Chicago Teachers Warn of Strike

POSTED BY HANK REICHMAN The following is a partial transcript of Chicago Teachers Union President Karen Lewis’ remarks at a news conference yesterday in response to the new Chicago Public Schools budget: I am Karen Lewis, president of the Chicago Teachers Union. I am joined by fellow officers, Vice President Jesse Sharkey and Financial Secretary…

Chicago Teachers Authorize Strike

The Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) has voted overwhelmingly to authorize a strike, the union announced today.  If that happens it would be the union’s second walkout in four years. “Chicago Teachers Union members do not want to strike, but we do demand that you listen to us,” Jesse Sharkey, the vice president of the union,…

Violence and Educational “Reform” in Chicago

BY HANK REICHMAN For some time now, despite the rash of school shootings and the growing number of accidental shootings associated with the unfettered dissemination of firearms, violent crime in most urban areas in the U.S. has been declining for decades.  According to the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU, after peaking in 1991, “crime…

U. of Chicago Administration Stands Against Free Expression for its Graduate Students

BY YALI AMIT, ANTON FORD, ELAINE HADLEY, AND DENIS HIRSCHFELDT The following piece was written by these members of the University of Chicago faculty:  Yali Amit, Professor of Statistics; Anton Ford, Associate Professor of Philosophy; Elaine Hadley, Professor of English; and Denis Hirschfeldt, Professor of Mathematics. Graduate student employees at the university will vote tomorrow…

U. of Chicago Professor Defends Graduate Student Union Drive

POSTED BY HANK REICHMAN This week the AAUP’s Committee on Graduate and Professional Students issued a statement condemning the current campaign by private elite universities “to obstruct the democratic rights and freedoms of their graduate employees” who seek union recognition.  The University of Chicago is one such institution.  There the administration continues to obstruct the…