Post-Rahm

This morning on Hitting Left, Ja'mal Green. 

This morning from IL Playbook

A pathway opens up for Erika Wozniak...

If you thought the mayor's race was crazy, just wait a few weeks to see interest grow in city council races. A week ago, candidates might not have wanted to spend money running against an ally of the mayor. But with Emanuel out, aldermanic incumbents might be easier to beat. One race to watch, for example, is the 46th Ward, where Ald. James Cappleman—an Emanuel ally—faces Chicago Public Schools teacher Erika Wozniak.

I can't wait. Love Erika. Great teacher/activist and co-host of Girl Talk. 

Troy would dump Janice Jackson...

 — Mayoral candidate Troy LaRaviere says he’ll fire CPS CEO Janice Jackson if he’s elected. “I’m going to bring in someone who has a record of competence and effectiveness in running educational institutions,” he told Chicago Newsroom host Ken Davis. LaRaviere, a former school principal, criticized college persistence records under Jackson when she was a principal (before landing at CPS headquarters). “[It] does not bode well for her retaining her position.” LaRaviere called the CPS chief and Chicago Police Chief Eddie Johnson “highly paid” spokespeople for the “agenda of the mayor’s office.” Video here (with time stamp)

I feel you, Troy. But you've just split your base again, unnecessarily. The real question here is an elected school board to decide the fate of Jackson and the others on Rahm's board.

Rahm needs to get his resume up to date...

Kappos asks: But can any candidate match Emanuel’s ability to pick up the phone and talk persuasively to CEOs about bringing businesses to Chicago?
“Only the mayors of a few cities—New York and Los Angeles—are able to have a profile on a national level,” said Eric Sedler, of KIVVIT public affairs firm. “Like him or not, Rahm provided for Chicago. It’s hard to look at the current list of announced and speculated-about candidates and say that someone would naturally rise to that level.”

He may have CEOs and banksters in his rolodex, but last I looked, the bookies in Vegas had Chicago's odds on landing Amazon's HQ2 were 1400-1 against. Mayor 1% needs to get his rez up to date and start calling around. Maybe his pal Elon Musk will give him a job. Remember how Daley landed on his feet over at the law firm that did the parking meter deal?

We'll be talking about these and more this morning on Hitting Left with mayoral candidate and Black Lives Matter activist, Ja'Mal Green. Tune in at 11 on www.lumpenradio.com
.

Where's the progressive coalition in Chicago's race for mayor?

Who will get the anti-Rahm vote?

The thing I worry about is that the Chicago mayor's race will be an expensive governor's race redux without a progressive/left coalition ready or willing to back an anti-machine candidate strong enough to take advantage of Rahm Emanuel's obvious vulnerabilities and at least make it to a runoff.

The Sanders-left seemed to have gone underground leading up to the gov's race, leaving us with tweedle-dee, tweedle-dum and tweedle-Pritzker to choose from. One unimaginable scenario in the mayor's race has the unions and community groups rallying behind Rahm or Vallas as the winnable lesser of evils.

The expensive part of the race was already assured when perennial candidate Willie Wilson gave his own campaign $100K, thus erasing all state-imposed fundraising limits. Not that there was any doubt, but now MRE and his growing field of challengers will be able to raise unlimited amounts of money. Of course, this favors Rahm and big-money candidates like Paul Vallas and Garry McCarthy just as it favored billionaires J.B. Pritzker and Bruce Rauner in the gov primary.

Natasha Korecki writes in Politico:

This time, as viable candidates line up to challenge Mayor Rahm Emanuel in 2019 and slice up vote totals, there’s a prevailing theory: a runoff election already looks like an inevitability. Emanuel is sure to be one of the two top candidates who make it to the second round. 

So then the question really becomes this: who in the field (announced and unannounced) can take out the mayor in a one-to-one matchup? Three years ago, Garcia spent the opening weeks of the runoff on the road working to raise more money. The cash-flush Emanuel pounced to quickly quell Garcia’s momentum with oppo research dumps and subsequent negative TV ads. 

The political dynamics have dramatically changed for the mayor in this post-Laquan McDonald era. But if Emanuel squeaks into a run-off and is still the better-funded incumbent to beat, who is best suited to exploit his vulnerabilities, particularly within the African American community?

The growing list of candidates will badly divide the anti-Rahm votes, leaving him in position to win the opening round with only 30% of the votes. The word is that Vallas and McCarthy have already cut a deal, assuring that the one with the least votes will back the other in a runoff election.

Troy on Chicago Tonight

My choice so far, but campaign long-shot, Troy LaRaviere, did a nice job telling Chicago Tonight's Phil Ponce why he wanted the job.

As always, Troy was sharp on ed issues.

He spoke out against the privatization of school janitorial services, charter schools and the lack of sufficient funding for special education. He was especially critical of the use of what he said were excessive standardized tests to judge school and student performance.

 He also made it clear that the pension issue couldn't be resolved without a progressive tax and revenue system that didn't put the entire burden on the poor while ignoring those "who have more money than they can spend in their lifetime".

But aside from being able to garner black and Latino community support, unite the progressive movement (including the CTU, SEIU and other unions) behind his campaign and raise a hefty number of millions in his war chest (he told Ponce, he hasn't started fundraising yet), Troy's team needs to develop a solid campaign strategy. He's got to convince the unions and other potential backers that he can run with the big dogs. He's also got to take on more than Rahm, but Vallas/McCarthy as well, if he is even to make it into a runoff. The danger is that Vallas, the least vetted of the candidates, will skate unscathed into second place.

Troy has been a two-time guest on Hitting Left. Here's a podcast of an earlier appearance.

