HOD Strike PreparationCTU

Chicago Teachers Union House of Delegates Preparing Groundwork for Strike!
By Jim Vail

CTU VP Jesse Sharkey told delegates "prepare to strike."

"We must be prepared to strike," Chicago Teachers Union president Jesse Sharkey told the delegates not once, but three times. "So we are talking about a school shutdown."

Sharkey spoke to a packed crowd of more than 600 CTU delegates on Wednesday, Nov. 4, about the reasons to be prepared to strike because negotiations are going nowhere.

"We will make this city into one large walking demonstration," he said.

The CTU leadership said of over 600 schools represented by delegates in the system, only 18 had not picked up their packets that night to give their members a Contract Poll Practice Vote referendum that was conducted in the schools on Thursday, Nov. 5.

There were four questions that CTU members had to mark Yes or No to:

1) In negotiations, Board of Ed negotiators demand that CTU members agree to pay cuts, increased healthcare charges, elimination of minimum staffing levels and contract changes which will remove hundreds of CPS employees from our schools to help balance the Board's budget. CTU's Bargaining Team categorically rejects these proposals.  Do you agree with the bargaining team?

2) The Mayor and the Board of Ed refuse to stand up to corporations like Bank of America and to super rich individuals like Bruce Rauner who underfund our schools by refusing to pay their fair share in taxes. Should CTU highlight the real cause of CPS budget challenges by organizing boycotts, corporate campaigns and legislative efforts to retrieve that money?

3) Forrest Claypool, Rahm's hand-picked CEO, has earned a reputation as a privatizer and an anti-union manager at the Chicago Park District and the Chicago Transit Authority. He supports school vouchers, charter school expansion, and has made massive cuts to special education and is threatening 5,000 layoffs. Do you support a vote of no-confidence in Forest Claypool as CEO of the Chicago Public Schools?

4) CTU's demands include: A librarian, nurse, art, music and PE teacher in every school, expansion of Early Childhood programs, funded homeless and restorative justice coordinators, strengthening of special education, grievable class size limits, a minimum wage of $15 an hour for all Board employees, limitations on paperwork, improvements to the evaluation system, protection for paraprofessionals, and an expansion of the Grow Your Own program which supports community members who become teachers. Do you support these demands which will strengthen our schools and provide better programming to meet the needs of all students?

I am the delegate at Hammond School. We conducted the vote. Only two teachers did not vote, one was absent. The teachers voted unanimously Yes to every question except number 2. Three teachers voted No to Question No. 2 - to support organizing boycotts, corporate campaigns and legislative efforts to retrieve the money.

The CTU is tallying the rest of the practice pre-strike vote now.

The CTU told the delegates to expect the real strike vote any time soon. 

CTU President Karen Lewis said at the delegates meeting that negotiations are "painful." 

"They keep saying no," she said. "They keep saying you know we have a $1.1 billion deficit. I said ya all opened up a bunch of charter schools. Did you know we have a $1.1 billion deficit?"

"We will win," Sharkey said. "When the teachers move, we move the city behind us."

Media Analysis

Top Education Writer Fails on Charter Waiting List Myth
By Jim Vail

Reader writer Ben Joravsky and who's the guy on the right?

Arguably the best public school education writer in the mainstream media would be the Chicago Reader's Ben Joravsky.

He has lambasted the mayor Rahm Emanuel, exposed the Tax Increment Financing Districts or TIF scam, and parking meters fiasco. 

He regularly covers the Chicago Public Schools beat for the alternative weekly and usually gets it right.

His latest analysis on Barbara Byrd Bennett was spot on - he wrote how she is probably the mayor's best friend since he had to paid her her kickbacks to do his dirty work, such as closing an unprecedented 50 schools in mostly black neighborhoods. 

But Joravsky's last article entitled "Mary Pattillo's charter school research shows south-side students don't really have a choice," was lacking to say the least, and a bit dishonest.

Joravsky has written well-informed articles about the charter school scam; he called out the UNO people before that Mexican patronage house of cards started to collapse.

He points out in this latest article that parents who have "school choice" and choose charter schools earn more money than parents who send their kids to the city's neighborhood schools based on a book written by this sociologist from NU.

