ELECTION QUOTABLES -- Does Rahm look like a winner?

Does this man look like he's winning?

John Kass 

But for all his millions in campaign cash, he's even with Chuy, according to polls. Consistently, about 18 percent of the vote remains undecided. And historically, undecided voters don't break to the incumbent, especially one who isn't loved. -- Chicago Tribune

Willie Wilson

 “I’ve always said that I would vote for anybody except the mayor.” -- Willie Wilson

Andrew Sharp, Garcia's campaign manager

 “We’ve been very clear from the outset that we are building a new coalition in Chicago that is going to combine people from all communities.” -- Tribune

Ben Joravsky

 It was just a few months ago that—without discussion or debate—this group of aldermen gave the mayor the green light to throw upwards of $500 million out the window for his Marriot hotel/DePaul basketball arena deal. Not a one of them—including Alderman Reilly—bothered to ask for any supporting information from Mayor Rahm for that debacle. -- Bleader

SOHO House

Shannon Heffernan

But some of the projects WBEZ found in the full list might not be what an average Chicagoan expects when you hear Emanuel describe a program guided by the belief that Chicago’s success is measured by “whether our families can raise their children in our neighborhoods.”
For example, the full Neighborhoods Now list counts the $44 million in private money SOHO House brought to the West Loop. Soho House is a hip membership club. It requires a headshot, application, and approval from a board to join. -- WBEZ

Who is Muneer Satter and why is he throwing more money at Rahm?

Muneer Satter, the man from Goldman Sachs

I could easily cross-post this at Schooling in the Ownership Society. I'll tell you why down below.

Greg Hinz at Crains describes how Rahm's hedge-fund patrons and those who are after more city contracts are over-stuffing the mayor's campaign war chest with more money than can possibly be spent in the short time remaining until election day. More importantly, they are also contributing to the climate of fear by promoting the racist notion that a Chuy Garcia victory on April 7th, will lead to Chicago becoming "Detroit" the following day.

Another check came from prominent GOP donor and investor Muneer Satter. He's given before and reportedly is quite a big Emanuel fan, but he accompanied this donation with a personal email that went to quite a few execs around town. The note says that Chicago is at a "critical" point and risks "becoming Detroit." It then goes on to urge recipients to vote and donate.

Who is Muneer Satter? Among other things, he's one of the creeps who ran Goldman Sachs. He's now the Chairman of Satter Investment Management LLC. He also serves as Chairman of Restorsea Holdings, LLC., Co-chairman of Aerpio Therapeutics, Inc., Co-Chairman at Akebia Therapeutics, Inc. and has been its Director since 2012. He has been a Co-Chairman and Lead Director of Vital Therapies, Inc..

Muneer's mansion. 

He's also Vice Chairman of the Board of the Goldman Sachs Foundation, GS Gives and the Satter Foundation. Oh, did I mention that he's on the Board of Trustees for Northwestern University?

In other words, Muneer is a player. He's also a Winnetka guy, like Rahm. He looks at Chicago from his suburban lakefront mansion.

As for his politics? Well let's just say he sits on the advisory board of the far-right American Enterprise Institute (AEI). He's Republican to the bone and was the finance chair of Mitt Romney's presidential campaign. You can immediately see his attraction for Rahm Emanuel.

___________________________________

“I recall when Harold Washington was mayor when Chuy was standing side-by-side with him. [People said,] `If you elect Harold Washington, First National Bank is going to leave.’ The very next day, the bank was still there;”  -- Former State Senate President, Emile Jones on his endorsement of Chuy Garcia for mayor. (Sun-Times)

________________________________________

A loser? You might ask. Maybe so. But Romney didn't lose for lack of money. It was his 1%er message plus the fact that people just didn't like his rich-boy style. Let's hope Satter has picked another one from the same mold, that he's throwing good money after bad, and that his racist "Detroit" fear mongering is exposed for what it is.

As to why this could have been appropriately posted at Schooling and the Ownership Society? Because, as you might have guessed,  Muneer Satter is also a big player in Chicago school privatization. His personal foundation gives millions to privately-run charter schools and he, along with the likes of The Civic Committee, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and the Walton Family Foundation to name but a few, are primary supporters of New Schools For Chicago, the organization that directs the school privatization efforts for the corporate reformers.

Rahm's rich pals throw good money after bad

The Griffins, Ken and Ann.

How can a guy who just pissed away millions of his own campaign money say anything about anyone else's lack of a financial plan? 

In just three days, Rahm's billionaire pals have dumped another $1.3M into his sputtering campaign. That should just about guarantee a victory for Chuy. Why do I say that? Every time Ken Griffin takes makes a dump, Rahm's poll numbers seem to fall. I'm not saying there's a causal relationship, but it's interesting nevertheless. Ken, a smart businessman must know this is a poor investment. The only thing I can figure is that he's trying to empty the bank account to keep ex-wife, Ann from getting it in the divorce settlement.

Others who donated from March 3 to March 6 include: Groupon co-founder Eric Lefkofsky, $200,000; Richard Melman, $100,000; and Jay B. Pritzker and M.K. Pritzker, who tossed in $50,000 each.

It does raise the question, where has all Rahm's money gone? Rememer, he had $30M in the tank, plus $2M in SuperDuperPAC money. Has he spent it all on my strength is my weakness ads? You know, the ones where Rahm's wearing a sweater and trying to smile. Heh, heh...

The man with the plan.

Well, those became laughing stock, so Axelrod's new ads will attack Chuy for not having a financial plan for the city. Almost laughable when you think about the state of the city's affairs under the current and previous mayor.

The Sun-Times Mark Brown has drunk the kool-aid:

If you were going to draw up a list of what Mayor Rahm Emanuel has done right and wrong over the past four years, his overall handling of city finances would have to go in the plus column.

What? Of course Brown gives no evidence to back up his silly statement.

Does he mean?...

