President of Chicago Teachers Union Karen Lewis Has Dubious Connections

The Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) President, Karen Lewis, has an interesting connection: Former Communist Party Chief, Mike Klonsky.

Communist and William Ayers buddy Mike Klonsky tweeted:

Stay strong, stand tall, Karen Lewis and the CTU. bit.ly/zdMG4e Fighting for all of us.

— Mike Klonsky (@mikeklonsky) January 21, 2012

The fight to which he refers is not a concern about wages or benefits, but the fight for teachers to avoid being evaluated based on student's grades, as reported by the Chicago Tribune. The CTU has been at a stand-still with the city going on day three, with no signs of stopping.

The connections are laid out in a piece by Jim Hoft of theGatewayPundit. He explains that Mike Klonsky was good friends with William Ayers and received almost $200,000 in grant money from the "Annenberg Challenge," which was led at the time by Ayers and President Obama. He even had an office with Ayers and Obama at the University of Illinois campus.

As reported in the Wall Street Journal, "Klonsky and Ayers teamed up on the so-called 'small schools movement' to steer schoolchildren away from core academics to left-wing politicking on issues of 'inequity, war, and violence.' So Klonsky likes Lewis... Does she share similar radical beliefs about what children should be learning?

Peter Bella at Washington Times Communities is not a fan, as he states, "Karen Lewis' idea of education reform is teachers working less hours for more pay, and, more teachers leaving the classroom to enter the bureaucratic world, where they have the power to run the system. Right into the ground."

Ouch. Michelle Malkin is not exactly keen on Lewis, either. She says that Lewis, "is a loud-mouthed 'social justice' radical whose Big Labor racket would rather abandon 350,000 children to the streets than accept merit-based pay, teacher evaluations, and a 16 percent pay raise." So, in summary, Ms. Lewis is pretty representative of union thuggery, and is loved by communists. Sounds like another day in the life in Chicago.

Watch Karen Lewis of the Chicago Teachers Union here, where an inkling of her character is revealed as she rants about Education Secretary Arne Duncan: