I have no doubt that CORE is going to win the CTU election tomorrow. I don’t say this as a supporter, but I say this as somebody who believes in the teachers of this city and believes they will do what’s best for themselves and the students in their care. However, winning isn’t really enough. The same people who have been fighting to destroy the CTU, are hoping that even if CORE isn’t defeated, they can point at a large vote total for the opposition as proof that the Chicago Teachers Union is divided. Every time in the past, when they believed we were too divided to organize, we proved them wrong. I want to prove them wrong again.
In the movie Diehard, there’s a moment when a character named Harry Ellis decided to negotiate with the hostage takers because he believes they’re just businessmen like he is. Then when he realizes that he’s up against something more sinister it’s much too late. Unfortunately I get the same vibe from The Salvation Caucus. We’ve got a new ballgame in town and if we don’t stand up to Rahm, we have only seen the tip of the iceberg.
It occurred to me today that school closings are like Chicago’s version of the Iraq war. It’s not an indictment of the violence that is sure to come or the total ignorance of believing you are helping the Iraqi people or the students no matter how much they fight you. The thing that strikes me as so similar is that now that we’re in the middle of things, we still don’t know why we’re doing it. Once the WMD excuse fell apart, the White House kept trying new reasons to justify what they did. Once we learned this wasn’t going to save money, CPS did the same thing. Somehow, this is for the children. Somehow, this will make things better. Except, it won’t. Sadly, I expect us to be in the same spot 10 years later too.
These are the days I hate my blog. There is so much wonderful stuff happening today with students, teachers, the CTU, and community activists saying, “No closings!” I am going to miss some of it. I wish I would get every significant story of the evening. Sadly, I don’t think I’ll even come close.
“The defendants have used various shifting criteria that they allege to be race neutral but that always have the effect of singling out poor and marginalized African American children to bear the educational and human costs of the closings,” the suit states.
For instance, when asked, “With whom do you side in debates over improving public schools?,” 55 percent of black voters said the Chicago Teachers Union. And 5 percent said Mayor Emanuel.
“And, as always, this no-comment fact. Lafayette School’s string orchestra, a 10-year partnership with Merit School of Music combining general education and special education students, will be dismantled and the students divided between two schools.”
“”That is a kid’s facebook page from the school my kid is supposed to go to once his school closes, a kid from the welcoming school.” This mother took a short breath before continuing, “It’s a hit list. Once any of those kids crosses the street that divides the neighborhoods, they will be killed. My child is one of these kids in this picture.” I’m not even five foot three, and this mom was smaller than me. She looked up at me with misty eyes, her voice trembling slightly as she told me, that her child is being targeted for murder.”
“When your policy goals can fit onto a cocktail napkin or matchbook, you never have to worry about breaking a campaign promise and isn’t that refreshing?”
“The Walton family, the richest family in America and heirs to the Walmart fortune, have given millions of dollars to initiatives which strip money from public schools, including nearly half a million dollars in support of Chicago Public Schools’ proposed school closures. Meanwhile, in 2012, the family spent $3.8 million—more money than they spent in any other city—opening new charter schools. The vast majority of the schools closing in Chicago serve low-income neighborhoods and communities of color, leaving many of these areas without neighborhood schools.”
“This is a 25 minute video of the walk a family will have to take when their neighborhood school, Fermi is closed. It is directed and research by Joshua Marburger and filmed by Amy Diamond. The video is shot in silence to protest the silenced voices of the community in the Chicago Public School hearings.”
Students wore mock-bloody clothes in an effort to show the effect they believe school closings will have: more violence and death for the young students forced to cross new gang territories.
“The message is that school closings are killing people,” Ginsberg-Jaeckle said. “Everyone knows what will happen when these kids start crossing these gang lines.”
I just got off the phone with a friend of mine who was not happy about what happened at his school today. He said that he got a call from CORE on Sunday that they wanted to bring somebody out to the school to speak. Sunday night he set it up with the principal, he put up posters, and informed teachers. He arrived early at his school to meet the CORE representative.
He was surprised to see Tanya Saunders-Wolff and Mark Ochoa walk in the front door looking for the union meeting. They told the clerks in the office that they set it up in advance, which was a lie. The delegate was unable to come to the meeting because she had another conflict in the morning. However, she approached the representatives of the Salvation Caucus and told them that there was a CORE meeting today, but that she’d be happy to schedule them for later in the week.