• Millions of taxpayer dollars to build new arena for DePaul. 
• Tax breaks for the wealthiest and the big corporations. 
• Hidden taxes through red-light cameras in poor communities. 
• Unlawful pension busting and shorting the pension fund year after year.
• Replacing well-paying union jobs with minimum-wage jobs.
• Shifting city resources from the neighborhoods to downtown.
• Closing neighborhood schools. 
• Closing neighborhood health clinics. 
• TIF money going to corporate pals.
• Sending the city into massive debt which has destroyed its credit rating.
• The so-called "infrastructure trust" handouts to his banker pals. 

Whatever Mayor Garcia does on this, he can only go up. It's like taking over as manager of the Cubs. Rahm's revenue and regressive taxing approach has driven the city's economy into the dumper. If Rahm goes there, he will only be picking up a rock to drop on his own foot.

And besides -- how can a guy who just blew millions on failed campaign ads and is begging rich friends for millions more, say anything about anyone else's financial plan? 

Students finding their voice, acting powerfully

Four days after 19-year old Tony Robinson was shot dead by a police officer in Wisconsin, protests have continued. Hundreds of high school and university students, some visibly grieving the loss of their friend, left classrooms and occupied the state capitol building yesterday.

The struggle continues -- I was impressed by the response of the Madison, WI school district leaders as hundreds of high school students joined their big brothers and sisters from UW in protesting the killing of Tony Robinson.

This from the Wisconsin State Journal:

Madison School District officials embraced the students’ rally by asking community leaders to come to the Capitol to ensure the students remained safe. They also provided seven buses for transportation back to school after the rally.

Students were not disciplined for attending, and could be excused by their parents, said district spokeswoman Rachel Strauch-Nelson. Superintendent Jennifer Cheatham and other district officials were at the rally.

“In general, we thought it was important that if students chose to demonstrate, that we ensure they are safe and provide positive adult presence to support our students as they express their concerns, grief and questions,” said Strauch-Nelson.

O-O-O-Oklahoma... The immediate and massive student response to the racist OU frat-boy ravings caught on video, has forced action on the part of the university president. Good lesson to be drawn here about the power of direct action. Fancy speeches are fine, as far as they go.

But the question remains, did they just discover the racist, white-only fraternities and sororities that dominate university social life at OU? Where have you been Pres. Boren?

For old-timers, the OU events might have sparked memories of the The Tulsa white race riot of 1921 which is rarely mentioned in history books, classrooms or even in private. With the number of survivors declining, in 1996, the state legislature commissioned a report to establish the historical record of the events, and acknowledge the victims and damages to the black community. Released in 2001, the report included the commission's recommendations for some compensatory actions, most of which were not implemented by the state and city governments. The state passed legislation to establish some scholarships for descendants of survivors, economic development of Greenwood, which was known as Black Wall Street at the time, and a memorial park to the victims in Tulsa.

WEEKEND QUOTABLES

A sign, with bullet holes, along the historic route from Selma to Montgomery

Joe Hopkins, Selma veteran

“My mother told me I could get killed, and I told her we’re all going to die one day, but I was 17 years old and quick so they couldn’t catch me.” — New York Times

Barack Obama

It’s the idea held by generations of citizens who believed that America is a constant work in progress; who believed that loving this country requires more than singing its praises or avoiding uncomfortable truths. It requires the occasional disruption, the willingness to speak out for what is right, to shake up the status quo. That’s America. -- Selma Speech

Jelani Cobb

Ferguson’s is not a singular situation. It is an object lesson in the national policing practices that have created the largest incarcerated population in the Western world, as well as a veil of permanent racial suspicion—practices that many people believe will deliver safety in exchange for injustice. What happened in Selma is happening in Ferguson, and elsewhere, too. The great danger is not that we will discount the progress that has been made but that we have claimed it prematurely.​ -- New Yorker

Jodi Cantor, author of "The Obamas"

 "Michelle and Rahm Emanuel had almost no bond; their relationship was distant and awkward from the beginning. She had been skeptical of him when he was selected, and now he returned the favor; he was uneasy about first ladies in general..." -- Ward Room

 Robert Putnam, author of "Our Kids"

“At the beginning you don’t know you’re doing a study of the collapse of American social life — you’re doing a study of PTA membership. 'Our Kids' was like that, too. The more we investigated, the bigger we realized the problem was.” -- Washington Post

In an effort to placate anti-PARCC activists, Mayor Emanuel has signed an executive order barring the PARCC exam at the U of C Lab Schools.
— Matt Farmer (@mifarmer) March 9, 2015

Rahm: 'You're gonna respect me! You're gonna respect me!' -- For what?

Kinder/Gentler Rahm is supposed to be on a "listening tour". But he ain't listening. He went completely off the rails and screamed  "You're gonna respect me! You're gonna respect me!" at mental health clinic activists. Respect him for what? Shutting down half of the city's clinics? A life-or-death issue for many like Debbie Delgado who lost a son to gun violence.

Today Rahm Emanuel launches a listening tour. Nearly 4 years into his mayoralty.
— Laura Washington (@MediaDervish) February 28, 2015

The pressure's really getting to the Little Emperor who's not used to being challenged directly everywhere he goes. Lots of his former friends are bailing on him and neutrals are beginning to see the writing on the wall and hearing strains of Florence Reese's old labor tune, "Which side are you on?".

Hartman

From Chicago Mag interview with N'DIGO publisher and former Rahm supporter, Hermene Hartman:

Have you been in touch with Rahm lately?

Not since 2010 when we met at my office. I asked him, “What are you going to do for African American business?” He sat across from me and said, “I’m going to write something down and promise you that I will engage on that issue; that African Americans will participate in city contracts.” And he signed his name to the promise. It didn’t happen. African Americans get a miniscule percent of the contracts.

 Rahm is always talking about his work on the CTA Red Line. Those are short term jobs. Those aren’t long-term career-opportunity jobs. They don’t put 10,000 on the rolls. You need steady employment jobs, not just quick jobs.

