WEEKEND QUOTABLES

Gov. Rick DeSantis orders Florida schools to open despite his state shattering the U.S. record for increased COVID cases. If Florida were a country, it would rank fourth in the world for the most new cases in a day behind the U.S., Brazil, and India, according to a Reuters analysis.

Ed. Sec. Betsy DeVos echoes Trump's threat

"American investment in education is a promise to students and their families," she said. "If schools aren't going to reopen and not fulfill that promise, they shouldn't get the funds." -- Fox News

 U.S. Rep. Ayanna Pressley to Betsy DeVos on schools reopening

"I wouldn’t trust you to care for a house plant, let alone my child." -- Boston Globe

Naomi Klein

When you slow down, you can feel things; when you’re in that constant rat race, it doesn’t leave much time for empathy. From its very beginning, the virus has forced us to think about interdependencies and relationships. The first thing you are thinking about is: everything I touch, what has somebody else touched? The food I am eating, the package that was just delivered, the food on the shelves. These are connections that capitalism teaches us not to think about. -- Guardian

Sam Nunberg, GOP political consultant

“While voters may push away from Trump if he loses, it’s not that they didn’t like his agenda. They won’t like that he failed in implementing it and failed at getting re-elected.” -- Guardian

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis

...said that even with the rising rates, he still wants the schools to reopen as scheduled next month, saying children have not proven to be vectors for the disease in states and countries where campuses are open. He said while each county will have to come up with procedures, depending on their local infection rate, not opening the schools would exacerbate the achievement gap between high- and low-performing students. -- Chicago Tribune

Hi dipshit, I’m a pediatric ER doctor who has treated children who have #COVID__19 https://t.co/wNUQpQHbRx

— Lydia Holm MD (@MommyFourBoys) July 11, 2020

The AAP's school guidance principles don't align with Trump/DeVos mandated reopening.

In Germany, Denmark, Norway, Sweden and many other countries, SCHOOLS ARE OPEN WITH NO PROBLEMS. The Dems think it would be bad for them politically if U.S. schools open before the November Election, but is important for the children & families. May cut off funding if not open!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 8, 2020

President Trump and Education Secretary Betsy DeVos are threatening to cut federal funding if schools don't fully physically reopen in the fall, regardless of the state of the pandemic and with or without required CDC safety measures being in place.

They may think they think their reckless mandate is supported by the highly respected American Academy of Pediatrics. But it isn't. At least not if I'm reading the AAP's planning recommendations for school reopening correctly.

The AAP, the professional organization of pediatricians, would like to see schools reopen safely in the fall, as would most of us, especially most working families. But the timing of this report left some wondering if these experts on pediatric care were fronting for Trump and the mainly Republican early-openers who have driven up the deadly coronavirus caseload numbers across the country.

The organization “strongly advocates that all policy considerations for the coming school year should start with the goal of having students physically present in school” -- and the reasons are not just about academics.

The importance of in-person learning is well-documented, and there is already evidence of the negative impacts on children because of school closures in the spring of 2020. Lengthy time away from school and associated interruption of supportive services often results in social isolation, making it difficult for schools to identify and address important learning deficits as well as child and adolescent physical or sexual abuse, substance use, depression, and suicidal ideation. This, in turn, places children and adolescents at considerable risk of morbidity and, in some cases, mortality. Beyond the educational impact and social impact of school closures, there has been substantial impact on food security and physical activity for children and families.

But the AAP guidance goes on to present an extensive list of key principles that should be considered in the course of any reopening. The list includes elements like physical distancing requirements, protective equipment, cohort crossovers, school visitors, common and outdoor space (playgrounds and hallways), on-site health and counseling, special education services, block scheduling in high schools, cleaning and disinfection, and virologic testing and screening and much more.

This one is interesting.

The personal impact on educators and other school staff should be recognized. In the same way that students are going to need support to effectively return to school and to be prepared to be ready to process the information they are being taught, teachers cannot be expected to be successful at teaching children without having their mental health needs supported. 

Do you know of any schools or school districts that can have all or any of these in place in the next six to eight weeks, especially with existing budget and personnel constraints? I sure don't.

The list is comprehensive and makes for a great framework or checklist for educators and school planners. A serious review of the guidance should make it clear that its scope and required planning time and the extra resources needed for implementation fly directly in the face of the Trump/DeVos demands for a fall opening with no money or prerequisites attached.

Friday's show. What I would have asked Delia.

I thoroughly enjoyed today's show for two reasons.

The first was watching my brother Fred's first day at the controls as producer. With a day of training under his belt, Fred sailed the Hitting Left ship successfully off to sea, proving you can teach an old dog some new tricks. Congrats bro.

Second, was having Delia Ramirez, candidate for state rep in IL Dist. 4, as our in-studio guest. She proved to be a lively and forthright guest and handled herself well under pressure (we don't do puff on HL). I came away thinking this Prosser High School alum with deep roots in the neighborhood, will make a great rep. Thanks Delia.

