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

The original plan called for pipeline to run though mainly-white Bismarck

The Snake is headed our way.

Isn't this the way things go?

According to court documents, original proposals for construction placed the pipeline near the water supply for Bismarck, a city that is 88% white. “They altered the route because people were concerned about the impact on the city’s water supply,” Jan Hasselman, an Earthjustice attorney representing the tribe said in an interview. “ (The government) put the risk on the tribe. That’s not right.” -- High Country News

The Army Corps of Engineers has a long history of taking lands at Standing Rock including the creation of Lake Oahe which inundated prime agricultural lands and fruit orchards so mainly-white Bismarkians would have a place to water ski and fish for walleye.

Super proud of the Windy City for the big turnout at yesterday's solidarity rally and march on the Army Corps of Engineers office. Other protests took place in cities around the country, including Bismarck. 

U.S. District Judge James Boasberg's ruling was a big blow. But Justice Dept. and Army Corps of Engineers heard footsteps and have temporarily halted operations.

Classic Obama... He calls on Dakota Access to "voluntarily" delay bulldozing Sioux sacred ground.

Chicago solidarity marchers.

But at least Obama did/said something (only after being embarrassed by a student in Laos). Where's Hillary Clinton? She reversed herself last year and came out in opposition to the XL Keystone Pipeline. But now, as the battle rages in Standing Rock, her silence is deafening. Is she afraid of offending the big-bank campaign contributors who have sunk more that $3B into the project? Or the neocon Republicans who have allied with her against Trump?

This despite the fact that the Democratic platform devotes more space to protecting Native American rights than any single other issue. The section was written by a Bernie Sanders appointee, veteran tribal campaigner Deborah Parker, but it was approved unanimously and without debate by every single member of team Clinton, who were in constant contact with their campaign headquarters. -- Bill McKibben, L.A. Times

My friend, filmmaker Michelle Noble drove 23 hours from L.A. to film, record from the encampment. She posted this video clip today.

My fave headline of the day, from the Bismarck Tribune:
Highway 1806 was briefly closed as protesters, horses entered the roadway

Please avoid the National Guard checkpoints if you can. And chip in to our bail fund here: https://t.co/FZ3sBOYveP #NoDAPL #WaterIsLife

— Sacred Stone Camp (@SacredStoneCamp) September 9, 2016

Standoff at Standing Rock as we await court ruling

With Defenders of Water School principal Elena and teacher Theresa.

I finally found my calling after all these years. I want to come back here and be the basketball coach at the Defenders of Water School at the Standing Rock Sioux encampment. Susan and I showed up early at the school yesterday, to see if we could help out. Susan spent the morning trying to salvage school supplies that were washed out in Wednesday's downpour, putting remaining usable materials in plastic bins.

I played hoops -- a no-rules 3-on-3 pick-up game with 9-year-olds with players shuffling in an out. An Australian photog took pictures (with permission) and promised to send me some as soon as he could find some a wi-fi connection. I'm still waiting.

Early yesterday morning, a group of activists out on the front line set out to block the Dakota Access bulldozers. But the confrontation never materialized because the 'dozers were inoperable. The torrential rainstorm the day before had left them in a sea of mud. The rest of the day turned into an eerie peace. A standoff with company spotters up on the ridge watching the protesters and taking pictures while activists watched back. "We watch them watching us," said a guy camping at the front line. He had come from Arkansas to be part of this. "They watch us watching them watch us." There's a song lyric in there somewhere.

Approaching the roadblock on 1806.

Today, a federal judge is scheduled to rule on the Standing Rock Sioux lawsuit, a ruling that could stop the pipeline in its tracks or give a green light to DAPL The tribe’s lawsuit contends that the Dakota Access pipeline violates several federal laws, including the National Historic Preservation Act, and threatens the region’s water supply and sacred ancient sites outside of the 2.3 million-acre reservation.

Yesterday came word that Gov. Dalrymple had activated the National Guard in anticipation of the ruling. Dalrymple is avid Trump supporter, solidly behind Dakota Access and the pipeline project. The 100 guardsmen will man the roadblocks out on Hwy. 1806 leading into the encampment, freeing state police for  other duties. Rumors abound that several hundred police from around the state have been training in the nearby town of Mandan for action against protestors.

