After Mayor Lori Lightfoot rejected the demands of the Chicago Teachers Union, 25,000 teachers and 7,000 support staff launched a strike on Thursday, October 17, shutting down the schools for some 300,000 students. Also on the picket line were members of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 73, representing educational support staff and Special …
Continue reading The Chicago Teachers On Strike: ‘Until We Get What Our Students Deserve’
First Published in The Progressive Jesse Hagopian spoke with Mercedes Martinez, president of the teachers union Federación de Maestros de Puerto Rico, the Teachers Federation of Puerto Rico or FMPR, as it is known, on July 26, one day after former Puerto Rican Governor Ricardo Rosselló announced his plan to resign amid mass protests and strikes …
School is fundamentally one of the greatest sources of humor. The premise of mainstream schooling is that a lot of young people, at different developmental stages, are packed into a room with an adult who is trying to get them to do something they often have little idea why they should care about. That basic …
Jesse Hagopian is a Seattle teacher, anti-racist activist and co-editor of Teaching for Black Lives who helped organize the founding actions of “Black Lives Matter at School.” He recently talked to Socialist Worker's Danny Katch about the importance of this year’s BLM at School week of action, set for February 4-8, as the initiative spreads …
Continue reading Black Lives Matter At School Makes Educator Unions Stronger
In October, two Black grandparents were gunned down by a white supremacist in a Kroger supermarket in Louisville, Kentucky, sending shock waves through the Black community. The shooter was recorded on surveillance video trying to get into a predominately Black church just before the killing. Michelle Randolph, who teaches fourth grade in a school with …