Ok, but big deal. Like who didn't know this already.

And I am always wary when you focus an article on public education via the work of academics, this one a professor from Northwestern University. The universities are in on the charter scam big time by picking up contracts, and in some cases even run charter schools like the University of Chicago.

Joravsky quotes the NU sociologist who states true school choice would allow poor children to choose wealthy schools like the U of C's Lab School or Parker School.

Parents told her other charter schools were too far away, or they didn't want their off spring crossing gang lines, Joravsky writes.

Fair enough. However, you get the impression that charter schools actually provide a decent alternative to regular public schools because parents better off choose them.

However, research shows the charter schools test lower than the public schools.

But the shocker was the ending to Joravsky's column: "Even the Charter Parents told me that they were glad they won the lottery," Pattillo told Joravsky. "But they were beleaguered by the process. I don't take the waiting list at charters as evidence that they want more charters. What they want is more high-quality schools."

Wait a minute here, hold your horses. Ben - what waiting list. I fired him an email to ask if he read Raise Your Hand analysis that proved the charter schools so-called waiting list is a hoax. There is no waiting list in reality. 

While a couple of them may have some parents waiting for entry - as all selective public schools in the city turn away thousands of children who apply, the fact is most charter schools are like many neighborhood schools, they are under-enrolled. Raise Your Hand provided a list of many under-enrolled charter schools.

Ben, you are merely regurgitating a falsehood put out by the very billionaires you lambasted earlier in the article. Relying on an academic from Northwestern will do that.

I met a charter school teacher at CICS Basil on Garfield who told me when she taught there she remembered two things - they spent a total of 3 months just testing the kids, and spent even far more time trying to attract children to their very under-enrolled school.

And parents tell this academic they want more high-quality schools, and Joravsky says amen to that?

So that means we public school teachers really are lousy because of these low test scores? 

Ben, come on. I know you've been dynamite on this beat for a while. But you gotta admit, this one needs to be corrected for the record.

Book Review: The Teachers' Strike

BOOK REVIEW
THE TEACHER'S STRIKE
by Gabby Mathews, published by Blushing Books.

By Stephen Wilson
             The book baffles many people. It is not pornographic, preachy, or simply political and fails to smoothly fit into any neat genre.

             Perhaps it is best read as a thought-provoking political satire which attempts to amuse and ridicule the blatant absurdity of political figures who lord it over us.

             The book, a novelle of just over fifty pages, is centred around a tense stormy amorous relationship between a student and teacher during the great Chicago Teacher union strike of 2012.

             Though there is nothing remotely illegal about this relationship, the teacher is around 23 and her student is 19, the authorities still view it 'as improper', 'indecent' , and 'unprofessional'.

             Those seeking the cheap thrills of high porn will be
disappointed. They should stick to Playboy. On the contrary, the work is a deeply thoughtful exploration of the dynamics and drama of almost-doomed relationships.

             In a recent interview with Jim Vail, in Chicago News, Mathews states, 'The sexual and erotic elements make up just a tiny fraction of the book. For me, the turbulent personal story between the teacher and student and the political story of the strike that upends the city's school system (satire) is all much more interesting'. For Mathews, like Dostovesky, love is an awesome thing. He succinctly says, 'Love is a mess chaos.'

             The teacher and student don't just show lust for each other, but show signs of genuinely caring for each other. We are never certain which way the relationship will go.

             Gabby Mathew's work raises issues which most other writers ignore or overlook. Gabby Mathews work is compelling as his work is very well written, rich in idioms, expressions and witty dialogue. The language abounds with rich affirmation of the most important things of life; love, relationships and politics.

             Even if you find Mathew's political views hard to swallow you can still laugh along with the author.

             Asked 'Why did you write an erotic book?', Mathews  answered, 'Three words; money, love and politics, in our
society each of these words is cheapened by overuse and
misuse, but in my case of writing this novella, the social
context of all three words speak to my core writing of this
book.'

             In fact, this book reminded me of Salinger's work, 'Catcher in the Rye. ' Like Holden, the main hero of this novel is an outsider and rebel who is constantly dropping out or being expelled from schools. He feels deeply misunderstood
by everyone around him and feels an unbridgeable gap
between himself and society. That is until two events; meeting a teacher who can intuitively understand him and the outbreak of a strike which allows him to re-perceive injustice around him.

