Teacher Unionism in America Lessons from the Past for Defending and Deepening Democracy

By Jon Shelton public education. Had Trump lost the elec- toral college vote, I would still have argued n 2017, I published Teacher Strike!: that forging member-driven unions and a Public Education and the Making of a broader coalition with our communities is New American Political Order.1 The more important than ever. As we face the book was my scholarly attempt to racism, sexism, and unmitigated class war- Iunderstand how the hundreds of teacher fare of the Trump administration, however, strikes in the in the 1960s, it is quite possible that teachers’ efforts to ’70s, and ’80s affected American politics. I wage successful political action represent argued that, even in an era more favorable the fulcrum through which we will either to public employee unions than ours is revitalize our democracy or slip even more today, teachers’ activism still collided with drastically into authoritarianism. misguided labor law, institutional racism To rebuild our democracy, working that sometimes pitted teachers against the people must organize. And teachers, as communities in which they taught, and a professionals central to instructing our would receive the same benefits of citi- tragic wave of fiscal crises. Activist teach- future citizens, share a special responsibil- zenship without contributing. ers’ critics—mostly on the Right but some- ity. By becoming more active in their own In 2016, the Supreme Court seemed times on the Left—often used these unions, they can build alliances with other poised to overturn the constitutionality of conflicts to try to discredit teacher unions. working people in their communities. agency fees in the case of Friedrichs v. Cali- I used historical examples to develop my Unfortunately, the framework in which fornia Teachers Association, but when Jus- conclusion, where I argued that to tran- most teachers have organized over the tice Antonin Scalia died, the court was left scend these legacies, organized teachers past half century—a framework that was deadlocked. In spite of the long-standing must forge powerful connections between already under threat—is likely to be dealt custom of moving forward an opposition their interests in the classroom and the a severe blow as a consequence of Repub- party’s nominee for the high court (Ronald needs of the broader community. licans’ theft of a Supreme Court seat. For Reagan’s nominee Anthony Kennedy was I made my final edits in October 2016. years, the National Right to Work Commit- confirmed, for example, by a Democratic- When I wrote the conclusion, I did not yet tee (NRTWC) and other shadowy organi- controlled U.S. Senate in his last year in know what would transpire on November zations have tried to stop public employee office), Senate Republicans refused to allow 8. Given President Trump’s first year in unions from negotiating “fair share fee” or President Obama’s nominee even a hearing. office, it is not hyperbole to say our democ- “agency fee” arrangements in which Trump instead nominated ultra-conserva- racy faces its biggest crisis since at least the workers contribute to the costs of repre- tive Neil Gorsuch to fill the seat. With Gor- Great Depression, and perhaps since the senting them. This argument has often such in the fold, the NRTWC and another Civil War.* been in the name of the First Amendment right-wing group—the Center for Individ- In a deeper sense, however, the forces rights of a handful of workers who oppose ual Rights—have fast-tracked a similar case, behind Trump’s election have simply exac- the union (even though these workers Janus v. AFSCME, in the hopes that the court erbated the efforts by the Right over the past only pay for representation costs and not will eliminate agency fees.3 Unless teachers 40 years (the roots of which I document in for the campaigns of politicians).2 Indeed, redouble their efforts to organize and build Teacher Strike!) to undermine broad eco- outlawing fair share fees would be like membership, teachers and communities nomic opportunity, workers’ rights, and making federal income taxes optional. alike will suffer the consequences of weaker The conscientious would pay them out of teacher organizations. Jon Shelton, an assistant professor of democracy a sense of obligation, but many others Trump’s vision for public education, and justice studies at the University of Wiscon- reflected in his appointment of Betsy DeVos sin–Green Bay, is the author of Teacher Strike!: *For more on this topic, see “Hope in Dark Times” and as secretary of education, is singularly Public Education and the Making of a New “History and Tyranny” in the Summer 2017 issue of American Political Order. He is the vice president American Educator, available at www.aft.org/ae/ threatening, too, as DeVos represents the of higher education for AFT-Wisconsin. summer2017. most anti-public-education figure to occupy