Tribal chiefs have been meeting to plan a response to the court ruling and the governor's actions. So have the activists.

SUSAN'S NOTEBOOK:

There is a  reservation school district at Standing Rock. A public elementary school and a high school. I didn't visit them. But I looked on the school district's Facebook page and there is a letter from the school superintendent denying rumors that the school bus had been stopped at a roadblock and that some of those on board were questioned by police.  I wonder how attendance at the "regular" schools is doing. The encampment has opened an elementary school. Mni Wichoni Na KIciziy Owayawa or Defenders of Water School. (I can't type in the Sioux diacritical marks so this is not spelled properly).

MK can spot a hoop anywhere. Between the main tipi and the row of portable toilets, there's a basketball hoop. By no means regulation or even half-sized court, and the "floor" is trampled grass. But it suited its purpose. MK was soon playing with 9-year-olds who were waiting for school to begin. He  can still dominate the boards (or mud) against 4th-graders. He asks a skinny little boy, "Can you dunk?" The kid is happy to have somebody to play with so he puts up with the teasing. Then a little girl joins in. First it's MK versus these two little  ones, then as more kids join, it's 2 on 2, and soon, 3 on 3. And the 9-year-old psych artist shows some attitude,  calling MK "Old Man" and trying to outfox him. The old man will be okay once his wounded pride heals.

The school consists, so far, of a large tipi as the main classroom plus separate tents for math and reading. School is supposed to run from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. followed by after-school activities; however, things got off to a late start this morning as we worked to salvage materials which had been hit by yesterday's frog-choker of a rainstorm. The supply tent is piled high with cartons of paper, notebooks, and school supplies. I was with a couple of volunteers sorting and organizing the stuff and transferring the undamaged materials into plastic bins. Many tribal delegations arrived with school supplies to contribute to the pool, so there is quite an abundance. The problem is keeping everything organized and dry. And unlike a conventional school building, computers are not in the picture.  Small white plastic writing practice boards -- the kind you can wipe off and reuse --are augmented by white masonite tiles, intended for ceilings, which are easy to clean off. We had to throw away some paper, notebooks and other paper goods that got soaked but most everything else was still in plastic wrappings and so survived.

Aside from conventional school supplies and art supplies, the school has several huge containers of beads and beading materials. Native American bead work has many genres, styles and techniques. I wished I could stay to see how the class would be taught.

We met the school's principal, who is a teacher at the Standing Rock elementary school. She was preparing to teach a morning opener on Lakota values. She was joined by a young teacher from the Chicago suburbs who has come as a volunteer. A mom came over to drop off her kids for school. The mom stuck around to help sort materials. "We got in last night from Arizona," she told me, " and luckily my kids got a full night's sleep in the car, so they're ready for today." There was no official or informal census of how many people are at the encampment nor how many children. And not all the children are signed up for the school yet.  Here in the liberated zone that is this little valley, a new school is being born.

Notes from Standing Rock

We got to camp yesterday afternoon after driving hours through torrential rain storms. We drove in from the north (Bismarck), easily avoiding any roadblocks by taking Rte. 6 off of 94, to 24 and then east into camp.

By the time we arrived, the sky had broken and we got our first clear look at this stunning Missouri River valley rich in colors.  Clearly a land worth fighting for and keeping out of the clutches of oil-profiteers and polluters.

The dirt road into camp had turned to a river of mud. But that didn't seem to slow hundreds of new arrivals, now lined up along the side of 24 in cars, SUVs, pick-ups, and campers with license plates from seemingly every state, waiting to be guided past security and into the main camp. From up on the hill, the first sight of the main encampment is awesome. Thousands of supporters in tents, tipis, or just sleeping in sleeping bags on the ground or in cars. It's a beautiful collage of beloved, well-organized and self-run community and refugee camp. Tribes who, I'm told, haven't joined together in a hundred years or more now coming together with delegations of supporters.

Donated goods stack up at the food tent.

We parked and unloaded our food, warm clothing and feminine products at the donations center. We had stopped at a market in Jamestown to pick up more big cans of beans, diced tomatoes, pineapple chunks and whatever else they had on their shelves. No Costco in this part of N.D.