Which side are you on?...Grez Hinz at Crain's reports that Illinois SEIU leader Tom Balanoff and Toni Preckwinkle, the president of the Cook County Board, may be finally ready to endorse Chuy. They met yesterday, "to talk about public policy and politics".

Preckwinkle as recently as early this week said she had decided to stay out of the contest. But Garcia serves as her County Board floor leader, she and Emanuel have at best a tepid relationship and a source close to her tells me she may change her mind if she is convinced Garcia has a real chance to win.

Rahm: 'Wrong in my own way...he he he'

Protesting Rahm's closing of half the city's mental health clinics in 2011. 

Kinder/Gentler Rahm has a new T.V. ad.

MRE on his new mea Culpa ad, "wrong in my own way" #Runoff #Rahm takes more than 10 questions, may be most ever #Runoff #Rahm
— Mary Ann Ahern (@MaryAnnAhernNBC) March 4, 2015

But expensive T.V. ads are one thing. Real life is another. Rahm just can't pull it off. His smile looks forced. His laugh is kind of a he he he. His new make-up is blowing off in the cold Lake Michigan wind.

Yesterday he was caught screaming at a group of mental health activists, “YOU’RE GONNA RESPECT ME!” after they approached him about his closing half of Chicago's public mental health clinics. You can read the whole account by Mental Health Movement activists on their FB page.

Has anyone got video? It would make a great Chuy ad.

Meanwhile, the Rahm stories keep rolling in via New York Times, Chicago Under Rahm, including some good, sharp accounts of the clinic closings.

Wanted: A mayor willing to stand up and make the tough decisions. Not Rahm the whiner.

It seems the Little Emperor has turned into the big whiner.

No sooner had Republican Sen. Kirk warned us, in racist code language, that if strongman Rahm wasn't re-elected, the city would turn into Destroit, than the mayor became wussified.

First he cries to S-T's Fran Spielman that Chicago's fiscal fiasco "isn't my fault". Waaah!

He blames the city's crashing bond rating and all the other city's financial problems on the Daley's. That's gratitude for you. This, after his predecessor was nice enough to hold his nose and endorse Rahm. Let that be a warning to all other potential endorsers. You know who you are. 

Chuy and Richie definitely ought to grab a cup of coffee. 

Parents ready to fight PARCC

Next the kinder, gentler Rahm claimed he had "no choice" but to cave in to Gov. Rauner's threats over the PARCC tests. This even after his own schools CEO warned that giving PARCC was, "absolutely not in the best interests of our students."

 “Once the federal government and the state were threatening to cut hundreds of millions and billions of dollars off, which would have dramatically increased the teacher student ratio, it was clear that that was . . .  a bridge too far,” the mayor said.

Yes, we've all seen that movie, Rahm. But seriously, did you or anyone else really believe that Rauner could get away with holding back $1.8 billion in Title I poverty funds from a school district with nearly 90% of students of color and living in poverty? Rahm could have, should have, stood up for the thousands of Chicago's students and parents who are ready to opt-out and go to the wall over PARCC. Why no testing waiver application to his boy Arne Duncan at the DOE? And as for the state, doesn't his pal Boss Madigan still control what goes on in Springfield? Isn't that why they still have the mayor in charge of the schools?  According to Spielman:

Emanuel cut off the questioning before he could be asked about parent-led student boycotts or about whether he had lobbied the state and federal government behind the scenes to delay the test or drop the threat of penalties.

What up with that, tough guy? Since when do you get bullied by a political neophyte, wine-tasting, suburbanite from Winnetka? Ooops, I forgot... Sorry.

Brother Fred

Funniest TV Rahm ad... Axelrod could have saved some money on this one. It has kinder/gentler Rahm telling us what we already know:

"I can rub people the wrong way..."

You know what comes next -- the old,  "My strengths are my weaknesses" bit that I think Axelrod stole that one from Pres. Bush. Whatever. That's followed by Rahm's "listening tour", an idea borrowed from CTU Pres. Karen Lewis.

Today Rahm Emanuel launches a listening tour. Nearly 4 years into his mayoralty.
— Laura Washington (@MediaDervish) February 28, 2015

Let's not make it 5.

Rahm puts stamp of approval on Kirk's scare tactics

“It’s just the fact of the matter. We’re in a dynamic environment in which Detroit hangs over the future of Chicago’s economy.” -- Sen. Mark Kirk

The Mayor's re-election campaign has taken the turn we knew it would. It's become a fear campaign, conjuring up imagery and racist code language of a failed city overrun by people of color, should Chuy Garcia become the city's first Latino mayor.

Their new campaign slogan: Vote For Rahm Before It's Too Late.

Seeing Garcia running dead even with Rahm in the latest polls and having all but given up on reinventing a kinder, gentler Rahm, they're borrowing a page from the Chicago machine's 1983 failed racist campaign against Harold Washington.

In case you've forgotten or are too young to have lived it, check out this Mike Royko column from 1986, mocking "Fast Eddie" Vrdolyak's "anybody but Harold" slogan. Vrdolyak, "Slow Eddie" Burke and the whole official Chicago Democratic Party turned Republican overnight in 1983 and again in 1987, in an attempt to stop Harold from becoming the city's first black mayor.

Rahm & Kirk

A "Wet Mayor"?...The same tactics were dredged up again in 1989 when Richie Daley ran against against another African-American candidate, Eugene Sawyer (father of current alderman and Progressive Caucus member, Rod Sawyer).

In a stump speech on Chicago's northwest side, Daley told a mainly-Polish crowd of supporters, "you need a white mayor who can sit down with everybody." When the media called him on it, Daley denied he said it, even though it was recorded. According to Tribune columnist John Kass,

In his 1989 campaign, a videotape of a speech to community groups suggested that Daley said Chicago needed a white mayor. The mayor and his staff immediately denied he said that, and some suggested that a tired Daley said "wet mayor" instead. Huh?

 And so the city nodded, and accepted the idea that we needed a wet mayor, and voters from the Northwest Side, Southwest Side and the lakefront ran to the polls to get rid of the black guy who was in office.