30 AMERICAN EDUCATOR | SPRING 2018 The on strike in elementary teachers (virtually all of whom 2012. Inset: , a leader of the Chicago Teachers Federation. were women) “were working under practi- cally the same salary schedule that had been in force in 1877,” while the salaries of Democratic politicians not doing nearly male administrators had been increased enough to arrest it, a trend scholars have significantly.8 Female teachers in Chicago referred to as “neoliberalism”—organized were discouraged from marrying. And teachers, as unfair as it might be to expect without any retirement provisions, they it, must do even more. I concluded in the typically relied on charity when they book that “two examples of teacher union- stopped working. ism, one hundred years apart … show that Teachers first organized for a pension teacher organization is at its best when it is plan and, in 1897, formed the Chicago part of a larger social movement and when Teachers Federation, the nation’s first real it can show how intimately related are teachers union.9 Haley and another teacher, teacher working conditions, student learn- Catherine Goggin, emerged as leaders. Gog- ing conditions, and social equality.” gin was appointed the CTF’s first president

Organized teachers must forge powerful connections between their interests in the classroom and the needs of the broader community. LEE BALGEMANN the top post in the Department of Educa- The two examples I used were both from and, concerned with both their own welfare tion’s 40-year history. Since her confirma- Chicago: Margaret Haley and the Chicago (the new pension provision immediately tion, DeVos has proposed diverting an Teachers Federation (CTF—a founding faced political threats) and their students’, enormous amount of federal funds to pri- union of the American Federation of Teach- about half of the city’s 5,000 elementary vate schools.4 What she (and by extension ers in 1916) in the early 20th century, and school teachers signed up for the union in Trump) threatens is perhaps the most and the Chicago Teachers its first six months. Haley, the firebrand who important innovation in American history: Union (CTU) in the early 21st. In this article, would soon be dubbed “Labor’s Lady Slug- public investment in common education.5 I explain what we can learn from each and ger,” was elected vice president in 1898. The good news is that, in spite of the share what my union (situated just a bit Teachers had no collective bargaining many things working against democracy north of the Windy City) is doing locally to rights or professional organizing assistance nationally, politics is still mostly local. In my follow in their footsteps. at this time. In this climate, two key things book, I document some astounding efforts made them effective: members themselves by teachers across the country to build and A Feminist Union Fights did the hard work of organizing, and they wield collective power. One of the most for Chicago Children worked with the broader community when important reasons for these successes (and Margaret Haley was born in 1861, the they did it. why DeVos has been mostly frustrated so far daughter of an Irish immigrant mother in radically overhauling public education)6 and Irish American father. Like many is that our education system is still highly working-class women at the time, she Teacher Strike!, by Jon decentralized. Further, schools—from ele- sought the relatively stable wages of a Shelton, is published mentary schools to public universities—are public school teacher. In 1884, Haley took by the University of highly visible institutions that form a crucial a job teaching sixth grade in Chicago. Her Press, which is piece of a city’s or town’s identity, and thus school was in “Packingtown,” the neigh- offering American give teachers a phenomenal amount of borhood made famous by Upton Sinclair’s Educator readers a 20 percent discount off political agency. fictionalized account of the brutal condi- the purchase of the Indeed, as I began to consider my book’s tions immigrant workers faced in the book through June 7 conclusion, I couldn’t help wondering meatpacking industry. 15, 2018. To order, about the present and future of organized Haley taught classes of 40–60 students, visit www.press. teachers. Given the grander scheme of many of whom were malnourished and uillinois.edu and American history—in which corporate often sick, spoke little English, and would use promo code America undertook an assault on working leave at age 11 or 12 to go work in the pack- SHELTON. people beginning in the 1970s, with most inghouses. By 1897, the vast majority of

