did not live in Chicago or send their kids to the city's public schools.

Mayor Kelly saw the schools as a vital source of political patronage. To overcome tenure so they could hire their friends, the board issued temporary teaching certificates to political contacts. The Board of Ed only hired teachers from the Chicago Teachers College who gained admission if they had ties to the political machine. 

How corrupt was Chicago? In 1939 Chicago was 14th of the 15 largest cities on per pupil spending on instruction, but No. 1 on spending on the schools' construction and maintenance! They hired their friends at inflated prices to work on the schools. Kelly tried to get the state to fund the city education, but just like today, the state refused, and both the city and state refused to raise taxes. So the teachers paid for it. In 1937 Chicago teachers suffered a 23 percent pay cut, while St. Louis teachers had only 4 percent cut. And the Board of Ed increasingly told teachers what to teach and supplied all the textbooks without input from the teachers. Teachers who opposed the board's patronage system were either demoted or transferred.

The conservative board trustees claimed that there were too many communists teaching the students in Chicago. The state and city politicians campaigned to enact the law of loyalty oaths for Illinois schoolteachers. Chicago was the birthplace of the U.S. Communist Party in 1919, but there were few communist teachers in Chicago, unlike NY City, and union leaders shunned communists. Chicago teachers were mostly native born of Irish, British or German, with long traditions of unionism but not communism. Poor immigrants and African-Americans were more likely to join the Communist Party.

President Roosevelt was against the teachers union and all public sector unions from achieving collective bargaining and the strike. In the 1960s the CTU finally achieved collective bargaining rights that it regained today.

Many schools at this time refused to hire married women teachers and the CTU supported legislation to discriminate against married teachers whose husbands earned more than $1500 per year. Women teachers played an active role in the union. Like today, religion played a big role for the first CTU VP Mary Herrick who was a liberal protestant who espoused egalitarianism and she elevated the CTU to national status. She taught at Phillips and DuSable High Schools and promoted racial justice. (She also wrote an excellent book The Chicago Schools.)

To encourage women to join the union, the CTU hosted tea parties, card parties, picnics, golf tournaments, dances, operettas, and movie shows. The CTU ran its own bowling league, which was a big sport in the city back then, its own dance, theater, choral and writer groups.

The CTU at this time did little to challenge racial discrimination that forced black teachers to work for less pay as subs in overcrowded black schools on the Southside. There were few black teachers in the CTU in the 1940s.

The CTU formed the Citizens School Committee (CSC) in 1933 to oppose the educational cuts and they formed strong relations with influential civic organizations including Hull House, Chicago Women's Club, and League of Women Voters, and support of Chicago churches. The CTU issued daily press releases, had a weekly paper, monthly magazine, weekly radio talk and spoke at PTAs, women's clubs and unions to shift the ideological debate and war with the Kelly-Nash Machine over education cuts and payless paydays. But they hoped the Chicago Federation of Labor (CFL) would put political pressure on the Mayor. The CTU supported Paul Douglas to become the 5th Ward Alderman in 1939 and he in turn became the only alderman to vote against Mayor Kelly in the City Council. The CTU tried hard to get Harold Ickes, secretary of the interior for Pres. Roosevelt, to run against Kelly for Mayor, but the residency rule where he had to live one year before running prevented him from being a candidate. The union encouraged its teachers to vote for candidates who supported smaller class sizes, restore teachers' pay, support collective bargaining, and uphold the merit system and asked committeemen to not use political influence to hire or promote teachers.

In June 1937 Fewkes and teachers staged a two-hour sit down in the office of the board president demanding restoration of pay, and after Fewkes threatened to send hundreds of teachers to Board of Ed every week, the president met with CTU. Fewkes was a militant union leader before he became president and was known for leading massive protests. The teachers also sent letters to the Mayor, Governor, Board of Ed members requesting restoration of pay. The Board then announced its first partial repayment to the teachers' pay. In a concession to the union over corrupt patronage, the Board appointed an independent group to control the oral part of principals' exam and entrance exam to the Chicago Teachers College.

The issue of the deteriorating conditions of the public schools and political control was the biggest topic in the 1939 Mayor Election, and all 4 candidates including Kelly agreed to eliminate politics from school administration. With Kelly about to lose, he made concessions to CTU, including more pay and more say in who is appointed to the Board of Ed, and in return CTU stopped criticizing Kelly. Kelly won in the primary and promptly sponsored a bill to restore teachers pay and teachers on maternity leave would keep their positions open for two years.