Teams of cooks and kitchen volunteers were serving meals 24/7. A free store offered clothing, toys and donated goods to whoever needed them. Tanker trucks brought in water for bathing and drinking. Horse corrals and lots and lots of of kids,

The first campers we met, a small group of Onondaga tribe members, had driven here non-stop from N.Y. One woman had a thick Brooklyn accent. They asked us for advice on avoiding Chicago loop traffic and tolls on their return trip to Buffalo.

I stopped by the camp school and met a couple of the volunteer teachers. Class begins at 9 this morning. I asked if they needed help and they said, "all the help we can get." So I'll be back there at 8:30.

______________________________

From Susan's Notebook

All the senses are engaged in Cannonball. I tracked around the sprawling campground like a big old dog today, sniffing the air and taking in the scene.

Waiting to enter the main camp.

You should see and smell what the cooks are making to feed several thousand people a day at the NO DAPL camp.  I saw folks unloading a pick-up truck full of 30-lb. bags of potatoes. A local farmer dropped off mountains of squashes. There's a refrigerator trailer for the perishables and meat including a couple of head of cattle donated for the cause. They have built a cooker the size of a smallish school bus and a team works steadily splitting wood for the fires so they can keep up with the cooks.  It's fun and impressive to watch. And the sweet smell and taste of wood smoke and grilling foods is hard to beat.

Visually it's remarkable. There are three camps. I've seen only two of them.  One is relatively compact and has a couple of small wind power generators humming away on a hilltop. The hum harmonizes well with the buzz of a million crickets and whoever else is chirping away in the grasses. Waves of nylon tents in every shade of blue line the hillsides, vying with the tribal flags which line the main road into camp. Each of the flags is impressive  for its own vivid color and unique symbols. But massed on tall white poles lining the road into camp are ALL the tribal flags and it's hard to take it all in, harder still to realize -- again -- how little I know of these histories and who these flags stand for. Among all the bright little nylon tents and tarps there are also lots of white tipis, made the old-fashioned way--no fiberglass poles. Most of the ones here are made of a marine cover material which is highly waterproof and the construction allows them to stand up to wind and rain.

It has rained like mad here. Today alone the area got .75 inch of rain in a couple of hours. There are blankets and jackets and jeans spread out to dry on the roofs of the cars and vans, on makeshift clotheslines and lawn chairs. Everything had something drying on it after the rains moved through. The temperature began to plunge as the sun dropped. Donated blankets and sleeping bags were being distributed to folks whose stuff had gotten soaked today. On top of having wet outerwear and wet bedding--there is mud. M.U.D. The sucking, strong, sticky kind of mud in a supersaturated cow pasture that is now home to so many families. Our car got stuck in the mud on the steep road out of camp, and a couple of young guys just got behind us, put their shoulders into it, and gave us enough of a shove to regain traction.

There has never been a gathering of all these tribes and on this scale. People keep saying unprecedented. It's no exaggeration. Even longtime rivals have come together on this one, and there is teasing and humor about historic feuds but in the camp they say there is a sense that something precious,  delicate and wonderful--and powerful--has come together--something about which participants clearly feel highly protective.

----------------------------------------------------

School tent

Forget about the reported lack of press coverage of the pipeline struggle. The media, both mainstream and social, is all over the encampment, taking pictures and interviewing anyone who will talk to them. Check out yesterday's Washington Post article.

I hear a New York Times reporter, cameras hanging from her neck, speaking with camp leaders about the rules of engagement. As you might expects, there are lots of restrictions on picture-taking and some of the camps don't want it, period, either for religious or security reasons, or both. But pictures and interviews are possible if done with care and respect for people's dignity and right to privacy.

Last night I talked briefly with former Chicagoan Jeff Haas, one of this country's great civil rights lawyers and author of The Assassination of Fred Hampton. He's working on the Standing Rock Sioux's pending lawsuit against the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. I'll try to get back with him this morning to learn more about the battle on the legal front. Yesterday, a federal judge issued a partial restraining order. But the real ruling on the suit is expected tomorrow. No matter how the judge rules, the battle to stop the Black Snake continues. These folks are dug in for the long haul.

I'm hearing that there will be some kind of action this morning but not sure what. So off I go.

Navigating life's roadblocks

After a stopover in Minneapolis, we're hitting the road early a.m. for the final leg of our trip to the Cannonball encampment. After an 8-hour drive, on both highway and Dakota backroads, the trick will be evading the roadblocks set up by state police, without getting completely lost.