AMERICAN EDUCATOR | SPRING 2018 31 Just a year into its formation, the CTF union continued to build power, and Chicago Teachers presented a 3,500-signature petition for teachers across the United States wrote to Organize a Movement increased pay to the school board, which Haley and Goggin asking them for help against Neoliberalism convinced the board to provide salary organizing their own locals. The CTF Chicago teachers eventually gained bar- increases. In 1898, a commission was forged connections with the wider labor gaining rights in 1966, getting much established by the mayor to look into movement in the city, joining the Chicago improved salaries, benefits, and working reforming the education system. Headed Federation of Labor in 1902, and in 1916, conditions in the two decades that fol- by , president of the the Haley-led CTF became a charter local lowed. Unfortunately, since that time, —a university of the AFT. Haley and the CTF were efforts to weaken the rights of working founded by the nation’s wealthiest per- important advocates for women’s suf- people and public education in the name son, John D. Rockefeller—the commission frage, too, arguing that the troubles teach- of market forces have changed the trajec- opposed blanket salary increases for ers faced stemmed from limits to their tory of public education and other public teachers and instead recommended merit political agency. services in Chicago for the worse.13 pay and much more control for adminis- In thinking about Haley’s legacy, we Chicago’s history illustrates how recent trators. The state legislature introduced a should note that she “resolutely ignored” Democratic politicians have seen their own bill based on the recommendations. the needs of the African American com- political assumptions shifted by the growth In 1899, the CTF held a series of com- munity that had begun to grow in Chi- of neoliberalism. Though Harold Washing- munity meetings to explain how school- cago in the early part of the 20th century. ton (1983–1987), the city’s first black mayor, children would be affected by the new law, Even though such a stance was typical of was elected by a multiracial coalition with and teachers amassed signatures from some of the most progressive Americans strong roots in labor, in the years since, Chi- parents opposing the bill. Haley deftly tied at the time, historians must nonetheless cago has been administered by Democratic 12 the reforms to Rockefeller in ways teachers acknowledge this important limitation. mayors—Richard M. Daley (1989–2011) and today must do with proposed education Still, the example of Haley and the CTF is (2011–present)—who have reforms. As historian Kate Rousmaniere instructive: it shows that by building mostly favored corporate development. explains, “By highlighting Harper’s link to strength through membership, and allying School “CEOs” appointed by Daley and the millionaire Rockefeller and to mon- with the community (even though Haley, Emanuel have closed neighborhood eyed interests, the debate over restructur- clearly, did not include all members of the schools, especially in African American and ing the city public school system was community) against corporate reformers, Latino neighborhoods, while opening deflected to a debate about power and teachers could improve their own lives in scores of charter schools, which are less 10 class interests in a democratic society.” addition to the lives of many of their stu- accountable to the public.14 The legislature voted down the bill. dents and their families. Just as impor- But Haley and the CTF did not stop tantly, Haley’s work provided a critical there. When, later, city officials told them example for teachers elsewhere, building Haley and others calling for the resignation of Chicago did not have enough money to the foundation for a national movement of John D. Shoop, superintendent of the Chicago increase teacher salaries and pensions, teacher unionization. Board of Education, in December 1913. Haley spent four years investigating the city’s finances. She consistently updated the public on the investigation, crafting a common understanding in Chicago around why school finances were so dire. The investigation ultimately revealed that some of the city’s largest and most pros- perous corporations had been dramati- cally underpaying their taxes. Teachers ultimately won pay increases, and Haley and the CTF made a powerful argument that education represented a key part of a modern American city. As Rousmaniere puts it, “Haley saw the economic advance- ment of teachers as an intrinsic part of broad social reform. Improving the edu- cation of future citizens would lead to an improved society, and improving the working conditions of teachers would help improve that education. If teachers gained, all society gained.”11 Though it faced opposition from the

Chicago Board of Education, the teachers MUSEUM COLLECTION, CHICAGO HISTORY NEWS NEGATIVES DN-0061817, CHICAGO DAILY

32 AMERICAN EDUCATOR | SPRING 2018 AFT President Randi Weingarten, left, and CTU President Karen Lewis, right, stand together during the CTU strike.