But after Kelly's re-election, the board turned against the CTU. They refused to negotiate and relations deteriorated. The Chicago Machine was still too powerful and the electorate was increasingly homeowners and parents of Catholic School kids who supported Kelly's stance on lower taxes. Catholics made up more than half of the Chicago population by the late 1930s. The CFL was close to the machine and benefited from political patronage jobs.

But as the Board paid teachers regularly now and rescinded much of their salary cut, teachers became less interested in wider educational reform. The CTU in 1940 saw its membership decrease to 56 percent of the teachers. 

Fewkes and Herrick helped to expel the communist-dominated NY and Pennsylvania teacher union locals from the American Federation of Teachers (AFT).

Fewkes believed that rather than continue to fight the political machine through public pressure, the CTU should follow the example of the building unions and seek political patronage through the CFL. Others like Kermit Eby opposed the Kelly-Nash machine and advocated an alliance between the teachers and the wider community.  

Book Review

Book Review Part 1: 

Teachers and Reform: Chicago Public Education, 1929 - 1970

By John Lyons

Margaret Haley, 1st Chicago teachers union president

The book Teachers and Reform by John Lyons is a must read for Chicago teachers to learn about the history of the Chicago Teachers Union.

Second City Teachers will feature a 3 or 4 part series on the history of the CTU and its relationship to the Chicago Public Schools based on information from this book. This first part will take a look at how the CTU was first formed.

In 1900, women made up 50 percent of Chicago high school teachers, but in 1930 they made up 80 percent of junior high school teachers.

Chicago was the center of teacher unionism after women elementary teachers formed the Chicago Teachers Federation (CTF) in 1897. CTF leader Margaret Haley demanded that corporations pay higher taxes, enact more progressive laws, and fight for the women's vote and Irish independence. 

High school teachers formed their own union in 1912 Herbert Miller formed the Chicago Federation of Men Teachers (MTU), and then women formed the Federation of Women High School Teachers.

The success of teacher unionism in Chicago was because Chicago had the largest and most militant and progressive labor unions in the country in the early 1900s. The Chicago Federation of Labor (CFL) formed close relations with socialists and other radicals to organize packing house and women garment workers. The CFL opposed World War I and supported Irish independence from Britain. They turned away from radicals in the mid 1920s and focused only on pay and benefits.

In 1915 the Chicago Board of Education president Jacob Loeb instituted a rule to prohibit teachers from joining labor unions. The CTF then disaffiliated from the CFL and the AFT in May, 1917. In this progressive era, women were the most active social and education reformers. They were more interested in improving education than the men.

In the 1920s textbooks were old and inadequate, there were few or no libraries, poor bathrooms and few playgrounds. Cheerless classrooms included merely a chalkboard, a map and a waste basket, and were poorly heated and ventilated.

Teachers unions in Chicago were divided before the Great Depression. In 1929 about 10 percent of Chicago teachers were in a union.

The ethnically divided teaching force in Chicago was further divided between Catholics and Protestants. Chicago Elementary teachers were paid in nine yearly steps from $1500 - $2500, while High School teachers were paid from $2,000 - $3800. The teachers had ten paid holidays and ten paid sick days, a pension, tenure and other benefits. They also had more control over what they taught.

The corrupt Chicago public education system coupled with the Depression resulted in payless paydays that led to the establishment of the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU). At this time 90 percent of school funding came from property taxes, while in NY it was only 30 percent. Major property holders and big businesses paid little taxes in the Windy City. 

In October, 1932 half of Chicago's workforce was unemployed. The tax delinquency rate was five times that of NY City.

The payless paydays and school crisis of 1929 - 1934 made teachers understand that the banks were the enemies and politicians merely represented their interests and they needed to form a strong union.

In May 1937 John Fewkes became president of the Mens Teacher Union (MTU) on the platform to unit all the teachers unions in Chicago. The next October the four unions - the men and women high school teacher federations, the elementary teacher federation and the Playground Teachers Union merged to form the Chicago Teachers Union, Local No. 1 of the American Federation of Teachers and John Fewkes became the first president.

(The Fewkes Tower was sold by the CTU in 2015 for $48.5 million in order to move into its new headquarters and pay for its legislative agenda.)

In 1938 the CTU became the largest teachers union in the country, with two-thirds of the city's teachers members, while less than 4 percent of teachers in the rest of the country joined a union. Margaret Haley CTF president refused to join because she said the CTU included principals as members and would be dominated by high school teachers.

Mayor Ed Kelly, who formed the Chicago Machine, allowed teachers to distribute union flyers and hold union meetings in the schools and gave Fewkes a leave of absence to be union president and allowed union delegates time off to attend conferences.

