Karen Lewis

Karen Lewis ( Jennings; July 20, 1953 – February 7, 2021) was an American educator and labor leader who served as president of the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU), Chicago's division of the American Federation of Teachers, from 2010 to 2014. For nearly 20 years before becoming president of the teachers union, she was a high school chemistry teacher.

Early life Karen Jennings was born on July 20, 1953, in Chicago's South Side to a family of teachers. She transferred to Dartmouth College in 1972, when Dartmouth became the last Ivy League institution to become co-educational, and was the only African-American woman in the class of 1974. After graduation, she married Arnold Glenn and moved to Oklahoma; the couple later divorced.

Career

For nearly 20 years, she worked as a chemistry teacher, beginning as a substitute before being hired full-time at Sullivan High School. CORE ran an aggressive grassroots organizing campaign and took a strong stance against school privatization. CORE accused the incumbent United Progressive Caucus (UPC) of capitulating to corporate interests, silencing dissent within the union, and collaborating with the city to prevent union outreach at schools. CORE quickly took action to distinguish itself from UPC, reaffirm its grassroots support, and launch a campaign to defend public education. The new leadership cut pay for union officers and used the savings to expand outreach. CORE represented a major bloc of dissent at the 2012 AFT convention, and held signs in protest of Race to the Top during a speech from Vice President Joe Biden.

2012 strike

Several Chicago teachers became disgruntled with the local government in 2012, and said that incumbent Mayor of Chicago Rahm Emanuel, who had been elected a year prior, had failed to deliver a four percent pay raise promised by the city. Emerging victorious, the union softened the proposed teacher evaluation system, prevented the instituting of merit pay, and ensured protections for veteran teachers in phased out schools. Lewis was re-elected as CTU president for a second three-year term in 2013, and a similar but smaller walkout occurred in 2016. In a poll from the same month, Lewis bested Emanuel 45–36 in a hypothetical electoral contest. On October 13, 2014, her exploratory committee announced that she would not run, citing health issues. Instead, Lewis supported Jesús "Chuy" García in the election. Following her retirement, Lewis was praised by Chicago mayor Rahm Emanuel, a longtime political enemy, who nevertheless said they had "grown to admire each other as friends." 2015 – The Deborah W. Meier Hero in Education Award, presented by FairTest. 2015 – The Mary E. Smith Foundation named a scholarship after Lewis, the "Karen Lewis CTU-CPS Excellence in Science Award."

Personal life and death In 1993, Lewis, who was previously a Lutheran, converted to Judaism. On October 13, a source confirmed that Lewis had been diagnosed with glioblastoma, a cancerous brain tumor. and the union told The New York Times that she "dazzled you with her smile, yet could stare down the most powerful enemies of public education and defend our institution with a force rarely seen in organized labor."