Troy is officially running for mayor

Troy LaRaviere on Hitting Left

I'm not endorsing anyone for mayor yet. 2019 is still a ways away and we have no idea what the whole field will look like. First of course, we have to defeat Trump wannabe Rauner in the race for governor. But I was glad to hear yesterday that my friend Troy LaRaviere had filed his papers and officially entered the mayor's race against Rahm Emanuel. 

Some of you may remember that night in 2015 at the Hideout, when CTU Pres. Karen Lewis turned to Troy and said, "Why don't you run?" Lots of light bulbs lit up that room full of lefties and progressives at the time, including one over my head.

Troy was our first guest on Hitting Left back in February of 2017 and we asked him then if he was ready to announce. He wasn't then but was obviously surveying the territory. Now it seems he's put his team together and is ready to officially jump into the fray. Good for him. Good for us.

I've been afraid that the progressives would wait too long before coming up with viable candidates to take on Rahm and his current regime of one-percenters. I still am.

Rahm's people are definitely not waiting til 2019. Despite his lower-than-snakeshit poll numbers and collapse of support among the city's African-American voters, he's raising tons of campaign money, rebranding himself as a progressive, and is still a force to be reckoned with.

But it's also important to remember that Chuy Garcia, now running for congress, forced Rahm into a run-off even after entering the campaign late and with only a tiny fraction of the mayor's campaign funds. Knocking off Rahm in 2019 will be tough. But it's doable.

Troy with Bernie

Troy, the former principal at Blaine Elementary, was fired by the board for "insubordination" after speaking out openly against the mayor's wrongheaded schools policies. Troy has always been a pot-stirrer. After winning his election and becoming president of the Chicago Principals and Administrators Association, Troy has continued to be a voice for social and educational justice. His recent takedown of Rahm's discriminatory special ed policies was a model of research-based critical inquiry.

He's a Bernie Sanders Democrat and played an important role in pushing for a critical statement on privatization and charter schools in the Democratic Party's platform during the 2016 presidential campaign. Sanders came to town in April, 2016 and called Troy's firing, "Rahm's revenge obsession."

But questions remain about whether a LaRaviere candidacy can capture the imagination and pocketbooks of voters and unite communities citywide, despite a badly divided, often anti-electoral and sectarian left. Can LaRaviere reach out to those with interests beyond the field of public education? I think he can. But it will be an enormous challenge.

For those still unfamiliar with Troy's take on education and politics, check out his blog here.

NEXT UP ON HITTING LEFT... Delia Ramirez, candidate for state rep in the 4th Dist.

WEEKEND QUOTABLES

They really cast the deciding vote on healthcare bill. 

Tim Hogan, spokesman for Our Lives on the Line

“The resistance showed up – we called, we came to meetings, we rallied in the rain, and last night we won a critical victory in the fight to protect our care. But we know that President Trump and [Senate majority] Leader [Mitch] McConnell’s reckless determination to imperil the wellbeing of millions of Americans has not gone away... We’re not waiting for their next attack.”  --Guardian

 NAACP

The conclusion of this set of hearings may have been best summed up by Chris Ungar, Past President, of the California School Boards Association:

Can charter schools be part of the solution? Absolutely. But that solution must be intentional, well-planned growth that takes into account the health and sustainability of the entire public education system, including the so-called traditional public schools that educate 90% of our country’s students. -- Task Force Report

Troy LaRaviere give report to CPS Board

CPAA Pres. Troy LaRaviere to CPS Board of Ed

“When has this district ever attempted to shut down three majority white schools in one year?” he asked before turning to [CPS second-in-Command, Janice] Jackson. 

Our principals love you, they’re very disappointed because you were one of us. When are you going to leave this cesspool and come back home? Come back home, sister.” -- Sun-Times

Fred Klonsky

"The morality is...all working people ought to have a pension, live a life of comfort, without worrying about health care or where they're going to live. That's what a humane system looks like. To treat old folks with dignity and with honor." -- Live From the Heartland Radio

Phil Kadner

All Americans deserve the same health care as Sen. John McCain. -- Sun-Times

Tony Sanders, CEO of IL's second largest school district

 “If prior bills failed because they took away from the rich to give to the poor, why would I support a bill that takes money from the poor to give to the rich?” -- Mark Brown's column in Sun-Times

Andy Borowitz

 Harland Dorrinson, who voted for Trump “because he promised that he would take my health care away from me on Day 1,” said that he was “very upset” that he will still receive that benefit. “I woke up this morning, and my family and I could still see a doctor,” he said. “This is a betrayal.” -- New Yorker 

Not buying this NYT piece about how Rahm's principals fixed Chicago schools

The principals that are making gains are making them, not because of the system, but in spite of CPS. -- Principals Assoc. Pres. Troy LaRavier 

I'm not sure who in Rahm Emanuel's oversized City Hall PR Dept. planted this story in the New York Times, but kudos to them for getting this piece of fluff  past the fact checkers and custodians of common sense. Peter Cunningham swears it wasn't him, but I congratulated him anyway.

The Op-ed by David Leonhardt, "Want to Fix Schools, Go to the Principal's Office" focuses on Chicago and gives all the credit to the mayor and CPS super-principals for the district's supposed "fastest in the nation" gains in student achievement, rising graduation rates and lower dropout rates.

Using cherry-picked data, he makes a case that Chicago is on or near the top of the nation's public schools, even while 85% of its students continue to live in poverty and the entire district teeters on the brink of financial collapse.

In other words, Leonhardt is whistling past the graveyard. He's over his head when it comes to writing about education in Chicago.

All this reminds me of the Arne Duncan, Chicago Miracle  in 2008, when no success claim about turnaround schools was ludicrous enough to be challenged by a compliant media.