"The union faced a critical choice: forge an alliance with reform organizations that would challenge the machine and change the city's politics and public schools or align with the machine and concentrate on issues of salary."

*The next part will focus on the Chicago Teachers Union precarious relationship with Kelly-Nash machine.

Forensic Audit Passes

Forensic Audit Back on for Chicago Teachers Pension Fund

By Jim Vail

CTPF Director Carlton Lenoir

The Chicago Teachers Pension Fund Trustees voted unanimously to reverse themselves and authorize the continuation of the forensic audit of the pension fund at a special meeting on July 7, 2022.

The motion was made to authorize the CTPF Executive Director Carlton Lenoir and his staff to contract with BDO to complete the financial transaction forensic audit at a cost not to exceed $175,000. 

The special meeting was called after the board voted against a continuation of the forensic audit at the June 16, 2022 board meeting. After the motion was seconded, CPS Board Trustee Dwayne Truss said he needed more time and discussion on the audit and recommended postponing the motion to continue the forensic audit. The motion then failed and the only two trustees who voted to continue the audit were Trustees Maria J. Rodriguez and Tina Padilla.

Lenoir said at the special meeting that BDO had recommended doing an audit on the investment manager fees and compare what CTPF pays with other pension funds of comparable size.

"It was not a difficult decision," Weiss said. "After gathering more information it was clear to expand the audit."

Weiss said there were many areas of inconsistency and BDO did preliminary work that identified more problems. He said there was no debate among the trustees to do the audit.

The CTPF currently does not have an internal auditor.

Trustee Rodriguez made the original motion for a forensic audit from 2015 - 2020 on October 15, 2020 after former Director Charles Burbridge left the pension fund and was replaced by an interim director Mary Cavallaro. That motion passed in which the auditor was to address whistleblower allegations about financial transactions and discrepancies in accounting. BDO would conduct the audit unannounced and interview fund employees.

BDO was contracted to do a two part audit that can reveal missing money. 

The only Trustee to not vote was Jerry Travlos, who represents the principals. He was not present during the vote.

____________________________

Ficter

FIGHT ON FOR FICHTER

Jennifer Fichter case comes under review

 

Your letter of appeal to the judge can make a decisive difference! Write now!

By Stephen Wilson

 

High school teacher Jennifer Fichter was sentenced to 22 
years for having sex with three teenage students.

 

Incredulity, astonishment and amazement! Beyond belief! 

Such is the emotional response aroused among many Russians and people all over the world at the fate of American English teacher Jennifer Fichter who has now been languishing in jail for seven years. 

For anyone unaware of this case, Jennifer Fichter is an American English teacher who was charged and found guilty of having illicit sex with three 17-year-old students and received the severe sentence of 22 years imprisonment in July 2015. 

At that time this heavy and hysterical  sentence provoked a sense of outrage and injustice throughout the World especially in Russia. A campaign to review her sentence secured a massive reservoir of support. In just a few days after her sentence, a staggering 41,000 people in Russia signed a petition for her sentence to be reviewed and reduced. By 2019 the number of people who had signed a petition had grown to 77,000 and this is not to mention the numerous letters of appeal, support and articles asking for the release of Jennifer Fichter. Many believe she should not be behind bars in the first place. At present her case is coming up for review therefore this is just the ripe time for all concerned people to write letters of appeal to the judge who will be reviewing her case.

 

There are several good reasons why Fichter's case should be reviewed. However, at least 3 or 4 reasons immediately spring to mind:

 

1. The severe punishment hardly fits the crime. It is an inappropriate punishment because the usual practice in such cases is for the school teacher to be dismissed and denied future work as a teacher. The stigma and being blacklisted represents a hard enough punishment. Lenoid Perlov, a representative of the Russian trade union 'Teacher',  who was interviewed by Second City Teachers told us that "If I was in charge of those cases I would just dismiss the teachers from their jobs and ban them from working in this particular part or area of America. I would not put them in prison. But teachers have to understand they must maintain a distance from their pupils." Despite the sensationalism of the media who focus on the titillating and lurid aspects of this case, Jennifer Fichter is no rapist, murderer, child molester and predator. Most of her students were not victims who suffered trauma, harm or violence. In fact, according to some American states they would not be deemed minors. Compare this sentence with the fact that a Norwegian Neo Nazis murdered 77 people and wounded 150 in 2011 and received a lesser sentence of 21 years.