They weren’t happy, but then the CORE representative told them that they could attend the CORE meeting. The delegate said that would be wonderful, but that she didn’t want a debate. The CORE representative would speak first and then the Salvation candidate. Supposedly, things went smoothly at first, but soon developed into a shouting match after some serious false accusations by the Salvation Caucus that my friend had direct knowledge was untrue.
I don’t know what Saunders-Wolff and Ochoa believed they would accomplish with that behavior, but it definitely strengthens my confidence in voting against them.
“The Cleveland investigation “triggered extensive firings, $4,000,000 worth of cost savings, the repayment of $729,000 in ill-gotten state transportation funding, a criminal indictment, an outside performance audit, an Ohio Department of Education investigation, and the hiring of a private firm to reform the management of the transportation department. During the course of this investigation, Cleveland voters overwhelmingly defeated two school levies. CEO Byrd Bennett ultimately announced her resignation.”
“The bigger picture here is the safety of the children,” Fortè said. “There are over 11,000 homeless students that are in these schools. When you close these schools that are safe havens for our children, how do they get to school?”
“Krell figured CPS had done research on the longer school day because, like every parent in the system, he’d received a letter from Jean-Claude Brizard, then the CEO, claiming that “our elementary school students are receiving 22 percent less instruction time than their peers across the country.” So he sent CPS a FOIA request asking for “the reports, statistics, comprehensive city-by-city analysis and other documents that back up the statement by Mr. Brizard.”
“Under so much pressure to raise its Prairie State test scores, the administration tried to take advantage of the promotion policy and demote a third of the junior class, just to keep us from taking the test and bringing down the school’s scores. I was having challenges at school but the last thing I would have expected is that my school system would demote me instead of supporting me.”
“Rangel: Hello. And thank you for taking the time to speak with me today about the kids. Levy: While I am very busy, I can always make time to talk about the kids because, as I like to say, it’s all about the kids. Rangel: Would you like to hear about the various ways that UNO is *crushing* the achievement gap and putting kids on a path to 21st century skills and prosperity? Levy: Boy, would I! I am investing in the future of minority kids in Chicago because I dream of a day when the financial services sector will not be dominated by the children of prosperous white people.”
“Word leaking out of City Hall indicates that a big chunk of the financing for a new DePaul arena would come from the pot of cash that robs millions from public schools. This would be very controversial because Emanuel is on the point of closing 54 schools.”
Rahm Emanuel announced today that he would be running for reelection. There’s no surprise here. Chicago may not want him back for another term as Chicago’s Mayor, but Hollywood does. He’s got deep pockets and there’s going to be a few more fights along the way if we’re ever going to dump the creep:
1. The next teacher contract, which will be negotiated right before the election
2. The election itself where CTU mobilizing may change the election for the whole city
3. The next 4 years in the event Rahm does actually win
With the union election this Friday, teachers need to decide who they feel most comfortable with to do the organizing and fighting that will be necessary to counter Mayor Emanuel and hopefully help remove him from office. For me, it’s definitely CORE. For you, it may be somebody else, but I really hope not.
“He acknowledged the political risk of his plan to close 54 city schools. He says there’s also a risk of reputation for Chicago’s schools if things don’t improve.”
“Now under investigation by two state agencies, the United Neighborhood Organization is also facing tough questions on Wall Street from investors who lent tens of millions of dollars to help pay for the rapid expansion of UNO’s charter-school network.”
“Now, NBC5 Investigates has learned that Chicago firefighters have been quietly ordered to join in staffing those routes beginning on the first day of school August 26 and continuing for the first three weeks of the school year.”
“Saunders-Wolffe has the right to opine as a citizen about any issue she wishes. The Tribune publishes what it wants. I call into question why the interests that run the paper have published her appeal but refuse to research the claims of representatives of the Coalition to Save Our Union to give a “fair and balanced” report to its patrons.”
“There is a range of criticism about the core. Some argue that many of the standards were not well written, while others are concerned that it removes local input from what teachers should teach.”
There are a few blog related things I wanted to take care of before posting today, but I’ve failed miserably. After listening to one reader’s suggestion, I decided that putting a list of recent comments in a sidebar would be helpful and I’ve been wanting to do a blogroll for awhile now. Both of those will be coming soon.
