YESTERDAY'S CLASS -- Malcolm London, Schuette, Rocketship...

THANKS MALCOLM...Thanks to brilliant, young Chicago poet/activist/educator Malcolm X London from Young Chicago Authors for his guest lecture in my class yesterday. My students, all aspiring teachers, were bowled over as Malcolm recounted his experiences as a Chicago high school student and then read two of his latest epic poems. If you're not familiar with his work, High School Training Ground, performed here at his TED talk, is a good place to start.

SCHUETTE...The students have all expressed righteous revulsion and indignation at the racist spews of Cliven Bundy and Donald Sterling. But only a couple were aware enough of the biggest blow against racial equality, the one that will likely impact the lives of millions of students and their families, to recognize the name, Schuette. The Supreme Court's decision, which has pretty much flown under the media radar -- both mainstream and social media -- has opened the door for states, both red and blue, to end affirmative action programs in hiring and college admissions. It's being called this court's Plessy v. Ferguson.

A comment or two from the President and his education chief would certainly help bring some awareness to the Schuette decision and not leave his own Court appointee, Justice Sonia Sotomayor, hanging in the wind. But  don't expect a peep out of either of them.

ROCKETSHIP... "The fact that what's considered the gold standard for poor students in Milwaukee is considered unacceptable for kids in the suburbs is just wrong." -- Economist Gordon Lafer

The Rocketship charter school chain which originated in California and has spread to Wisconsin, with the enthusiastic support of state legislators and the local chamber of commerce in Milwaukee, is "a low-budget operation that relies on young and inexperienced teachers rather than more veteran and expensive faculty, that reduces curriculum to a near-exclusive focus on reading and math, and that replaces teachers with online learning and digital applications for a significant portion of the day," says Lafer

With no gym, art class, librarians, or significant science or social studies, Rocketship provides a stripped-down program of study with a heavy focus on standardized tests. Because of its extraordinarily high teacher turnover (the chain relies heavily on Teach for America volunteers), its large classes, and reductive curriculum, Rocketship subjects kids most in need of consistent, nurturing, adult attention to low-quality instruction and neglect. That model, which is also on display in Milwaukee's low-performing voucher schools, is demonstrably harmful to kids. But it has generated big profits for wealthy investors.

Readers may remember who's been pushing the Rocketship brand the hardest here in Chicago. Rahm pal, Timothy Knowles, director of the University of Chicago Urban Education Institute pumped the discredited charter privateer company back in 2012 in Chicago Magazine as part of a plan to turn the Windy City into the "Silicon Valley of the midwest".

Knowles wrote:

 “In California, the Aspire Public Schools and Rocketship Education charter schools have exceptional schools and the appetite to grow. Critically, they do it at the same per-pupil spending as we get in Chicago. Imagine that on a Chicago-size scale.

“No other U.S. city holds this mantle of education innovation. It would cost a couple hundred million. But Rahm, working together with the local education talent and the business and philanthropic communities, could make this happen in 12 months. And the payback for children would be long lasting.”

Payback indeed. Duck, kids!

WEEKEND QUOTABLES

Justice Sonia Sotomayor's brilliant dissent   

“In my colleagues’ view, examining the racial impact of legislation only perpetuates racial discrimination. This refusal to accept the stark reality that race matters is regrettable...The way to stop discrimination on the basis of race is to speak openly and candidly on the subject of race, and to apply the Constitution with eyes open to the unfortunate effects of centuries of racial discrimination.”  -- Schuette v. BAMN

Civil rights attorney Shanta Driver

“This is a racist decision that takes us back to an era of state’s rights...The old Jim Crow [law] is now the new Jim Crow.” -- FOX News

John Cassidy

Did you see the statement from President Obama criticizing Tuesday’s SCOTUS decision upholding a Michigan ban on race-based college admissions? No, neither did I. (White House spokesman Jay Carney said the President had no immediate comment.) -- New Yorker

Mokoto Rich

In effect, Walton has subsidized an entire charter school system in the nation’s capital, helping to fuel enrollment growth so that close to half of all public school students in the city now attend charters, which receive taxpayer dollars but are privately operated. -- NYT: "A Walmart Fortune, Spreading Charter Schools"

Economist Gordon Lafer

"The fact that what's considered the gold standard for poor students in Milwaukee is considered unacceptable for kids in the suburbs is just wrong."  -- Public School Shakedown

The Schuette Decision -- This generation's Plessy vs. Ferguson

Justice Sonia Sotomayor: Affirmative Action ‘Opened Doors in My Life'

It's not surprising that the right-wing and conservative ed bloggers in particular, are applauding the Supreme Court's racist Schuette decision. The decision, called "this court's Plessy vs. Ferguson" by Shanta Driver, the attorney who argued the case before the Supreme Court, essentially puts the nail in the coffin of affirmative action plans in states like Michigan, where T-baggers like Gov. Snyder rule the roost.

Among the worst defenders of Schuette is EdWeek blogger Frederick Hess who slammed Justice Sonia Sotomayor for her dissenting vote. He accuses her of "thundering" that judges "ought not sit back and wish away, rather than confront, the racial inequality that exists in our society."

Hess

Sotomayor said the court "eviscerates" a key equal-protection guarantee that government should not make it harder for minorities to participate in self-government.

"I cannot ignore the unfortunate outcome of today's decision: Short of amending the state constitution, a Herculean task, racial minorities in Michigan are deprived of even an opportunity to convince Michigan's public colleges and universities to consider race in their admissions plans when other attempts to achieve racial diversity are unnecessarily hobbled in their pursuit of a diverse student body," Sotomayor wrote in dissent.

Thanks for your thunder, Justice Sotomayor.

According to Hess, who doubles as a spokesman for conservative think-tank AEI,

 One way that citizens in a big, diverse country can find its way is to recognize the right of other citizens to live under different rules. Too often of late, in education and elsewhere, the smug and self-impressed have sought to impose their vision of the good on the nation. 

Sorry, Mr. Hess, when it comes to racial equality under the law, the question of "different rules" for different states was supposedly settled by the Civil Rights Act 60 years ago. Civil rights, including the right to overthrow long-standing and embedded white affirmative action in hiring, housing, education, etc... are not just the property of the "smug and self-impressed", they were won both in the courts and in the streets. But it's a battle that will have to continue being fought, as the Schuette decision shows.

I'm hoping for lots more thunder and a louder and more militant opposition voice and mass protests coming from the ranks of students, labor and ed activists. The Schuette decision, which allows states the right to eliminate affirmative action and ban any reference to race in admission decisions is a real blow to black, Latino and low-income families for whom college is growing less and less accessible.

How can we fight racism when we can't name it?

But it wasn't just the far-right who were connecting with Schuette. Some liberals were also enamored with the court's "race neutral" rhetoric. Take Richard Kahlenberg, Senior Fellow at The Century Foundation, for example. While Kahlenberg was critical of the decision as "discouraging for racial diversity", he says there's "good news" as well since, "there are alternative ways to achieve diversity that can also deal with economic inequalities.”

“Fortunately, there are proven race neutral policies that universities can, and have already adopted to deliver more opportunities for minority students to enroll in, and succeed at college."

I'm still not sure what "race-neutral" means, especially in this period when racial gaps in education are growing wider. Is this really the post-racial era as some claim? How can we fight racism and racial discrimination when the word race is banned? And does Kahlenberg really believed that states like Michigan will enact affirmative action plans that "deliver more opportunities to minority students" post-Schuette?

I can't help but thinking back to Arne Duncan's announced opposition to so-called "forced racial integration" and his failure to have the back of Atty. Gen. Eric Holder in suit against the state of Louisiana's "choice" program and wondering if this didn't open the door for the Supremes?

Racist Rand Paul in Chicago

And speaking of smug and self-impressed, there was Tuesday's sponsorship of Rand Paul's appearance at a Chicago private school last week by the Illinois Network of Charter Schools (INCS). Paul calls for rolling back the Civil Rights Act of 1964, saying it impinges on the "freedom" of business owners to serve whomever they choose. Paul used the Chicago speech to promote so-called "school choice" programs as a way of expanding Republican influence in cities like Chicago. No wonder the charter hustlers like him.

Buchanan's history lesson

Soldiers of the all-black 320th Battalion landing on the beaches of Normandy, France, shortly after dawn on June 6, 1944.

Pat Buchanan invoked a string of white supremacist arguments in making his case against Obama's Supreme Court nominee, Sonia Sotomayor. When asked by Rachel Maddow, why the Supreme Court has historically been a white men's club, Buchanan gave this account of U.S. history.

"White men were 100% of the people that wrote the Constitution, 100% of the people that signed the Declaration of Independence, 100% of the people who died at Gettysburg and Vicksburg, probably close to 100% of the people who died at Normandy. This has been a country built basically by white folks, who were 90% of the nation in 1960 when I was growing up and the other 10% were African-Americans who had been discriminated against.

Buchanan's diatribe, which obviously ignored centuries of black and brown labor, not to mention slavery (how could he not mention slavery?) in the building of this country, also purposefully whitewashed the pages of military history. Since Buchanan prides himself on his knowledge of history and knew full well that the Sotomayor appointment was a lost cause, his lies were obviously intended only to rally the dregs of what's left of his (Gingrich's and Palin's) Republican base.

Not that it matters for the purposes of defeating his ignorant argument against Sotomayor, but black soldiers and sailors did fight heroically against their former slave masters at Milliken's Bend during the Battle of Vicksburg. In fact, it was the first major Civil War battle in which African-American troops were extensively involved.

Some 60 years later, African-American soldiers would shed their blood on the battle fields of Europe in the fight against the nazis. The all-black 320th Battalion, was recently honored (by France) for being among the troops that fought and died on the beaches at Normandy on D-Day.

So far I've heard nothing from Buchanan's fellow Republicans, nor from Democrats for that matter, refuting this purposeful distortion of history.

Can't we all get along?

Want to hear a speech where the great revolutionary thinker, W.E.B. DuBois and the neocon southern strategist Newt Gingrich each draw praise? Check out Obama's speech to the NAACP convention.

From the beginning, Du Bois understood how change would come – just as King and all the civil rights giants did later. They understood that unjust laws needed to be overturned; that legislation needed to be passed; and that Presidents needed to be pressured into action. They knew that the stain of slavery and the sin of segregation had to be lifted in the courtroom and in the legislature.

The state of our schools is not an African-American problem; it’s an American problem. And if Al Sharpton, Mike Bloomberg, and Newt Gingrich can agree that we need to solve it, then all of us can agree on that.

And what finer group could one find to be representative of America? I ask you. I wonder if Newt feels comfortable in such high-minded company? After all, he just led the attack on Obama's Supreme Court pick, Sonia Sotomayor, calling her a "racist."

Wow!

Mike Petrilli, Fordham Institute's deputy dawg under Checker Finn, had no comment on Obama's appointment of the first Latina in history to the highest court in the land, other than "Wow, another Catholic."