Core interview

CORE founder explains accomplishments before union elections

Second City Teachers spoke with CORE founder and former Chicago Teachers Union chief of staff/ staff coordinator Jackson Potter about his vision of CORE and what his caucus has accomplished in the last nine years. Jackson is teaching again in high school after helping engineer a union upset in 2010 against the UPC. Union members will elect a CTU president and officers on Friday, May 17, 2019, for another three-year term ending June 30, 2022. 

CORE Founder Jackson Potter

Could you explain how Core began?

Handful of delegates and members came together who were worried about the school closings and lack of union response to that critical issue in 2008, first was about educating ourselves, building coalitions and pushing the union to step up and fight this racist attack on our school communities. 

How did the union change and what are some accomplishments?

The union organizing around educating, organizing and fighting for educational equity.  We placed the needs of the school communities at the fore of the fight.  We established a research and organizing department.  CTU is a lot more organizationally healthy than it was 9 years ago—we have more participation in HOD, higher membership rates (despite Janus), and we’ve created or improved democratic processes that involve rank and file members from the HOD to the bargaining table.

Our political and legislative department became just as aggressive fighting for leadership and policies in the halls of justice that pushed back for the first time we established an organizing and research departments, we decided to help our members fight back at their school sites against bully principals, contract violations, Rahm's efforts to make us vote for a longer school day at school sites without pay. 

accomplishments: 

·         fought against and arrested school closings and turnarounds

·         Stopped charter growth

• destabilized the privatization movement by organizing the workers in the charter schools
• led to the greatest density of charter unionization in the country
• negotiated a charter cap in our CBA

·         established CPS' first maternity leave and short term disability program ever

·         won the greatest TIF surplus for schools in Chicago's history

·         restored the Pension levy to stabilize our retirement security

·         Passed the strongest charter operator accountability laws in the country

·         led the first run-off in a Mayoral election ever

• 18 Aldermanic runoffs
• First ever educator in Chicago City Council:  District Organizer Sue Garza

·         Went on strike for revenue

• Secured nearly a billion dollars in revenue during two years of budget stalemate’s under Bruce Rauner
• Secured a funding formula that mirrors “The Schools Chicago Students Deserve” that has finally put the district on the path for financial stability

·         Restored $28 million in SPED funding and won an ISBE monitor over CPS

·         Won rights to challenge discipline and vote down excessive tests for first time

·         Secured class size limits for first time in 24 years

Can you tell us about the unionization of charter schools and the recent strikes?

This was the culmination of a 10 year strategy to stop run-away charter growth through unionization and militant trade union alignment to allow educators across the city, regardless of employer, to speak in one voice. There is now a distinct possibility that all unionized charters and CPS schools will have the same contract demands, expiration and ability to coordinate campaigns on school issues that we all care about.  

Jackson Potter and his mother who serves as a union lawyer.

Can you explain the union's political strategy? Some criticize about too much money spent on elections. How does this help the union?

Our work lives are intimately connected to and impacted by the political arena. Our bargaining rights limited by the legislature, school budgets enacted by City Hall, contract negotiations run through the Mayor's office. The fault of past CTU leadership was their failure to contest power.

The current political strategy is to win equity and fairness for our members in the halls of power by shifting the political conversation and power dynamics.  We have embarked on an aggressive program to challenge and beat incumbents bent on protecting the status quo.  We have filed bills that challenge the power of the charter lobby and others to restore the power of stakeholders in public education.  Since 1995 the halls of power from Chicago to Springfield, have passed policies that have placed our schools under mayoral control, robbed us of our retirement security, established two tiers of pensioners, accelerated privatization of our school communities, implemented teacher evaluation measures that have harmed our membership, and failed to fully fund our classrooms. 

During that time our union did two things:  passively allowed lawmakers to marginalize our profession while hording valuable political resources and kowtowing to political leadership.  Since this administration came to power we have had to make up over 20+ years of our union’s neglect in these halls of power.  In a very short amount of time and due in large part to a bold vision coupled with a smart and aggressive political, electoral and legislative strategy, we have re-established our pension levy, enacted the strongest charter operator accountability laws in the country, and won TIF funds back to our school communities while electing members and allies to every level of government.  Our work has transformed the electorate.  Every single candidate running for any office in Chicago has had to capitulate to protecting our pensions, agreeing to an elected school board, and stopping the privatization of our school communities.  We instigated the first ever mayoral run-off in the history of Chicago.  In 2011, before Rahm became mayor of the city, he stacked the deck in Springfield.  He passed SB7.  In 2019, before the next mayor of Chicago is sworn in we expect to legislators in Springfield to restore our bargaining rights and pass an elected school board for Chicago.