Now faced with changing demographics and changing political realities of a new Chicago, the remnants of that decrepit old machine and its new Republican allies like Gov. Bruce Rauner and Sen. Mark Kirk, are going there again.

Kirk unofficially endorsed Emanuel Monday when he claimed Chicago will become the next Detroit if Emanuel was not re-elected. You might remember that Kirk, in 2013, called for the jailing of 18,000 young black men as a solution to the city's crime problem.

Absolutely nothing racially loaded about this. At all. Nope. Not a bit. http://t.co/tpVLbBJk5B
— Christopher Hayes (@chrislhayes) March 2, 2015

The following day, reports the Ward Room,

Mayor Rahm Emanuel gave a subtle affirmation of Sen. Mark Kirk's not-so-subtle statement comparing Chicago to Detroit without Emanuel as mayor.

 The mayor did not exactly clap Kirk on the back for his endorsement, however, perhaps because Emanuel has avoided comparing Chicago to Detroit, as Spielman noted.

Kirk and Emanuel both insist that the Detroit reference was not about race, but about the bond market. The insinuation was that if Garcia wins, Chicago's credit rating will fall into the dumper. The reason you know that's B.S. is that it's already happened -- under Rahm.

Rahm caves to Rauner threats. CPS will give high-stakes PARCC exam to unprepared schools

“I continue to personally and professionally believe that to administer PARCC this year is absolutely not in the best interest of our students." -- Byrd-Bennett

Rahm Emanuel looked befuddled as he hemmed and hawed last Thursday when Phil Ponce asked him straight-up -- Should CPS administer the PARCC test? I knew then that despite Byrd-Bennett's protestations, the mayor had already folded and wasn't about to stand up to threats from his pal, Gov. Rauner to withhold funding for city schools.

I hate bloggers who quote themselves. Having said that, I wrote the next morning:

He's lost. Non-responsive. I can't really blame him on that one. He's an education know-nothing and his own schools chief Byrd-Bennett has ordered that full PARCC testing be put off for a year, blasted the testing process and called the PARCC test “unproven.” All Rahm can do is mutter something about how the test needs improvement. He admits, "We haven't even gotten the results back from last-year's tests." But you can tell he's going to cave to Arne Duncan and Rauner's guy Meeks on this one and give the test anyway 

I was right. BBB announced yesterday that with a week to go before the PARCC testing window opens, all students in 3rd through 8th grade will take it.

Rahm's resistance turned out to be a sham. He could have asked Arne Duncan for a testing waiver and taken the state to court if they dared deny Chicago its share of federal dollars directed at the education of kids in poverty.

If he had called Rauner's bluff, he would have most certainly won the battle in the Democratic-controlled legislature and in the courts, leaving Rauner with egg on his face. He also might have reversed his falling polling numbers.

Once again, Rahm left his faithful schools CEO hanging in the wind. He and David Axelrod probably thought they could get through the first round elections without losing votes from angry CPS parents by delaying PARCC. Many of them are militantly opposed to subjecting their kids to the 11-hour testing regimen and the test-prep curriculum. Rahm must have figured he could win the election outright, avoid a runoff, and then give the test despite their hew and cry. He obviously guessed wrong.

The Sun-Times reports:

And with just a week before the testing period begins, parent groups and the Chicago Teachers Union are ramping up efforts to show parents how to get their children out of taking the tests, which they have said are burdensome to children and not ready for mass distribution.

I'm hoping Chuy Garcia will come out strong against the testing madness that is PARCC, call on willing parents, teachers and students to opt-out, and stand up to Rauner's threats.

A SmallTalk Salute goes out to the Local School Council at Nettlehorst Elementary. H/t Michelle Gunderson.

Local School council at Nettelhorst School unanimously votes to oppose PARCC testing @WilliamAyers @mikeklonsky http://t.co/aDQ2CkmFLG
— Michelle Gunderson (@MSGunderson) March 3, 2015

What we can learn from Escuela Nueva

Decades ago, John Dewey, America’s foremost education philosopher, asserted that students learned best through experience and that democracy “cannot go forward unless the intelligence of the mass of people is educated to understand the social realities of their own time.” 

I'm not a big educational "models" guy. But it's hard to argue with this one.

Escuela Nueva is an educational model designed in Colombia in the mid 1970’s by Vicky Colbert, Beryl Levinger, and Óscar Mogollón to improve the quality, relevance and effectiveness of the schools in the country. With simple, concrete strategies, Escuela Nueva promotes a classroom environment where students actively learn, participate, and collaborate; and strengthens the relationship between the school and the community. It is a flexible educational model tailored to meet the needs of each individual child, allowing students to complete units and advance to higher grade levels at their own pace.

A 1992 World Bank evaluation of Colombia’s schools concluded that poor youngsters educated this way — learning by doing, rather than being endlessly drilled for national exams — generally outperformed their better-off peers in traditional schools. A 2000 Unesco study found that, next to Cuba, Colombia did the best job in Latin America of educating children in rural areas, where most of the schools operate with this model.

This reminds me of the kind of research that was done in Ralph Tyler's renown "Eight-Year Study" (1933–1941) which compared the academic success rates of students in traditional and progressive alternative schools. In his widely read and used, post-study book, Basic Principles of Curriculum and Instruction (1949), Tyler popularized the lessons from the study and described learning as taking place through the action of the student. "It is what he does that he learns, not what the teacher does."

According to U.C. Berkeley Prof David Kirp, writing in the N.Y. Times:

Escuela Nueva turns the schoolhouse into a laboratory for democracy. Rather than being run as a mini-dictatorship, with the principal as its unquestioned leader, the school operates as a self-governing community, where teachers, parents and students have a real say in how it is run. When teachers unfamiliar with this approach are assigned to these schools, it’s often the students themselves who teach them how to apply the method. “In these schools, citizenship isn’t abstract theory, It’s daily practice.”