35,000 teachers and their supporters marched through downtown in a massive show of solidarity.20 Given the longer history of teacher strikes in the United States—par- ticularly the relative unpopularity of the last Chicago strike in 1987—the well-docu- mented public support for teachers in Sep- tember 2012 was staggering indeed.21 After seven days, Mayor Emanuel and the school board agreed to a deal in which teachers won raises and defeated efforts to curtail tenure and increase the use of test scores to evaluate teachers. The effort became a

LEE BALGEMANN model for other unions across the country.

Perhaps the most iconic example of Chi- cago’s shift toward a more unequal city is the dramatic increase of what is known as “tax The CTU’s success stemmed from increment financing.” In order to subsidize downtown development for wealthy inves- members putting themselves on the line tors, Chicago has siphoned off tax dollars to organize and mobilizing the community from public education, leading to the justi- fication for closing schools and reducing behind them. services for the city’s neediest children.15 Given this financing scheme, combined with the fact that the state of Illinois subsi- negotiations. The legislature passed a law in The CTU’s success stemmed, as it did dizes every other school district at far higher 2010 that forced Chicago teachers to garner for the CTF in the late 19th century, from rates (particularly regarding pensions; until the incredibly high threshold of 75 percent members putting themselves on the line very recently, the state contributed almost of all teachers to authorize a strike. Assum- to organize and mobilizing the commu- no funding for Chicago teachers’ pensions ing that teachers would have very little lever- nity behind them. As sociologist Jane while significantly funding the pensions of age in the upcoming contract negotiations, McAlevey points out, CORE’s most impor- teachers everywhere else in the state),16 the school board unilaterally canceled a tant innovation was devoting its efforts to teachers in Chicago increasingly felt they scheduled pay raise. organizing—among the teachers and in lacked the necessary resources to teach the The board next sought concessions from the community—and doing so in a way city’s children.17 the teachers: increasing the school day while that forged a broader argument about the In the late 2000s, a chemistry teacher effectively cutting teachers’ pay by forcing undermining of public education: “If the named Karen Lewis worked through a them to contribute more to their benefits, labor movement’s instinct has been [in the group of insurgents called the Caucus of limiting tenure, and tying teachers’ perfor- recent past] to reduce demands in order to Rank and File Educators (CORE) to fight the mance even more closely to student test sound reasonable, the new CTU took the school closures and ally the union’s goals scores. The CTU had expressed its demands opposite approach: they led every meeting more closely with the goals of families in the in a report released in February 2012 called with school-based discussions of billion- community. The result: in May 2010, CORE’s “The Schools Chicago’s Students Deserve.” aires, banks, and racism. (Note to other slate of officers successfully won election to The report outlined the need for smaller class teachers unions: they got reelected.)”22 lead the union (a reminder that unions sizes, wraparound services for students, pro- Certainly the timing of the strike mat- remain one of this country’s most demo- fessional development, and an end to insti- tered: striking during the 2012 presidential cratic institutions). The newly elected lead- tutional racism in Chicago schools.18 In election campaign motivated Emanuel, a ers started listening more to parents and addition, the teachers sought a modest pay key ally of Obama, to negotiate in order to pushed back against the neoliberal order raise, limits on student standardized test end the strike. But the strike was clearly also that deprived their schools of funds. In 2012, scores in teacher evaluations, and improved successful because the union had worked Chicago teachers went on strike and won physical spaces in which to teach. hard to mobilize members; with contract labor’s most important victory in the past With an impasse on the horizon, the negotiations on the horizon, the CTU held quarter century. union got 90 percent of all teachers (and 98 a “structure test”—a mock vote—in order to As soon as CORE took control of the CTU, percent of those who submitted a ballot) to ensure it could meet the high threshold it began to mobilize for upcoming contract authorize a strike.19 On the strike’s first day, needed to authorize a strike.23 Further, the