Folks up there are telling me that there's no wireless or cell reception in the area so GPS probably won't work. We may even have to use roadmaps. Remember those?

First we'll stop for groceries somewhere along the way and load more food into our SUV.

The big news is that yesterday, a federal judge ordered a partial stop on pipeline construction until he makes a final ruling on Friday. This follows Monday's statement of support for the restraining order by the Obama administration. The problem is that the order is only partial.

AP reports:

U.S. District Judge James Boasberg said Tuesday that work will temporarily stop between North Dakota's State Highway 1806 and 20 miles east of Lake Oahe, but will continue west of the highway because he believes the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers lacks jurisdiction on private land. It wasn't immediately clear how long of a stretch on which work will stop.

He also said he'll rule on the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe's challenge of federal regulators' decision to grant permits to the Texas-based operators of Dakota Access pipeline, which will cross North Dakota, South Dakota, Iowa and Illinois, by the end of Friday.

 Standing Rock Sioux tribal chairman Dave Archambault II issued a statement after the ruling, saying: "Today's denial of a temporary restraining order ... west of Lake Oahe puts my people's sacred places at further risk of ruin and desecration." Attorney Jan Hasselman with Earthjustice, who filed the broader lawsuit on behalf of the tribe, noted the tribe will "know more by the end of the week about where we're heading."

One thing I've learned over the years is that the battle in the courts means little without the struggle on the ground. So it's off to Cannonball we go.

For those back home in Chicago, don't forget the solidarity rally Friday, 4 p.m. at Daley Plaza.

On our way to Cannonball

Watching Democracy Now's footage of hired company thugs from the Dakota Access pipeline company, sicking their dogs on peaceful Lakota pipeline protesters was a bit much for us to stomach. Brings back memories of Alabama, 1962.

So we're packing up the car this morning with warm clothing and food and driving up to Cannonball, N.D. from Chicago, to see how we can help offer support and solidarity with the Standing Rock Sioux and thousands of activists who've been at the encampment for months.

This is not just about helping others. The $3.8 billion Dakota Access Pipeline, which poses a clear and present danger to the environment and especially to the drinking water of 90 million people, empties out its fracking oil here in Illinois. The N.D. protests have an immediate aim of stopping the company and the Army Corps of Engineers (the folks who helped bring deadly flooding to the Lower 9th Ward after Katrina) from putting the pipeline under the Missouri River on reservation land. After that comes the Mississippi. A leak into either river will produce another oil catastrophe.

I'm especially interested in seeing the work of educators who've been volunteering in the camp's impromptu schools. Shades of Mississippi Freedom Schools?

There will be a solidarity rally at Daley Plaza in Chicago at 4 p.m. on Friday. Spread the word.

SOME GOOD NEWS. Yesterday, the Obama administration announced its support for the pending restraining order against DAPL. Last year, they stopped the Keystone XL portion of the pipeline, which would have piped in oil from Canada.

According to Indianz.Com:

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers hasn't changed its position in the underlying lawsuit, which was filed by the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe. The agency still believes it fulfilled its duty to consult with the tribe about the impacts of the controversial pipeline on cultural and historic sites.

However, since the matter remains of great public interest, the Obama administration believes a temporary restraining order is warranted against Dakota Access LLC, the Department of Justice said in a court filing on Monday.

Special thanks for orientation and travel tips to Standing Rock encampment, to friend Nick Estes, a Lower Brule Sioux from South Dakota, who's here in Chicago this month, working on his doctorate.

VIDEO Dakota Access Pipeline Co Attacks Native American Protesters with Dogs & Pepper Spray https://t.co/opaGFmyLxj pic.twitter.com/uXfFAxKkej

— Democracy Now! (@democracynow) September 4, 2016

WEEKEND QUOTABLES

City Treasurer Kurt Summers and Aldermen Susan Sadlowski Garza and Ricardo Muñoz of the Progressive Caucus lead the way in the 10th Ward Labor Parade on Saturday. Photo credit: Fred Klonsky

Sue Sadlowski Garza remembers Labor Day used to be a grand celebration.

