June 15, 2010: Teachers mobilize at sunrise against Chicago Board of Education 'Special' meeting to approve class size increase, 2,700 teacher cuts
More than 100 Chicago teachers, students and their supporters mobilized before dawn on June 15, 2010, in a noisy picket and protest in front of the headquarters of the Chicago Board of Education a few hours before the Board was scheduled to vote on proposals to lay off 2,700 teachers and raise class sizes in order to cover what they Board has been touting as a massive budget "deficit." Organized at the last minute by members of CORE, the Caucus of Rank and File Educators, the protest echoed chants down Clark St. and up the street to Chicago's City Hall as teachers and students turned out before most of them went to school or work.
King High School chemistry teacher Karen Lewis talks to the media while protesting teachers flank her during the June 15, 2010 protests against a Chicago Board of Education proposal to raise class sizes and lay off teachers. Substance photo by Garth Liebhaber. Many stayed to testify against the cuts at the Board meeting that began at 10:00 that morning.
The teachers and others (including students from some south side high schools and unionized Chicago Transit Authority workers) came together less than 96 hours after the unprecedented victory of Karen Lewis and the CORE slate against the incumbent United Progressive Caucus (UPC) and Marilyn Stewart in the Chicago Teachers Union runoff election, which was held June 11.
Chicago Transit Authority workers (right) have been joining the Chicago Teachers Union at growing protests against the Board of Education's cutbacks and privatization schemes. Prior to his appointment by Mayor Daley to be "Chief Executive Officer" at Chicago's public schools, Ron Huberman gutted the CTA on behalf of the mayor's policies of union busting and privatization. Substance photo by Garth Liebhaber.The results of the June 11 runoff, reported elsewhere here at SubstanceNews, have been reverberating through the city and nation, since they constitute a direct rebuke to the policies of Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley and the "Chief Executive Officers" (Paul Vallas, Arne Duncan, and Ron Huberman) he has appointed from outside education to run the city's schools system.
Speakers at the June 15 dawn picket outlined many of the reasons that have long been offered by CORE and the mayor's opponents against the proposed cuts (which were approved by a unanimous vote of the seven-member Board of Education — all of whose members are appointed by Daley — later in the day).
The special June 15 Board of Education meeting was announced on June 14, although rumors about it had begun circulating over the weekend. CORE members, led by Debby Pope (right above with bullhorn) pulled together the unprecedented dawn picket line on short notice. Substance photo by Garth Liebhaber.Now that CORE is in the leadership of the Chicago Teachers Union (the new officers take office July 1), observers expect that more protests will greet those who try and further the attacks on public education in Chicago and across the nation.