AMERICAN EDUCATOR | SPRING 2018 33 In February 2011, thousands protested inside the state capitol in Madison against Governor Scott Walker’s Act 10, which hobbled public employee unions in Wisconsin.

has access to economic security and the chance to have a fulfilling life. Education is now the pivot point on which our identity as a people is connected: it is foundational both to the civic knowledge necessary for a democracy to function and to the skills nec- essary for economic opportunity in a global

BRENT NICASTRO economy, as well as a key driver of jobs in its own right. And, above all, education is accessed locally. Teachers not only must organize The fight to reclaim our country and restore but also should work to ensure that every- one in their town, city, county, and even democracy must come from the bottom up. region has equal access to jobs, education, Those who teach represent the crucial linchpin healthcare, and the other opportunities— like museums and other cultural activi- in this struggle. ties—that make life fulfilling. In my home state of Wisconsin, we’ve been dealing with our version of Trumpism final contract negotiations serve as a model century, as did Lewis and the CTU in 2012. for some time now. Republican Governor for democratic unionism. In spite of a push In both cases, however, these wins Scott Walker, elected to represent the state’s from the school board to end the strike as required patient and sustained effort. Edu- wealthiest citizens, used collective bargain- soon as Lewis and the negotiating team had cators must play the long game, meaning ing rights for public employees as a political agreed to a deal, union officials postponed that we should think carefully about how to wedge, revoking them in 2011, while slash- the strike vote for two days so that all mem- organize and build power in our locals, ing taxes for the wealthy and defunding bers could read the entire contract before especially since it is widely expected that the public education. Not only did teacher voting.24 It is also important to note that the Supreme Court will rule in the upcoming unions in Wisconsin lose the possibility of union garnered the support of the commu- Janus case to impose “right to work” on all fair share agreements (the subject of the nity by organizing around the issue of of America’s public sector workers. Janus case), but Act 10 went even further. school closings and making student needs The way to combat the likely loss of fair Also known as the Wisconsin Budget Repair a substantial part of its contract demands. share fees is to ensure we undertake the Bill, Act 10 hobbled public employee unions The CTU has continued to be an outspo- hard work of engaging every new teacher in Wisconsin. We no longer even have the ken critic of neoliberalism in Chicago since in a one-on-one organizing conversation. option of negotiating automatic dues 2012. Lewis became so popular that many But we can’t stop there. The best way to deduction for members, and unions are not urged her to run against Emanuel for mayor inoculate our workplaces against right to allowed to legally bargain for salary or wage in 2014, and she planned to do so until being work is to organize those who are already increases higher than the cost of inflation. diagnosed with brain cancer. Lewis ulti- members to become activists—both at University faculty members are barred from mately chose not to run, and Emanuel was school and in the broader community. It any collective bargaining at all. These stipu- reelected in a very low-turnout election. The may be unfair to ask our colleagues to add lations represent massive challenges to battle is far from over for the CTU, but the these tasks to their already full plates of organizing strong educator unions. union successfully leveraged its widespread work and home life. But developing scores The legislature also has diverted funds popularity to defend its gains in contract of new activist teachers is the only likely from K–12 education to expand the state’s negotiations in 2016. way to combat the efforts of DeVos and the voucher scheme, and has gutted public many “reform” organizations out there higher education by imposing nearly $800 Teacher Unions as Central hoping to privatize public education. million in cuts since Walker took office. Agents of Modern Democracy Further, as our economy has moved Walker and the legislature also went after The overarching lesson from Chicago’s two toward the centrality of service and educa- private sector unions, forcing right to work pioneering unions is that what works in tion (and as many industrial jobs have been on the rest of the state’s workers in 2015. organizing, especially in teacher unions, either outsourced or made obsolete by Finally, Walker has provided a preview of transcends time. Haley and the CTF won technology), schools and universities are what Trump’s new tax law will do to our collective victories in the face of a hostile the places around which we must build country, as he has offered massive tax credits city government around the turn of the 20th political organizations that ensure everyone to the wealthiest manufacturers in the state.

