Jackson Potter, former Staff Coordinator of the Chicago Teachers Union
Jackson Potter
Jackson Potter, a Chicago Public Schools graduate, worked to have the Chicago Teachers Union be a part of the broader social movement; working with other organizations helped to win their strike seven years ago. CTU continues to work together and support the efforts of other social justice movements.
Education Justice Listening Project
Lessons of the Chicago teachers’ strike
Jackson began his organizing career as a high school activist who led a walk-out at Whitney Young in 1995 to push for equitable funding for schools in Illinois. After college, he taught at Englewood High School and was the union delegate there when then Chicago Public Schools CEO Arne Duncan called the school a “culture of failure” and started a phase-out in 2005. Jackson began then to resist corporate school reform, joined joined a rank-and-file group of teachers, and formed the Renaissance 2010 committee within the Chicago Teachers Union. He fought to give teachers a right to sit at the table with the CUE (Chicagoans United for Education) coalition. He and Al Ramirez formed the Caucus of Rank-and-File Educators (CORE) in May of 2008 and the Grassroots Education Movement, with community organizations, shortly thereafter. In June of 2010, CORE won the general election for the leadership of the Chicago Teachers Union, the third largest teachers local in the country.
Jackson will teach social studies at Back of the Yards College Prep High School in the Fall.
Kathy Michienzie Rendon, Deputy Executive Director Colorado Education Association, grew up in Arvada, CO and is a graduate of Arvada High School. She earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science from Providence College and a Master of Social Work and MA in International Development from the University of Denver. Rendon’s organizing career began in 2003 while in graduate school, where she interned at Centro Humanitario para las Trabajadores in Denver, to help organize day laborers on the street corners to come together for improved working conditions and to organize with community partners to prevent wage theft. In 2004, she moved to SEIU Local 105, Justice for Janitors where she worked as a strategic researcher and organizing director helping janitors in the Denver Metro Area organize unions and bargain collectively. In 2010, Rendon moved to the teachers union, beginning at the Jefferson County Education Association and later at the Colorado Education Association the largest union in Colorado, where she currently serves as Deputy Executive Director and manages the Center for Organizing. She lives in Denver with her husband and two sons.