             There is not just one Robin Crusoe and one Man -Friday but a whole army who are awkwardly thrust together into a the joint action of a teacher's strike.

             The story opens with the words, 'No school today and maybe not forever, all our teachers are boycotting school now' ... I'm Telly. I 'm a troubled kid and have an attitude problem.'

             'Telly has been 'clinically diagnosed with Oppositional Defiant Disorder' as he has 'racked up 6 high schools in 2 years and grown quite pround of the fact.'

             Telly falls in love with a young teacher called Clair and a secret affair begins between them which must be discreetly hidden from the authorities lest Claire lose her job. However, as both the affair and strike progresses, she begins to feel disillusioned by teaching when she senses the idealism which brought her into teaching has been betrayed. She states, 'The way the teachers have been treated, what the school district promised me to get me here meant taking pay and health care from older, more experienced teachers like Mrs Karky, once they finish training me. I feel so betrayed'.

             Mrs Karky herself states bitterly, 'I'm tired of billionaires like our mayor of one percent telling us what we need to do for our children as if they love our children more than we do. They have the money, they have the media, but we have something they don't have - us. ' The motives of the strikers are sympathetically portrayed as fighting for a more caring and improved education system, long-term fair pay, and a refusal to allow standardised testing to be the budgeoning bust for teacher evaluation to use over our heads as one more tool to cleanse teachers out of the district.' (page 34)

             Part of the drama of the work arises out of whether the authorities will discover their illicit affair and how. Will
someone betray the other?  I won't say anything. Read the novelle yourself!

             The book has just been published while the teachers are on the brink of yet another strike. Along with this, there
have been two high-profile cases of teachers such as
Jennifer Fichter and Brianne Altice being sentenced to 22
years and the latter for 30 years for having illicit affairs with
their grown-up students!  Strange as it seems, Mathews is largely unaware of the Fichter case. The cases don't appear to have any explicit connection or inspired his work.

             The head of the Chicago Teachers Union have objected to their logo being used in the front cover of the book and don't want to promote his novelle.

             The Teacher's Strike is quite unique. It is well worth reading.

             It is a must which should adorn every teacher's bookshelf!

Don't Vote for Bernie!

Don't Vote for Bernie and Be a Fool!
By Jim Vail

Don't vote for Bernie Sanders!

Once again we have another presidential election, and once again we have our usual suspects paraded out for the people to decide who should be president.

Never mind the fact that a relatively few lot give almost a billion dollars to a few of these candidates, we the people can vote for them.

The 1% first decided who can run. And they need the people to be interested so that our so-called democracy functions.

So the Republicans, pathetic as they are, have this clown Donald Trump leading in the polls. He is perfect for the ruling class because he sparks interest for voters to go out and vote who would normally not.

The fact that Trump blames the immigrants for our crime and no jobs is the classic scapegoat that appeals to mostly ignorant people who cannot look at the big picture. The fact that Trump can speak candidly about the other candidates, and call people like Jeb Bush a wimp, show how much the people want to hear the truth. Not to mention telling the people how he pays the politicians to do his dirty work.

And on the left we have Bernie Sanders, the progressive great white hope, a so-called Socialist, independent, who says what progressives want to hear - we need a living wage, free tuition, tax the rich, etc.

Except Bernie, like Trump, is a part of this horrific system who will not change it. First, he won't get elected - trust me. So why waste your time trying to get someone elected who will not get elected? Been there, done that.

Why not spend your valuable energy making change via fighting for a living wage, protest, educate, etc? 

And Bernie ain't no panacea. He supports most of our foreign wars. He votes against reasonable gun-control legislation.

But worst of all for you teachers and defenders of public education - he is pro Race to the Top, pro Common Core and pro charter schools.

Certainly not someone you should be campaigning for, let alone writing checks or getting all excited about, if you value public education.

When I bring this up to fellow teachers, they don't even know Sanders' position on Race to the Top. How can you not know what your candidate supports, especially when it is against your interests.