I also had a reader ask me for feedback because a bad evaluation and a potential termination notice. I’ll put my answer here, but I wish I had time to wax poetically. My first year as a teacher, I was in the suburbs. Most of my colleagues seemed to think I was doing a very good job. However, at the end of the year, they RIFed me. I didn’t have tenure and hence no protection. After a Summer of looking frantically, I landed at CPS and while this district is far more messed up than the suburban district was, I have had great administrators and I’m happy I left the toxic situation behind. The reason the suburb let me go was because an administrator wanted to bring her friend over to our building and I had the only spot he could go in. The year before, another gifted teacher was let go to pave the way for a principal’s friend’s daughter graduating college. The teacher let go the year before me is now a superintendent in a far better district than the one we left.
I guess my point is, having a job is better than not having a job. However, having a job that makes you miserable and prevents you for looking for a job that will make you happy really isn’t an improvement. If you do leave your current school behind, it may well turn out to be just the break you need.
“Gonzalez was one of approximately 20 SEIU members to deliver a Mother’s Day card and approximately 4,000 postcards to CPS headquarters Friday. The messages pleaded with the district’s CEO, asking her not to move forward with proposed school closings. According to her biography on CPS’ website, Byrd-Bennett is both a mother and a grandmother.”
“The current survey found that 74 percent of black voters disapproved of Emanuel’s overall handling of schools, and 77 percent disliked his closing plans. For Latinos, the comparable disapproval numbers were 64 percent and 69 percent.”
“Needless to say our students are intelligent and partake in the democratic process that this country was founded on. So if our students feel forced to have a protest to make their voices heard, join them. They are teaching all of us what Democracy looks like, sounds like, and feels like.”
“On May 2 at Chicago’s Lincoln Park High School, there were many whispers about “the walkout,” how no one was going to show up and how those who did show up would get suspended. When the bell rang at the end of second period, hundreds of students walked outside, and whispers subsided to cheers of teacher-student solidarity.”
“Paul Vallas, a pioneer of the current era of school reform, said, “We’re losing the communications game because we don’t have a good message to communicate.”
When the blog started, I hoped to give a balanced opinion on education issues from a local level. I just didn’t think that there were enough sources out there. For instance, I love Substance, but I wouldn’t call it impartial. It has a viewpoint and it’s a viewpoint I live very much, but it’s definitely pro-union. By the same token, some sources like the Sun-Times have some great reporters, but will always fall back on the company line in the editorial section and other areas of the paper. I won’t even get into the Tribune.
I think the detached observer thing where I printed sources I disagreed with was gone by the end of the first week. This is my attempt to give you education news that I find important from a mostly local perspective and definitely it’s advocacy journalism. I’ve been really happy with the stories that we broke, particularly the Michelle Obama Let’s Move Debacle and the banning of Persepolis.
The one place I haven’t been happy is in creating and active discussion forum. I do wonder if my obvious viewpoint leads to readership who shares that viewpoint and that creates a lack of discussion. In any event, I would like to encourage people to post and also, if there is anything you’d like to see from this space, let me know. I sometimes wonder if I should have more national stories like the one I’m sharing tonight from New York.
“Local unions can fight the Common Core if our national and state unions will not take up our cause. The testing issue outrage started locally and is finally getting traction at higher levels. We can do the same with the Common Core.”
“Unlike the charter management company’s bid to open a school in Bowmanville, where the plan was met with vocal opposition from community groups and Ald. Pat O’Connor (40th), Concept’s plans have flown under the radar — until they made headlines after the group’s zoning proposal was killed, then put back on, the agenda of a recent zoning committee meeting.”
“These two strategies have not ever worked and will not work in the future. And to tie all, one hundred per cent, of our efforts to both of these dead ends–willy-nilly charter promotion and baseless status-quo “education reform,” will only result in continual failurefor decades to come.”
“In any event, the teachers at Lab are protected from such intrusions thanks to the “Academic Freedom” clause of their contract, which reads: “Academic freedom shall mean that teachers are free to present instructional materials which are pertinent to the subject and level taught.”
At the CPS Delegates Meeting tonight there were debates for President and Vice-President. Both were pretty lopsided victories for the CORE slate as the Salvation Caucus seemed to lack any sort of coherent plan for the future of the union beyond picking away at their current leadership. It was clear that it was going to be a long night for the Salvation Caucus when vice-presidential candidate Mark Ochoa consistently ran out of things to say before coming anywhere close to the two minutes he was allocated to answer questions.