Delia Ramirez

I regret that time ran out before I could ask her what she thought about Gov. Rauner's veto of the state's school funding bill, a measure that was designed to clear the way for a major overhaul of how the state distributes dollars to public schools.

Yes that's the very same bill that overcame Rauner's earlier veto and passed easily through the legislature back in August, with Rauner and the Republican caucus, following the lead of Madigan, Cullerton, Rahm Emanuel and the rest of the state's Democratic leadership, down the school privatization path. The trade-off for school funding for the Democrats was acceptance of the state's first school voucher program.

Under that program, individuals and corporations can give money for scholarships to private schools in exchange for a tax credit worth 75% of their donation.

Rauner not only signed the bill, but then took credit for its passage.

But now that the bill has become law, Rauner has used his amendatory power to once again veto it in a so-called "trailer bill". Weird, I know. (Can he do that, Delia?). It seems he now wants to lower the bar and include even more unvetted and unauthorized private schools in the feast at the public trough.

I wanted to get Delia's thoughts on how she as a legislator would work to resist this unethical and probably illegal assault by the governor on public education funding. But alas, time ran out and even having Fred at the control board couldn't change that.

If you missed today's show, you can listen to it here on Mixcloud. 

Behind Randi Weingarten's secret meeting with Steve Bannon

The Washington Post reports that neo-fascist, white supremacist Steve Bannon, Pres. Trump’s former chief strategist (replacing the recently-indicted Paul Manafort) secretly met with AFT leader Randi Weingarten in April to talk about "education issues".

The meeting was set up by right-wing media mogul and Trump ally, Chris Ruddy, chief executive of Newsmax Media Inc. who, according to the Post, "is a friend of both Trump and Weingarten". Ruddy approached Weingarten about the secret meeting because Trump “likes her” and supported opening a conversation to see whether there was common ground", says Ruddy.

The idea for a conversation between the White House and Weingarten developed, Ruddy said, when he was talking to the president about education and mentioned he knew Weingarten. Trump also knew her — both were prominent figures in New York in their own fields.

“The president knows her and likes her,” Ruddy said. “He obviously knows her from the New York world. . . . So I mentioned this to the president as an opening to communications with her. Steve [Bannon] was excited about that. I set up a meeting and they had a private meeting outside the White House.”

Actually, Trump's rationale for the meeting is much clearer than Weingarten's. Trump had already been successful in driving a wedge in the labor movement through meetings with Teamsters President Jim Hoffa and AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka. Each applauded Trump for pulling out of the Trans-Pacific Partnership and threatening other international trade agreements. Trumka even took a seat on Trump's manufacturing council (which never met) and supported Trump's plan to build the oil pipeline through the Standing Rock reservation in North Dakota.

Also, around the same time as the Bannon/Weingarten meeting, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel was holding his own closed-door meeting with Education Secretary Betsy DeVos. Nobody knows what went on behind those doors. But within weeks, a voucher bill was passed in IL by a majority Democratic legislature, without any resistance from Emanuel.

Weingarten however, offers no strategic or tactical rationale for her consenting to hold the secret (from her own membership) meeting. When she tries, she sounds like someone who has drunk the  populist kool-aid.

She says, she thought Bannon sought the meeting [she thought? m.k.] because he believed there was common ground; she and her union have been critical of the power of hedge fund managers and “crony capitalists,” as has Bannon. 

Bannon, an enemy of the hedge-funders???

No, no, no. Not true... Bannon's rise to power has been largely underwritten by hedge funders and crony capitalists like billionaire Robert Mercer, a long-time Trump crony who up until this week ran Renaissance Technologies and it's crown jewel, the Medallion Fund, which, according to Bloomberg, is perhaps the world's greatest money-making machine. Medallion is open only to Renaissance's roughly 300 employees, about 90 of whom are Ph.D.s, as well as a select few individuals with deep-rooted connections to the firm. The fabled fund, known for its intense secrecy, has produced about $55 billion in profit over the last 28 years.  

Weingarten tells the Intercept:

“Look, I will meet with virtually anyone to make our case, and particularly in that moment, I was very, very concerned about the budget that would decimate public education,” Weingarten said. “I wanted it to be a real meeting, I didn’t want it to be a photo-op, so I insisted that the meeting didn’t happen at the White House.”

Weingarten didn’t take notes at the meeting, which was held at a Washington restaurant, but told The Intercept she and Bannon talked about “education, infrastructure, immigrants, bigotry and hate, budget cuts … [and] about a lot of different things.”

Her takeaway: Bannon is no Martin Luther King. Really?

The [Martin Luther] King philosophy of jobs and justice is not the Bannon philosophy, let’s put it that way.”

But on the other hand, she did buy some of his faux working-class populism.

“I think he sees the world as working people versus elites. And on some level, he’s thought about educators as working-class folks."

Lots of questions here... Why did it take seven months for this meeting to be revealed, and only then by a Bannon friend? Why, with the AFT and the labor movement in general in a state of crisis, bleeding members and money, would Weingarten look to Bannon for common ground?