Rachel Lotan, a professor emeritus at Stanford, is quoted the Times story:

“Doing well on the high-stakes test scores is what drives the public schools, and administrators fear that giving students more control of their own education will bring down those scores.” Officials, and those who set the policies they follow, would do well to visit Colombia, where Escuela Nueva has much to teach us about how best to educate our children.

The question is, can a model of democratic education take root in a country like this one where testing, sorting and tracking students is the name of the game?

WEEKEND QUOTABLES: The Return of 'Rahmner'

Does mayoral runoff mean return of 'Rahmner?' -- Natasha Korecki

Ald. Rick Munoz

“Rauner and Rahm are drinking buddies, They’re wine-tasting buddies. They vacation together. I mean, who vacations with someone that you’re going to call out for cutting social services? Chicago is a beer-and-brats kind of town, — not a cheese-and-wine kind of town.” -- Sun-Times

Fran Spielman

An angry union that felt provoked into a strike. Financial problems so massive and long-festering, they were a set-up for a one-termer. Black voters who turned on a mayor they helped put in office after a mayoral decision that felt like a slap in the face. A reluctant and under-funded mayoral challenger whose charisma seems to grow with the movement he was drafted to lead against a wounded incumbent with money to burn who loves to play on the national stage. 

Thirty-two years ago, Harold Washington became Chicago’s first African-American mayor on the strength of all of those factors and more. -- Sun Times

NPR's Scott Simon interview with Carol Marin

SIMON: Only 34 percent of the voters went to the polls this week. Isn't that usually the kind of election in which a well-financed campaign with a good ground campaign is supposed to win?

MARIN: That's the way it's been rigged for years. For years, the reason Chicago had a municipal election - not a primary - and put it in February when people were too frozen to leave their homes was to guarantee the installation - or reinstallation - of the incumbent. So this goes against all of that conventional wisdom. -- NPR

NEA Pres. Lily Eskelsen Garcia

"We have a chance to get it right. It's been wrong for 13 long years. We have kids who started in kindergarten and are now seniors in high school who have known nothing but No Child Left Untested." -- Melissa Haris-Perry, MSNBC

Rahm asked by Ponce: 'Do you need to tweak your style?' Or 'Why are you such a dick'?

"You know, Phil. I'm human just like you."

Telling interview with Mayor 1% on Chicago Tonight.

Rahm is not used to being confronted face-to-face interview style where he can't sneer, give a glib answer, and walk away. Phil Ponce basically asks him why he is such an asshole (Ponce doesn't use those words of course) and Rahm struggles for words. He tries to force a smile -- they've prompted him to smile more, to be a softer, gentler Rahm -- but his mouth just doesn't seem to stretch that far. He's just not a self-aware guy and all the coaching by Axelrod's people can't change that.

After denying the Guardian report that Chicago PD has an off-the-books, secret interrogation spot at Homan Square ("We follow all the rules... Everything's done by the book."), Rahm is asked about the PARCC test fiasco.

He's lost. Non-responsive. I can't really blame him on that one. He's an education know-nothing and his own schools chief Byrd-Bennett has ordered that full PARCC testing be put off for a year, blasted the testing process and called the PARCC test “unproven.” All Rahm can do is mutter something about how the test needs improvement. He admits, "We haven't even gotten the results back from last-year's tests." But you can tell he's going to cave to Arne Duncan and Rauner's guy Meeks on this one and give the test anyway ("There is a serious financial and that's what we have to weigh"). What?

Then comes Ponce's asshole question. Why do so many Chicagoans hate you? Actually, he asks, "Do you need to tweak your style?" Rahm hesitates, trying to remember the prompt on this one. He remembers how all politicians are taught to respond when asked about their weaknesses. You say something like, "My strength is also my weakness. I care too much." Or something like that.

Says 1%:

You know, Phil. I'm human like you are. [good one]. Your strengths...my strengths are my weaknesses just like everybody else. I am a hard driver who tries to get things done and that's my strength and my weakness... I can also be so pushy [making shameful face] that I'm not listening. I rub people the wrong way and make people think I'm not listening. So my strength is my weakness.

Okay, you're strength is your weakness. We get it.  But the question still remains. Why, with all that PR money in your war chest, and with the bloated staff of spinners coaching you, are you still the most hated man in Chicago? I think it just a visceral, populist and democratic response to little emperors. Chicagoans just don't like 'em.

Funniest comment...1% says he had "phone exchanges" with Chuy Garcia. Ponce asks about the nature of those calls. 1 replies that they hadn't really talked: "He left a voice mail...I called him. But we have to get back to each other."

Basking in the warmth of Tuesday's victory

It's another beautiful Chicago morning. Icy cold, ankle deep in snow. The new layer of white on the urban tundra is like a fresh coat of paint on the walls of a grimy apartment. The dog poop and the Starbucks cups and wrappers have vanished. Brother Fred is driving to Springfield, leaving his killer dog, Bruiser and his cousin Rocko behind to guard the house. And I'm still basking in the warmth of Tuesday's election victories by progressives over a rickety Rahm machine. Well, maybe not basking -- shoveling.

I showed Laurent Cantet's film, The Class, in my class last night. Since I've seen it several times, I was going to duck out for a while and read student reflection papers. But the film is still so compelling, I stayed and watched it again. Great discussion followed. I still love when that happens.

Back to Tuesday...If you ever wanted to see a mandate, take a look at the citywide votes for the Elected School Board referendum. Ward after ward came in at around 90% for. It was a dagger to the heart of mayoral control of the schools.

Best quote on this came from KOCO's Jitu Brown.

“I’m tired of going to school board meetings where people who don’t have skin in the game are making decisions.” 

Of course, Jitu's talking about educational skin. But truth be told, Rahm's hand-picked board members do have skin in the game. Take Deborah Quazzo for instance (please), whose companies are raking in millions from CPS contracts. It's no wonder she's opposed to an an elected school board. Skin in the game, you bet.

Meanwhile, the Mayor argues, 

"I don't believe what we need right now is more politics in schools."

Laughable.

