Dirty Tricks in CTU Campaign

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.

Barbara Byrd Bennett Scandals Continue

“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.”

Chicago Teachers Union to Ramp Up Protests Against School Closings

“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?”

Mayor Emanuel’s FOIA Policy: Don’t Ask Because We Won’t Tell

“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.”

Why I Boycotted the Prairie State Test

“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.”

It’s About the Kids

“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.”

Could Cash for DePaul Arena be Coming Out of Public School Funding?

“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.”

The Chicago Police vs. The Sun-Times

I’m not a big fan of the Chicago Sun-Times or their education coverage.   They have some good reporters and I think Lauren Fitzpatrick gets things right more often than not, but make no mistake, the editorial board gives the corporate spin at all times.  They’ve had a few editorials agreeing completely with the teachers on the school closing fiasco and then concluding that it will happen anyway so the teachers should just be complacent.

However, I found it really interesting that after they described attendance at the rally against school closing as being in the thousands, the Chicago Police Department kept calling them to lower that number.  Mike Klonsky has a good description of the situation, but I heard it first hand from a Sun-Times employee last night.

I can’t tell you how disgusting it is to see the Chicago Police Department calling to try and lobby a newspaper to print a lie about something that really doesn’t even concern them that much.  Has Mayor Emanuel really co-opted the CPD to be part of his propaganda department?  It might explain why the crime statistics in Chicago are so absolutely horrible. 

Shifting the Mark: Why School Closings Are Wrong

“The Chicago Teachers Union will continue to challenge the status quo of keeping poor children poor and the purposeful and willful under-resourcing of schools. There is zero evidence that CPS has the capacity or the integrity to implement such massive changes, so stop throwing our children and neighborhoods into chaos and calling it reform.”

A Part of Us id Dying in Chicago

“By the same token, can anyone dispute that we have reason to worry about the state of our civic discourse when Chicago’s mayor, Rahm Emanuel, allows the announcement of something as contentious as 54 school closings while he is on a ski trip in Utah? And can anyone blame local community leaders who wonder what to think of the Mayor’s plan to hold additional hearings on the issue? “If nobody is going to be heard at the hearings, what’s the use of having the hearings?” said Marshall Hatch, a local pastor. “If it’s a done deal, then stop wasting everybody’s time.”

State Investigating $98 Million Grant for UNO

“A conflict of interest exists if a grantee’s officers, directors, agents, employees and family members use their position for a purpose that is, or gives the appearance of, being motivated by a desire for a private gain, financial or nonfinancial, for themselves or others, particularly those with whom they have family, business or other ties.”

Shocking Rahm’s Shock Doctrine

“You see why Chicago teachers are angry. And why they’re not going away. And why they promise more civil disobedience. “So lemme tell you what you’re gonna do,” shouted Karen Lewis at the rally. “On the first day of school, you show up at your real school! You show up at your real school! Don’t let these people take your schools.” They just might. They’ve beat Rahm before. They could beat him again.”

Thousands Promise Protests Against School Closings Will Escalate

““Today our jobs are at risks, our jobs are more important, our children and our schools are important. GEM- Grass Roots Education Movement had a parent from May Elementary School speak. “I don’t care about what lies are coming out of our Mayor’s mouth. This fight is bigger than Chicago Public Schools. Public Schools should be Public Schools. All over the country they have been closing schools. Mayor Rahm Emmanuel, You came with a hand shake , we’re going to send you out with a boot.”

Six Charter Schools Get Put on Academic Warning List

I didn’t find this very convincing on the part of CPS, but they did put six charter schools on an academic watch list for poor performance.   I think this is more a result of angry parents complaining at school utilization hearings and fallout from the UNO scandal than it is due to CPS suddenly discovering a half dozen nonperforming charter schools.  It’s amazing how much of an impact the CTU strike had on labor unions world wide.  I found an article today from the Times of India. 

UNO Charter Teachers and Students Deserve Better

“At UNO, I’ve heard of teachers working average of 10 hours a day with minimal preparatory periods and only three 25 minute duty-free lunches a week at pay that is 20% less than the average teacher in Chicago. They have few protections on the job and teachers have reported being fired for breathing a hint of criticism at UNO’s CEO Juan Rangel. He, in contrast, is paid many times his average teacher, making over $200,000 a year for running 13 schools, while Chicago Public Schools CEO Barbara Byrd Bennett makes nearly as much for operating an entire district of over 600 schools.”