34 AMERICAN EDUCATOR | SPRING 2018 Walker no longer even restricts the give- course, AFT locals have been working to Working with other locals through our aways to local millionaires. His recent deal elect school board members who support state Higher Education Council, we led a to convince the manufacturer Foxconn to public education for decades, but this effort state-level campaign to “Fund the Freeze” open a facility in Wisconsin currently offers is particularly inspiring since it took place last year, arguing that while the tuition the largest corporate subsidy any state has in the shadow of the infamous National freeze the legislature has imposed since ever offered a foreign company in American Education Association local-led strike of 2013 benefits our students, it must also be history: $3 billion in direct payments to a 1974, when the school board fired and accompanied by the restoration of state company led by a Taiwanese billionaire.25 replaced 88 teachers.26 The Milwaukee Area funding that has been stripped from the Each of the next 10 years, the taxpayers of Technical College local, AFT Local 212, University of Wisconsin System. In the Wisconsin will pay Foxconn around $250 annually recertifies, most recently with 98 most recent state budget, Walker pro- million—the same amount the legislature percent of those who voted affirming it as posed, and the Republican-dominated cut from higher education in a drastic round the bargaining agent27 (under Act 10, public legislature passed, a modest increase in of cuts in the 2015–2017 biennial budget that employees can still certify a union as a bar- funding. It does not go nearly far enough has devastated our university system. gaining agent, and doing so continues to to compensate for the savage cuts made Predictably, unions in both the public give workers a more unified voice). How- since he took office in 2011, but it is a start. and private sectors have lost members in ever, each year, the deck is stacked against In just the past few months, our union has our state, and the economy has largely stag- the union, since under Act 10, to maintain also worked with the local-led racial jus- nated. But we are fighting back, and we are bargaining rights, a local must receive 51 tice group Black Lives United to march using the model Haley and the CTF pio- percent of the votes of the entire bargaining for women’s and indigenous people’s neered in the first Gilded Age. I know unit, not just those who turn out to vote. rights and to run a back-to-school back- because I serve on the executive council of How does the local do it? Its union activists pack drive so that all of our community’s my own AFT local, UW–Green Bay United, commit to organizing other members, and schoolchildren can have the school sup- which represents University of Wisconsin– they have built a reputation on campus as plies they need. Green Bay faculty and staff, and I’m also advocates for their students by facilitating We have also invited members of the vice president of higher education for our programs to support them. For example, Somali community to campus in an effort state federation, AFT-Wisconsin. Last year, Local 212 raises money for a program called to combat the toxic speech they sometimes AFT-Wisconsin, led by President Kim Kohl- Faculty and Students Together (FAST). FAST hear from those who hold anti-immigrant haas, committed to a long-term member- gets money into the pockets of students views in Green Bay. Most recently, activists to-member organizing plan. Our overall when they have a financial emergency so from our local collaborated with activists membership has now stabilized, and locals that they can stay in school, filling the void across the state to craft a member-driven that have committed to organizing are left by federal and state austerity.28 UW Worker Bill of Rights.30 The Bill of Rights growing their memberships and exercising Just last spring, the higher education envisions a university that works for all; it greater power in their communities. local at UW–Madison, United Faculty and includes demands for academic freedom, Here are a few examples: The Hortonville Academic Staff (UFAS), led a successful “fair pay equity, access to high-quality health- Federation of Teachers responded to intimi- pay” campaign to properly compensate care and child care, and stable working dation from administration by working with faculty assistants, a small category of cam- conditions for adjunct faculty and other community members to elect two new pus instructors underpaid relative to their contingent workers. Our higher education school board members in April 2017. Of workloads. In their campaign, UFAS activ- locals are successfully using this powerful ists stressed that instructor working condi- statement as an organizing tool. tions are student learning conditions. When This work is far from over in Wisconsin, administrators declined to renew the con- and it won’t be easy to advance our demo- tracts of several of the activist faculty assis- cratic vision. But to do so, we must tread the tants, UFAS organized a statewide petition path of Haley, Lewis, and others who have drive to reinstate them.29 been on the front lines of advancing the notion that everyone is entitled to a good inally, on my own campus, UW– job, a good education, healthcare, and a Green Bay, our local voted in the fulfilling life. We must also ensure that no AFT as the bargaining representa- one is excluded from this vision based on tive just before Act 10 rescinded race, gender, sexual orientation, gender Fthe rights of university faculty and staff to identity, immigration status, or other collectively bargain in 2011. Since then, our characteristics. union has become a visible advocate for all Our nation is at a crossroads. The fight workers and students on campus and in to reclaim our country and restore democ- our community. racy must come from the bottom up and must be rooted at the local level. Those who teach, now more than ever, represent More than 70,000 public employee union members and protesters took part in a the crucial linchpin in this struggle. ☐

