chicago teachers union president karen lewis joins us to talk about the strike, chicago mayor rahm emanuel, and what this means for education reform across the country. then mitt romney and the 47%. >> pulitzer prize-winning journalist david cay johnston on the secret romney video that has shaken the presidential race. the net romney's on tax policy. >> romney's plan is george to be bush's plan on steroids. george w. bush gave 12.5% of his tax cuts to the top 10th of 1%. romney's plan gives one-third of the tax cuts to the top 10th of 1%. theey's plan gives 57% of total cuts in his package to the top 1%. that is people that make more than about $400,000 a year. astonishing how heavily weighed it is to the top. >> we will speak about his new book, "the fine print: how big companies use 'plain english' to rob you blind." all of that and more coming up. this is "democracy now!," democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. road in chicago. here the chicago public schools are back in session today after the governing body of the chicago teachers union voted to suspend a nine-da

karen lewis, president of the chicago teachers union, joins me now. good morning. >> good morning, randi. >> so i hope you got some sleep. i know you've been deep into negotiations. we appreciate your time this morning. months of talks we've been watching. dozens if not hundreds of meetings. why atlanhasn't this been able worked out? what issues are you and the union fighting for? >> i think what people need to understand, we are actually fighting for almost the very soul of public education in this country. chicago's been a laboratory, and quite frankly, we feel for failed experiments. we would like to get some common sense and some research-based instructions back into the schools. so our basic issues now surround compensati compensation. they surround a better day for our students. certainly an evaluation system which leads to job security for our members. >> where are you on the pay issue? >> we have some issues there. they're not where we ought to be. >> are you getting close, is there any movement at all? >> we've had -- on the pay issue, we've

karen lewis is a national board certified teacher.he teaches and has been teaching chemistry at martin luther king high school on the south side of chicago. she is well known by students, former students, other teachers. she is loved as a teacher. she is part of the rank-and-file educators, a new caucus there really came on the scene just about four or five years ago. but because the previous leadership of the chicago teachers union was really not challenging this whole agenda, they fought the school closings are happening every single year in chicago, fought for teachers who were laid off, and rank-and- file teachers simply had enough of these policies after observing the punishment for 15 years, overwhelmingly, elected karen and the other leadership team from the caucus. i do have to say also that karen has been incredibly courageous. she has been vilified often in the media, and has stood very firm and in a principled way to fight for the schools. >> talk about what this means for the nation, the whole race to the top the president

there was a pep talk from karen lewis to thousands of teachers ... she said it was time to go back to the silly part of her day ... her response to that today was that she takes it seriously and people should not be so sensitive to every word ... teachers to work in poor performing schools might need some protection and that's at the crux of the argument on the evaluations ... the mayors starting to close several schools at the end of this strike ... we expect an update from both sides un and negotiations are continuing ... chicago aldermen are hoping cps and the teachers' union will be able to resolve their differences soon. wgn's robert jordan is live at city hal... where the strike is weighing heavily on the minds of council members. both sides in this dispute realize that the majority of the citizens in chicago find the strike to be distasteful regardless of the side they take ... both sides ultimately will need to do something because it will affect the political careers of the chicago team teachers union higher ups and people in the mayor's off

and then we have karen lewis who is also a larger-than-life person. she has been very successful in rallying her membership behind her and their cause. and in terms of how the two ghettoing, they have met behind closed doors. karen lewis once said that the mayor was pretty assertive with her, even using a profanity towards her. but at the end of their meeting, they... she said that they hugged and that all was well after that. but we have two very strong personalities, rahm emmanuel who wants things done his way and karen lewis who is fighting for her 26,000 members. >> brown: what is the atmosphere then today? how is the city? how are citizens responding? >> well, we heard in that piece one parent who was less than happy with how things are developing today. but it seems that there is a lot of support for teachers among parents and among the community. at this hour, there is a huge rally in downtown chicago, mostly of teachers. thousands of teachers have taken to the streets right outside the chicago board of education to march through downtown chica