The worst quote comes from a dazed and shaken Emanuel. Not knowing how to respond to the whipping he and his cronies took, he's forced to steal an old line from the great Harold Washington, whose spirit hovered all over Tuesday's race. He tells the New York Times: “Politics ain’t beanbag.” C'mon Mayor 1%. You can do better than that.

Hey Little Emperor...

Hey little Emperor, come down from your throne

The hourglass is empty, your time has come and gone
The battlements are crumblin’ the walls are tumblin’ down
Your counselors and concubines are getting’ out of town 

-- Steve Earle

Even though I didn't drink last night (honest) I feel hung over this morning after 14 hours of poll watching and then hitting Carlos Rosa's victory party at the Levee. I can't remember a victory like this since Harold Washington won the Democratic mayoral primary in 1983 (Yes, we once had party primaries in Chicago). Yesterday's citywide defeat of Rahm's overstuffed political machine, and Chuy Garcia's forcing of Rahm into a runoff, was as close to being on par with that as it gets.

Rosa's stunning win over a Rahm-backed incumbent was but a small piece of the pie (which I'm still digesting). In my diverse Logan Square neighborhood, it comes on the heels of Rep. Will Guzzardi's devastating rout of  machine daughter Toni Berrios last March. Rosa, a 26-year-old community activist, more than doubled the vote of the mayor's guy, discredited incumbent Rey Colon.

DNAInfo reports:

Ramirez-Rosa was joined on stage at The Levee, 4035 W. Fullerton Ave, by 39th District State Representative Will Guzzardi and a crowd of friends and family around 8:30 p.m. The incoming alderman then claimed his victory in the ward, which represents portions of Logan Square, Avondale, Hermosa, Irving Park and Albany Park.

"This is not about switching one alderman for another; it was about a movement," Ramirez-Rosa said following his acceptance. "We aspire to more — a city that uplifts working people. That's the message the 35th Ward sent today. We proved tonight we can begin the first step of that progression."

Yes we did.

Carlos & Chuy

Citywide, Rahm failed to carry a majority in any ward except for the lakefront and a couple on the far southwest side. His superPAC proved worthless. And his toady incumbents, like John "Petcoke" Pope in the 10th, Deb "Boss' Daughter" Mell, have been forced into runoffs by progressives Susan Sadlowski Garza and Tim Meegan.

My alderman, Scott Waguespack, a leader of the Progressive Caucus, who was singled out for defeat the so-called Chicago Forward PAC, defeated it's candidate Dooty-Jones (I love saying that name, like I love saying Huck-a-Bee, Huck-a-Bee) with 80% of the vote.

The Elected School Board referendum, which was a dagger aimed at the heart of mayoral control of the public schools, carried in ward after ward with numbers around 90%. Makes you wonder who the other 10% was?

More to come on this as my head clears and the final numbers come in.

WEEKEND QUOTABLES

New York Principal Carol Burris

The bizarre notion that subjecting 9-year-olds to hours of high-stakes tests is a “civil right,” is embedded in the thinking of both parties. -- The Answer Sheet

Joan McRobbie Senior Associate, CTAC 

But with rising inequality, reality is making a comeback. Many voices are re-asserting that it's not an excuse but a necessity to acknowledge that out-of-school factors associated with poverty affect school performance. -- Huffington

FOX News host  Lisa “Kennedy” Montgomery

 “There really shouldn’t be public schools, should there? -- MSNBC

Noam Chomsky

 First of all, you don’t have to assess people all the time… People don’t have to be ranked in terms of some artificial [standards]. The assessment itself is completely artificial.  -- Creative by Nature

Chicago Area Researchers Slam Rahm's Failed Ed Policies

For Immediate Release

From Chicagoland Researchers and Advocates for Transformative Education (CReATE)

February 20, 2015

Contacts:
Isabel Nunez, CReATE Coordinator, (312) 421-7819
Mike Klonsky, (312) 420-1335
Brian Schultz, (773) 442-5327
David Stovall, (312) 413-5014

LOCAL EDUCATION RESEARCHERS SLAM MAYOR EMANUEL’S FAILED POLICIES

On the eve of the Chicago mayoral election, Chicagoland Researchers and Advocates for Transformative Education (CReATE), a network of 150 education researchers from universities in the Chicago area, is releasing Chicago School Reform: Myths, Realities, and New Visions (2015).

In response to Mayor Emanuel's claims of major success for his education policy initiatives, CReATE calls into question major parts of Chicago school reform under Mayor Emanuel's leadership. CReATE reviews how reforms of the past four years and earlier have impacted Chicago children, families and school communities.

In response to recent policy initiatives, CReATE proposes a series of research supported alternatives to mayoral appointed school boards, school closings, the ever-expanding chartering and privatizing of public schools, as well as the curriculum and teacher evaluation designs and increased high stakes testing being imposed by Common Core State Standards and the U.S. Department of Education's Race to the Top policies.

The position statement also includes contact information for university-based education researchers who can provide more detailed commentary on specific areas of education policy.

CReATE’s Statement on Chicago School Reform: Myths, Realities, and New Visions is available online at http://www.createchicago.org/

Chicago's hard-hit suburban schools resist charter invasion

Parents, teachers, activists, and students showed up at the Chicago Heights District #170 Board meeting on Feb. 12 to oppose opening the district to the LEARN Charter School Network. LEARN was voted down by an almost unanimous vote. (John Booz, Tribune)

Chicago Heights is a south-of-the-city suburb with a high concentration of poverty and a rapidly-growing Mexican immigrant population. District #170 schools have in many ways borne the brunt of an eroding tax base, loss of manufacturing jobs and the recession of the past decade. While the schools struggle to implement the district's reform plan, including a new middle-grade STEM academy, and prepare at the same time, for the next round of PARCC tests, progress remains slow. Test scores remain the carte du jour for judging schools and teachers, leaving districts like the Heights vulnerable to interventions by the state.