As for fewer dropouts and spiraling graduation rates, I'd love to believe the reports but don't know how anybody can, given CPS's history of deception in reporting such data.

Remember when in 2015 they were forced to lower the official high school graduation rate following revelations that thousands of dropouts were being misclassified as "transfers"?

According to the NPR report:

At just 25 CPS high schools, more than 1,000 students were mislabeled as moving out of town or going to private schools. But they had actually dropped out and were attending CPS alternative schools, the investigation found. More than 600 were listed as getting a GED. State law is clear that students who leave school to enroll in GED programs or attend alternative schools should be classified as dropouts.

Now they claim that the percent of students graduating CPS schools has hit an all-time high of 73.5%, outpacing  national average gains and representing "a monumental 16.6 percentage point increase since 2011."

Makes me wonder how they even know what the rate was in 2011 since that year marked the beginning of four years of inflated high school graduation rates. Little has changed since then. Students who transfer to privately operated "alternative schools" within the CPS system still won't count as dropouts — and the district still continues its practice of crediting a student's graduation from an alternative program back to the school they originally left.

The reason they like to use average-gains data is that it masks the effect of the great decline in CPS student population over the past two decades, matching the out-migration of Chicago's quarter-million mostly-black residents.

One scenario has it-- get rid of your poorest African-American kids, close their schools, and your test scores (if you use the same test) and other selected performance data is likely to go up -- right alongside your neighborhood crime statistics.

Crediting principals for these "amazing" gains, Leonardt claims the progress has "multiple causes, including a longer school day and school year and more school choices for families. But the first thing many people talk about here is principals." He offers not one shred of evidence to back up the claims. This while Rahm is now threatening to shorten the school year by three weeks.

He then quotes Rahm:

“The national debate is all screwed up,” Rahm Emanuel, Chicago’s mayor, told me. “Principals create the environment. They create a culture of accountability. They create a sense of community. And none of us, nationally, ever debate principals.”

Ironically, Leonhardt's pat on the principal's head comes at a time when Chicago principals are threatened with 30% budget cuts and are being hard hit by the board's privatization scheme's which have left their buildings in shambles, massive staff cuts and exploding class size. Not to mention the fact that CPS principals are rarely in a school long enough to lead any substantial school improvement effort.

I raised the issue with Troy LaRaviere, president of the Chicago Principals and Administrators Association

Here's what he had to say:

One of the things the article talks about is test scores. But I recently was in Madison Wisconsin where I had a conversation with the mayor. He told me test scores there had dropped significantly and they couldn't figure out why until they dis-aggregated the scores of the kids who had always attended schools in Madison and the kids who had moved to Madison from Chicago. The first group were testing at about the same level as they always had. But the kids who had migrated from Chicago, many of them public housing refugees, tested so poorly, they dropped the average of the Madison school district. So it would make perfect sense that the averages in the district that they left would climb. 

I then put Troy in a tough spot by asking him about attributing the reported gains to star principals. But Troy got right to the point:

Chicago principals are working in a district that continues to make it far more difficult for them to do their jobs. They pull one resource after another. For example, if you're a CPS principal now, you may not have an assistant principal. If you really value the position as the article claims, then you invest in the position. The words don't line up with deeds.

Finally, we're all not making the gains we could be making if they invested in us and in the schools. The principals that are making gains are making them, not because of the system, but in spite of CPS.  

CPS principals are also competing for jobs and credibility with an invasion of newbies coming out of private leadership training programs. These TFAers and New Leaders often are hired by district charter schools while having little or no teaching experience and are willing to work for less money.

So yes, principals deserve lots of credit for trying to "do more with less" using tricks like leasing out their buildings or their parking lots, charging student fees each year, or asking parent to raise money for school operations. But to single them out over classroom and special-ed teachers, who have been steadfast, even while baring the brunt of cuts, losing their planning time while class sizes explode, is is divisive and misleading at best.

Klonsky Bros. Radio

This morning at 11, my brother Fred and I kick off our new radio show, Hitting Left on WLPN, 105.5 FM. In Chicago or not, we'll be streaming galaxy-wide at LumpenRadio.Com. Or, you can download the app and hear the show with a click on your phone.

We're not taking phone calls today, but you can Tweet us at #HittingLeft and we'll try to get to your questions and comments.

This morning, Fred and I will be talking Trump, ed/politics and much more, with our in-studio guest, Troy LaRaviere. If you follow this blog, you know Troy well. He's the president of the Chicago Principals and Administrators Assoc. and was the principal at Blaine Elementary before the mayor took revenge on him and had him fired for "insubordination", meaning, Troy's open criticisms of Rahm's policies were having an impact. His hard-hitting Tribune commentary ("Why does Rahm Emanuel put business ahead of our children?") really pissed off the mayor. Plus, Troy being a Bernie Sanders campaigner may also have had something to do with it, according to the IG. 

But, as they say, the tables are turning. Troy landed on his feet and won the PAAA election. Now there's even talk about him running for mayor. Of course, we're going to ask him about that and a lot more.

Tune in.