BRENT NICASTRO February 2011 rally in Madison. (Endnotes on page 40)

AMERICAN EDUCATOR | SPRING 2018 35 lack of knowledge about public schools during her The state of Illinois also has one of the least equitable confirmation hearings was truly astounding, as she had funding structures in the country. See Bruce D. Baker and no idea about a number of different features of the Sean P. Corcoran, “The Stealth Inequities of School American education system. AFT President Randi Funding,” Center for American Progress, September 19, Weingarten perhaps best summed up DeVos’s inappropri- 2012, www.americanprogress.org/issues/education-k-12/ ateness for the office, highlighting her “antipathy for reports/2012/09/19/38189/the-stealth-inequities-of- public schools, a full-throttled embrace of private, school-funding. for-profit alternatives, and a lack of basic understanding 17. Ashby and Bruno, Fight for the Soul, 46–52. of what children need to succeed in school.” Quoted in Emmarie Huetteman and Yamiche Alcindor, “Betsy DeVos 18. , The Schools Chicago’s Confirmed as Education Secretary; Pence Breaks Tie,” Students Deserve: Research-Based Proposals to New York Times, February 7, 2017. Strengthen Elementary and Secondary Education in the (Chicago: Chicago Teachers Union, 6. Tim Alberta, “The Education of Betsy DeVos,” Politico 2012), www.ctunet.com/blog/text/SCSD_Report-02- Magazine, November/December 2017. 16-2012-1.pdf. 7. To tell the story of Margaret Haley, I rely on two 19. Uetricht, Strike for America, 2. excellent accounts of her life and the history of the Chicago Teachers Federation: Marjorie Murphy, 20. McAlevey, No Shortcuts, 136. Blackboard Unions: The AFT and the NEA, 1900–1980 21. Anecdotal evidence, from observers Micah Uetricht (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1992); and Kate and Tom Alter, respectively, supports this contention. As Rousmaniere, Citizen Teacher: The Life and Leadership of Uetricht also points out, public polling on the strike in Margaret Haley (Albany: State University Press of New Chicago showed that “63% of African Americans and York, 2005). 65% of Latinos—in a city where 91 percent of the public 8. Rousmaniere, Citizen Teacher, 45. school district is made up of children of color—supported the strike.” See Uetricht, Strike for America, 70; and Tom 9. The National Education Association was formed in Alter, “‘It Felt Like Community’: Social Movement 1857, but it was not the union that it has become. Rather, Unionism and the Chicago Teachers Union Strike of it was an organization devoted to advocating on behalf of 2012,” Labor: Studies in Working-Class History of the public education. It was led almost exclusively by male Americas 10, no. 3 (2013): 11–25. principals and superintendents in the late 19th century. 22. McAlevey, No Shortcuts, 122. 10. Rousmaniere, Citizen Teacher, 52. 23. McAlevey, No Shortcuts, 131. 11. Rousmaniere, Citizen Teacher, 90. 24. Uetricht, Strike for America, 72–74. 