I say fight the fight. I am a delegate in the Chicago Public Schools and we need to fight for a better contract than what the Chicago Board of Education wants.

They want to cut our salaries, cut our benefits, cut resources to our schools, while increasing funding to charter schools.

They at the top want to destroy unions, continue the assault on our middle class.

Voting for Bernie won't stop that.

Fighting for our class will!

Bug-less Flyers

NY UFT Union Bug-less Flyer

By Marjorie Stamberg

(NY City) -- I thought people might be interested in the political issues raised here, as there are fundamental issues of labor principle involved. For the last 24 hours or so, I've been in a fairly heated polemic with various members of the MORE caucus in the UFT.  It started when I posted my "Reportback from the UFT Delegate Assembly October meeting". As a delegate, I post my report and comments on the various teacher blogs, and the report has become rather popular.

At the October union meeting, the MORE put up a motion on retro pay, and handed out a leaflet that the Mulgrew bureaucracy ("Unity Caucus") attacked for various nasty reasons, but the bureaucrats noted that MORE's leaflet did not have a union bug. That at least, was a correct criticism, I wrote, and then the MORE "justifications" of the bug-less flyer (a union using non-union workers!) came rolling in.  

So here is the correspondence so far:  The latest is my response tonight, and underneath it is the original "Reportback' and the various MORE jjustifications.

My posting tonight:

"It is a  telling statement in itself to read the blog protests coming in after I defend labor's tradition of the union bug, and comment on the Movement of Rank-and-File Educators' bugless flyer. 

The principle is simple --  if you pay to produce something, get it produced with union labor, and show it with the "union bug."  If you're volunteering your services in the interest of the cause, say so at the bottom of the flyer with "labor donated." 

Bottom line: Unions are the front lines of worker defense under capitalism. If we can't defend what we have, we cannot go forward. It's basic. 

And you can do something about it right now. A big struggle is underway in NYC for the basic right of immigrant labor to form unions and organize. The warehouse workers of the B&H photo store are showing the way. They and their supporters are gathering tomorrow, Sunday, October 18, at 2:30 p.m. at the new 34th St./Hudson Yards stop on the 7 train; they will then march to B&H on 34th and 9th Ave. They are seeking to unionize with the United Steelworkers -- and proudly display the USW banner! I hope to see you all there.

Now, on specific questions:

To James, who asked if the Unity materials had a union bug, the answer is yes. There is an IBT-GCC bug on their blue leaflet hailing the pathetic raise the leadership negotiated, and there is an OPEIU bug on the delegate card, meaning it was run off by the UFT office staff which is part of that union.

To Joan, who claimed that the union printing industry is dead in New York, you are wrong. You may have noticed that all the literature put out by my group, Class Struggle Education Workers, either has a union bug on it or else says "labor donated." If you want names of union shops, I can get them for you. If you want union-made buttons, you can go to M.H. Slater in Midtown.  If MORE doesn't do that, it isn't because it can't.

The point at issue here is fundamental: it's about the class line. There is a class struggle and the question is, which side are you on? Many people on the left and union reform groups have lost sight of that basic principle.

The government is on the other side of that line, it is the instrument of capital, no matter who is in office. The police are on the other side of that line, they enforce racist, anti-worker "law and order" as the first line of defense of capital. The Democratic, Republican and all capitalist parties are on the other side of that line, they represent the bosses (including the bogus "Working Families Party" which is just the Democrats in disguise, or the Green Party which is a homeless shelter for liberal Democrats left out in the cold by the rightward drift of the Clintons and Obama).

MORE outrageously crossed that line a year ago last August when it came down on the side of the racist killer cops (talking about "our brother and our sister officers," and uniting" with the fascistic PBA!!) and refused to go on the mass march of thousands who were protesting the NYPD murder of Eric Garner in Staten Island. MORE's claim to represent "social justice unionism" imploded. Any class-conscious unionist would have stood with the poor, black, Latino, Asian, immigrant and white working people against the cops. If you can't do that, what's the point?

A discussion is needed about the necessity to build a union caucus on firm principles of the class struggle: picket lines mean don't cross; cops are the repressive apparatus of the capitalist government, not "fellow workers"; don't run to the bosses' government against the unions or sue the unions in the capitalist courts; oppose all capitalist politicians; and print your material in a union shop. In short, draw the class line in matters big and small.

