Chicago teachers re-elect reform caucus, CORE, to lead union

Chicago, IL – The Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) announced on Saturday, May 17, that its members had re-elected the Caucus of Rank-and-File Educators (CORE) to lead the union for another term, with CORE leader Stacy Davis Gates continuing as president. This comes one month after members approved a new contract containing over 100 wins for union members and the students, with 97% of members voting to approve.

CORE is the class-struggle-oriented caucus that has led the union for 15 years. Rank-and-file unionists founded the caucus in 2008 in opposition to the neoliberal policies of Mayor Richard M. Daley, which brought privatization, school closures and instability that particularly affected Black communities in the city’s South and West Sides. The caucus first won election in 2010 under the leadership of the late Karen Lewis. Today, much of the CTU rank and file reveres Lewis’s legacy of engaging union members, families and communities in a fight for social justice.

Today, the CORE caucus advocates explicitly for Black and Latino children, who together make up over 80% of the students enrolled in Chicago Public Schools. On May 21, for example, President Davis Gates, Vice President Jackson Potter, and other leaders from CORE advocated against a snap curfew proposal on the floor of the Chicago City Council, criticizing it as criminalizing Black and brown youth.

“What our children need isn’t criminalization – it’s care,” the leadership team said in a joint statement. “They need sustained investment in public education, mental health care, recreational spaces and strong mentorship.” Such instances of advocacy on city council resolutions reflect the CORE caucus’s class-struggle approach: fighting to empower working communities at the bargaining table and beyond.

CORE won the election with 64% of the vote, with the REAL caucus (or the Respect Educate Advocate Lead caucus) garnering 36%. School-by-school results released on May 27 reveal that schools in the predominantly Black South and West Sides tend to support CORE at higher rates. This may reflect the caucus’s history of Black leadership and advocacy for Black communities facing school closures. Additionally, most unionized charter schools voted for CORE by wide margins, which may reflect the caucus’s recent history in leading unionization efforts within charter school networks.

Under CORE leadership, the Chicago Teachers Union continues to claim victories against the neoliberal trends that CORE’s founders sought to oppose. Former CTU member Mayor Brandon Johnson has advocated maintaining the ongoing moratorium on neighborhood school closures. The Chicago Teachers Union also recently advocated for a charter accountability resolution, which the Chicago Board of Education passed on May 29. The resolution strengthens protections for students, communities and public funds in the event of a charter school closure, as well as strengthening labor rights for charter school teachers. This comes on the heels of a contentious struggle over the proposed closure of seven out of 15 schools in the Acero charter network, which resulted in a campaign that ultimately saved five schools when Chicago Public Schools agreed to reintegrate them as traditional public schools.

Given recent attacks by the Trump administration on the immigrant, African American, and LGBTQ communities, the CTU plans to continue to build solidarity and fight in various arenas.

“We will continue to build the strongest force field around our students, our members, our school communities, our city and our union,” the CTU leadership wrote in a press release. “The greatest protection against attacks — whether it is from an out-of-line administrator or an out-of-line president — is each other.”

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