there's no shortage of bad blood between c t u president karen lewis and the mayor ... his aggressive push for a cut of raises and a longer school year has galvanized karen lewis seine her union ... >>this is courageous to speak to this city and say that you cannot blame the teachers for the mess made by this city ... the last request in 19 days the encouraging story here is that both sides are back at the table willing to talk through to resolution ... charter schools are not affected teachers there are not union members ... what is the bottom-line? robert jordan has and the newsroom ... known as the chicago public schools - reopened the chicago teachers union contract and used a tiny clause to take away the ctu negotiated raise last year, union officials have been seething, behind the scenes - angry that the cps -, as the union put it, for breaking a good faith agreement. with that behind the scenes vindictiveness, just under the skin, the scenario was set for tough if not impossible negotiations to take place to avoid a strike. but how close is close? obviously not n

karen lewis president of the cpu is critical of these evaluations she says they don't take into account some of the social discrepancies like poverty and lack of parenting and therefore are not a good gauge of how the teachers might be doing how would you respond? >>the teacher evaluation system in chicago has two separate components: one has to do with assessing teachers based on what they do in the classroom ... practices and the second based on student results. my from work has concerned itself with teacher best practices. how well they do the work of teaching their results half of that equation is a part that i leave to others might understandy understanding is that second part is what is controversial ... >>what would you say to chicago teachers skeptical of your method? >>i would have to understand the skepticism but based on the research done here in chicago by the organization here during mass found that 100 percent of the teachers in their study and a hundred schools founded this approach to be beneficial and valuable so for all their right reasons ... if focused on them and th

we got him in just the right time because karen lewis approaching the podium saying essentially theyers are frayed right now. from what we have just heard it doesn't sound like an end is anywhere near in sight. moving on the story behind the provocative sign and next the inspiration behind the campaign aimed that keeping you alive. and the hollywood memorial service were actor and chicago native michael clark duncan. go ahead you risk takers... you time misplacers... you magnets to mud... you shovers of covers, and lucky shirt lovers... pile it on. after all, kenmore is in the lives of over 100 million americans. that's why our newest large capacity front load has over 35% more speed to clean clothes, faster. we put more in so you get more out. kenmore. you know, i was once used for small jobs. yeah, and i took on all the bigger, tougher ones. but now that mr. clean's got this new select-a-size magic eraser i mean, he can take on any size job. look how easily he gets things cleaned. it's enough to make you cry. you, specifically. not me. i'm just happy we don't go near rex's mobile h

let's bring in karen lewis, president of the chicago teachers union. out of the negotiations to join us tonight. karen, any progress? what's the latest? >> there's been some movement on the scores. we were having problems with it. we were able to show them where there were some real major flaws that a person could actually be quite okay and actually good as a teacher and still get a flawed a teacher and still get a flawed evaluation. look, we want people to understand that the evaluation system that we currently have is flawed too. we don't like it. it doesn't help us improve. and what we're looking for is an evaluation system that gives us the feedback we need to get better and to improve, but also gives us an opportunity to work towards helping children go in a different direction than just test problems. >> but what you have in chicago are neighborhoods that have schools that just don't have the resources that other schools have, which puts double the pressure on the teachers to be able to produce the product that's going to score well on the test.

all right, thank you very much, karen lewis, we appreciate your taking the time.chicago's teachers union strike has ended. and our understanding is that those teachers say they're going to make up those days that the kids have lost later on in the school year. >>> now our fourth story "outfront." who killed chris stevens? it is one week after the horrific attack in which ambassador chris stevens and three other americans were killed at the u.s. consulate in benghazi. u.s. officials have not arrested anyone directly linked to the attack. they have focused on members of the militia sympathetic to al qaeda. but the arrests they have made are of people outside that night but not having to do with the attack. arwa damon has been fighting for answers. it's been hard. she is in benghazi, and a few moments ago, i asked her how the investigation is going. >> reporter: it's been incredibly frustrating to try to get a straight answer from the government, because even within the government itself, we're still continuing to hear these conflicting accounts. how many people have

the teachers union president karen lewis says that the latest contract settlement doesn't solve all of the problems, however, she does say that it was time to end the strike. >> the issue is we cannot get a perfect contract, there's no such thing as a contract that would make all of us happy, and we're realistic about that. >> teachers still have to vote on the proposal, so we will definitely hear more about this story. >>> the white house now coming out and saying that there is no proof so far that the deadly attack on the united states embassy in libya was planned, but it does say that it is a matter that is still under investigation and that the assessment could change. libya's president has said that he believes that foreigners came into the country and planned the attack to coincide with september 11th. the white house says it looks like violent protests were sparked from an anti-islam film made in the united states. >>> the army has developed body armor that is tailored specifically to fit women. the vest accommodates smaller torsos and they sit closer to a woman's chest. they ar