I could go on.

Sean brings up the history of disgusting anti-Asian and anti-black exclusionism by the AFL, to which one could add the job-trusting exclusion of women in many trades. But that does not sum up the history of labor. This vile history of exclusionary, labor aristocratic, craft unionism is one of the reasons that the CIO was forged in the 1930s as industrial unionism including everyone that worked in that industry. I've fought against that exclusionism: I was the first woman switchman in NY Telephone before I became a teacher, and the union defended me.

It's something we must fight against in the UFT, by demanding (as Sean and others have done) special efforts to increase the number of black and Latino educators in particular, who were driven out under Bloomberg. But unions today are BY FAR the biggest force defending the interests of African American, Latino, Asian and immigrant working people. And that is particularly true in New York City.

You could see that graphically a couple of years ago. When Occupy Wall Street was camped out in Zuccotti Park, it was overwhelmingly, like over 90%, white. But when the unions twice called demonstrations of several tens of thousands to defend Occupy against Bloomberg's cops, those solidarity demonstrations were mostly non-white, because that's what the labor movement is in New York. 1199. 32BJ, TWU Local 100, go down the list.

Our union has a distinctly different composition, reflecting the fact that teachers are a petty-bourgeois layer. The UFT presents itself as a "union of professionals," never talking about the working class. And its leadership is a gang of professional sellouts, who betray workers here and abroad. That is true of almost all union leaderships in the U.S. today, because the militants who built the unions were driven out in the Cold War red purges (led not by Republican McCarthy but by liberal Democrats).

"Unity," which is simply the UFT bureaucracy, sells us out all the time, but not only us. Albert Shanker and his crew built the union by waging a war on reds. The Shankerites were up to their necks in imperialist skulduggery that earned the reputation of the "AFL-CIA". They refused to come out against the war in Vietnam, participated in the repressing and crushing of left-wing unions in Chile as part of the U.S.-sponsored Pinochet coup against the Allende popular front, and served as a conduit funneling U.S. government dollars to anti-communist pseudo-unions from Guatemala to Poland.

This is the heritage of Weingarten and Mulgrew, who brought us Barack Obama who is spearheading the privatizing corporate education reform aimed at destroying teachers unions. And now they want to stuff Hillary Clinton down our throats. Some "progressives" want to go for Democratic Party "socialist"  Bernie Sanders, but like Obama and Clinton he also supports Common Core, Race to the Top and the rest. Any class-conscious unionist must oppose the Democrats, but when this comes up in Delegate Assemblies, MORE delegates are silent.

The problem is not unions, it's the leadership ... and the "opposition," which at bottom shares the outlook of the bureaucracy.

A genuine, class opposition to the Mulgrews and Weingartens would fight to get rid of the whole system of capitalist rule that is destroying public education before our eyes.If you reject or dismiss the importance of having a union bug because of the crimes of Gompers, what's next? Crossing picket lines because the leadership is rotten? To hell with that. Picket lines mean don't cross, period. It's the class line, which side are you on. Unionism 101.

The outlook of petty-bourgeois professionals permeates both the UFT leadership and the would-be opposition. But the UFT isn't the only union of education workers. There are the school aides in DC 37. There are cafeteria workers in Teamsters Local 372. The school bus drivers and matrons of ATU Local 1181 were almost exclusively black and Hispanic. When they went on strike in 2013, the UFT Unity bureaucracy and the MORE opposition barely lifted a finger to defend them. I and my colleagues in the CSEW joined 1181 on the picket lines almost every day for weeks. That is class-struggle unionism.

PS:  Sean asks rhetorically, "When was the last time you checked your shoes, pants, bags and undergarments for a union bug?"  As a matter of fact almost all undergarments and many of the pants (including Levis) are made by garment workers in Haiti, who have been struggling to win recognition of their union. The CSEW has actively supported their struggle including holding a demonstration outside Macy's when they went on strike in December 2013, and meeting with their union organizers." 

For more on this, contact Class Struggle Education Workers: e-mail cs_edworkers@hotmail.com, or go to http://edworkersunite.blogspot.com/. 

