Sharkey will have served four terms in CTU . It doesnt matter. After serving out the term as acting president starting in October 2014, Sharkey was re-elected president in 2019. Chicago Teachers Union President Jesse Sharkey speaks at Uplift Community High School in the Uptown neighborhood on January 12, 2021. After 12 years as one of the primary faces of the Chicago Teachers Union, Jesse Sharkey is returning to the classroom. Privacy Policy. My wife, Julie, has stood beside me and experienced all the stress and heartache that I have felt in nearly two decades of this work. Maybe it's the $9 million CPS spent to put air purifiers in every room, the hospital-grade disinfectant sprayers at every school or the $3.5 million in soap and sanitizer dispensers in high-traffic areas that CTU doesn't think is up to snuff. As reported byChicago City Wire, in the unions name,the group met with dictator Nicolas Maduros henchmen, including the Ministry of Communes, Ministry of Education, Adult Education Teachers, and students, as well as on-the-ground activists, praising the Maduro regime the entire time. Your Support of Heartland will allow us to continue to educate others about our work. Ald. Sharkey was first elected vice president in 2010, when Karen Lewis was elected CTU's president. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention say its safe to open public schools, that children are being hurt by not being in class. I was just a kid who wanted to change the world. and Terms of Service apply. Our original works in journalism and documentary, alongside creative writing and video, I see this as part of the way I approach this education justice movement. J.B. Pritzker releases report on services for youth mental health, Six education issues to follow during the Illinois legislative session, Chicago Public Schools will add, upgrade security cameras in bold investment over the next three years. Hopkins has a penchant for letting his mouth run before he actually gets the facts, Lightfoot said. And look at where we are. Asked to comment on that possibility, Sharkey chuckled and said, I am going to have more time, stressing that for now he is looking forward to a return to the classroom but plans to remain active in advocacy. After handing trillions to the major corporations, both parties plan to gut public education and other vital services. Whatever the phony rhetoric, when it comes to sending teachers back to infected schools, the CTU and other unions are on the other side of the barricade. Like the CTU, the United Teachers Los Angeles (UTLA), the Oakland Education Association (OEA) and other unions have betrayed strikes, collaborated in the attacks on teachers and public education, and colluded in the murderous back-to-school policy. There are things Lightfoot could do to show whos boss. Lee Sharkey passed away Oct. 18, after a brief battle with cancer. There has been no in-person school for almost a year. Jupiter and Venus appear to 'kiss' in the sky, Belvidere Jeep assembly plant shut down indefinitely, Chicago Weather: Cloudy and much cooler Thursday. The reopening, he said, would not work if the district simply continues to dictate to us, and admitted the city was not willing to commit to a public health metric for reopening, like a threshold COVID-19 positivity rate. Her last manuscript,I Will not Name It Except to Say,is forthcoming in spring, 2021, from Tupelo Press. And now come the fun death threats DMs," Chambers posted on her now-deleted Twitter account. On December 31, Chicago news station WGN published social media posts by Chicago Teachers Union Area Vice President Sarah Chambers enjoying a vacation in Puerto Rico just days before thousands of teachers were forced back into dangerous school buildings under Democratic Mayor Lori Lightfoots reopening plan. Infection rates are closer to 20 percent in working class neighborhoods where low-wage workers are forced to work, rely on mass transit and live in large, multigenerational households. Davis Gates, who taught in one of those shuttered buildings, said union members were demoralized in the closures aftermath. She added, In order to show my contrition, and not to be a distraction, I will deactivate all of my social media accounts and step back from the Chicago Teachers Union executive board.. She was a graduate of Brandeis University and the Warren Wilson College MFA Program for Writers. I am also mad at him because were already in an election cycle and I dont want this to be politicized because Jesse doesnt deserve that, she added. (Teresa Crawford/ AP) CHICAGO. Lee was also politically active in Jewish and anti-war organizations. Sharkey served as vice president of the union under Karen Lewis from 2010 to 2014 before she stepped down due to illness. Doing it without their voice and agency is a bad move.. I grew up on a dirt road in rural Maine, raised by a single mother who was an elementary school teacher and editor of a poetry journal. Lifes a beach under the basket for Lemonts Miles Beachum. He took over the top job in 2018 from Lewis, who died last year after a battle