I'm not saying or implying that Weingarten cut a back-room deal with Bannon. I'm not sure that either of them had the power to make any kind of deal. I think this was more of a feel-out meeting that was intended to be kept secret on all sides.

Weingarten and the union leadership seem lost at sea with no real sense of direction. She has nothing to deal. Her first instinct seems to be to scramble for her own personal seat at the table. Or as she puts it...

“If you are the president of the union and you’re fighting fiercely to get budget restorations and to not have a dismantlement of public education or of higher education and the administration asks to – or it’s made clear to you that they want to meet – you meet,” she said. “You don’t not meet. You meet.”

 At the same time she was secretly not not meeting with Bannon, she was also asking DeVos to do joint school tours with her. This even while DeVos was being picketed by parents and teachers at local public schools.

But her meetings with Bannon and DeVos did nothing to get adequate funding for public ed. Since the meetings, the federal public school budget has been slashed to pieces and billions of dollars shifted over from public schools to privately-run charters and school vouchers.

Meeting with Elites... Intercept explains:

Hearing Bannon attack elites, including the types of hedge fund Democrats who fund the charter school movement, in the same way she would, was surreal. “He hates crony capitalism,” Weingarten said. “The same kinds of things [we say], you could hear out of his mouth, and that’s why it’s so — you sit there in a surreal way, saying, ‘How can you sit right next to all these elites?'

That would be a great question for Weingarten herself to answer.

No, this is not a time for secret meetings with fascist demagogues. It is a time for organizing and mobilizing rank-and-file resistance.

Lawmakers above the law on vouchers

IL legislature violates the Constitution.

I doubt that Rahm Emanuel, Cardinal Cupich, nor any of those legislators in Springfield who voted for the school funding/voucher bill -- not to mention the governor who signed it into law -- have ever read the State Constitution. If they had read it, they sure didn't give a rat's ass about its content or meaning when they gave giant tax breaks for the state's wealthiest in order to unlawfully fund so-called "scholarships" to pay for private, Catholic, and religious school tuition.

ARTICLE X -- EDUCATION

SECTION 3. PUBLIC FUNDS FOR SECTARIAN PURPOSES FORBIDDEN
    Neither the General Assembly nor any county, city, town,
township, school district, or other public corporation, shall
ever make any appropriation or pay from any public fund
whatever, anything in aid of any church or sectarian purpose,
or to help support or sustain any school, academy, seminary,
college, university, or other literary or scientific
institution, controlled by any church or sectarian
denomination whatever; nor shall any grant or donation of
land, money, or other personal property ever be made by the
State, or any such public corporation, to any church, or for
any sectarian purpose.
(Source: Illinois Constitution.)

Could it be any clearer?

More Rahm double-talk on school funding

Rahm Emanuel on Thursday after the school funding bill, supposedly giving CPS $450M more than last year, was signed into law by Gov. Rauner:

The bill gives Chicago Public Schools "everything and more... Chicago students will no longer be treated as second-class citizens. That clear benchmark has been met."

By Thursday night... 

Mayor Rahm Emanuel said Thursday he signed off on yet another massive property tax increase for teacher pensions to avoid a “train wreck” at the Chicago Public Schools after years of pension neglect.

duplicity

play

noun  du·plic·i·ty \du̇-ˈpli-sə-tē also dyu̇-\

contradictory doubleness of thought, speech, or action

IL voucher vote reversal shows Dems stand for nothing

Democratic House Speaker Mike Madigan, left,visits with House Republican Leader Jim Durkin after the education funding bill passed. 

"In a lot of ways, the state Dems' endorsement of scholarships for private schools reminds me of Conor McGregor: lots of talk before the fight and not much resistance once it got going."-- Ben Joravsky in the Reader.  

The passage of the IL school funding bill, which included $75M for private school vouchers, is being hailed as a "model of bi-partisanship" and "compromise" by both Gov. Rauner and Speaker Madigan. It was neither. It was instead, an exercise in duplicity on the part of state Democrats and a lifeline for a Republican governor who had become totally isolated and ripe for a 2018 election defeat after his initial veto of the same school funding bill.

Democrats demonstrated once again that they're a party that stands for nothing and that their campaign slogan of  a "Better Deal" as opposed to resistance, is little more than a call for more opportunism. It's a recipe for disaster in the upcoming elections where Republicans shouldn't have a leg to stand on.

Remember how Rauner was elected in the first place after Democratic incumbent Quinn showed the same duplicity by signing the unconstitutional pension theft bill.

And speaking of disaster, it was the manufactured crisis caused by years of inadequate and inequitable funding of state schools and the pension fund, that provided the rationale for this stunning sellout. A model of what Naomi Klein called disaster capitalism in her book, Shock Doctrine. A drowning man will grab onto a rope, not  caring who or what is on the other end of the line.

As Rahm says:

"You never let a serious crisis go to waste. And what I mean by that it's an opportunity to do things you think you could not do before."

In this case, using the public fear over the prospect of schools not opening on time, to somehow realize a school privatization plan, in the form of vouchers, which Democrats supposedly hated.