Businesses shut down. Streets were lined with people watching floats go by. Parks hosted neighborhood fireworks shows. "But then it just stopped," said Sadlowski Garza, who is now an alderman in the 10th Ward. "I said 'man, nobody does a Labor Day parade. Let's bring it back.'" -- Tribune

Barack Obama

History has shown that working families can get a fair shot in this country – but only if we are willing to organize and fight for it. -- Open letter to America's workers

Clyde Bellecourt is one of the founders of the American Indian Movement

 "I am 80 years old. I've been jailed, I've been shot. This is the most beautiful thing I have ever seen. This is what I fought for." -- BBC

Company thugs attack pipeline protesters with dogs, pepper spray.

ESPN'S Paul Finebaum on Colin Kaepernick

"This country is not oppressing black people..."

"Usually people protest when they’ve been oppressed, when they have a legitimate stake in the action. I don’t know where Colin is coming from. What’s his beef with society, other than he’s upset with how the way people, in his mind, are being oppressed in this country?"

Finebaum apologized Thursday 

"I can spend the rest of my life trying to talk my way out of it, but I can't," Finebaum said. "I blew it. I simply did not have a good grasp of the situation. I know better." -- Real Clear Politics

Charles Blow on Trump

 Trump said, “I believe we need a civil rights agenda of our time, one that ensures the rights to a great education and the right to live in safety and in peace and to have a really, really great job, a good-paying job, and one that you love to go to every morning.”

Translation: I want to further weaken public education through more charters and vouchers. I want to flood your neighborhoods with more police because you can’t control yourselves. I want you to stop freeloading, get off welfare, and get a job. -- New York Times

President Obama Defends Colin Kaepernick: He is ‘Exercising His Constitutional Right’ https://t.co/Cw5ZOqXbVm pic.twitter.com/ki4daM2SCu

— Mediaite (@Mediaite) September 5, 2016

The hunger strike bears its fruit

You can't always get what you want.
But you get what you need. -- Jagger/Richards

There's lots of lessons to be drawn from this great struggle. There's power in community organizing and saving and transforming public education is central to that struggle.

The Dyett hunger strikers and the Bronzeville community didn't get all their demands met by a resistant school board bent on school closings. But their struggle ended in victory, make no mistake about it. Proof -- the  Dyett High School for the Arts will open next week with a $14.6M upgrade one year after the 34-day hunger strike ended.

If you hit it, it will fall...Chicago Newsroom's Ken Davis interviewed Chicago Reader's Ben Joravsky and newly-elected Pres. of the Chicago Principals and Administrators Association, Troy LaRaviere. 

Asked if Emanuel will pivot on education policy as he did on police, LaRaviere said: "Only if the people force him to. Because he didn't pivot on the police. He came out with his 'lone officer' theory and the only thing that changed it was the uproar and the protests in the streets and the call for his resignation. And he came back a little softer and a little more willing to admit something might be wrong. It didn't work. There was still an uproar in the streets, and that uproar caused a national call for his resignation. And then there was the famous City Council speech. He'll go as far as the public pushes him." -- Watch the interview here: http://bit.ly/2bXZ0fg

A warning from Marco Gutierrez, paid stooge and founder (only member?) of  Latinos for Trump:

 “My culture is a very dominant culture and it’s imposing and it’s causing problems. If you don’t do something about it, you’re gonna have taco trucks on every corner.”

Latinos for Trump Founder: If We Don't Act, 'You're Gonna Have Taco Trucks on Every Corner' https://t.co/GMVqsXow2C pic.twitter.com/L0ojdajW8P

— Mediaite (@Mediaite) September 2, 2016

Best response...

My culture is a very dominant culture. And it's imposing. If you don't do something about it, you're going to have Starbucks every corner.

— Alex Seitz-Wald (@aseitzwald) September 2, 2016

Storm clouds on the horizon as schools open in Chicago

Another teachers strike now seems likely.

As the new school year begins in Chicago, there's dark storm clouds on the horizon. Public schools have been hit with a devastating 1-2 punch delivered by Gov. Rauner and Mayor Emanuel. The first punch has schools operating with no state budget for the second straight year. The second has teachers working without a contract for the past 13 months.

These, combined with the latest round of state and school board-imposed austerity measures and policies like lump-sum budgeting to schools, have led to the lay-offs of 1,000 more teachers and staff just three weeks before school opens. The impact of the lay-offs will be felt well beyond the classroom and will ripple throughout the city's economy.