with brain cancer. "Movements have to change as people change, with new leaders and new vision stepping to the fore.". In an effort at damage control, Chambers, who at first defended her actions, issued a statement of contrition and announced she would step back from the CTU executive board, at least temporarily. After his CTU tenure officially ends in June, Sharkey said he plans to return to the classroom and continue to be a part of the union as a rank-and-file member. Sharkeys Caucus of Rank-and-File Educators will have the final say on whether Davis Gates will lead its slate in the upcoming election, union officials said. For example, she lashed out at Near North Side Ald. He dictates terms. CHICAGO (WLS) -- Chicago Teachers Union President Jesse Sharkey will not run for reelection, he announced to the CTU House of Delegates Wednesday. His rebound downs Marian Catholic. In October 2014, he became acting President of the CTU after Karen Lewis stepped down as President due to illness. Lee Sharkey passed away Oct. 18, after a brief battle with cancer. I think its time for me to do something different, Sharkey explained. In the run-up to the Janus decision . The CTU is an affiliate of the American Federation of Teachers and the Illinois Federation of Teachers and is the third-largest teachers local in the United States. If you value Chalkbeat, consider making a donation. But I am. The TRiiBE is a digital media platform that is reshaping the narrative of Black Chicago and giving ownership Asked about rumors that shes mulling a run for mayor, Davis Gates said the speculation has focused on the wrong officer. She noted other former CTU officials are politically active, and the union has helped raise up allies such as aldermen Byron Sigcho-Lopez and Jeanette Taylor. As a former member and longtime critic of that union, I certainly had no quibble with his selection. To fight for this, we urge teachers to get more information and join the Socialist Equality Party. On his own list of proudest accomplishments, Sharkey included the groundbreaking 2019 contract that mandated a social worker and nurse in every school by 2024, and a successful effort to unionize more charter school educators. Sharkey's full statement:I am not sure I would have believed anyone had they told me I would be where I am today back in 2010, when I was elected vice president of the Chicago Teachers Union. Californian should (Antonio Perez / Chicago Tribune). Sharkey plans to finish his term through June and return to teaching. Over the last decade it has played a central role in the restructuring of public education in Chicago and assisting the Democratic Party in suppressing opposition to school closures and the expansion of for-profit charter schools, along with the explosion of social inequality and police killings. CTU President Jesse Sharkey and Vice President Stacy Davis Gates share a hug after announcing on Oct. 30, 2019, that they'd reached a tentative deal with Mayor Lori LIghtfoot to end the two-week teachers strike. He officially succeeded Lewis in 2018 and his Caucus of Rank and File Educators (CORE) won reelection in 2019. The announcement came after 2021's tumultuous negotiations with Mayor Lori Lightfoot about school re-openings during the COVID-19 pandemic. He said he made this decision before the strife with City Hall that led to classes being canceled for five days last month and before a group within the union launched a campaign to unseat Sharkey and other officers on May 20. Because it is time. It has been more than a decade since the CORE (Caucus of Rank-and-File Educators) faction, made up of members of the defunct International Socialist Organization (ISO), the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) and other pseudo-left groups, took over the CTU based on rhetoric about social justice unionism and union democracy. Chambers, a longtime co-chair of CORE, calls herself a socialist, traveled to Venezuela in 2019 with a delegation of Chicago teachers, and is regularly interviewed in Labor Notes and Jacobin, the semi-official publication of the DSA. Candidates have taken aim at Vallas, arguing he helped create Chicago schools current financial problems and laid the groundwork that led to the eventual closing of Black and Latino schools. In every case, they have waged a war, not against the Democratic Party and corporate school privatizers, but against the class consciousness of the working class, echoing claims of the Democrats that the essential division in America is race, not class. November 18, 2014, 2:48 pm. The Heartland Institute offers free email subscriptions to all of its newsletters and monthly public policy newspapers. "It was shocking for many - our enemies, especially - to see teachers take the lead. As second-in-command to the late president Karen Lewis, Sharkey took the helm of the union during a resurgent period of flexing its political power. And remote instruction really isnt school. He served as the unions top leader multiple times while Lewis dealt with health struggles, and was elected to the presidency in 2019. It was