The Madigan/Rahm engineered flip-flop by Democrats on the voucher bill vote, all within a few hours on Monday and then yesterday's senate vote, reveals the rank opportunism of the party's leadership and the spinelessness of those who voted yes after first voting no.

There was no "compromise" to be made since the voucher deal between Chicago's mayor and Cardinal Cupich, had been in the works for months, specifically since Rahm's closed door meeting with Trump's education secretary, Betsy DeVos back in April. Monday's two House votes were mere Madigan-choreographed theater.

While the funding bill does pump badly-need cash into the to state schools which have largely been operating on heavy borrowing and without a budget for the more than two years, it was more a case of one hand giveth which the other taketh away.

The bill only partly addresses the historic bleeding, or what the Tribune calls, the "growing structural deficit" in IL schools and provides some pension relief for Chicago. But school funding in the state will remain inadequate for years to come. That's because IL still ranks at or near the bottom when it comes to paying the state's share of school funding.

So, while the mayor claims the bill's passage would give cash-strapped Chicago Public Schools what they wanted and more. continue to look for more cuts in school programs, more teacher firings, more attacks on special education and after-school programs.

The bulk of funding still comes from local regressive property taxes. It's a formula that reproduces inequality within a system where high-poverty, mostly black and Latino districts bear the brunt.

This bill did nothing to change that, offering no new revenue sources. Instead of raising taxes on the wealthiest, the bill offers them another massive tax break while homeowners are in for another round of massive tax increases. In order to get to an adequate funding level for the state’s schools, IL will need to come up with at least $6 billion over the next 10 years. The bill authorizes the Chicago Board of Education, comprised of mayoral appointees, to impose a property-tax hike worth $125 million without any involvement whatsoever from the Chicago City Council, whose members are elected.

Wealthy investors will get a massive tax break, $.75 on every dollar donated to the so-called "scholarship fund" for private school tuition. The millions in the fund, taken straight out of public school classrooms, will supposedly help students "escape" from "failing" public schools.

And here, the mayor was just boasting about the magical jump in CPS test scores and graduation rates. Makes you wonder why, at the same time, he'd be greasing this "escape" route.

Saying no to vouchers in IL

CTU cartoon.

As expected, IL speaker Mike Madigan didn't have enough votes yesterday, to override Gov. Rauner's veto of school funding bill SB1, so he postponed the vote until next week. He's now claiming that in the interim, eight Repugs will jump ship. If that's true, there's no need for any further compromises on the part of Democrats. Right?

Rauner hates SB1, even though it is essentially a Republican bill that fails to bring any new revenue (higher taxes on the state's wealthiest). He claims it's a bailout for Chicago schools -- it isn't --and as we know, Rauner is only interested in bailouts for billionaires.

But not so behind the scenes, an alternative bill, hatched originally by Mayor Rahm Emanuel and Cardinal Blase Cupich which would inject the same inadequate immediate funding into the school system while throwing a lifeline to the politically isolated governor (his own education proposal, didn't get a single "yes" vote last week). The win for Repubs would be a school vouchers or "scholarship" plan that would pull an estimated $75M in tax credits, away from public schools and into the pockets of private and Catholic school operators. It would also further the state down the school privatization road.

When we asked Democratic State Senator and candidate for governor, Dan Biss about vouchers on Hitting Left a few weeks ago,  he called vouchers, "a catastrophe" and "unacceptable". He said, for him, vouchers are "a red line" that he, and assumedly other Dems wouldn't cross.

Protesters in Springfield along with the CTU are trying to make sure they don't cross it.

Another HL alum, @Ameya_Pawar_IL, also running for governor, tweets:

#SB1 is a funding equity bill. Adding school vouchers undermines equity. School vouchers is not a compromise. Override @GovRauner racist

We will be continuing the conversation on SB1 and vouchers tomorrow on HL with parent activists Wendy Katten, from Raise You Hands, and Cassie Creswell from More than a Score. Brother Fred will be out of town. So my co-host, back by popular demand, will be CTU political organizer Brandon Johnson.

Don't miss.

Are IL Dems going to cut a deal with Rauner on vouchers?

Archbishop Blase Cupich and Mayor Emanuel have been talking vouchers.

What I'm hearing is that there's not enough votes in House to override Rauner's veto of school funding bill. Override requires 71 votes and Dems have only 67. It comes as no surprise that they can't find even 4 Republicans willing to break with our mini-Trump governor and support adequate and equitable funding for schools. Boss Mike Madigan doesn't seem to care that much or have any more screws to tighten,  even if he did.

Rauner is still committed to sticking it to Chicago and CPS. He claims that Chicago is getting too large a slice of the budget pie. It's the big lie, as Rich Miller points out in Capitol Fax. Chicago gets back only 80 cents for every dollar of taxes it contributes. The city is actually subsidizing the wealthy suburbs. But it's the sword Rauner's obviously willing to fall on in the upcoming elections. In the meantime, his strategy for public ed is loot, pillage and burn.

