Karen Lewis won re-election as president of CTU with about 80% of the votes.
Lewis led the city’s first teachers’ strike in 25 years last fall.
She has been leading the battle against Mayor Emanuel’s mass school closings, the largest in American history.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
I’m moving to Chicago. Why is NYC so different? Why can’t we have a progressive union that fights for the rights of teachers and students? Why can’t our union lead the fight against the corporate take over of OUR public schools?
Go CORE. Congratulations to Karen Lewis.
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Love Karen Lewis…I wish she could be cloned.
NEA and AFT corporate sell outs…take notice and learn something.
Teachers unite…we are the union!
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It is an impressive win. She and CORE got 80% of the vote in a time of real danger.
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Karen Lewis is not the only winner here; PUBLIC EDUCATION IN AMERICA is the biggest winner!
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Karen Lewis for President!!!!
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If Karen Lewis wasn’t reelected, I was going to beg her to come to California and lead a union of teachers that is really effective and fights for its teachers. Hey, maybe that’s not such a bad idea, Illinois and California joined in union solidarity and numbers. I like it.
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CONGRATULATIONS TO KAREN AND ALL OF OUR BROTHERS AND SISTERS IN THE CTU.
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This is wonderful news. And I would bet a majority of teachers actually voted unlike what happened here in NYC. When a mayor wants to close schools that are not below average, the writing is on the wall. Teachers everywhere need a strong leader like Karen, but unfortunately not every city has one.
Odd that Mulgrew now is comparing mayoral control to a dictatorship when he and his leader, Ms. Weingarten, supported mayoral control not once, but twice. And it will be interesting to see who the UFT will endorse,,,,I have no doubt that he this was Chicago, he would be rubber stamping every one of Rahm’s school closings.
So, who do we endorse:
Quinn, who stood with mayor Bloomberg and now has taken money from both Rhee and the unions??? Thompson, who the UFT turned their back on, and went on later to endorse the mayor’s decision not to give teachers raises, And now he is backed by Tish and other reformers?? Liu who is unfortunately surrounded by scandal although no charges have been brought against him? But he has always been a defender of public ed, Or DeBlasio who is now being branded a Leftist, but is the only candidate who care about public education.
Let’s look at the history here….Our union backed McCall in the governor’s democratic primary over Cuomo, but then went on not to back him in the race against Pataki. Pataki won that race. Cuomo has now become an enemy of the union, Thompson was also stabbed in the back after years of Randi making it public he would get the endorsement. Do you really think Thompson, who is now backed by Tish and Alfonse, is going to forget?? Quinn? We now know if you cross her, she will take funds away from a district even if the funds go to a good cause. Why should the residents of NYC have to suffer the consequence of her ire?? That will become a double-edged sword if we don’t endorse her and she wins, because we will be her next target. But if we endorse her, and someone else wins, we will risk the ire of perhaps Thompson who already has an ax to grind with the UFT.
Oh did I leave out Weiner??.,,,well if we overlook his need to strip and pose, we cannot overlook that he is a neo-liberal. And that’s more dangerous.
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Hooray…a glimmer of HOPE. Nope the kind Obama speaks about when he uses the word HOPE.
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Yvonne–I’m curious. Did you mean to say “NOT the kind…?”
Not that I’m a fan of Sarah Palin, but every so often I can’t help myself from commenting to people, “So how’s that hope-y change-y thing workin’ out for ya?”
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Great News!
She really gets things done. I’m with those of us who want her to run for president. She probably is too smart to let it happen, but think of the money we could save putting the the Edu-usiness charlatans into bankruptcy.
Then think of how much fun it would be to have teachers teach creatively again. …and the happy kids who could enjoy school again.
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