Election Debate?

No Debate at CTU Election Forum

By Jim Vail

Core's Jackson Potter and Stacy Davis Gates are running for 
CTU President and Vice President May 20. They along with the other
caucuses spoke at the March 31 Kelly candidates forum.

The three caucuses running in the Chicago Teachers Union May 20 election participated in a forum at Thomas Kelly High School March 31st in which they outlined their platforms and took jabs at each other.

But they did not debate. 

The Kelly High School delegates who helped arrange the forum said that some of the caucuses were opposed to the traditional election debate where the audience could ask questions and the representatives from each caucus would answer and counter any criticisms from the other. 

After two leaders from each caucus spoke for about 3 minutes, the audience of 30 people were told that they could then visit the tables set up in each corner of the auditorium to ask questions and pick up flyers.

Stacy Davis Gates who is running for president of the union from CORE and is currently the vice president spoke first. She said the union under Core's leadership has "transformed Chicago" with the passage of an elected school board, bargaining rights that have been restored, the teachers pensions have been protected and they hit the pause button on Reach Evaluations for tenured teachers. She mentioned that schools like Kelly were able to get their funding thanks to Core's fight against the charter schools like UNO who were ready to usurp that funding during the height of privatization under Race to the Top.

Jackson Potter is the founder of CORE and running for vice president. He first ran for vice president with Karen Lewis in 2010 but was knocked off the ticket after the UPC challenged his candidacy because he had taken a sabbatical. He had served as the chief of staff of the union before he returned to teach in the high schools. He told the audience he was very happy with teaching, but at the union he got an ulcer.

"We made a point not to collaborate with the bosses," Jackson said in reference to the criticism of Members First who feel the relationship between the Mayor's office and the CTU leadership is too toxic.

Potter said not collaborating meant putting a moratorium on charter school expansion and not getting merit pay which would have tied teachers salaries to test scores, something most teachers and Core have fought vigorously against.

"Our main enemy is not each other, it's the bosses and the billionaires," Potter said.

Members First President candidate Mary Esposito Usterbowski spoke next and she said that the members are the most important people and should be the focus of the union. She said everything teachers do should be pensionable, including after-school coaching or tutoring. She said the union must be transparent and work hard to enforce the contract.

Members First Phil Weiss is running for  CTU Financial Secretary

Members First running mate Phil Weiss is running for financial secretary and was elected a pension trustee. He noted that Core named him the investment chair of the Chicago Teachers Pension Fund, and under his leadership the fund increased by one billion dollars. 

He said that the union needs to collaborate with people you do not like. 

"I don't like the mayor, but that doesn't mean I won't work with her," he said.

Joey McDermott is running for vice president of the REAL Caucus, made up of former Core members. McDermott was a union field rep with Core until he was abruptly fired and is now a high school teacher at Prosser. He said he got involved with Core after Crane High School where he earlier worked was a victim of the Ren2010 privatization plan to destroy the neighborhood schools and replace them with charter schools. The city helped destroy Crane's programs and drastically reduce its enrollment and Core started to organize and fight back against the school closings when the UPC union leadership did almost nothing.

"I experienced disinvestment in the schools," he said.

Joey McDermott is running for VP on the REAL Caucus slate. 
He joined Core to fight school closings but was fired for
criticizing the union.

McDermott used numbers to illustrate his points. He said they have gathered over 2500 petitions in over 125 schools and in his nine years as a union field rep he worked with 50 schools.   

He then aimed his revolver at Core's head. He said Core cut the grievance workers from 21 to 14 and leadership did not show interest in the day to day school grievances by attending less meetings. He also noted that the House of Delegates debates get stifled by not following the Roberts Rules of Order and therefore proposed hiring a parliamentarian. 

"We're not here to be a spoiler but to win," he said.

REAL's Allison Eichhorn spoke next. Eichhorn was a former CTU Trustee and member of the Executive Board and is running for financial secretary. She said that she was amazed the union did not have minutes of the trustees meetings to oversee a $14 million budget and was asking questions about a $1 million loan to Chuy Garcia who ran for mayor. She also said CTU Officers should not be earning two salaries - one with the CTU and other with the Illinois Federation of Teachers or IFT, and their leaders if elected would commit to not serving more than six years.

"I do believe we have to be political," she said, "but I also believe the members have a right to know."