i have fallen in love with karen lewis.g. >> she is a fire brand. >> she is a 20-year veteran chemistry teacher, a really bright woman. i am glad to see her out there. >> megan, how did we get to a point where we believe that student and teacher's interest are counter to each other? you are a class room teacher. >> i think there has been a kind of a long decade of attacks, more on teachers and teacher unions. there has been teacher bashing has become national pastime. i think part of what's important is this is the first time we have seen a teacher's union to take a stand against that. i think you also see that when they do, you have parents and students supporting those teachers, which runs counter to everything i think we have been told and everything in this kind of strike that you have seen in the media. so i think it shows that this is the first in the step of fighting back against what has been these kind of scorched earth policies and teacher bashing for people like rahm emanuel. it is a chance to stand up for qualit

karen lewis spoke to the media last night as negotiations ended frustrated and angry at proposals promised by the school board today. school board president david talley had little to say while leading negotiations except that talks continue. it's not a statement that we're not going to get there it's just that we're being cautious. >> seann card brizard send a letter to louis today asking teachers not to picket outside the 144 schools which will be kept open for a half-day saying i have deep concerns about the impact of forcing kids to walk through picket lines with their parents lewis says parents should be concerned about the drop-off locations. our students going to places where people who have never worked with children, we have a problem with that. we are here to deliver an urgent message to the chicago teachers union, call off this strike. whatever they have to do, get in the room locked the door don't come out until something is worked out, a strike cannot be an option for our children in this day. as we get closer to the monday more support coming out for both sides. they're handi

are not based on money therefore they have no basis for a strike in the september 7th letter from karen lewis she addresses that issue days before the strike began and suggest any mention for stripings for reasons outside of money are expressly disavowed. who's to blame for that? the union points the finger at the mayor saying there spur of the moment decision... it's on necessary but what's really on necessary is that we are at this point right now this whole thing could have been settled months and months ago if we had not had to confront blind arrogance and disrespect tension between opposing parties rose with each day that the strike drought on i think she was being optimistic and hopeful. at this point to their earliest decisions could be back in class on monday again everything is hinging on tuesday's vote tuesday at 3:00 on the near south side. >> was that injunction and insults the teachers? some of them say it was in what about the parents even without taking sides they find themselves in the middle of this controversy. >> frustration and that he lee elementary this morning 60 percen

chicago teachers union president karen lewis preached at the daily plaza just a stone's throw from cityl and meier romijn emanuel. >> he's a liar. >> and a bully. the only way to be a bully is to stand up to a bully. >> i'm not looking for another five or another challenge. emanuel pointed to other union contract signs in the last week included with teachers at the city colleges, contracts he says will face the city with money it proposition that has sometimes been rejected calling for much more pay for a longer school day and a longer school year. we have to have a longer school day equal to what is happening around the country. nearly 800 mi. away the contract dispute september 10th fueled discussion at the democratic national convention. >> enough is enough. >> but with less than one week until the strike the negotiations that at least from the outside still seemed far from over. this fight is for the very soul of public education not only in chicago but everywhere. i think that if we focused on the mission and the education of our children and the inspiration to give education to ou

karen lewis to not speak to the media going into the 9:00 session this morning ... the latest offer to the teachers is a 16 percent raise over four years ... but negotiators indicate they are making progress on the sticking points of the teacher evaluations and the recall plan for the laid-off teachers there were crunching numbers all night on the costs of that recall plan ... barbara bennett said that the two sides are pretty close ... >>it's not a lot keeping us apart what i do believe it's hard to separate the issues that are interrelated teacher evaluations are related to these layoffs recalls ... this is what makes the negotiations so difficult ... contract talks continue inside the hilton if they can get a deal to the union house of delegates by 2:00 this afternoon the delegates could vote and the teacher's strike could be ended with students back in class by monday morning that's of things go well today. the mayor has scheduled a news conference on a non strike related issue press conference has been postponed that rarely happens but reporters what if pressed

