(The Gate/Sonya Eldridge)
Chicago Teachers Union President Karen Lewis drew a crowd of about 75 people during a forum Monday as part of the “Conversations with Karen” series that are being scheduled in neighborhoods across the city.
The forum, organized by the McKinley Park Progressive Alliance was held at the New Era Windows Cooperative, an employee-owned company that formed after its predecessor, Republic Windows and Doors abruptly closed its doors in 2008.
Bill Drew, founder of the McKinley Park Progressive Alliance and longtime community activist addressed the crowd before introducing Karen Lewis.
“This is the road towards the future, this is our chance. This is the way that we can repair these broken down neighborhoods. We’re worried that our kids may not even be able to stay in these neighborhoods as things go up and up and up. We are in danger of becoming a wasteland and we need new ideas,” Drew said.
Before taking questions, Lewis reiterated her belief in the power of participatory democracy and civic engagement. And although Lewis has not officially declared a run for Chicago’s top office, she has recently launched an exploratory committee, began circulating petitions, and filed the necessary paperwork with the Illinois State Board of Elections, according to reports from the Chicago Sun-Times.
Communities with high levels of violence also struggle with double-digit unemployment, a lack of wraparound services in the schools, along with a shortage of mental health services, Lewis said to an enthusiastic audience, adding that all these issues are “inextricably linked,” and that we can no longer “think in silos” anymore.
“We can’t lock our way up to a society in which we don’t have these issues. Now we can ‘job’ our way out of it, but that’s going to take some will, and that’s going to take some work, and it’s going to take all of us working together. But we cannot solve violence alone unless we’re looking at education, minimum wage, health care and mental health care and bringing these things all together and see that they have to be working in tandem,” Lewis said.
When asked by a resident about her position on charter schools, Lewis said they’ve been marketed very well, and that “they’re private when it’s convenient for them to be private, when they don’t want to talk to parents, and they’re public when they want our taxpayer money.” One of her main concerns is whether or not students are getting a quality education in an environment that is accountable to parents.
“What we see is, throughout the city where parents have a strong voice, and we’ve had strong local school councils, we have strong schools, period. So if we continue to train parents to be experts on budgeting, to be experts on evaluating the principals, guess what, we’re going to see fabulous schools throughout the city,” Lewis said.
She later addressed concerns regarding displacement, gentrification and the need for more low-cost housing by citing the importance of incentivizing developers in some way, to build affordable and mixed-income housing in communities where it’s needed most.
“And the ways to do that, are to also show how these communities have a right to exist,” Lewis said.
The Chicago Teachers Union President also said there are a number of laws on the books that simply aren’t being enforced, especially around Section 8 housing and developer incentives, due to a lack of political will.
The crowd, mostly made up of immigrant and first-generation residents, also asked Lewis about her own views on immigration.
“I think the notion of deportation and breaking up families has got to stop. There’s room for us all. We should be a welcoming, engaging, loving city. The mayor needs to be a part of this process. This needs to be a part of community-building, period. So, education, not deportation,” she said.
The daughter of two CPS schoolteachers, Lewis grew up in Hyde Park and graduated from Kenwood Academy High School. Lewis has served as the President of the Chicago Teachers Union since June 2010 and worked as a high school chemistry teacher in Chicago Public Schools for 22 years.