Day of Teacher?

DAY of the Teacher - OUT OF TOUCH?
By Stephen Wilson



(Moscow, Russia) -  The Russian Minister  of Education makes some questionable claims on the 50th Anniversary of 'The Day of Teachers', which was held on the 5th of October.

             The Russian Minister  of Education and Science, Dmitri
Livanov , looking laid back, cheerful and at ease, during an           interview , (with Kommersant, ,5th October, 2015, number 182)
claimed that not only the salaries but the prestige of school     teachers has risen substantially over the past 15 years. He also
attempted to reassure teachers that he would not tamper or alter the Unitary state Exam system over the next three years.

             However, he insisted that 'It might be possible that a         compulsory exam in history would come into effect beginning from 2018.'

             Dmitri Livanov stated that 'We have just recently obtained
information from an international survey of the work on teachers ,TALIS, which covered 30 countries, including the majority of European states, America, Japan, and Australia.

             They explained that the number of Russian teachers with
higher education is much higher than in other countries in the survey. In addition, Russian teachers on average tend to be younger than the teachers in other countries: 13% of our teachers are younger than 35: while in other countries it was approximately 10%. More over, while in Russia the share of young teachers has been growing since 2009, in other countries they have the contrary trend. '

              Livanov further claimed that the prestige of teaching has
increased in Russia and that the doubling of salaries over the space of three years played a large part in this.

              QUESTIONABLE

              But can those claims really be sustained? Dmitri Livanov's view that teachers are becoming younger and are much better qualified than many of their western colleagues may be
justified, and the prestige of teachers might well be rising in a society weary of vulgar materialistic values which perceive
the values of professions in terms of income, rather than contribution to the common good. Nobody would disagree
with Livanov's suggestions that a teacher has to motivate his
students by making his lessons interesting, inspiring and should infect his own students with a cheerful mood when he enters the classroom. Livanov also expresses a cautious view of how practical it will be to implement the government's plan to make all children from the 5th grade study two foreign languages. He states that although the measure was accepted in 2010, at present only 10% of schools include the teaching of two foreign languages in their programme.

              So he states, 'Therefore, there is no hurry but by 2020 in
every school there must be created conditions for the teaching
of a second foreign language.'  He philosophically muses that
              'It is better to know one foreign language well than two foreign languages badly'.

              The first questionable notion is the claim that teachers' salaries have almost doubled over the past few years. Yes, on the
surface, in terms of rubles ,salaries seem to have risen, to           approximately 30,000 rubles for full time teachers but 40%             devaluation in the ruble, rising inflation as well as arrears in the regions of Russia (An increasing number of teachers are not being paid) and rising redundancies created by huge budget cuts along with mergers undermines this colourful claim. A representative of the trade union, 'Teacher', Leonid Perlov, stated in a recent interview that it was impossible to talk about a substantial increase in teachers' salaries until they rise above the average national rate. In other words, state school teaching still represents one of the underpaid professions compared with plumbers, engineers and train
drivers. Perlov also warned that a general picture of the average
salary is rendered problematic by distinct regional differences
where an oil rich local government might beable to pay more
salaries in one region compared to a poor region in another.

              When a Russian teacher's salary is compared to a teacher from Finland, the news gets grimmer! The Finns earn more than
twice the income of Russian teachers.

              Livanov overlooks or avoids mentioning many issues which are on the minds of teachers, such as threatened redundancies, school closures, increasing red tape and worsening conditions brought about by an enforced austerity programme.

              Russia, while lavishly boosting its military budget , has slashed care in medicine and education. For instance in the Siberian
region of Altai, local utility company cut off the heat in many
kindergartens and schools because of debts. So students are
being allowed to study in freezing conditions (this is Siberia !)

              A recent survey by the Russian Presidential Academy of
National Economy and Public Administration found that as in  25 Russian regions cuts were being implemented in education and 11 regions were experiencing devastating cuts in medical care. All this austerity which is called 'Optimisation', 'Modernisation' , and 'improving effectiveness', is leading to lower not higher salaries as well as a rising ratio between teachers and pupils.