as i said from the very beginning of this strike in chicago, the teachers union had karen lewis and mayor rahm emanuel in collusion. it was fully political theater from the beginning. the losers in this deal are the students and their parents. i want to demonstrate to you just how right i was. well, a little bit. i am so tired of the national media focusing on a story like this and not even reporting the details. i don't ask that they always understand, but least reported the facts. chicago is already facing an estimated 1 billion-dollar deficit. we started off $1 billion by the end of this year, the chicago public schools. $1 billion. the mayor is just telling everyone it is a win for our students and the great thing. it is a reform of the chicago schools which are desperately in need of reform. this deal is a joke. it will add another $295 million over the course of this contract. teachers in chicago makes $76,000 per year. and as i said from the very beginning, monday a week ago, it doesn't include pensions and folks, i'm going to give you a number in a minute but i assure you will sho

solidarity rally tomorrow as far as they're concerned the strike continues into union president karen lewis is being very cautious with her language until the final contract language is hammered out. the framework is one thing we think it's this framework that can get us to the agreement but we are not quite there the chicago teachers union house of delegates convened for a meeting this afternoon but instead of diving into details with delegates union officials cautiously weighing and waiting until sunday to present the finalized language of the contract proposal. we are all pleasedplease we cannot say much but they did release some of the terms of the tentative agreement teachers on average would get a 16 percent raise over four years the longer school day would remain and principals would have freedom to hire their own teachers. another major sticking point is the teacher evaluation system which would be updated for the first time in 40 years to exceed state standards in student test scores will count in evaluation. we believe on some level we will stage some of the issues that we have ha

karen lewis says she's optimistic about the vote and she said there will be healthy debate because the teachers don't trust the city public school system because of getting burned in the past ... internal disputes and high expectations have mma made it difficult for them to reach consensus ... >>we are like family but we remain in this together ... it's important for the city the union members and the kids most importantly that we go back to work >>i think we've done everything that we have set out to do and we'll want to be back in school we don't want to lose the parents' support. the c t u house of delegates' vote is at 3:00 if this passes the students could be back at school as early as tomorrow if it fails there will be meeting in a cook county circuit court room before a judge wednesday at 1030 for arguments over the city's motion ... teachers from little village academy and other schools gathered at new life church at 27th and lawndale... to discuss details about the tentative contract. >>i am concerned about the language ... the contingencies if funding is available and how the

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union president karen lewis made her first appearance rallying with thousands of teaches and supporters. >> chicago teachers have the highest average salary of any city. another round of talks set to resume later this morning. >>> for less than two months before the presidential election the obama administration approved work permits for the first group of young illegal immigrants looking to avoid deportation. it comes three weeks after president obama's controversial policy went into effect and months ahead of schedule. so far 172,000 illegal immigrants have applied. it will cost the government $585 million to carry out over the first two years. critics say it is a ploy to woe hispanic voters. president obama says the policy is the right thing to do. >> moody is issuing a stark warning to congress act now or they will lose the credit rating. it plans to downgrade the u.s. if a debt can't be reached by year's end. it comes a year after the rival. >> after months of speculation they are expected to announce the iphone 5 today. you are looking at the invite to the event in san francisco.

i would love to take a listen to a sound bite from karen lewis.en. >> there is no trust for our members of the board. i can't tell you how many people said this wasn't here that wasn't in writing, we didn't get it. the trust level is just not there. >> jennifer: david, how do you get people to work together when there seems to be no trust between the sides. >> that was one of the other points i was trying to make. we felt from the beginning we were treated as equal partners. and there's -- the three of us -- we had our representatives there, but throughout the entire process our input was valued and incorporated, so it was a matter of respect on both sides. >> jennifer: and it took a while, i'm assuming for you to get your contract. >> it did. we spent almost a full school year, and people ask me what is the reason for the success, i would say it was the time we did spend obviously we needed to get something in place but we spent the full school year with teachers and administrators working side by, parents in the room as well and at the end of th