So with school opening only days away, I'm worried that a deal has already been cut between Republicans and SB1 author Andy Manar, Cardinal Blase Cupich and Mayor Rahm Emanuel for a new "compromise bill" that includes school vouchers and restrictions on teachers collective-bargaining rights.

The Tribune has already sent up some signals and naturally would love such a deal. 

Rahm insists he's against vouchers but last week, he dodged questions on school vouchers, leaving reporters to wonder about his position even as his latest batch of private emails showed Cardinal Cupich lobbying the mayor on the subject and Rahm open to discussing the matter.

When he was our guest on Hitting Left, Dem gov candidate Rep. Dan Biss called any new compromise on vouchers, "a catastrophe" and "unacceptable". He called vouchers, "a red line." I hope he sticks by that.

All the denials lead me to believe the fix is in. Hope I'm wrong.

CPS layoffs reveal Rahm's racist duplicity

Once again, Mayor Emanuel has topped Governor Rauner’s ruthlessness towards Chicago’s public school students with his own savage, short-sighted response, by further stripping to the bone schools that he’s forced to function in a climate of civic abandonment and the violence that his neglect has caused. -- CTU Blog

Evidence of the mayor's racist duplicity is mounting as he and his hand-picked schools boss, Forrest Claypool, deliver another gut-wrenching, crippling blow to the mainly black and Latino children, families, educators and workers of Chicago's public schools.

Yesterday came the announcement that CPS was laying off nearly a thousand more staff members including 350 teachers. According to the plan,  600 support staff positions will be eliminated, mostly in high schools. Additionally, 356 teachers will be let go, with 240 at the elementary level and 116 in high schools.

According to Stacy Davis Gates of the Chicago Teachers Union, 362 classroom aides were let go, along with 221 members of SEIU Local 73, which represents special education aides and security guards. Gates thinks more cuts will follow. She predicts that CPS plans for the upcoming school year will lead to the closing of more neighborhood high schools — and the layoffs of African-American and Latino teachers, most of whom are women.

Yes, it's true that the lion's share of the blame for the devastation of public education now taking place statewide, falls on our sociopathic Republican Gov. Rauner who just last week, vetoed the emergency school-funding bill. Then there's a Democratic-Party-dominated legislature, has long been gutless when it comes to making the state's wealthiest shoulder their fair share of the tax burden.

But when it comes to racist duplicity, the buck stops at the fifth floor of City Hall. Why? Because this latest round of cuts, which hits hardest at predominantly African-American and Latino high school students, comes on the heels of Rahm Emanuel's plan to make it more difficult for city students to receive their hard-earned high school diplomas.

The mayor mandates that kids without a job offer or college acceptance can no longer graduate from high school. There's an exception to the new rule. Enlisting in the military can fulfill the graduation requirement which could make CPS the nation's number-one military recruiter of black and brown youth.

Yesterday's layoff of hundreds of staff, follows last year's round of layoffs of 1,000 teachers and staff, including counselors, and will condemn that many more students to academic failure and loss of future college and job prospects. They're losing the very support network needed to help them fulfill the new mandates.

The Washington Post reported last month...

Critics say Emanuel’s idea is an empty gesture that does nothing to address the fact that many teenagers are graduating in ­impoverished, violence-racked neighborhoods with few jobs, or that the most readily accessible community colleges are ill-prepared to meet the needs of first-generation students from low-income families. They also point out that the 381,000-student district laid off more than 1,000 teachers and staff members in 2016, and it is in such difficult financial straits that it struggled to keep its doors open for the final weeks of the school year.

The CTU correctly points out that Rahm’s slash and burn response sets the stage for the closure of dozens of neighborhood high schools and accelerates the exodus of Black and Brown people from the city,

It's time to put an end to Rahm's racist duplicity and his unfunded mandates and put control of the schools into the hands of a popularly-elected school board.

If 'bailouts' are good for Wall St., why not neediest schools? Retiree pensions?

(BGA grafic)

Gov. Rauner has vetoed the school funding bill, thereby continuing to deprive the state's neediest districts of millions of dollars and threatening the opening of schools in the fall.

Rauner claims that the bill takes money away from wealthier white districts in order to "bailout" needier, mainly black and Latino districts like Chicago. He also claims, the bill,  "includes a bailout of Chicago’s broken teacher pension system.”

Both claims are false, says the BGA. 

In fact, under the new funding formula no school district gets less state money, but many low-income districts get more. With low-income students accounting for 80.2% of its enrollment, CPS is among the latter group.

The biggest problem with the bill as I see it, is that it fails to identify new sources of revenue, ie. a graduated income tax, making the wealthiest pay their fair share. But nevertheless, the bill, which passed both houses in Springfield needs to be signed, and fast.

Rauner's been using the big-lie technique to play off white students against students of color, urban schools against downstate and suburban schools and everyone against teachers, their unions, and retirees.

But let's say, for the sake of argument, that his "bailout" claims are correct. What's wrong with bailing out public schools or other public institutions in distress? If IL paid its fair share of education dollars, a bailout wouldn't be necessary. IL continues to rank near the bottom when it comes to school funding.