WEEKEND QUOTABLES

Hawking

Stephen Hawking on Trump

“He is a demagogue, who seems to appeal to the lowest common denominator.” -- The Daily Good

White supremacist leader Matthew Heimbach

 “… Hail, Emperor Trump and hail victory.” -- Think Progress

SNCC veteran Charlie Cobb

“No U.S. president will ever fully embrace their concerns. If you want a president to even be interested in your concerns, however, you have to organize to generate the pressure. That begins with the vote, in my view, although obviously it does not end with voting.” -- Washington Post

Troy LaRaviere

 "I get no satisfaction from Rahm's diminished role nationally," said LaRaviere, a Sanders delegate. "Except for the message that it sends to the people who have been behind him: They're wrong." -- Tribune

Ed activists enter the lion's den, win some important concessions

In an unexpected move, Democrats have revised the K-12 education section of their party’s 2016 platform in important ways, backing the right of parents to opt their children out of high-stakes standardized tests, qualifying support for charter schools, and opposing using test scores for high-stakes purposes to evaluate teachers and students. -- Washington Post

Party platforms mean little and are usually forgotten the day after the election. This year's platform fight within the Democratic Party is more significant than usual because it reflects the struggles of real movements on the ground -- the Fight For 15 Movement, for example -- and because of the realignment of forces within both major political parties.

Dem platform now supports Opt-Out

Throughout the primary campaign, Sanders continually tried to drag Clinton leftward on policy. Leading up to the national convention, Sanders insisted that the party adopt “the most progressive platform ever passed.” That may be a low bar, but it did.

For the first time, after intense internal debate between the Clinton and Sanders factions, the DNC's platform committee backed the unqualified inclusion of the $15 minimum wage as the official policy of the party. They also dropped their statement of support for TPP.

With education activists like Chicago's Troy LaRaviere leading the way, the Sanders forces wrung concessions from Clinton loyalists and came away with an education plank that broke from the current administration's outright support for privately-run charters and high-stakes testing. The party is now on record in its support for the opt-out movement of parents and students.

Also among the unity amendments was a Sanders-Clinton compromise on education that included free public higher education for families with income of up to $125,000 a year.

If you don't think that matters, check out the whiny responses from Arne Duncan's former deputy, Peter Cunningham, and from the hedge-fund school "reformers" from DFER.

Here's my brother Fred's response.

Democrats are now against “high-stakes standardized tests that falsely and unfairly label students of color, students with disabilities, and English Language learners as failing.” Peter hates that.

Cunningham even has reservations about the rather tame criticism of charter schools: He calls it “extreme” that the Democratic Party supports “high-quality public charter schools,” as long as they don’t, “replace or destabilize traditional public schools.”

DFER's Shavar Jeffries claims that the original draft on education was “progressive and balanced.” but that the new language “threatens to roll back” President Obama’s education legacy. I hope so, considering that what Jeffries calls "Obama's education legacy" is actually George Bush's.

The platform shift marks a setback for these corporate reformers and their patrons--Gates, Walton, Broad, etc... I have suggested that Eli Broad should even demand his $12M back from Cunningham and Edu_post. They obviously have no juice.

Here's an example of the disrespect these guys have for the millions of Sanders supporters.

Looks like Sanders delegates plan to make a stink at the convention.https://t.co/epb52WyEmm

— Peter Cunningham (@PCunningham57) July 12, 2016

I'm still waiting to see what Cunningham's former boss, Duncan, has to say on this.

There's  much in the platform that progressives will dislike. Some things I personally find offensive. As the Nation notes:

After the amendment to secure the rights of Palestinians was voted down, the room unanimously supported a move to eradicate wildlife trafficking that would have helped save creatures like Cecil the lion.

But at least on education and a few other issues, Sanders' people were able to leverage some concessions. In exchange, if he can deliver the party at least 70% of his voters (and I believe he can) he will all but ensure a Trump defeat. More important, Sanders has promised to keep the movement behind his campaign going after the election.

Looking back, this is the kind of negotiation that should have taken place on the part of AFT and NEA leaders before their now discredited early and divisive Clinton endorsement.

I have no doubt that after the election, Clinton and the party leadership will try to backtrack on the education plank. But now at least, there's a document that activists, parents and teachers can use to hold her feet to the fire. Something that wasn't done during the Obama years.

Activists learned they could enter the lion's den and win some victories. Now the struggle moves back out in the streets, the communities and the schools.

WEEKEND QUOTABLES

Troy LaRaviere

"I don't think Rahm can be elected dog catcher, and I think he knows it... Right now, I want to be president of the Chicago Principals and Administrators Association. I take that office on July 1 and that's the only office I'm concerned about right now...Who knows what the future holds, but right now that is not on the table." -- Morning Spin

Launa Hall

When policymakers mandate tests and buy endlessly looping practice exams to go with them, their image of education is from 30,000 feet. -- A third-grade teacher on why "data walls" don't work.

 Trumph

"I don't want to have guns in classrooms. Although, in some cases, teachers should have guns in classrooms." -- CBS News

Willie Davis

Bullies are almost never the problem—it’s the people standing next to the bully, laughing at his jokes that hurt. Without them, the guy calling you “dickwad” or “gaywad” (’90s bullies were very wad-centric, I’m belatedly realizing) looks ridiculous. -- Salon.com

Sanders

 “Some 400 of Hillary Clinton’s superdelegates came on board her campaign before anybody else announced. It was anointment. And that is bad for the process.” -- Guardian

The imminent death of a public school system. Rahm brought in ax-man Claypool to chop CPS.

Rahm's ax-man, Forrest Claypool. 

The mayor's announced 40% budget cut could be the final nail in CPS's coffin. And make no mistake, this is exactly what he brought in ax-man Forrest Claypool to do.

According to the Sun-Times:

The district says principals have to “plan for the worst — higher class sizes, loss of enrichment activities, and layoffs of teachers and support staff” while waiting for the General Assembly to take action on proposed pension help or revising the state’s funding formula, spokeswoman Emily Bittner said.

The base per-pupil rate will drop from $4,088 to $2,495 if the proposed budget becomes final. It includes an equivalent cut for charters, too, she said.

According to a report in EdWeek, by the end of the school year, in late June, the Chicago school district will have just $24 million in cash—enough to support two days of operations.

