Free Republic

Teach for America has been a breath of fresh air for public schools around the nation. The group recruits top college graduates to spend several years teaching is some of our nation’s worst schools. Most of these graduates did not plan to become professional educators, but they want to make a difference in troubled communities. They are focused on helping underprivileged children learn, and they have little interest in compensation issues or union political schemes. That, of course, does not sit well with teachers union officials. They think Teach for America instructors are invading their turf and taking job security...

Chicago Teachers Union President: ‘Off With Their Heads!’ By Elizabeth Harrington January 9, 2013 (CNSNews.com) – Chicago Teachers Union President Karen Lewis said union opponents “think nothing about killing us” and that “wealth disparity” in America today mirrors the 19th century when labor leaders then used to be “ready to kill,” to chop people’s heads off. “We are at a moment when the wealth disparity in this country is very reminiscent of the robber-baron ages,” Lewis said at the Illinois Labor History Society on Jan. 5. “The labor leaders of that time, though, were ready to kill — just really,...

The Chicago Teachers Union is not just about looking out for its members’ interests. The union wants to fundamentally change America, too. That shift occurred when the radical Karen Lewis was elected as its president two years ago. She’s best known for mocking U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan’s lisp and for taking on - and defeating - Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel in the district’s first teachers’ strike in a generation. CTU leaders have been on a victory lap of sorts since the September strike, with union activists seeing themselves as protectors of union power during a time of membership...