Rahm on the Ropes

“What Emanuel had planned as his marquee accomplishment—corporate-style “school reform”—has been cracking like a pane of glass. His attempt to game state law to make it virtually impossible for Chicago public school teachers to strike backfired last year when they not only struck the hell out of him but ended up undermining the core rhetorical underpinning of the “reform movement”—that teachers unions are the enemies—when Chicago Public School parents sided overwhelmingly with the strikers. That hardly held back Phase Two of Emanuel’s scheme, set to roll out this year: planned massive school closings, based on dubious and opaque statistical arguments about “underutilized” buildings. Activists point out that the rationale for school closings shift from year to year, and never seem to accomplish the policy aims that supposedly justify them; so threadbare have the city’s explanations become by now,”

Why isn’t Closing 129 Chicago Public Schools National News

“It’s not news because school closings and school privatization, the end game of the bipartisan policies the Obama administration, Wall Street, the US Chamber of Commerce, a host of right wing foundations and deep pockets and hordes of politicians in both parties from the president down are pushing down the throats of communities across the country, are deeply unpopular. The American people, and especially the parents, teachers, grandparents, and other residents of poorer neighborhoods where closings and privatization are happening emphatically don’t want these things.“

Mayor Emanuel’s Valentine for Chicago’s Students

I almost should name this blogs CPS Charters and Closings.   Everyday, it feels like there’s more news on these two fronts and it’s usually fairly depressing.  Tonight, I offer likes to more UNO stories and the continued fall out of the closing fiasco.

Closing Schools – The Hunger Games, Chicago Style

“The school communities that wail the loudest will be saved. The rest? Off with their heads!

Think of it as Chicago’s own version of the Hunger Games, with Mayor Emanuel in the role played by Donald Sutherland.

In the meantime, the message to any young person thinking of coming here to pursue a career in teaching is this: don’t come! Not unless you want to subject yourself to days of uncertainty as you worry if the job you have today will be around tomorrow.”

School Closings Offer Opportunities for Students to Learn a Trade

“3. Learn a Trade: I have been a fierce proponent of awarding full employment rights to all American citizens regardless of age.   If we can work to reduce child labor laws, surely these students can learn a trade.  I don’t know if Chicago has any working coal mines, but that seems like a natural.    Every year America imports billions of dollars of merchandise made by child labor.  That merchandise should be made by American children.”

Under the Bus He Goes

“As I told you the other day, the heat is really on UNO right now. Their $35 million construction grant was deleted from the mini capital bill approved by the General Assembly this month because of all the bad publicity. After dismissing questions about conflicts of interest as no big deal, the politically connected group is now apparently trying to get this matter behind them so they can eventually get that state cash…”

ROSEN: Say No to Charter Schools

“In Chicago, charter school operators claimed for years that their schools produced better performing students. In late 2011, however, state standardized achievement tests showed that only one of the nine charter school networks in the city had outperformed district averages. Six of the networks fell below average at all or a majority of their schools.”

UNO Scandal Growing

Wow!  I’m kind of shocked to see the UNO story growing.  Chicago Tonight takes a look at the scandal and the Sun-Times follows up with a story on the political contributions by UNO contractors.  Juan Rangel has some very influential friends in Rahm Emanuel and Mike Madigan so I’ll be curious to see if this dust up will have any effect on the UNO Empire.

UNO Charter Schools’ Insider Deals Questioned

“Charges of insider contracts surface in building and maintaining a $25 million charter school. Carol Marin talks with the Chicago Sun-Times reporters who uncovered the story about that, and some $98 million in state grants to the politically connected UNO Charter Schools. We have the latest on Chicago Tonight at 7:00 pm.”

Brown: UNO Gearing Up Its Own Political Machine Involving Charter Schools

“Kevin Gillian said his company, TFC Canopy, was the subcontractor that had supplied the shiny aluminum panels for the exterior of UNO’s sparkling new soccer-themed elementary school at 51st and Homan. It was in that capacity that he had been solicited for a campaign donation—and gladly complied, he said.”

Madison School District Superintendent Finalists Come with Not Insignificant Baggage

“She did not, in my opinion, do a very good job. She was unable to answer just the most basic questions that all of us have been asking for weeks and months,” Farmer says. “Perhaps she was sent out as the sacrificial lamb that night, but it was disappointing. What it told me is that a lot of these folks downtown are reluctant to speak up and reluctant to question their bosses and to say, ‘Hey, why are you sending me out here if I don’t have answers for these folks?”

Mr. Stieber, Protests aren’t on the MAP Test!

“While I was teaching this lesson my students said things like, “Mr. Stieber you are going to get in trouble for teaching us this.” or “You made this lesson just for us?!” or “Mr. Stieber are you allowed to teach us this?” My goal was to help them to understand that while protests can seem fun, the point is to use mass protest only when working within the system fails to bring about the change they seek. In this case, the students wanted the building to be warmer or to wear long sleeve shirts over (not under, like the uniform policy dictates) their uniform polos”

Englewood Gresham School Closing Hearing

“The sixth Walton Family Foundation-sponsored Chicago Public Schools (CPS) school closing hearing — due to supposed “underutilization” — took place for the Englewood-Gresham Network on the afternoon of Saturday, February 2, 2013 at Kennedy King College located at 6301 S. Halsted. During the hearing, it was pointed out by one audience member that the location was better known locally as 740 63rd Street rather than “Halsted.” Coupled with the fact that this hearing was scheduled after the first day of the month she questioned CPS’s commitment to really seek the community’s input. (The speaker said she was referring especially to older people but also others getting their Social Security checks and then needing to take care of lots of business on the first days of the month.)”