. >> compromise simply wasn't in the president's karen lewis is vocabulary. >> i am not interested in talking about half way or three- quarters of the way it's not about that it's about the complete package of what our contract looks like mayor emanuel did not talk about negotiations just his vision for a new cts. they're going to get a full school day and a full school year for the first time in a decade and that means a lot more kids are going to be able to do a lot more learning, reading writing more math more science parents and students caught in the middle of this fight see both sides. we have teachers who are dedicated to their profession so they should be all interested in the negotiations. i hope they don't go on strike because the kids will stay home and they will not have anything to do but we will see what happens. >> sepia says it has a contingency plan in place if a strike does happen negotiations resume tomorrow and continue throughout the week. >> the call that the cook county sheriff's 21 members of the sheriff's department's special operations response team have won

cpsc sean clark brizard has written karen lewis a letter asking her to stop a union members from picketing in front of the city's first locations those are the alternative school sites brizard says families are having a tough enough time with the teachers' strike as it is and contingency center only making the situation more difficult. he did meet earlier today with the school's principal. he was at the roundtable discussion and has more. cbs principal >> the chicago teachers union doesn't like it at all the right of principles to hire and fire teachers they choose. not giving principals control over their destiny and over their hiring i think would be a major step backwards for chicago it's something honestly i cannot see being successful. as a former principal he says he understands the concerns of those gathered here these principles side with the city and if they are to be held accountable for the success of the school they say they should be the ones making the decisions about who works there. >> the way we work together, the strength of each other even the types of endorsements and a

the union boss karen lewis said she was optimistic that they would make a deal today but they have some delegates who need some time to approve the plan. the house of delegates meeting has been scheduled for 2:00 p.m. tomorrow anticipating school and union officials come to agree on two issues separating them- evaluation and the retiring of laid off teachers. cbs said there top priority is the return to class. union officials say they believe that classes will resume on monday but will likely take a week or more before 26,000 members vote to ratify a new contract. rev. jesse jackson visited both sides of the negotiations this afternoon and at it 4:00 news briefing he reported that the of bushels were huddled on different floors. >> it is a state of emergency today. i hope they will boat and consider children security and get back as soon as possible. >> cbs will be expanding courses to help the students to access the courses. courses will be offered to the lower grades below third grade as well. live outside the chicago hilton. debbie g. in news. pounding the pavement wasn't enough. str

union president karen lewis cautions the strike isn't over, they're going to be meeting on sunday toraft an agreement and vote on whether to suspend the strike. this comes as the district's more than 350,000 students have been out of school for five days. republican senator jim demint speaking a the a values voter summit today did not back down from a joke about those on strike. >> i was reading another story about a distant place where thugs had put 400,000 children out in the streets. then i realized that was a story about the chicago teachers strike. >> he released a statement saying he was referring to the mob bosses when he referred to thugs. >> and china's vice president has been missing for almost two weeks. reuters reports he may appear tomorrow. he's china's next likely leader. he's been out of the public eye, missing meetings, including one with hillary clinton earlier this month. incredible and bizarre. earlier when i was speaking to john huntsman, i asked when china's leader may reappear. >> my sense is that we're going to hear from him probably in the next couple of days

david vitali, who's the president of the chicago public school board and karen lewis who's the presidentago teachers' union. listen to the following sound bites, one from each, and you'll have a hard time thinking that they're sitting at the same negotiating table. >> we are close enough to get this resolved, and that we hope once again to say that tomorrow we can deal with the two major issues that are on the agenda. >> he, i think, has a very different view of the actual work that goes on because i believe he left, what, three or four hours ago, and we're still finishing working. >> reporter: the stumbling block for the union from their point of view are two particular issues, both having to do with job security. one is a callback system by teachers who work at schools that are closed down because of poor academic performance or for other reasons, whether or not those folks will get could back first on a priority effort. the other issue is whether or not teachers will be evaluated in the system the city currently has which does lean heavily on standardized testing. jenna? jenna: it see

the leader of the charge of the union, karen lewis, is still not optimistic.hat we have seen of her comments. they are cautiously optimistic but she is lets so. maybe the mayor got more out of deal than they did. we do not know what the deal looks like yet. the teachers are concerned about job security. raising performance standards could mean that some teachers get fired in the next couple of years. they do not like that. change is difficult in this arena. >>trace: it was about job security, not so much money, and they made the accusation against rahm emanuel they said these guys are taking the whole policy right, being praised by people like gingrich. clearly, rahm emanuel is always linked forever more with the obama administration, how does this hurt when the unions come down on rahm emanuel? does this have a ripple effect for the democrat party nationally? >>guest: it could. right now the crisis we are seeing in the middle east is overshadowing this. it would have been a much bigger problem if this had not happened. the unions need to come out for presiden