More than 400 Black Chicago Public Schools teachers and other personnel who were laid off under former Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s CPS “turnaround” program are set to receive a cut of a $9.25 million settlement that would end lawsuits over the allegedly racially discriminatory layoffs that have continued in court for the past decade.
The lawyers who brought the lawsuit, including the mother of a high-ranking Chicago Teachers Union official, will receive $4 million from the deal.
The settlement resolves two lawsuits, filed in 2012 and 2015, brought by the CTU against the Chicago Board of Education and the city. The lawsuits, styled as class actions, accused the city of Chicago and CPS of improperly laying off Black personnel, predominantly at schools on the city’s south and west sides, as part of the efforts of Mayor Emanuel and former CPS CEO Arne Duncan to improve failing schools from 2012-2014.
Duncan would go on to serve as Secretary of Education under former President Barack Obama.
The program, known as the “turnaround” agenda, involved replacing all staff, except building engineers and cafeteria staff, if the school failed to improve after a year on probation. Laid off teachers could be rehired, and often were.
But CTU claimed the turnaround program had a “disparate impact” on Black CPS educators, resulting in a marked decline in Black teachers as a percentage of CPS’ total staff. CTU estimated the share of Black teachers in CPS declined from 40% in 2000 to 20% now, largely as a result of efforts like the “turnaround” program.
The CTU asserted the program’s effects amounted to illegal racial discrimination against Black CPS educators, who worked at the schools in the largely Black neighborhoods.
CPS argued the layoffs did not target Black personnel, and were conducted legally for legitimate purposes. The Board of Education pointed to evidence showing schools were selected for “turnaround” based on students’ academic performance, not the racial composition of the staff. When adjusted for academic performance, the claims of racial discrimination under the turnaround program dissipate, CPS said.
Further, CPS pointed to evidence showing the turnaround program improved student performance at those schools.
CTU, however, argued CPS used “academic performance” as a proxy, to mask CPS’ real intent to fire Black teachers.
CTU had lodged an earlier suit over similar layoffs in 2011. But in that case, U.S. District Judge Jorge Alonso had dismissed the action, ruling the layoffs were colorblind and conducted based on declining Black enrollment and on more efficiently allocating funds.
However, in the other two lawsuits, U.S. District Judge Sara Ellis declined to prevent the cases from going to trial. She said a jury needed to sort out the facts and allegations over the cause and effects of the turnaround program.
Rather than face trial, the two sides entered settlement talks in 2021 and agreed to end the case by paying about $5 million to a class of 414 laid off Black educators, and $4 million to attorneys Robin Potter and Patrick J. Cowlin, formerly of the firm of Potter Bolaños, now the firm of Fish Potter Bolaños, of Naperville.
Potter is the mother of Jackson Potter, a CPS teacher and vice president of the CTU.
It is estimated each Black educator could get more than $12,000 each from the settlement.
Settlement documents do not indicate how many other educators of other races may have been laid off and not rehired.
Further, the settlement documents don’t indicate how many of the 414 Black educators who will receive payments under the settlement may have been rehired by CPS, or if any of the class members are currently working for CPS.
The settlement merely allows for payment to a class that would include: “All African American persons employed by the Board of Education of the City of Chicago as a teacher or para-professional staff, as defined in the labor agreement between the Chicago Teachers Union and the Board of Education, in any school or attendance center subjected to reconstitution, or ‘turnaround,’ in the 2012, 2013 and/or 2014 calendar years.”
In a statement announcing the settlement, attorney Patrick Cowlin, who represented the Black educators and CTU, said: “This has been a challenging but necessary court battle and part of the Chicago Teachers Union's determination to ensure all students and staff have the schools Chicago deserves. The named plaintiffs and other CTU members have shown great courage throughout this 10-year fight for justice.”