The state, by constitutional mandate, has the primary responsibility for funding its public schools but has never come close to covering even 50% of the cost. In recent years, the state's contribution has dipped below 30%, forcing local school districts to raise their property tax levy or cut programs.

According to the group, Raise Your Hand, IL is 50th out of 50 in percentage of funding that comes from the state. So, public schools rely on local taxing bodies to make up the difference, which causes great inequity between poor and rich districts.

Illinois spent 9% less in real terms on general state aid per student this year than it did five years ago.

IL also has the most unfair school funding system in the nation. The state's school districts with the greatest number of students living in poverty receive substantially fewer state and local dollars than their more affluent counterparts — nearly 20 percent less.

Furthermore, the state hasn't been paying into the State Retirement Fund, as required by law, for decades. As it stands, the state pension fund is underfunded by about $130 billion. If IL had been contributing it's mandated share, no bail out would be needed and the TRS would be is good health. The same is true for Chicago's pension fund.

If a bail out was fine for Wall Street banksters and energy companies, many of whom didn't need it or even want it, why not bail out the schools? The Wall Street bailout does nothing to create jobs, create social equality, or eliminate poverty. A bail out of struggling (through no fault of their own) public school districts, would help do all of the above.

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 

WEEKEND QUOTABLES

Tens of thousands of marchers for science packed the National Mall Saturday

Charles Cappell, sociologist and retired NIU prof 

“It seems absurd that we have to march for something as fundamental as science. But with the current administration, it seems you have to defend the basic facts of science." -- Tribune

Elizabeth Warren in Chicago on Saturday

"Never in my life did I think I was going to have to find modifiers for the word 'facts'." -- Politico

Bernie Sanders

"Let me be very clear. It is imperative that Jon Ossoff be elected congressman from Georgia's 6th District and that Democrats take back the U.S. House." -- NBC News

CA Senate leader, Kevin de León on 'Sanctuary Cities'

Trump and Sessions are basing law enforcement policies “on principles of white supremacy — not American values.” -- New York Times

Kevin Hoffman  

“As calls to reform the way Illinois funds public education grow louder, new data released on per student spending is a stark reminder of the disparity that exists among the state’s school districts." -- Reboot Illinois

WEEKEND QUOTABLES

Two members of the Standing Rock Sioux Indian tribe ride through the camp. The man on the left said, “We’re building our shelters for winter right now.” Photo by William Brangham

Member of the Sisseton Wahpeton Oyata Tribe 

“Even if they’re just little infants, they’re gonna look back at pictures of this and remember: I was here, I was part of this.” -- BuzzFeed

David Archambault II, chairman of the Standing Rock Sioux tribe

"My nation's history is at risk because the pipeline builders and the Army Corps failed to consult the tribe when planning the pipeline, and routed it through areas of cultural and historical significance, which will be destroyed." -- NPR

Solidarity

Union members oppose Dakota Access Pipeline 

"Union members understand that today the greatest threat to jobs, health and decent living standards is climate change. We support the National Day of Action on September 13th, and we urge President Obama to stop construction of this destructive pipeline and keep dangerous fossil fuels in the ground."  -- ATU Statement

Kelly Hayes

The old chant, “The whole world is watching!” seemed on the verge of accuracy in Standing Rock. And then came today’s ruling, with a federal judge finding against the Standing Rock Sioux, and declaring that construction of the pipeline could legally continue. -- Transformative Spaces

Connecticut Judge Thomas Moukawsher 

He found that the recent budget crisis “left rich schools robbing millions of dollars from poor schools” and left open the possibility that at any time funds could be moved “away from starving cities to rich suburbs for no good reason.” -- New York Times editorial

'Bailing out' schools

Metaphors...This is the second time in two days, I've heard the mayor's spokespeople refer to proper funding of Chicago Public Schools as a "bailout". Sounds too much like Gov. Rauner/speak to be a coincidence.

S-T's Fran Spielman writes: 

While lawmakers have been summoned back to Springfield this coming week amid talk of a potential stopgap budget, Gov. Bruce Rauner has repeated his opposition to a state-sponsored schools bailout and insisted CPS' fiscal woes are of the district's own making.

Well actually, both of the latest bailout references belong to Molly Poppe, from the city’s Office of Budget and Management. In response to Rahm's offer to have the city buy CPS debt, Pope tells S-T: 

“We’re not contemplating bailing CPS out or borrowing on their behalf or loaning them money — even temporarily."

They've obviously gone from viewing public schools as beggars to outright criminals. As in -- Let's not let these dangerous public institutions back out on the street where they can steal again from the city's most wealthy tax dodgers. 

Good Read... Don't miss Trib's Blair Kamin's take down of Assholes-of-the-Year, George Lucas/Mellody Hobson as the pair flees Chicago looking for new suckers on the west coast. 

Lucas himself was like the man behind the curtain in "The Wizard of Oz" — the unseen force pulling the levers, known to everyone but accountable to no one.