As for the state, its declining "investment" in K-12 and post-secondary education, coupled with (self-inflicted) deficits from the city's mounting pension liabilities and debt service, have put Chicago's schools more than $6 billion in long-term structural debt. Last year, the school board approved a budget with a $480 million hole in it, hoping state lawmakers in Springfield would come up with, what they're calling a "bailout". They didn't. It seems that bailouts are reserved only for the big banks.

Question: Will this also mean a 40% reduction in PARCC testing? Doubt it.

You might call the assault on the nation's third-largest public school system, a joint venture or bipartisan effort on the part of Rahm Emanuel and his current nemesis, but long-time drinking partner, Gov. Rauner. As always, Rahm is playing the role part of victim, blaming all the city's ills, from it record-high murder rate to great sell-off of public space on the previous administration or on Springfield. And of course, there is plenty of blame for mismanagement to go around, including lots for the Daley administration and Daley's school chief, Arne Duncan.

Yesterday's union rally against Gov. Rauner's agenda. 

But even while House Speaker Mike Madigan holds firm (for now) against Rauner's assault on the state's schools and Senate Pres. Cullerton at least offers up a plan (a cockamamie plan with no added revenue) to equalize state school funding,  Rahm and Claypool have been too busy attacking the unions or firing dissident principal Troy LaRaviere, to offer up more than token resistance to the governor.

While Madigan was speaking at the rally in Springfield, fist held high in the air... [Sorry, still LMAO] ... Rahm was nowhere to be seen.

Rahm is the worst kind of autocrat. He holds total power over the school system, but wants no transparency or  accountability for the mismanagement, corruption seeping into CPS from City Hall.

In fairness to the mayor, he's put himself in such a weak position, nobody in Springfield really gives two sh*ts anymore what he thinks. Even long-time pal Hillary Clinton, who's in townhttp://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/politics/ct-hillary-clinton-chicago-park-ridge-fundraisers-20160518-story.html and in the burbs today raising money, won't come within blocks of him.

Now it's up to the teachers union, principals, parents and community groups to stop the 40% budget cuts and demand that Rauner release a budget with adequate funding for all state school districts and special education.

It's now or never for CPS.

WEEKEND QUOTABLES

Pres. Barack Obama on Trump

“In politics and in life, ignorance is not a virtue,” Obama said. “It’s not cool to not know that you’re talking about. That’s not keeping it real or telling it like it is. That’s not challenging political correctness. Facts and evidence matter.”  -- Rutgers commencement speech

Columnist Mark Brown

There’s no doubt Blaine Elementary School Principal Troy LaRaviere has been an insubordinate Chicago Public Schools employee. Too bad there aren’t more like him. 

Sure, there has to be a chain of command, but that’s no reason to squelch dissent. CPS is not a paramilitary organization like the Chicago Police Department. -- Sun-Times

Rev. William Barber II

“This is not about bathrooms. It’s about whether or not you can codify hate and discrimination into the laws of the state.”

“This is about November. It’s about wedge issues, and it’s about sexual and racial fears,” Barber said. He said it is the latest manifestation of the “Southern strategy” employed by Republicans to gain political support based on fear of the other.

Jedidiah Brown, founder of the activist group Young Leaders Alliance

"He [Rahm Emanuel]has not changed, and it's only a matter of time before there's another situation with another name, another personality, and it will be the same thing. He has not shown with his leadership that his heart is for the constituents. It's all about self." -- Tribune

Mayor Rahm Emanuel

“If you’re going to make changes, you don’t want the Justice Department coming and saying, ‘You got that wrong. Now, do it again.'"-- Emanuel to scrap police review authority

The lead/water crisis and Chicago's school children

CEO Claypool says testing not based on any "indication" of lead. Then why no transparency?

Exposure to even small amounts of lead as a child causes subtle brain damage that can trigger learning disabilities and violent behavior later in life. -- Chicago Tribune

And what about exposure to large amounts of lead, consumed daily in the tap water of old Public Schools over a period of years? This is the prospect we are facing and the question parents are asking as we enter the post-Flint era.

According to the city, about 80% of city buildings are still connected to water mains by lead pipes, which were banned in 1986.

CPS claims that while the district has not tested water fountains for lead contamination. Mayor Rahm Emanuel says the system will begin checking water in a "small number of schools" this year. But it won't be the first time. Tests have been done before but the results have been kept from the public.

Schools CEO Forrest Claypool says it's no big deal. He says, “this is not because of any indication. It’s out of an abundance of caution.” Of course, Claypool sends his kids to ritzy private school, Francis Parker, where you can bet the drinking water has been fully tested.

Principals at several of those schools told the Chicago Sun-Times they learned of the testing from the press, and weren’t sure what to tell parents. I can't really blame them for being cautious, given what's happened to outspoken Blaine principal Troy LaRaviere.

Several principals, who did not have district permission to speak, said they had not been notified by CPS of the testing. Though the district typically sends letters home about such developments, the principals said they had been given no guidance on how to respond to parent questions this time.

Rahm's announcement Wednesday came more than a month after the Tribune requested the results of any water quality tests conducted by or for CPS since 2012. The school district failed to respond to FOIA requests, but in an email sent an hour before Emanuel's office released its statement a district spokesman said CPS "had no records to provide".

According to the Tribune,

The water crisis in Flint, Mich., has put new pressure on cities and school districts to address the safety of drinking water. Like Flint, Chicago and many older cities required the use of lead plumbing during the last century, and few have been required to replace those pipes with safer materials. CPS owns or operates more than 600 school buildings, some of which were built in the 1800s.

I'm told that lead and asbestos testing has gone on in the schools since 2003 but the results were never made public.

80% of city's buildings still connected to banned lead water pipes.