What do you think of criticism about the money that has disappeared in the reserves? What can you say about the budget problems?

I wouldn’t say that money has ‘disappeared’—we have run a deficit for several years… and that has run down our reserves. For the past two years, we have been cutting the CTU budget because we recognize that the CTU can’t keep running deficits—it has to be sustainable. We’ve worked hard to cut expenses without disabling the key role our union plays in defending members and in championing well resourced public schools.Our leadership did not pass on increased costs to our membership at the peril of our reserves.  During the last several years AFT, IFT and CFL increased their membership dues.  We made a decision not to pass these increased costs along to our membership at the same time our boss enacted furloughs and a series of layoffs.  Also during the same time period, we were attacked by the twin privatization demons of Rahm and Rauner.  We were forced into a fighting stance from the very beginning and in a concentrated amount of time.  Be clear, rainy day funds are for rainy days and we survived two hurricanes.  The only reason we have reserves in the first place is because this leadership has scrimped and saved and cut our own officer/ manager salaries, tightened belts across departments and expanded program at the same time as we inherited a $3 million deficit in 2010 that we eliminated. The reserve has been spent down for the right reasons to enable the merger with CTU-ACTs and lead the first charter school strikes in the nation's history, to re-card the entire membership in the aftermath of the Janus decision, to defend against the greatest number of school closings in our history, to enable the union to move out of the dreadful Merchandise Mart and into a new headquarters. All these changes were costly but worthwhile and critical priorities that deserved the additional resources that the union used.  

What do you think about the Foundation and its opaque budget?

Not sure what you mean. My understanding is that the Foundations budget is all accounted for by looking at the W9s and IRS forms. Please let me know if there is something specific. 

Why should teachers support Core?

All the reasons above and that we navigated the union through one of the most difficult and treacherous periods in our history. Finally we have significant financial advantages in negotiating with the board for this 3rd cycle, it's time to make them pay up and use our collective strength to show the new Mayor that they cannot continue to short-change the schools and push out our students and their families without a fight. 

What do you think of Members First? 

We are of the firm belief that every member of our union loves our union.  We are heartened that they believe in our movement enough to participate in our union’s democracy.  However, elections are about contrast.  And, CORE believes in a type of unionism that sets forth a bold agenda that encircles our lives as educators and our lives as residents of the city of Chicago.  Our constitution was changed to reflect the needs of unionism in the 21^st century post Janus.  We will fight for economic, social, racial and education justice.  We envision a CTU that transforms labor internationally and provides the working class with model to pushback against the 1%.  It's critical that internal elections are an opportunity for people to challenge and consider the various perspectives on how to move our union forward. While CORE has significant disagreements with MF about vision, trajectory and methods, ultimately we are all sisters and brothers and will find a way to develop unity of purpose in the aftermath of the election itself. 

How is it teaching again?  How is it different from working in the union? Do you prefer one or the other?

It's been a wild ride. I'm thoroughly enjoying it and it's as if not more exhausting, challenging and exhilarating as union work. It's also been very helpful to better understand how members are experiencing the REACH system, Network mandates, the testing regimen, etc. Whereas working for the union enabled me to get a variety of views from the vantage point of multiple schools, geographies and union departments ... schools are stationary places where you get a very intimate portrait of the district from a specific vantage point. The two jobs are so different, hard to say which i prefer but i was definitely ready to come back into teaching .. being a chief of staff or staff coordinator is a pretty impossible job and most people don't last more than 2 to 3 years, i did it for 8 and it was time for someone else to give it a shot. 

What problems do you see in your school?

Definitely alot of performance pressures around planning intensive units, Reach evaluation anxiety, and intense standardized testing. That being the case, it's a well managed school with people that have a significant amount of solidarity and desire for a collective vision which is encouraging and has been key to my own successful transition.