Teacher Activism: The One, the Only, the Great Karen Lewis
Karen Lewis is the inspiration for today’s teacher’s strikes.
She is one of a kind.
She is a hero, a woman of courage, character, integrity, intellect, and steel.
Karen is a product of the Chicago Public Schools. She went to elite Ivy League colleges, first to Mount Holyoke, then transferred to Dartmouth College, where she was the only African American female in the class of 1974.
Karen returned to Chicago and became a chemistry teacher in the Chicago Public Schools, where she taught for 22 years.
In 2010, an upstart group of unionists called the Caucus of Rank and File Educators (CORE) ousted the leadership of the Chicago Teachers Union and elected Karen Lewis as its president. The new leadership cut its own salaries and began building relationships with community organizations and parents.
The city’s political and financial elite rewrote state law in hopes of preventing the union from striking. Assisted by Jonah Edelman of the turncoat “Stand for Children,” the city’s financial elite hired the state’s top lobbyists (so that none would be available to help the union), raised CONTINUE READING: Teacher Activism: The One, the Only, the Great Karen Lewis | Diane Ravitch's blog
