WEEKEND QUOTABLES

Patronage lives: Ald. O'Connor's sister i hired to run school closing transitions.

Ald. Patrick O'Connor 

“If I had a role in this, she wouldn’t be engaged in the work she’s engaged in."  -- Sun-Times. "Key Chicago Public Schools job for alderman’s sister"

 Matthew Johnson, heads Dewey's Local School Council

"For two days in a row, my son didn't come home with any books because they had to do their inventory, so they basically disrupted the culture of our school and our kids' education." -- DNAInfo

Rene Heyback, Chicago Coalition for the Homeless

"I think 20,000 people have gone through a rigorous series of hearings over 21/2 months and they're getting the message no one is listening. People feel the Board (of Education) will rubber-stamp this." -- Chicago Tribune  

Prof. Paul Tractenberg

What a Catch-22! The worse the state runs the schools, the longer it needs to control them. -- Star-Ledger

Charles Blow

In his State of the Union speech in February, President Obama said that the “true engine of America’s economic growth” is “a rising, thriving middle class.”  It certainly looks as if that engine has stalled. -- New York Times