Similar lead scandals have emerged, especially in other poor, predominantly black and Latino school districts across the country. In Detroit, they've found elevated levels of lead and copper in nearly a third of its elementary schools, contamination that one expert says could be found nationwide, wherever school authorities spend the time and money to look.

In D.C. they've found 12 schools so far with lead levels that violate federal standards.

Boston Public Schools officials shut down fountains in four schools after a test revealed elevated levels of lead in the drinking water.

Obvious questions. Why are they testing such a small number of schools? Why has it taken so long?And why the lack of transparency? The answers: While testing is relatively cheap (we just had the tap water in our house tested for $35) the cost of necessary infrastructure repair and lead abatement, not just in the schools, but in many neighborhoods of the city (and nation) could require a national campaign with costs running into the trillions. Possibly parallel to what we're spending on wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Not to mention the costs of possible class-action lawsuits, criminal trials and political fallout (would this be happening in a wealthy, white school district?) resulting from cover-ups of the Flint variety.

Is Chicago and the nation willing to make such a commitment in these times of austerity and anti-tax, anti-government hysteria? Even with the health and well-being of our children hanging in the balance?

My bet is that Chicago's lead crisis will be used as an excuse to further erode public space, close or privatize more schools.

Schools being tested include:

• Burr, 1621 W. Wabansia
• Canty, 3740 N. Panama
• Coonley, 4046 N. Leavitt
• Crown, 2128 S. St. Louis
• De Diego, 1313 N. Claremont
• Dett, 2131 W. Monroe
• Ericson, 3600 W. 5th
• Evers, 9811 S. Lowe
• Hefferan, 4409 W. Wilcox
• Mahalia Jackson, 917 W. 88th
• Jamieson, 5650 N. Mozart
• Jungman, 1746 S. Miller
• Kellman, 3030 W. Arthrington
• Kozminski, 936 E. 54th
• Lenart, 8101 S. LaSalle
• Mays, 6656 S. Normal
• Neil, 8555 S. Michigan
• Nicholson, 6006 S. Peoria
• Parker, 6800 S. Stewart
• Pritzker, 2009 W. Schiller St.
• Saucedo/Telpochcalli, 2832 W. 24th
• South Shore ES, 1415 E. 70th
• Stagg, 7424 S. Morgan
• Sumner, 4320 W. 5th
• Tanner, 7350 S. Evans
• Harold Washington ES, 9130 S. University
• Webster, 4055 W. Arthrington
• Westcott, 409 W. 80th

The cat's out of the bag. CPS I.G. admits attack on Troy LaRaviere was political

CPS Chief Ed Officer Janice Jackson fronting for Rahm at Blaine. 

“I can honestly say this was not a politically motivated decision,” said Janice Jackson, CPS’ chief education officer, speaking to a crowd of about 300 inside the auditorium at Blaine. -- Sun-Times

How do you know Jackson is lying? Whenever somebody begins a sentence with, "I can honestly say...", nine times out of ten what follows is going to be a big fib.

The thing that jumped out at me while reading the Sun-Times' story of yesterday's Blaine parents support rally for their award-winning principal, Troy LaRaviere, was this sentence.

CPS’ inspector general Nick Schuler confirmed that his office was looking at LaRaviere’s participation in the Sanders campaign “to see if there are any possible violations” of CPS’ ethics policy.

Not politically motivated indeed.

I'm told that Jackson has finally informed LaRaviere about the dozen or so charges against him. They haven't been made public as yet. But no matter what they have, or think they have on him, the whole thing smells to Blaine parents and community, like another of Rahm's political hatchet jobs.

More from S-T:

LaRaviere is up for election in May to lead the Chicago Principals and Administrators Association, which would give him a larger voice within CPS “and that’s something that a lot of people didn’t want,” [parent Betsy] Melton said.

He also has recorded ads for progressive presidential candidate Bernie Sanders, as well as Jesus “Chuy” Garcia, who ran against Mayor Rahm Emanuel last year.

Last year, sources said LaRaviere was reprimanded after the inspector general dinged him for “improper political activity” for Garcia, though he was not named in the annual report released to the public.

Could the motivation behind LaRaviere's firing be any clearer?

The mayor, who has turned CPS into a wing of City Hall, is pleading (according to Brother Fred) Et Ego Nescieban (I do not know). He more aptly should be pleading non compos mentis. Rahm and the beleaguered school district need this new debacle right now like a fish needs a bicycle.

WEEKEND QUOTABLES

Troy LaRaviere 

"For those who plan on taking some kind of action, please ensure it is purposeful and well-informed. I STILL HAVE NOT BEEN INFORMED OF THE CHARGES AGAINST ME. At this point, this should be at the core of any effort to support my case. Any protest or other efforts should focus on forcing CPS to tell me what they’re charging me with. 

 Again, since we don’t know what the alleged violations are, I believe ANY EFFORTS TO SUPPORT MY CASE SHOULD FOCUS ON FORCING CPS TO TELL ME WHAT THEY’RE CHARGING ME WITH [Troy's emphasis]. After they reveal the charges people can then decide what next steps need to be taken.

This is not about me. This is about corruption, and I am an obstacle to that corruption." -- Troy LaRaviere's Blog

Laughable quotes on LaRaviere firing

Janice Jackson, the chief education officer for the Chicago Public Schools: "We did not consult the mayor in making this decision."