Gov. Rauner now threatens even more draconian cuts to school budgets and health and social services that will negatively impact the schools and communities in Chicago's inner-ring suburbs. He's proposing that suburbs' income tax revenue be cut in half

Towns like Chicago Heights have become the new target areas for poorly-regulated, expanding networks of privately-run charter schools which have already saturated the inner-city market. Recently, District #149 in Dolton/Calumet City was able to beat back a charter takeover attempt by over-hyped Urban Prep.

Nearby South Holland also rejected an assault on their district by a company called LIFE Academy Charters. Their board also voted unanimously in September 2013 to reject a charter proposal by Urban Prep.



Now District #170 is being targeted by the LEARN Charter Network which has a dismal track record of low performance, lots of unlicensed teachers, and a record of exclusion of English language learners and students with special needs. But at last week's meeting, a near unanimous vote by board members, to the delight of a cheering crowd of parents and teachers, scuttled the expansion plans of the charter operators -- at least for now.

With heavy financial backing from big hitters like the Walton Family, and political support from the Illinois Network of Charter Schools (INCS), LEARN is preparing to appeal its rejection to Rauner's State Charter School Commission. LEARN's director Greg White, founder of Chicago Venture Partners, with no background in education, thinks he will get a better deal from the corporate cronies who sit on the Commission. With Rauner in the gov's mansion and his newly-appointed board president, Rev. James Meeks, a voucher/charter advocate in place, White may be right.

All the Chicago Heights board and Supt. Tom Amadio can do is make their case for survival, show off the slow but steady academic progress they are making, rally their troops again with help from the teachers union, and hope for the best.

Big gap in turnout predictions. Are they looking at the same race?

Rahm hoping voters will stay home. 

“It's a slight increase in interest in the election,” said Chicago political consultant Don Rose, who is involved in the mayoral campaign of Cook County Commissioner Jesus “Chuy” Garcia. “Everybody seems to be under the impression that this is going to be a low-turnout election. I am not sure of that.”

The Mayor's praying for a low turnout on Tuesday. As his people see it, that would be his only hope for avoiding a runoff and loss of control of the City and schools. If you believe the Sun-Times' Fran Spielman, Rahm may get his wish.

If early voting — or the lack of it — is any bellwether, Chicago could be headed for a record-low turnout in Tuesday’s election... Majority Hispanic wards that traditionally record the lowest election day turnout chalked up some of the lowest early vote totals. That can’t be good news for mayoral challenger Jesus “Chuy” Garcia.

But if you read Thomas Corfman at Crain's, you get a completely different assessment.

Chicago voter registration has risen 3.9 percent, to more than 1.42 million, since the November election, reaching the highest level in almost five years despite a mayoral race that has lacked fireworks.

Registration for the Feb. 24 municipal election has not only slightly surpassed 2011, when Rahm Emanuel first ran for mayor, but also has exceeded the 2012 presidential election that featured Illinois favorite son Barack Obama, according to figures compiled by the Chicago Board of Election Commissioners.

Wow! Record high and record low. Are they both looking at the same race?

It's Spielman who sounds most bewildered by her own early voting data. She may be getting her information from machine ward bosses. But even if, she adds this:

 The biggest total was the 2,205 early votes recorded in the 19th Ward, home to scores of police officers, firefighters and teachers who are not enamored with Mayor Rahm Emanuel.

 A close second was the 2,092 early votes in the 41st Ward, where homeowners have accused Emanuel of turning a deaf ear to their skyrocketing complaints about O’Hare jet noise.

My own opinion? Low turnout or high -- it all depends on who can turn out their base. I can't imagine that the undecideds are undecided about Rahm, It may be that he can be stuck in the 40% range whether the turnout is high or low.

Warren & de Blasio

Here's an intriguing assessment from today's Washington Post:

Garcia, a Cook County commissioner, has picked up the torch of the economic populist movement embodied by Sen. Elizabeth Warren (Mass.) and New York Mayor Bill de Blasio. Emanuel is being cast as part of the establishment that includes Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton and has been accused of being too cozy with Wall Street and big banks at the expense of average Americans.

There’s little doubt that Emanuel will finish well ahead of Garcia and three other challengers in Tuesday’s election. But polls show him at risk of falling short of a majority and being forced into a six-week runoff campaign, probably against Garcia. Liberal activists are relishing the opportunity to extend the race.

UIC study makes compelling case for an elected school board in Chicago

In 2012, 87% of 80,000 Chicago residents voted in 13% of the city’s precincts for an elected school board in a nonbinding referendum. A similar referendum is on the ballot next Tuesday in 37 of Chicago’s 50 wards.

A new study out of UIC's College of Education makes a powerful case for junking mayoral control of Chicago's public schools and replacing Rahm Emanuel's hand-picked school board with a representative, elected board.

Chicago is currently the only district in the state that doesn't elect its school board. In 1995, the state legislature gave then Mayor Daley, full authority over the schools, including the appointment of the board members. But UIC researchers, Pauline Lipman, Eric (Rico) Gutstein, Rhoda Rae Gutierrez, and Tirzah Blanche, find that after two decades of  of mayoral control, the appointed Board’s policies have become increasingly contentious, leading parents, community and education organizations, academics, civil society leaders, politicians, and the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) to call for an elected representative school board.

The study finds that after 20 years of mayoral control in Chicago, the research paints an alarming picture—Board policies and actions have resulted in a school district that is more unequal on nearly every measure leading to the recreation of a "two-tier" school system.

Here's what else it finds:

• There is no conclusive evidence that mayor-appointed boards are more effective at governing schools or raising student achievement. 

• The Board prioritized selective programs and schools while neighborhood schools serving low-income students of color lost resources and bore the major impact of misuse of tests to enforce punitive accountability and narrowed curriculum, and to close schools. 

• Under the mayor-appointed Board, racial disparities in educational outcomes persisted and in some cases widened. 

• The Board’s policy of closing neighborhood schools has not improved education for the majority of affected students and has had harmful consequences, particularly for African American communities, students, and teachers who were disproportionately impacted. 

