Rich Are ‘Drinking Champagne’: Chicago Teachers Union’s Rambling Statement on CA Tenure Decision

Karen Lewis tenure video
(screeen shot from video)

“Their time will come.” That was the promise Chicago Teachers Union president Karen Lewis had for the “rich” tech “moguls” who are “drinking champagne” after California Judge Rolf Treu struck down tenure and other job protections for government school teachers.

Here’s Lewis’s rambling video statement in reaction to the ruling:

Lewis went on to assert that the rich are just jealous of teachers.

Specifically addressing David Welch, apparently the primary financial backer of the lawsuit, Lewis said:

“One of the reasons guys like this who have these jobs that don’t produce anything of value for people but they have to go find something else – there’s a lot of distrust and actually some jealousy of the fact that we do get to change the world on a regular basis every day. We do get the opportunity to educate children to change their lives and to make those relationships.

And there’s a certain amount of envy around those kinds of jobs. Where we actually create and do something meaningful with our lives. And this notion that, ‘oh, you want to be protected? You want to be compensated? You want to have pension benefits? You shouldn’t have any of that.

Lewis added she was disappointed at how easily the judge was swayed by “propaganda.”

How is Lewis and her union changing the world and what are they doing with the “opportunity to educate children to change their lives”?

Chicago Public Schools’ 2013 graduation rate was 65.4 percent. The school system issued a press release, boasting of the “record high” rate.

When the CTU went on strike in 2012, 20 percent of 8th graders tested proficient in math. Twenty-one percent of 8th graders tested proficient in reading.

 

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