Mayoral spokeswoman Kelley Quinn: "CPS handles its own personnel matters, with which the mayor does not interfere." -- Eric Zorn, "The Sacking of Troy"

Rick Perlstein

Competitors compete: the proposition seems axiomatic. But charter schools don’t really compete with traditional public schools, which rely solely on tax dollars to operate; charters get slathered with private cash, too. -- The Chicago School

Kate Grossman

 Chicago has a poor track record of delivering for its weakest students but this latest chapter, arguably an inevitable and predictable consequence of school choice, may be a new low.  -- Atlantic

Bill Gates

 “We really haven’t changed [students’ academic] outcomes.” -- EdWeek Market Brief

Speaking truth to power

Chicago School Principal Challenges City Hall
Chicago Public School Principal Challenges City Hall "Since Mayor Emanuel began his political career, financial institutions and investment banks have contributed the most money – by far – to his campaigns. LaRaviere says they are the ones profiting, while the schools are suffering."
Posted by Aapple on Tuesday, February 16, 2016

As teachers and parents prepare for tomorrow's Walk-Ins for the public schools all of our children deserve, local media is focusing in on some of the key players in the city's progressive movement.

Don't Miss...WGN is running a two-part feature on Chicago's rebel principal, Troy LaRaviere. Troy has been reprimanded by the mayor's hand-picked board for being outspoken about the real causes of the city's and CPS' financial mess. The problem for them is that he leads Blaine, one of the city's highest-performing schools and he enjoys strong community and parent support. Some (including CTU Pres. Karen Lewis) have even mentioned him as a possible mayoral candidate.
Last night, he focused on the pension crisis.

Zeroing in on the Emanuel administration – he is drawing attention to the mayor’s strategy of borrowing, which he says is only making the problems much worse.
Indeed according to a financial analysis prepared for the Board of Education, the district’s pension costs are projected to increase 32% over seven years, but the debt service on borrowed money is projected to increase 350%.

 Since Mayor Emanuel began his political career, financial institutions and investment banks have contributed the most money – by far – to his campaigns. Laraviere says they are the ones profiting, while the teachers are suffering.

He adds,

“Would I ever want to run against this mayor?  I want a better city.  I want the city that I talked about for my son, and I’m willing to do anything I have to do to make sure he gets that city.”

ALSO...Watch CBS News tonight for Mike Parker's feature story on Harish I Patel's campaign. Harish is the independent anti-machine Democrat running for State Rep in the 40th. Should be good. Look for it.

SpEd cuts delayed? If you don't hit it, it won't fall

At yesterday's board meeting... Parent Wendy Katten of Raise you hand says, "My son's school lost four positions, they have no change in their enrollment there. You are going to face lawsuits."

At least one Board member (Jesse Ruiz?) apparently agrees with Wendy. He mutters into a hot mic -- "Yes we will." Look for him to be called on the carpet today by Rahm's people who will remind him to "speak when we tell you to speak."

Ald. Scott Waguespack (32nd) appeared on the parents’ behalf to offer a mild threat in language he thought the board could appreciate.

“These children need more assistance, not less,” he said, adding that “the lawsuits that will rain down” on the board by special ed parents will cost more than the cuts are projected to save.

Slick CEO Claypool is feeling the heat and moves to cover his ass. Now he's saying that CPS says it will delay the cuts until it "reevaluates every school's needs". A small victory. Shows that if you hit it hard enough, it will fall.

Cielo Muñoz, a special education teacher at Penn Elementary, described how the school security guard is now pitching in to change diapers. “Students are not getting the services they need,” she said after the board meeting. “I have three students with wheelchairs,” Munoz tells the Sun-Times. “They need diaper changes. Some of them are not verbal.”

ABC7...

"These teachers are going to be taken, but these students will still be there without the service," says Troy LaRaviere, principal of Blaine Elementary. LaRaviere says if the cuts go through, he will lose four Special Ed positions.

Others took their concerns to the school board today, including Special Ed teacher Sarah Chambers. "My school lost a position over the summer now we are not able to cover our students' legally-required minutes," Chambers says.

Winston jukes stats. Ignores CPS's own report on SpEd needs.

CPS is juking the stats again...In justifying new cuts to special education, the head of the CPS Office of Diverse Learner Supports and Services, Markay Winston, tells the Board that there are 3,000 fewer special needs kids than there were a year ago.

But Melissa Sanchez at Catalyst writes:

Winston ignored one critical fact. According to CPS's own reports, district staff typically identify, during the course of a year, about 3,000 new students who need special services. That means the number of so-called “diverse learners” typically rises by about 3,000 by the end of the school year.

“They trot out numbers like this to give the sense that the district is losing students, and having a decline in the need for services … when their own reports shows that special education enrollment jumps up about 6 percent on average during the school year,” says Pavlyn Jankov, a researcher at the Chicago Teachers Union. “It’s completely part of their framing to justify cuts, but this is just a blatant lie.”

This is part of a pattern. Rahm's crew continues to use the whitenizing of Chicago and the forced outward migration of black families as a rational for cutting services to schools and communities.

If you are parent of a special needs student, Claypool says to contact CPS if you don't think your child is getting his or her services.

Don't worry, Forrest. We will.

Sun-Times columnist Mark Brown who is hot on the case, adds: "Another option would be to contact me."

#Cpsboard now no longer allows people who sign up to speak if THEY think the topic is similar to someone else's.

— Martin Ritter (@MartinLRitter) September 29, 2015

Mentions that BOE changed rules today to limit speakers. Unelected Boe only accountable to one person.

— Raise Your Hand (@ILRaiseYourHand) September 29, 2015

In this case, 'autonomy' is just a four-letter word

Rahm and Jackson offering a few principals "autonomy".

Blaine principal, Troy LaRaviere gets into it with Rahm's new CPS’ chief education officer, Janice Jackson after she dutifully defends Forrest Claypool's so-called "principal autonomy" plan, otherwise known as Independent Schools Principal (ISP) program.