their way or the highway. During Sharkeys tenure as vice president, the CTU launched a strike in 2012 its first in 25 years. ", There might not be a reason to remind folks that we're dealing with a teachers union led by a white guy that used its Twitter feed to declare a push to reopen schools by Mayor Lori Lightfoot and public schools chief Janice Jackson, both Black women, was "rooted in sexism, racism and misogyny. Jesse Sharkey (center) and his wife Julie Fain are seen in a family photo on a trip to Disneyland in 2020. All Rights Reserved. Jesse Sharkey was mentored by and served as vice president under the late former CTU President Karen Lewis. You cant always get to the school board meeting. At least theyre more upfront about their socialism in Chicago, where teacher union president Jesse Sharkey was aleading memberof the revolutionary International Socialist Organization until the groups dissolution earlier this year. CTU President Jesse Sharkey, right, announced on Feb. 2, 2022 that he won't seek re-election in CTU elections in May. I will return to where my journey began: the classroom," Sharkey said. I suppose you could say that theres been remote learning in its place, but on the South and West sides where kids are being left behind, many students are not engaged online, as Jackson has acknowledged. The caucus faces another challenge from the Members First Caucus, which has criticized CTU leaders for putting their own careers ahead of the needs of the unions 25,000 members and relying on work stoppages instead of collaborating with City Hall and Chicago Public Schools officials to achieve better working conditions. She also wants to promote more arts and music programming in schools and challenge the high-stakes, high-pressure application process to selective enrollment and other competitive high school programs. Sharkey and a group of teacher union comrades decided tospend their summer vacation in Venezuela. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy (E. Jason Wambsgans / Chicago Tribune). Gates listed fine arts education funding, sports funding, and an end to using standardized testing as the single defining metric for students educational progress as some of her primary goals for the union moving forward. She was a graduate of Brandeis University and the Warren Wilson College MFA . To make matters worse, public health experts believe the new, more virulent strain of the virus, which spreads particularly fast among young people, is already in Chicago, sparking the latest surge in cases. I will serve until June 2022, but will not seek re-election as president of the Chicago Teachers Union.I am immensely proud of our union's work, and the commitment that our educators bring to their classrooms every day. Sign up and receive our latest news in your inbox. And now theyve just threatened an illegal strike, and yet their paychecks, with raises, are still coming. "We should return to work in the schools pending one thing - and that one thing is a return-to-work agreement," CTU President. Pre-meeting Q&A session will begin at 4:15 p.m. 2023 Chicago Teachers Union. We will also be hosting a national call-in meeting at 1 p.m. EST this Saturday, January 9. We have students recognizing the power of their voice, and their action, to fight for the schools and the city they deserve. Shes that kid being bullied in the schoolyard by Sharkey and his pals. Her unions latest tax filing shows that she earned over$500,000 in total compensationin 2016. We urge you to attend an online meetingon Thursday at 7 p.m. CST to form an Illinois Educators Rank-and-File Safety Committee. The bill has languished in the Senate since 2019, a source told me, at the request of former Mayor Rahm Emanuel. ", MORE ON PATCH: CTU Loses Credibility Blaming Push For Reopening School On Racism, While the fearmongering propaganda and Twitter hypocrisy are important to note, they shouldn't distract from the fact that CTU bosses never say exactly why the school system's detailed safety protocols remain wholly unacceptable for a slow rollout for socially distant in-person learning. The CTU has been a trailblazer for the career opportunities of other left union reformers in Los Angeles, New York and other cities. Most hypocritically, she will tell you that its just a coincidence that she abandoned New York City in 2012 for East Hampton, a very wealthy community on Long Islands south shore, thusavoiding paying $30,000 in city income taxes. New York man planning vacation to Sydney, Australia accidently books flight to . Photos: Northwestern loses to Penn State 68-65 in overtime, Nick Niego is back as Brother Rice stuns St. Rita. Many have placed the blame on Lightfoot. He then said the CTU made three additional offers to the city on a return-to-work plan to sell to teachers, including a delayed start of classes until teachers receive a first dose of the vaccine, with an extension of the school year into the summer; the return of only those teachers and students who volunteer to do in-person learning; or the resumption of in-person learning with mass testing of all