              HOUNDING OPPOSITION

              What is worse, is that anyone opposing  such  policies by
attending a demonstration, going on strike or organising       opposition risks being daubed 'an enemy' or threatened with being hounded, fired and threatened with imprisonment.

              It is suffice to examine just one case where parents attempted to oppose the closure of their local school during a proposed merger. In the Medvezhgorsky region of Russia, the local
government closed down two schools ; one in the village of
Kosmozero, and another in Velikaya Niva. The children were
ordered to attend a new school in Velikoi Gubi. It takes almost
three hours for the children to get to this new school! In one school which came under the process of  'optimisation', at Lamassruchya, the majority of English teachers were fired leaving one English teacher to simultaneously teach 5th, 6th and 9th forms together. Any experienced teacher will tell you that cramming the students of different levels into one classroom is very ineffective. So much for improving efficiency! When one concerned parent proposed organising a protest movement against those changes, Galina
Averyanova was told, 'If there will be a boycott, you will be put
in prison for 15 days'. A local top official , Pankratov, phoned
up the local militia and the security services accusing the parents  of 'extremism'. He made the ludicrous claim that those parents were 'threatening the national security of the country'  as well as violating 'The  Law on Extremism'.

              Pankratov expresses a complete ignorance on how the
existing law defines extremism. He defines extremism as 'disagreement with the activity of government officials.'

              Such a definition would make it a crime to have, never
mind express, a different opinion.  Pankratov also threatened
parents who boycotted the new school they were expected to
attend on with being deprived of their parental rights. In other words, their children would be taken into care!

              Here lies a huge problem. The Russian state has inherited a
massively repressive state apparatus which often detained, arrested and hounded any form of opposition. This can still be used to stifle dissent of any kind. Even a form of mild and moderate protest might stir up a hysterical overreaction from some  unbalanced and aggressive officials.

              So the rosy, colourful and bright picture of an improving
education system presented by officials on the Day of Teachers is at most, wishful thinking. A lot of things have changed dramatically in the space of only two years. This is 2015, not 2013!

Lewis Runs Again

Karen Lewis is Running Again for President of CTU
And Who Else?
By Jim Vail

CTU President Karen Lewis is running again.

Karen Lewis, the president of the Chicago Teachers Union, has announced her candidacy for re-election to the public recently.

I was watching a news show in which several journalists on TV were discussing Lewis's decision to run again. They were all in favor of the idea because she is a passionate fighter for public education.

And certainly somebody interesting to write about.

However, Lewis did not inform the CTU House of Delegates at our monthly meeting (I am a delegate for Hammond Elementary School) last week that she is indeed running again in May.

Lewis did this before when she announced to the media that she was endorsing Chuy Garcia for mayor before informing her delegates.

This took some of the delegates by surprise since we are used to going through a formal process of endorsement.

Lewis said she was personally endorsing Garcia for mayor, and then the delegates later voted for an official CTU endorsement.

It was a bit awkward during last week's delegates meeting when one trustee made his campaign speech to get elected to the Chicago Teachers Pension Fund and mentioned that he wanted to congratulate Lewis for deciding to run for re-election.

There was a smattering of applause, but nothing of passion which Lewis usually garners being a highly respected and energetic leader.

The next question is who else will be on the ticket.

Some insiders have said it is not certain if Jesse Sharkey will run on the ticket again to be vice president, or if Kristine Mayle, the financial secretary, will run again.

Second City Teachers sent an email inquiry to Sharkey if he will run again. 

Sharkey was actually a second choice for VP when CORE first won. The CTU's staff coordinator Jackson Potter, who founded CORE, was originally on the ticket as VP, but the opposing party successfully challenged his candidacy and he had to drop out. 

Lewis, Sharkey, Mayle and Michael Brunson were elected in 2010 in an upset win over the United Progressive Caucus or UPC, and Marilyn Stewart.

Stewart helped break up the UPC when she had her VP Ted Dallas removed, thus generating an unprecedented five different candidates running for the union president. The split allowed CORE and UPC to be in a runoff, with CORE winning the endorsement of the other caucuses including PACT and Debbie Lynch, who came in third in the voting.

However, there is no talk so far about any opposition to Lewis for the union presidency.