Jay Travis: Yesterday was a good day

Jay Travis is the progressive hope, running for State Rep in the 26th Dist. against corporate reformer and pension grabber, Christian Mitchell.

JT reports from Springfield:

House Bill 557, calling for an elected representative school board for the people of Chicago, was passed out of committee by a vote of 15-9. That same morning, Chicago public school students, parents, community residents and teachers staged 'walk-ins' at more than a hundred neighborhood schools across the city to bring critical attention to the need to invest public dollars in our neighborhood schools instead of giveaways to wealthy, politically connected elites.

More on Mitchell...Chicago Reporter's Curtis Black, writes:

Indeed, Mitchell has been one of the top recipients of funds both statewide and nationally from Stand For Children, a group brought to Illinois by Rauner in an effort to undercut union influence and bargaining rights; it’s backed by a bevy of billionaires including Republican Ken Griffin.

But particularly on education policy, Mitchell does seem to have aligned himself with Rauner. ­(He’s also aligned on school policy with Mayor Rahm Emanuel, whose campaign committee gave Mitchell $28,000 last year.) This is a political vulnerability for him: Schools are a flash point, especially on the South Side, and especially under Emanuel. On the state and local level, in terms of the neoliberal agenda of privatization and union busting, school policy is where the rubber meets the road.

In Bronzeville, parents have felt under siege as they’ve watched school after school close, many to be replaced by charter schools, said Jitu Brown, national director of Journey for Justice and a longtime colleague of Travis’s. Mitchell provided no support for parents in his district fighting school closings, Brown said, or undergoing a hunger strike to save Dyett High School.

Mitchell refused to support a moratorium on school closings; opposed an elected school board (reversing himself after Travis declared her candidacy); and opposed a bill allowing parents to opt their children out of high-stakes tests. He’s backed charter schools down the line, repeatedly opposing efforts to give local voters final say in approving new charters and even opposing a measure requiring charters to follow federal regulations protecting special education and English learning students.

What more do you need to know?