Defending Public Education: An Interview with Karen Lewis of the Chicago Teachers Union

For the inaugural episode of Dissent magazine's podcast series, labor journalists Josh Eidelson and Sarah Jaffe sat down with Karen Lewis to discuss teaching and gender discrimination, professionalism and solidarity, unions and the Democratic Party. An edited version of the transcript appears below. The full interview can be heard on the Dissent website. The interview was conducted in April, before the Board of Education voted to close fifty public schools in Chicago.