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CTU’s Lewis calls Gov. Rauner ‘the new ISIS recruit’

With the city facing the threat of a teachers strike, Chicago Teachers Union President Karen Lewis focused attention on Gov. Bruce Rauner on Wednesday in an incendiary speech that likened the Republican governor’s actions to terrorism.

“Rauner is the new ISIS recruit,” Lewis said during an address at a packed City Club of Chicago luncheon, using a term that refers to the Islamic State terrorist group.

“Yes, I said it, and I’ll say it again,” Lewis continued. “Bruce Rauner is a liar. And, you know, I’ve been reading in the news lately all about these ISIS recruits popping up all over the place — has Homeland Security checked this man out yet? Because the things he’s doing look like acts of terror on poor and working-class people.”

Rauner’s office quickly denounced Lewis’ comments.

“This kind of rhetoric has no place in American public discourse and sets a terrible example for our kids,” Rauner spokeswoman Catherine Kelly said in a statement.

Lewis’ remarks highlighted a day of political showmanship over the troubled state of Chicago’s schools.

Chicago Public Schools CEO Forrest Claypool made a bid for moving contract talks with the CTU to binding arbitration. House Speaker Michael Madigan called for higher taxes on wealthy residents to prop up education funding. And busloads of CTU members, joined by allied labor unions and supporters, descended on Springfield for a march on the Capitol and the Executive Mansion to call for more education funding.

Lewis’ City Club speech came four days after the union rejected contract recommendations of an independent arbitrator, opening the door to a strike as soon as next month. Lewis said the city is heading toward another teachers strike, but that no decision has been made on when a walkout might take place. The union has been in negotiations with the school board for well over a year to replace a contract that expired June 30.

Claypool, in a letter to Lewis on Wednesday, asked the union to agree to “final and binding interest arbitration in lieu of a strike” and wrote that the district is “at a loss as to how a strike would solve or even advance a solution to the considerable challenges that CPS faces.

“In our view a strike whether in May or in August or in September would be devastating to our students and parents,” Claypool wrote. Claypool also noted that arbitration “has been used in Chicago for our police and fire contracts for decades.”

State law that governs talks between the district and the CTU allows for binding arbitration, but does not require it.

Lewis derided Claypool’s proposal as a “publicity stunt” designed to counter her City Club speech.

“He knew we were going to be here today, so he had to have his mouth in something, let’s be real honest about what that was,” Lewis said.

“We’ve never done interest arbitration, and that’s because we have the ability to strike,” Lewis said. “The police and the firemen don’t, which is why they have to submit to interest arbitration.”

In Springfield, Madigan called for a vote on legislation that would ask voters to amend the Illinois Constitution to enact higher income taxes for anyone making more than $1 million a year. The extra money would go to education.

Lewis and the CTU have called for higher taxes on wealthy residents as part of a package of legislation to send more money to schools.

But Madigan’s move was purely political, as the speaker knew he lacked support in his Democratic caucus to push through the measure. His call for a vote was designed to take a few licks at the wealthy Rauner and his fellow Republicans who oppose the plan.

Madigan noted the idea of a millionaire’s tax had overwhelming support when voters were asked about it on the November 2014 ballot. The speaker made a point of reading the names of Republican legislators where more than 60 percent of voters approved the proposal.

“Quite frequently, this chamber is called the body of the legislature that’s closest to the people that we represent,” Madigan said during a speech on the House floor. “The people of your districts have spoken, it’s time to listen to their voice, not the voice of the 1 percenters and those who put profits over education.”

The measure failed 68-47, after Madigan could not gather his 71 Democratic members needed to approve the legislation. Still, the move allows his loyal Democrats to send out campaign mailers saying they supported taxing the rich. Indeed, just minutes after the vote, Madigan’s office sent out a press release declaring “Illinois residents again ignored by House Republicans.”

Lewis, after her speech, praised Madigan, saying he is “somebody that’s trying to get things done.”

“But not ideological, and not stuck in the mud,” Lewis said. “Not ideological at all.”

Controversial statements are nothing new for Lewis, who has previously described Rauner as a “sociopath” and once called Rahm Emanuel the “murder mayor.” The language she reserved for Rauner was especially heated, however, and extended to the impact of the state budget impasse in issues beyond education.

“I think he’s holding people hostage,” Lewis said of Rauner. “Who does that? You hold people hostage. You hold defenseless children, babies, infants, you hold defenseless mothers who are brand-new, you hold people who are disabled hostage. Because you can’t get something else you want to have, that has nothing to do with a budget? You know, I mean, it’s ideological. That’s terrorism, that is pure … terrorism.”

Lewis did not ignore Claypool and CPS in her speech, attacking the impact of the district’s budget cuts and blaming district mismanagement for its woeful finances and claims of a $1.1 billion deficit in the coming year.

But she also occasionally echoed Claypool with calls for an overhauled state education funding formula.

“First of all, it’s not just Chicago that suffers from really inequitable funding, let’s be clear about that,” Lewis told her audience.

“It’s not just Chicago, a lot of the areas in downstate Illinois have the same challenges that we have. And the key is to find equitable funding for the state. We’re not asking for a special deal. We’re not asking people for that because we know what will be said about that..”

Back in Springfield, Chicago teachers and other union workers rallied at the state Capitol to call for a budget agreement and protest cuts to education and social services.

Wielding signs and chanting, they marched to the Executive Mansion, where participants linked arms around the property so that Rauner could “see them wherever he looks.”

“We didn’t mess up this budget, they did,” said Sherrie Parker, a teacher at Cather Elementary School in Chicago. “They use money for things that are useless, instead of education.”

Katie Osgood, a special education teacher at Hughes Elementary School, said CPS isn’t looking for a bailout, despite what Rauner has said in recent months.

“We’re broke because they’re allowing us to be broke,” Osgood said. “And they want us to be broke, so they can do these things to our system and claim they have no other choice.”

jjperez@tribpub.com

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