Well, this looks interesting... Chi Flack Night: City Hall Politics and Media - Chi Hack Night - The landscape has been rapidly evolving in Chicago City Hall in recent months, with the City Council taking up key legislation on everything from rideshare regulation to AirBnb to police reform. Communications strategist Joanna Klonsky is there for it all as communications consultant/spokesperson to many of the aldermen–most notably, the 11-member Chicago City Council Progressive Reform Caucus. Joanna will talk about how the changing environment has created new opportunities to make progress in City Hall, and how she works with media to help advance the necessary narratives to make it happen.

WEEKEND QUOTABLES

Charleston County Magistrate James Gosnell Jr.

"There are four kinds of people in this world: black people, white people, rednecks, and n******." -- NBC News

Ernst & Young

The Chicago Public Schools will “run out of cash as early as this summer” and be unable to meet payroll, pension and debt payments without “third-party intervention” or a significant “cost deferral.” -- Sun-Times

NY Times editorial

The crisis, in a nutshell, is the isolation of millions of young black and Latino men, who are disengaged from school, work and mainstream institutions generally. -- The Cost of Letting Young People Drift

  Alan Lazowski, LAZ’s chairman

 “This is an isolated incident of one employee, and if these allegations are true, they are contrary to every core value that LAZ stands for.” -- Another Chicago parking meter scandal

Bernie Sanders

"Our country belongs to all of us, not just billionaires. No president can take care of all the problems facing Americans today alone. We need a movement of working people, of middle-class people, to stand up right now. If we don't, I worry about the future of our children and grandchildren." -- What Did O'Malley and Sanders Tell NEA?

Dylann Root: I'm a terrorist! Read my shitty manifesto!!!! FBI: Sorry. You're not a terrorist unless we entrap you first (@PrototypeCube)

— Dave Zirin (@EdgeofSports) June 20, 2015

Still a lot of talk about how moved folks are by victims sense of "forgiveness." One way to reflect this is by taking down the flag.

— Ta-Nehisi Coates (@tanehisicoates) June 22, 2015

WEEKEND QUOTABLES

Urban Prep students support their teachers at a rally earlier this year. (Arielle Zionts)

Noel Perez-White, Urban Prep English teacher

"I support the unionizing efforts at Urban Prep because our students deserve a school where teachers return year after year. Teacher turnover has a grave impact on students. I believe a union will create a more supportive climate for teachers at Urban Prep -- ending the revolving door, and creating a more consistent learning environment for students". -- Progress Illinois 

Wade Henderson, president of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights 

“The evidence from across the country is clear and compelling: Our nation must dramatically change the way that educational resources are distributed so that there is true equity in America’s classrooms.” -- Washington Post

Milwaukee School Board member Larry Miller

 “The whole idea of regimented, special discipline for African-American children doesn’t work for me...How are you bringing music? How are you bringing the arts? Kids need much more than just academic rigor.”” -- Neighborhood News Service

Zabe Davis, the chief of the campus police at Senatobia [MS] High 

“We were instructed to remove anyone that cheered during the ceremony, which was done. And then Jay Foster, the superintendent, came and pressed charges against those people.” -- New York Times

Phil Neuenfeldt, president of the Wisconsin A.F.L.-C.I.O.

“Scott Walker didn’t have the stature, influence or money to become governor on his own or to end collective bargaining on his own. All of that flowed from Mike Grebe, the Bradley Foundation and a network of influential conservatives, including the Kochs.” -- New York Times

Is Rauner threatening secession? Says Chicago gets too big a share of school funds.

Old Napa Valley Winery pals greet each other at Council meeting. 

I listened to Gov. Rauner's speech before the City Council yesterday and came away wondering why he even bothered. He had nothing of import to say and came off like an ignorant boob. With protesting unionists gathering outside the council chambers, Rauner skipped even a mention of his so-called right-to-work (for less) zones.

Well actually, he did make a couple of points. The first was laughable. He's pitting down-staters against Chicagoans and threatening secession (?) unless Chicago accepts his turn-around agenda and austerity program (massive cuts in education and social services).

"When I'm south of I-80 and I ask an audience what we need to do to turn Illinois around, you know what the number-one answer I get? The most frequent response is, 'secede from Chicago.' I'm not making that up. I'm not making that up."

Whenever a politician keeps repeating that he's "not making that up", I always suspect that he's making it up. But if he's not, it says more about Rauner's tiny base of Dixie-whistling, neo-confederates than anything else.

The second -- not so laughable -- was that Chicago schools are receiving much too big a share of state school funding. Yes, he's pitting downstate against Chicago on school funding too all while he's screwing school districts statewide.

Illinois consistently gets an "F" in evaluations of the fairness of its funding distribution between low- and high-poverty school districts. The state usually ranks third from last compared to other states, in its share of school funding . Most school funding comes from local property taxes, not state funding.

The State of Illinois provides only 26% of total education dollars, down from a high of 48%. About 8% of funding comes from the federal government, primarily for special education. The remaining 66% comes from local sources.