• The Board’s privatization agenda has not generally improved education. Charter and contract schools are on the whole doing no better and are more punitive than neighborhood public schools. Privately operated schools are also further removed from public accountability. However, the Board turned over one-quarter of the district’s schools to private operators. 

• Chicago’s Board engaged in questionable and risky financial arrangements and was a poor steward of public resources. 

• Mayoral control and Board structures and processes limit public input and democratic accountability. The Board has been markedly unresponsive to outpourings of public opposition to its policies and essentially indifferent to advice and proposals of parents, teachers, and others with expert knowledge and who have a primary stake in students’ education.

The study makes the case that  an elected board that is representative of the community it serves is no guarantee—but it would be a significant step to strengthen and improve public education in Chicago

Alternatives to closings...For me, one of the most interesting parts of the study, focused on the appointed board's disastrous closing of 50 neighborhood schools. The study points to significant attempts at reform before and after the 1995 take-over that might have posed an alternative to the closings, but were scuttled by the appointed board after Gates and the big Chicago foundations pulled their funding. Among those cited was the Chicago High School Redesign Initiative (CHSRI).

Before CPS embarked on a broad policy of closing neighborhood schools, the district embraced small high schools through CHSRI, creating 23 small, neighborhood high schools between 2002 and 2007. These were not special programs or selective enrollment but whole school initiatives. In August 2008, the Board ended the program with 17 of the original schools still in existence. Yet, a comprehensive 2010 report on CHSRI outcomes found that CHSRI schools offered a promising alternative for low-performing students in the city.

CHSRI was a promising initiative to improve educational opportunities and outcomes inneighborhood public schools open to all students. However, the Board dropped CHSRI and directed resources to closing neighborhood schools, expanding charters, and opening turnaround schools.

The UIC researchers conclude with a question: "The Board’s policies under mayoral control are so educationally insupportable that we are pressed to ask: Whose interests does the Board serve? The majority of CPS students, or political and financial interests?"

The question answers itself.

A week to go until election day. Rahm's kissing babies. Telling lies.

“As it relates to education, ‘Anybody but Rahm’ is the mantra I hear.” -- Rose Joshua, president of the NAACP’s Southside branch. 

Rahm is bombarding us every 15 minutes, it seems, with slick, expensive TV ads. What the hell, he's got $30+ million in his whore war chest. He's kissing babies, eating grits and enchiladas, and posing with the JRW Little League players every chance he gets. Problem is -- he can't seem to move the needle past 45% and he needs 50+ to avoid an embarrassing run-off. He's still the most hated man in Chicago and between the red-light cameras and the cavernous pot holes opening up again around the city, me and thousands of others are cursing the mayor's name with every bump.

Rahm's ads are now directed personally at Jesus "Chuy" Garcia who polls show is his strongest challenger. The ads are negative, horrific, filled with lies and deception. No surprise there. Smells like David Axelrod's work.

Chuy Garcia's campaign has countered with a good one, with two of my favorites, Prof. Timuel Black, 95, and Asean Johnson, 11-- discussing Rahm's school closures. Don't miss.

SYMBIOSIS -- People are still talking about Daley's endorsement. Everyone knows how much former Mayor Richie Daley and the Daley family despise Rahm, who has blamed all of his failed education and crime policies on his predecessor. But Chicago politics is a complex weave of interests. For a primer, take a look at Tim Novak's piece, "Daley nephew Patrick [Daley] Thompson — running for alderman — faces conflicts", in today's S-T. It helps explain the overlapping interests of the Daley family and Rahm's Democratic political machine.

Thompson recused himself from voting 10 more times last Nov. 6 — seven of those votes related to a $300 million deal involving Daley’s law firm, Katten Muchin, and financial behemoth Morgan Stanley, which Thompson’s cousin, William Daley Jr., works for as a lobbyist. The bonds — to pay for Deep Tunnel and other construction projects — were issued shortly before Christmas. Katten Muchin got paid $132,719. Morgan Stanley got $66,556.

Stephanie Simon's piece in today's POLITICO, "Education at heart of Chicago mayor's race", explains the high stakes involved in this election. It's not just about Chicago.

Simon says:

 But if Emanuel wins despite the unions’ best efforts, analysts say it would embolden other Democratic reformers to forge ahead with a controversial agenda that includes closing struggling neighborhood schools, expanding privately run charter schools and overhauling the teaching profession by repealing tenure, trimming benefits and paying teachers in part based on how well their students score on standardized tests.

Portions of this agenda are already being championed by high-profile Democrats including New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, Connecticut Gov. Dannel Malloy — and, most notably, by Emanuel’s one-time boss in the White House, President Barack Obama. But the reform camp predicts more mayors, in particular, will be willing to jump into the fray if Emanuel proves that a big-city Democrat can defy the teachers union, anger a whole lot of black and Hispanic parents — and still pull off a win against liberal rivals in his own party.

VOTE!

WEEKEND QUOTABLES

He's running to avoid the national political embarrassment that would result if he's unable to secure a majority and finds himself in an April 7 runoff election. -- Bill Ruthhart Chicago Tribune

Rahm cheerleader, Ald. Carrie Austin

"Let me say that again. Y'all ain't clapping!" -- Tribune

Paul Begala

Being mayor is “why God made” Rahm Emanuel. -- Sun-Times 

Indiana Rep. Clyde Kersey

“We’re actually taking money from one public school system and giving it to another so that is a real problem. Last year was the first year to use the A-F evaluation system for public schools, and 6 out of the 10 charter schools were D and F." -- WTHI Terra Haute

New York Times Editorial

Anti-unionism, which has become increasingly entrenched in recent decades, correlates with stagnating and declining wages. As unions have been harmed, not only by market forces but by policies that deliberately weaken them, income has flowed increasingly to those at the top of the economic ladder rather than to workers. -- A War on Workers in Illinois

David Sirota

The whole notion that Washington is "broken" is absurd - its a well functioning machine that delivers riches & power to the rich & powerful.
— David Sirota (@davidsirota) February 13, 2015