I'm a great fan of teacher autonomy. But whenever you hear the word autonomy coming down from one of the world's great top-heavy, command-and-control bureaucracies, you have to ask yourself -- autonomy from whom and for what?

In this case, Claypool and Jackson want to give a gaggle of top principals, a little freedom (mostly what they already have) from their own network chief's bureaucratic oversight and offer them a taste of professional community -- meeting with each other.

It reminds me of the day former CEO Arne Duncan asked us to start a charter school instead of a small neighborhood public school, so that the system wouldn't "fu*k with you". I replied, "But you ARE the system. Why don't you just not fu*k with us?" He looked befuddled but finally relented.

The outspoken LaRaviere, whose school rates among the district's highest, smells something fishy. He's not just after some autonomy for himself FROM the system. He wants to change the system and is forthright about it. He thinks that the strongest school leaders should be working together with and sharing their knowledge and experience with the others, rather than forming their own elite club.

JJ says:

Exempting participating principals from network oversight is not just popular with principals — it also enables our district to focus our energy and the limited dollars we have available on the schools that most need our support and guidance. 

Interesting to note that prior studies of the first wave of Chicago school reform found that the schools that progressed the fastest and farthest were those which had the least heavy-handed intervention from central office.

TL responds

 The solution to this situation is to ensure that skilled and competent educators lead networks–not to entice effective principals to leave those networks while principals who need support are left with the least effective network leaders in the system.

 Actually, this sounds a lot like the old charter school argument. If charters are so great, why have them split off from and compete for resources with the rest of the district, rather than having them share their innovations (if there are any to share) with the rest of the schools)? Two-way learning is always best.

Sounds to me like TL and JJ (or maybe RE) ought to switch jobs.

On the mess at CPS and Rahm's shake up on Clark St.

"We did everything we were supposed to do, but we did not spend enormous amounts of time on every single contract that came through. We had a lot going on. We were closing 50 schools and we were making sure 12,000 kids ended up in the right place."

Then Vitale finally found the black SUV he was looking for, climbed in and rode off. -- Tribune

There's a few pieces worth reading and lots that aren't, about the mess at CPS and Rahm's shake up at Clark Street. Here's some of the better:

Ruthhart and Byrne at the Tribune have a pretty good assessment:

Efficiency is political speak for budget cuts and layoffs, and CPS has faced plenty of those in recent days. And more await if Democratic lawmakers and Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner don't break their summerlong stalemate and grant the district some form of financial relief.

Here's what efficiency means at the school level.

Blaine Principal Troy LaRaviere

In his latest blog post, Blaine Principal Troy LaRaviere takes us inside the July 13th principals budget meeting on the heels of the massive announced cuts in staffing and programs. The assembled school leaders were told that the problem arose because the district was forced to choose between "making pension payments and making needed investments in the classroom.”

LaRaviere responds:

CPS claiming their choice is between paying teachers salaries & benefits or improving classrooms is like the Chicago Bulls saying their choice is between paying player salaries or improving the team.  Is there a more important expense toward improving a team than investing in its players?  Is there a more important expense for improving a school system than investing in its teachers?  The funds used on a salary and benefits package aimed at attracting and retaining skilled and competent teachers for our students is the most important classroom investment a school district can make.  CPS’s “teacher compensation vs. classroom investments” conundrum is a false choice based on a misleading political talking point that had no place in a principals budget meeting.

He tries to question the CPS officials. Here's how that went:

I raised my hand. The CPS official looked my way but kept talking.I kept my hand up for five minutes.The official kept talking, reached the end of the presentation and began walking off stage.I projected my voice from the back of the auditorium toward the stage, “I have a question.”

“We will not take questions here.  We will break out in small groups in separate classrooms and you will be able to ask your question in your small group.”

The White Rhino, Ray Salazar, a Chicago Latino English teacher, has something to say about Rahm's appointment of Claypool. Salazar sees none of what he calls the necessary qualities of transformational leadership in Claypool, or in any of his six mayor-appointed predecessors.

For the fourth time in twenty years, we have a CEO with no teaching experience.  Because, let's face it, teacher experience and leadership is just not valued… No CEO in the last twenty years engaged our district or our communities in new ways of thinking that lead to productive long-term conversations for the benefit of students.  While some may have presented a good idea, he or she let the dirty politics of our city influence what could have been a good option for students.

Salazar thinks a teacher or a leader with teaching experience would have been a better choice.

While a teacher would likely find it challenging to go from the classroom to a CEO position, there's a great deal a Chicago Public Schools CEO can learn from the good teachers in our schools.

My take -- Rahm has covered himself here. He was smart enough to take the attention off of Claypool's lack of education expertise and his being another white, male insider, by announcing the appointment of former CPS teacher and Westinghouse principal, Janice Jackson as his new chief education officer. And Denise Little, a longtime CPS educator,  as Claypool's senior adviser.

I hope that Jackson will keep in mind the fate of former education chief Barbara Eason-Watkins who tried her best to put education first ahead of CPS political shenanigans. I wish her and Little the best of luck.

But, we've had educators, bureaucrats and even bagmen for the mayor holding down top CPS posts for the past two decades. So long as they serve completely at the pleasure of an autocratic mayor who has turned the school system into a wing of City Hall, his choice of CEO will make little difference. Real transformational leadership emerges  from a transformational movement.

We need an elected school board and an end to mayoral control.

Final thought…Please send some support and your best thoughts to the Chupp/Valdivia family. They sure could use it.

BEST TWEET

News of Mayor Emanuel's shakeup at CPS and the Board of Ed prompted both Moody's Investor Service and Standard & Poor's to issue a yawn.

— Matt Farmer (@mifarmer) July 17, 2015