Lewis was the invited guest of the Austin-based organization of West Side pastors. Attendees of the Columbus Park Refectory event also included community activists and CTU members.
About three dozen people attended, with Lewis invited to speak about education.
While her remarks overall were wide-raging, Lewis took a direct swing at some of the educational reforms championed by Mayor Rahm Emanuel and also President Barack Obama.
Lewis criticized what she called the “hyper-competitiveness of many status quo educational programs,” such as Obama’s Race to the Top initiative.
The roughly $4 billion project awards funding to select school district across the country based on their compliance with the Common Core Standards being implemented in Illinois and other states.
“I think it is important for us to go for the gold, but I think it is wrong for us to diminish the silver and the bronze, because those are huge achievements too,” Lewis said. “My concern is that in our individualistic culture that we’ve developed right now, we’re in this winner-take-all mentality. That’s why I don’t like Race to the Top. In Race to the Top, there are winners and there are losers.”