We’re going to do our part as the union in coalition with our movement to make sure we manifest that. It’s going to require regular neighbors to name the thing that they want, and I think that what they voted for was hope and opportunity. It’s going to require labor and community. It is a multi-year endeavor that’s going to require more than a mayor. The inequity and injustice in this city is not a four-year endeavor. It opens up this space for us to partner with the CEO of the Chicago Public Schools and the President of the Board of Education in ways that I’m not sure many people in our movement believed would ever come. In 2023, we have Brandon Johnson, a middle school teacher, a labor organizer, who is now the mayor of Chicago. They’ve done it in their classrooms and their school communities and their neighborhoods. Our members have taken on the responsibility of pushing for equity and fairness. We are not just workers in the city we are neighbors in the city, we are invested in every facet of the success of the city. And that’s because our members live in Chicago-proudly, I might add. And then our fight extended and amplified the city all Chicagoans deserve. So Karen Lewis said we have to change the trajectory of the city. And Rahm Emanuel closed fifty schools the next year. So in 2012, you see this big, spectacular resistance and show of force. South Side Weekly: Can you discuss the current moment and how you got here?ĭavis Gates: We’ve been trying to influence the implementation of good policies in the Chicago Public Schools since Karen Lewis. What follows has been edited for clarity and length. In Chicago-where past mayors have warred openly with teachers and the union has gone on strike more times than the Bulls have won a championship-that’s no small miracle.Īfter the event, Davis Gates sat down with the Weekly for an interview that touched on the new political atmosphere, the challenges the school district still faces, and her hopes for the city and the new administration.
And Chicago Public Schools (CPS) CEO Pedro Martinez, who often mentions that he’s a product of CPS, was also at the party, beaming and shaking hands.įor once, it seems the teachers union, CPS’s C-suite, and the fifth floor of City Hall are in some kind of alignment. In April, Brandon Johnson, a former middle school teacher and CTU organizer, was elected mayor. At a back-to-school party in the parking lot of Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) headquarters, she bounced from one group to another, smiling as she posed for photos with alderpersons, union activists, parents and children.ĭavis Gates, who has been the president of the CTU for a little over a year, has good reason to be happy. On the last Friday of summer break, Stacy Davis Gates was in high spirits. Best of the South Side In Memoriam 2020.Best of the South Side Open dropdown menu.Stacy Davis Gates on Mayor Johnson, Elected School Board, Asylum Seekers, and More – South Side Weekly Close Search for:
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