teachers and students, all representing unacceptable public health risks. Puerto Rico has had 127,000 people contract COVID-19 and 1,200 deaths. Interestingly, there is no specific plan to improve on the districts76.6percentgraduation rate or address the fact thatless than half of the 2019 Los Angeles Unified School District graduating class will be eligible to attend one of the states public universities. The next time you hear about the Red for Ed movement, please keep in mind that all too often this is not just a group of teachers trying to advance their profession. They can ignore the data. (E. Jason Wambsgans / Chicago Tribune) Shouldn't Chicago. Before Senate President Don Harmon decides whether to call for a vote on a bill to boost CTU's bargaining power before the legislative session expires Jan. 13, I hope he remembers what we've learned from Sarah Chambers' poolside tweets from Puerto Rico. He will return to the classroom as an educator. A membership vote on a resolution to stop teaching in person until the omicron surge subsided or the district agreed to more stringent protocols was held on a Wednesday evening, with families waiting until 11 p.m. to find out the outcome. The actor, 38, sat down with Variety reporters for a . CHICAGO, Oct. 19, 2020The Chicago Teachers Union is saddened to announce the passing of President Jesse Sharkeys mother, Lee, at age 75. International Committee of the Fourth International, Sign up for the WSWS Educators Newsletter, attend and help build this public meeting, regardless of their familys health conditions, Chicago schools press ahead with reopening despite wide opposition among teachers and parents, Illinois high school student dies of COVID-19, Opposition mounts in US over deadly rush to restart in-person schooling. Chambers social media posts further undermined the already tattered credibility of the CTU, which continues to posture as an opponent of Lightfoots forced reopening even as it blocks collective action by teachers against the murderous policy. Since then, the unions engaged in multiple actions, including as recently as this winter during a debate over COVID-19 safety protocols. It was time for me to do something different, Sharkey said. Long coveted by CTU bosses, House Bill 2275 would eliminate a provision in state law that limits what school officials are required to negotiate with the union. And needless to say, any problems with Venezuela were blamed on U.S. Chicago Teachers Union President Jesse Sharkey sits back down after speaking at a Chicago Board of Education meeting in which COVID-19, union matters and various related issues were discussed on Jan. 26, 2022. Elections for the CTU president and other elected union leadership are coming up in May. For example, AFT president Randi Weingarten, a long-time class warrior, strongly supported the Tax the Rich Bus Tour. Chicago Teachers Union President Jesse Sharkey who led the union through the 2019 teachers strike and last months work stoppage for more COVID-19 protections announced Wednesday that he will not seek another term in the unions spring election. The Abood decision has been overturned and its mourners are beside themselves. Who talks like that? (She was) fearless, willing to lift up the voice of the voiceless, someone who stood for Black Chicago, who stood against racism in our schools, who stood for a vision of public education. What the CTU boss doesn't mention in his letter to senators is those meetings with school officials about reopening plans have devolved into union demands for a pledge to lobby for "defunding police" and "rent abatement," according to people familiar with the closed-door discussions. But now, CTA is facing Coca Cola, Teach For America, Walmart and banks are the latest targets of Big Labor. The Covid Lockdown Disaster: Three Years Later, the rich and corporations pay their fair share, avoiding paying $30,000 in city income taxes, less than half of the 2019 Los Angeles Unified School District graduating class will be eligible to attend one of the states public universities, the group met with dictator Nicolas Maduros henchmen, the inflation rate is an astonishing 282,973. This is the same modus operandi used by teacher unions in New York City, Washington D.C. and other cities to reopen dangerous schools. I remain confident in my decision to move on because our union is strong, with not only capable leadership and staff, but more than 25,000 members and a deep bench of activists stretching from Austin to the lake, and from Howard Street to the 10th Ward.We have faced budget cuts, pension insecurity, a pandemic and a revolving door of CPS CEOs, but throughout it all, we gained invaluable experience and changed the narrative around public education in Chicago. CHICAGO Please stop making threats against Chicago Teachers Union executive board member Sarah Chambers. "I will not be leaving the movement, the labor struggle or this union. He is backing his second-in-command, Stacy Davis Gates, in a May union leadership election. A broken ankle. 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