 

2. The case represents a classic example of a cruel and unusual punishment which violates the 8th American Bill of Rights. No clear purpose is served by the incarceration of Fichter. It is not in anyone's interest to prolong the pointless suffering of this teacher whose self-esteem is damaged and her family needlessly feels intense pain. Jim Vail, a journalist and trade union activist who has followed many such cases over the years, points out, "Nothing was accomplished by this draconian sentence but outrage from many people from all over the World. This calls into question the leeway a judge has to issue a sentence out of proportion to what the norm dictates. A sentencing panel in which a number of judges recommends the sentence would be a much fairer way to sentence someone in this case. What kind of message is the United States sending the World by imprisoning someone for 22 years for a problem that should be addressed with social therapy, not bars?"

 

3. This case and others which were tried by Judge Glenn Shelby are full of glaring inconsistencies which defy right reason and justice. For instance, a retired judge Ernest Jones claimed to have found inconsistencies in two well known legal rulings by the circuit judge Glenn Shelby. For instance, why was there a huge discrepancy between a drunken driver who received a 12-year sentence for accidently killing a pregnant teenage girl and the 22-year old sentence handed out to the teacher Fichter? The reasoning used by the judge in such cases raises many questions about the very philosophy and lack of logic exercised in such rulings. Ernest Jones stated he would have handled this case much differently. He considers the jail sentence too long. He would have sentenced  Fichter to little prison time and 'Probably a lot of probation.' Jones expressed reservations about whether this punishment served any useful purpose. He stated, 'We have too many people in prison who don't need to be there. There are other ways to send a message to the public and 'punish' an offender who doesn't pose a serious threat to the public ...'

 

According to Denis Jacques a leading campaigner to free Jennifer Fichter, the logic behind the sentence was bizarre:

'They stacked one charge per act for a total of 37 charges .{one charge per sex act} A joke going around the courts is that 'Fichter. It damn near killed her.' That policy does not make any sense more than having 5 counts of murder for killing someone with 5 bullets instead of one.' We absolutely agree with Denis Jacques!

 

It is clear that this sentence is arbitrary, absurd and cruel. It is arbitrary because if Fichter had been found guilty in Georgia where the age of consent is 16 she would have been free today.

 

So why has the American state taken so long to rectify this wrong? Perhaps part of the reason is that no judge likes to admit he has made a wrong decision and the American legal system remains very conservative. Many sections of the media have never addressed this case seriously and are only interested in the extent to which the scandal can sell newspapers. For them this is just another story to sell for the sake of profit. And another problem is that for some inexplicable reason the petition for Fichter was removed from some social networks. Some opponents hope that the case, with the passage of time, will gradually fade away into obscurity. In other words, Jennifer Fichter will become a forgotten prisoner.

 

Well, we won't let this happen. The campaign must continue. As an old English proverb goes - 'In for a penny, in for a pound'. Therefore we appeal to you to write a letter to the following address below asking for the judge to reduce the sentence of Jennifer Fichter. It does not take long to write such a brief letter. Get your friends to also write letters. Ignore those who are cynical and tell you it is all in vain. The history of countless pressure groups such as Amnesty International proves otherwise. Letters do in deed make a difference! Don't let Jennifer Fichter become a forgotten prisoner. She doesn't deserve such a fate !

 

The letter should be addressed to

 

Polk County Clerk of Court,

Drawer CC-9

P.O. Box 9000,

Barton,

Florida  33831-9000

The United States of America.

{to be forwarded to the respected Judge Michael P Mc Daniel.}

New High School

The Chicago Board of Education needs to approve Chinatown High School

By Froylan Jimenez

The Chicago Board of Education needs to approve the construction of a new CPS high school on the South Side near Chinatown. There’s no doubt that building a new high school in this area is both necessary and a worthwhile investment of taxpayer money.

That being said, news that the board decided to delay a vote, pending more community input and research to ensure this project gets done effectively, was also progress. Community feedback on issues such as the proposed attendance boundaries, site and overall impact, is welcome, so the process and planning is not rushed.

Construction of a project like this is certainly not cheap. But the fact that Illinois is willing to put up $50 million, nearly half the cost, in an area of high population growth that has been demanding a high school for years, makes sense.

The area recently made history by gaining its first Asian American City Council member. This same area should make history by being allowed have its own high school. Educational empowerment is just as important as political empowerment.

Investment in education and in building schools is not a zero-sum game. Nor should it be a race issue that pits one group against another.

There must be a way to accommodate valid community input without squandering the opportunity to build a new high school that offers a world of opportunity.

We should applaud the decision by the board to delay its consideration, but ultimately, this project should absolutely move forward.

Froylan Jimenez, Bridgeport, CPS civics teacher