Program Information

Karen Lewis: Fighting For Public Education in Chicago

Series:

Subtitle:

Karen Lewis, Parents and The Chicago Teachers Union.

Program Type:

Speech

Featured Speakers/Commentators:

Karen Lewis

Contributor:

Dale Lehman/WZRD Contact Contributor

Date Published:

April 7, 2013, 6:25 p.m.

Summary: Karen Lewis, President of the Chicago Teachers Union and alumnus of Northeastern Illinois University, was invited by the Alumni Association to speak about teaching and the fight to make the schools child centered against the corporate assault to run them as profit centers. She speaks about the Chicago Board of Education and Mayor Emanuel and their propaganda juggernaut that sacrifices the city's poorest children to the benefit of investment trusts and real estate developers.

Credits: NEIU Alumni Society
The Chicago Teachers Union - www.ctunet.com

Notes: Mayor Emanuel controls a fund estimated at 1 billion dollars. It represents tax revenue denied public institutions - like schools - under the TIF program set up by his predecessor which could easily pay for the budget short fall claimed to necessitate the closings. The Tax Increment Financing program was sold to the public, as a tax set-aside, to encourage the redevelopment of "blighted" communities. But at base in Chicago its run like a reverse Robbin Hood Scam, rob the poor to pay the Pritzkers, whose real estate holdings represent clout sufficient to have a family member on the Chicago Board of Education.

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