Jesse Sharkey seemed much more capable in response, focusing on how he believed the union could best prepare to combat Mayor Emanuel in the future. Sharkey, as usual, had great enthusiasm for the task at hand. Ochoa, on the other hand, seemed to be hoping that once we explained to the Board that we didn’t like things like overtesting, they would simply end the offending practices.
The second debate between Karen Lewis and challenger Tanya Saunders-Wolfe was even testier. The conflict began with Ms. Saunders-Wolfe’s opening statement, but it seemed to only intensify as the night went on. When Saunders-Wolfe threw out accusations, Lewis was ready to defend herself and the union. When Saunders-Wolfe said that CTU was never serious about negotiating before the strike, Lewis reminded Ms. Saunders-Wolfe that she herself was at many of the 54 meetings they had before the strike.
The most amusing moment for me, was after Ms. Saunders-Wolfe made a rambling and incoherent statement about how she would have handled the strike differently, Ms. Lewis seemed genuinely confused and tried to make sense of just what Saunders-Wolfe said.
I truly wish the entire CTU membership could have witnessed the Brawl in the Electricians’ Hall because it seemed to leave little doubt in the minds of most of those in attendance just who was best to lead the union going forward.
[Note: I was going to try and write this down the middle, but I couldn't. It seemed like a total blowout for Karen Lewis, Jesse Sharkey, and CORE. I don't pretend the above analysis is impartial. However, it's my honest opinion as an observer of the debates.]
“Bebley responded in his written response, “Rather than evaluate whether the draft transition plan identifies the items required by the statute, the Report forms an opinion regarding the sufficiency of safety and security and academic supports, which is outside the scope of the Hearing Officer’s statutory role and expertise.”
“On Wednesday, dozens of parents, students and community members stood on the second floor of City Hall to ask Emanuel to join in walking the new routes, in hopes of convincing him to keep the doors open at schools slated for closing. Since April, groups of parents have walked the new routes to point out problems along the way.”
“Chicago’s current schools CEO, Barbara Byrd-Bennett, worked in the Emergency Manager Office in Detroit from 2009 to 2011. During her tenure, DPS closed 59 schools and cut 30 percent of the workforce. Toward the end of Byrd-Bennett’s tenure in Detroit as “Chief Academic and Accountability officer,” DPS announced its “Renaissance Plan 2012,” which included creating 41 charters, making 29 percent of district run by private interests.”
“With this pronouncement we see the utter disregard for the intelligence of the audience that day. Just moments before, the Secretary cited a law of social dynamics that warns of the dangers of certain types of social indicators being used for decision-making. He then indicts those who have been corrupted by the very law his administration created. This is beyond any reasonable person’s ability to swallow. It is a new level of twisted logic – and a dangerous one as well. If the focus is on the “cheaters” then the focus is off the policy. It is a most insidious political gambit that the Secretary is taking in hopes that the noise around high stakes testing will diminish in the din created by the cheating scandals.”
“Fast forward to 2008, when President-elect Obama announced that he had picked Arne Duncan as Secretary of Education.
The event was held at Dodge Renaissance Academy, which the President praised as a “perfect example” of a turnaround school, an exemplar of Duncan’s great success.
Sadly, Chicago Public Schools is now closing Dodge Renaissance Academy as a failing school, along with Williams, another of Duncan’s “turnaround” schools.”
“”The vibrant culture and opportunities inherent in this 21st century, world-class city run alongside profound daily challenges,” he adds. “Much of it falls on the shoulders of its tough, visionary mayor, his team and people doing heroic work in neighborhoods throughout the city.”"
““Unlike some of the business men on this board, he has actually been involved in public education,” says Jesse Sharkey, vice president of the Chicago Teachers Union. Sharkey adds that while CTU would really like to see teachers and parents on the board, a former public school principal is a good step forward.”
I have no doubt that CORE is going to win the CTU election tomorrow. I don’t say this as a supporter, but I say this as somebody who believes in the teachers of this city and believes they will do what’s best for themselves and the students in their care. However, winning isn’t really enough. The same people who have been fighting to destroy the CTU, are hoping that even if CORE isn’t defeated, they can point at a large vote total for the opposition as proof that the Chicago Teachers Union is divided. Every time in the past, when they believed we were too divided to organize, we proved them wrong. I want to prove them wrong again.
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