WEEKEND QUOTABLES

Nelson Mandela 

Overcoming poverty is not a gesture of charity. It is an act of justice. It is the protection of a fundamental human right, the right to dignity and a decent life. While poverty persists, there is no true freedom.”  -- Johannesburg   July 2, 2005

Secret Teacher

My son brought home a Christmas card that consisted of a piece of white card folded in half which had been decorated with pictures from clipart. It had a typed message on the back about the learning objectives covered in the task. Disappointing. -- Guardian

Amisha Patel, Chicago Grassroots Collaborative

 “To even force a City Council debate around TIFs for the first time was amazing, and we’re going to continue to push. You don’t get to bury legislation in committee and think your work is done anymore." -- Huffington

New Jersey State Board of Education V.P, Joe Fisicaro 

“In my district, they would have had a revolution,” Fisicaro said of [Trenton Central High School]. “We would have parents all over the place.” -- Huffington

Martinez won her seat with union backing.

Weekend's Worst Quotable comes from IL State Senator Iris Martinez in a letter she sent to her constituents (including me). The letter tries to explain why she voted for the pension-robbing SB1 bill, even though she opposed it, knew it was unconstitutional, and unfair to workers.

 "While SB 1 will alleviate some of these budget pressures, it does not – in my opinion – meet the requirements of the state constitution. I believe sending a plan to the courts is the necessary next step. It is my hope that, once the new law is ruled unconstitutional, my colleagues and I will be able to return to the drawing board and agree on a negotiated, fair solution that does not unilaterally diminish benefits."

The struggle continues

Nelson Mandela after he was sentenced to life imprisonment in June 1964

Bridget Murphy writes, re. community resistance to the military coup at Ames Middle School:

The referendum drive is in full swing.  40 parents will be meeting at Ames (1920 N. Hamlin) this morning (Friday, Dec 6th) at 10:30am to continue collecting signatures door to door. We will be out on the doors every day between now and Dec 15th. Come join a pair of doorknockers! 

Don Washington (Mayoral Tutorial) admits he's guilty of a little hyperbole here but I think he's right-on.

Mayor Rahm Emanuel is already running for re-election and has been doing so for months. That means that we, mere mortal citizens trying to make an honest buck, can expect daily doses of public policy by press release and cynical opportunism of the sort that would shock the conscience if he had one. It's called public policy theater and it's what you do when your actual record reads like the Neo-Liberal Disaster Capitalism Handbook of Darkness.

Chicago teacher/activist Phil Cantor on FB reminds us:

We live among people who are willing to get arrested for a cause they believe in. Nine of them go on trial [at 9 a.m. this morning] for putting their bodies between bulldozers and "La Casita" the small community center building at Whittier Elementary School in Pilsen. 

Marguerite Poindexter LaMotte

L.A. Board of Education member Marguerite Poindexter LaMotte, a persistent critic of corporate "reform" and a staunch defender of public education and teachers, has died. She was 80.

According to the L.A. Times:

Her critics faulted her for some of the same traits her supporters celebrated: her rhetoric against charter schools, and her distrust of corporate-inspired reforms, such as limiting teachers' job protections... Relations were frequently strained with current Supt. John Deasy. In October, LaMotte was the only dissenting vote against giving Deasy a positive evaluation and contract extension.

Wisconsin's neo-fascist Tea Party Gov. Walker gets space in today's Tribune calling on Illinois to "look north" to see what the future looks like.

Writes Walker:

To put our fiscal house in order, we passed a law called Act 10 that ended collective bargaining for everything except base wages... One Illinois official who desperately needs the tools in Act 10 is Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel...To his credit, Emanuel canceled the teachers' pay raise, declaring that he would not accept Chicago's children continuing to get the shaft, and he demanded a series of reforms.

Thanks for the advice, Walker, but I think Quinn, Madigan, Rahm, Rauner and the boys are already looking north. It was called Senate Bill 7. In fact, they probably outdid you with this week's great pension robbery.

WEEKEND QUOTABLES

Mayor Bloomberg on stop-and-frisk

In that case, incidentally, I think we disproportionately stop whites too much and minorities too little.” -- NYT

Arne Duncan on Common Core critics

The Common Core has become a rallying cry for fringe groups that claim it is a scheme for the federal government to usurp state and local control of what students learn. -- Washington Post

Ald. Fioretti on west side school closings

“The neighborhood schools are really the focal point of the land planning. But when this is boarded up, when this becomes an eyesore, when CPS doesn’t maintain the grounds for it, and nobody’s out there guarding it and all the items get stripped inside — who wants to live around an eyesore that the city controls?” -- Sun-Times, One more eyesore?

Obama's visit Mandela's cell on Robben Island

Former IL Gov. George Ryan on meeting Mandela

“But what really moved me was he had to stand one foot behind the sunlight flooding the porch because his eyes had been damaged in prison.” -- Sneed

Pres. Obama

“The American people don’t have a Big Brother who is snooping into their business.”  -- NYT

 Civil liberties Profs Stisa Granick and Christopher Jon Sprigman

Lulled, perhaps, by the Obama administration’s claims that these “modest encroachments on privacy” were approved by Congress and by federal judges, public opinion quickly migrated from shock to “meh.” --NYT