And the state has consistently failed to contribute it's required share of pension funding, thereby causing the current crisis. State policy effectively forces residents in economically struggling communities to pay higher property tax rates for local schools than those in similarly valued homes in more affluent areas.

Rauner claimed that Chicago gets "hundreds of millions of dollars" a year in other money, mostly for anti-poverty programs, that "no other community gets."

Uh, yeah. That's because Chicago has more people living in poverty. Get it?

Hey, but at least the governor didn't refer to Chicago as a "black hole" the way Republicans used to do back in the 90's. But basically, it's the same idea.

Before Rauner spoke, the City Council approved a $5.5 million reparations package for victims of police torture under the watch of disgraced police commander Jon Burge.  Click here for a live video stream of the council meeting.

Beating Rahm's SuperPAC

Progressives Scott Waguespack (left) and John Arena, targeted by Rahm's $2 million super Pack

I braved the cold yesterday and went over to the library to cast my early vote against Rahm and for Ald. Scott Waguespack (32nd). I don't mean to sound gloomy about the weather, but if I should somehow freeze to death between now and the 24th, at least my vote will be counted.

Waguespack is a member of the City Council's Progressive Caucus and Rahm's $2 million super PAC specifically targets him and Caucus member John Arena over in the 45th Ward, for defeat. We won't let that happen.

I also got to vote YES on the Elected School Board referendum and I'm sure it will carry.

I had to laugh when a voter in a nearby booth asked the judge, "How can this person, Doody-Jones,  be on the ballot when she doesn't even live in our ward?" He is referring to Waguespack's opponent -- Rahm's puppy dog, Elise Doody-Jones.

The confused but responsive judge gets on the phone and calls the Board of Elections. She actually connects with a live human being (nice going, David Orr) and asks for clarification on "Dooty-Bones" ballot position.  Turns out, it's legal. But it's a damn good question anyway.

Dooty-bones, indeed. She may not live in the 32nd, but she will pick up a nice chunk of change from the SuperPAC. She promises that she will move over here if elected. Another great reason to vote for Scott.

You have to love Chicago ward politics.

Class War...Mark Brown has a good column in today's S-T about Rauner's escalation of class warfare (thus far one-sided) against organized labor. Brown has good instincts for this kind of stuff and comes by them honestly. He writes:

My first thought upon learning of Rauner’s move was of Fort Sumter and the cannon shot that signaled the beginning of the Civil War, not to suggest anything so momentous.

My second thought was of my grandfather, a railroad worker who was shot and wounded by company thugs who fired on a group of union pickets in the central Illinois railroad wars 69 years ago this month. Yes, I have a visceral reaction to this stuff.

Me too.

Doomsday Clock Ticking...Over the next decade, the U.S. expects to spend $355 billion on modernizing its nuclear weapons. This according to the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists. Why? Remember when Obama was running for president and pledged to "set a goal of a world without nuclear weapons, and pursue it"?

Questions: 1) What does "modernizing" nukes have to do with eliminating them? 2) Who are we planning to target with such weapons? 3) Isn't there a better way to spend $335 billion? Ie. in a public education fund where the interest alone would fund the nation's largest school districts for 100 years. 4) Where's the hue and cry from the right on this big gov't spending?

Philly's cancerous approach to school funding

As if making schools dependent on property taxes wasn't bad enough, now Philadelphia Public Schools will have to rely on cigarette sales just to make it through the year. Without the regressive $2-a-pack cigarette tax increase passed by the legislature and signed by Gov. Corbett last week, the city schools and schools throughout the state are facing more draconian cuts in October. Much of the revenue generated by the new tax will be used to expand the already swelling ranks of privately-run charter schools in the city.

This from The Philadelphia Public School Notebook:

 Something is seriously wrong with this picture. Pennsylvania is not a poor state and is situated in one of the richest countries in the world. But many districts can’t provide our children with school personnel we once took for granted. Not to mention books, technology – and in some cases, soap and toilet paper.

That’s not just a Pennsylvania problem. The United States is unusual among industrialized countries in having it backward: We spend the fewest education dollars on the neediest students. If we want to spend tax dollars wisely and get results, we need to flip that script.

Three years of Rahm is enough... Andy Shaw, President & CEO of the BGA, tries to give a balanced assessment of the mayor's first three years. But he can't help conclude that Rahm's positives are mostly "low-hanging fruit" with "limited progress on the more daunting challenges, including comprehensive budget, TIF and ethics reform."

Shaw reports that under the current Chicago mayor's regime, "community participation is virtually non-existent, and there’s still a long way to go to eliminate pension woes, structural deficits, poor credit ratings and excessive long-term borrowing".

Worse yet:

The city hasn’t stopped using tens of millions of TIF dollars to assist wealthy corporations, institutions and clouted contractors in areas that aren’t truly blighted, when the money should be spent in struggling parts of the city that sorely need economic development.

Shaw might have included some mention Rahm's devastating closing of dozens of neighborhood public schools in black and Latino communities along with record levels of gun violence across the city.