12. Kate Rousmaniere, “Being Margaret Haley, Chicago, 1903,” Paedagogica Historica 39 (2003): 10. As 25. Tom Kertscher, “Would Wisconsin’s $3 Billion to Teacher Unionism Rousmaniere puts it, “This was not an unusual stand, Foxconn Be Largest Ever ‘Gift’ by Any State to a Foreign even for otherwise progressive white people [at the Company?,” PolitiFact, August 15, 2017, www.politifact. (Continued from page 35) time].” com/wisconsin/statements/2017/aug/15/one-wisconsin- now/wisconsins-3-billion-offer-foxconn-gift-and-it-lar. 13. Pauline Lipman, The New Political Economy of Urban Endnotes Education: Neoliberalism, Race, and the Right to the City 26. See Adam Mertz, “The 1974 Hortonville Teacher (New York: Routledge, 2011). Strike and the Public Sector Labor Dilemma,” Wisconsin 1. Jon Shelton, Teacher Strike! Public Education and the Magazine of History 98, no. 3 (Spring 2015): 2–13. Making of a New American Political Order (Urbana: 14. For this account of Chicago teachers and their fight University of Illinois Press, 2017). against neoliberalism, I rely primarily on Steven K. Ashby 27. Local 212 home page, accessed November 16, 2017, and Robert Bruno, A Fight for the Soul of Public www.local212.org. 2. See Jon Shelton, “‘Compulsory Unionism’ and Its Education: The Story of the Chicago Teachers Strike Critics: The National Right to Work Committee, Teacher 28. See “MATC Faculty Union Raises $16,729 for (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2016); Jane F. Unions, and the Defeat of Labor Law Reform in 1978,” Students,” Local 212, accessed November 16, 2017, McAlevey, No Shortcuts: Organizing for Power in the New Journal of Policy History 29 (2017): 378–402. www.local212.org/ Gilded Age (New York: Oxford University Press, 2016); local-212-raises-17000-for-matc-students. 3. Sochie Nnaemeka, “Labor Movement vs. SCOTUS: The and Micah Uetricht, Strike for America: Chicago Teachers Bleak Future of Labor Law,” New Labor Forum 26, no. 3 against Austerity (London: Verso, 2014). On school 29. Maggie Chandler, “Petition Circulates in Support of (2017): 44–49. closings and charters, an excellent overview can be found Un-Hired Faculty Assistants Involved in Equal Pay in Uetricht, Strike for America, 1–15. Campaign,” Daily Cardinal, October 2, 2017, www. 4. Emma Brown, Valerie Strauss, and Danielle Douglas- dailycardinal.com/article/2017/10/petition-circulates- Gabriel, “Trump’s First Full Education Budget: Deep Cuts 15. Lipman, New Political Economy, 34–36. See also, in-support-of-un-hired-faculty-assistants-involved-in- to Public School Programs in Pursuit of School Choice,” Norreen Ahmed-Ullah, “School Closing Protesters March equal-pay-campaign. Washington Post, May 17, 2017. along Michigan Ave.,” , November 12, 2012. 30. “The UW Worker Bill of Rights,” AFT-Wisconsin, 5. Indeed, Betsy DeVos has almost no experience working accessed January 5, 2018, http://wi.aft.org/take-action/ with public schools, instead building a career spending 16. See “Chicago Public Schools Fiscal Year 2017 uw-worker-bill-rights. her inherited fortune trying to siphon public tax dollars Budget,” Chicago Public Schools, accessed December 30, for religious schools in the name of school choice. Her 2017, http://cps.edu/fy17budget/Pages/pensions.aspx.

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