News blackout on Monday's school closing protest

(Sarah-Ji Fotógrafa pic)

Monday night's huge Logan Square confrontation over school closings never happened. At least it never happened according to city media outlets (except for some Spanish language stations). Substance ran a story and Catalyst mentioned it. But not a peep in the Sun-Times or Trib. Oh well. I guess that's why we're here.

Today's Hyde Park Herald has a good piece on the Feb. 4 Mid-South hearings,  where parents and teachers from Reavis, Kozminski, Ray, Murray and Shoesmith elementary schools and Canter Middle School spoke out on behalf of their schools.

The Herald also continues to carry Timuel Black's Birthday Letter to President Obama. Don't miss.

To their credit, the Sun-Times did pick up on the press conference called by Parents 4 Teachers. The group filed a complaint alleging conflict of interest, saying the district is motivated to close schools not by a budget deficit but by a desire to expand charter schools. Of course, the S-T tries to discredit the parents group by referring to it as having "strong ties to the Chicago Teachers Union."  I think P4T should take that as a compliment.

The Sun-Times has also been doing a great job on the UNO charter-school corruption story, which reaches right into Rahm's office. Coverage includes a piece today on the resignation of their number-two exec, 8 days after the paper reported that the politically connected charter school operator paid state grant money to companies owned by two of his brothers. One of them, Miguel d’Escoto, who was UNO’s senior vice president of operations, under chief UNO charter hustler Juan Rangel, resigned “by mutual agreement.”

See how they run when someone shines a light on them.