Principals have been complicit in the process, getting rid of their most skilled and experienced (highest-paid) teachers and replacing them in the classroom with unqualified newbies or administrative assistants, with barely a word of protest.

Hopefully new militant leadership of the Principals Assoc. in the form of Troy LaRaviere will help rebuild that organization which is now just a shell. Be sure and read Troy's blog post on this topic,  "Dear Mayor Emanuel: I resign my position as principal of the #1 rated neighborhood school in Chicago." 

Ben Joravsky's latest piece in The Reader illustrates what happens to a school system that doesn't value veteran teachers like Rob DiPrima.

DiPrima was getting laid off because apparently we've reached the point where certified social studies teachers are a luxury some Chicago public schools can't afford.

But Emanuel changed that funding formula in an effort to save money in the classroom—leaving him free to spend it on things like the new Marriott Hotel and DePaul basketball arena he's building with TIF funds in the South Loop.

CPS is going the way of everything with the adjective public in front, as in public space, public health, public housing and public decision making.

With no contract agreement in sight and teachers being pushed to the wall, an October strike now seems likely. Everyone will be watching to see how the rank-and-file votes this week. The state's anti-union laws require that 75% of CTU members vote yes for a legal strike. A strong show of unity and community support may offer the only glimmer of hope.

Thoughts on the 11th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina

New Orleans family waits to be rescued. 

On this date 11 years ago, the catastrophe that was Hurricane Katrina, hit the Gulf Coast, leaving more than 2,000 dead and thousands more homeless or displaced in its wake. But as Chicago poet Roger Bonair-Agard @rogerbonair tweets, "The tragedy only began with the hurricane."

He's right. What followed was not so much a tragedy -- as caused by the gods in Greek drama -- but rather a manmade disaster, still being felt, especially in the poorest black communities in Louisiana and Mississippi. For more on this, see Gary Rivlin's excellent N.Y.T. Magazine piece, "Why New Orleans’s Black Residents Are Still Underwater After Katrina".

However, not everyone saw it as disaster, or at least not entirely. Univ. of Chicago free-market economist Milton Friedman said of Katrina:

"This is a tragedy. It is also an opportunity to radically reform the educational system". 

His statement was immediately taken as a call for groups of ed-entrepreneurs to flock to New Orleans where charters for publicly-financed, privately-run schools were being handed out to all comers. Shades of the California gold rush of 1850.

The ed-privateers came to town on the heels of the mass firing of every teacher in the city, basically wiping out the largest sector of the city's black middle class. Next came the de-certification of UTNO the first integrated teachers' union in Louisiana

Their dream was to replace the storm-battered, public school system, which had educated generations of New Orleanians since the city's public school system was founded in 1870, during the Reconstruction Period, with networks of non-union, privately-run charters.

It's worth noting that for the first seven years under the Reconstruction government, the public schools were racially integrated. I bring this up in response to those who claim that racial desegregation is "too difficult" or those who claim they want to "take politics out of education." More on that below.

Then Sec. of Education Arne Duncan took Friedman's meme and ran with it. telling interviewer Roland Martin:

I spent a lot of time in New Orleans, and this is a tough thing to say, but let me be really honest. I think the best thing that happened to the education system in New Orleans was Hurricane Katrina.

An embarrassed Pres. Obama forced Duncan to walk back his racist remarks and he did. Duncan told TV host Joe Scarborough that the remarks were a "dumb" thing to say and that he had expressed them in a "poor way."

Friedman's and Duncan's sentiments have been echoed in recent months here in Chicago. Tribune columnist and editorial board member, Kristen McQueary @StatehouseChick wrote,

"Hurricane Katrina gave a great American city a rebirth." 

And then this:

I find myself wishing for a storm in Chicago — an unpredictable, haughty, devastating swirl of fury. A dramatic levee break. Geysers bursting through manhole covers. A sleeping city, forced onto the rooftops. That's what it took to hit the reset button in New Orleans. Chaos. Tragedy. Heartbreak.

Yes, the great storm has been the battle cry for top-down reformers and disaster capitalists everywhere, a rationale for the most gross anti-democratic putsches, seizures of power and school takeovers from Louisiana to Michigan. They are all justified in the name of efficiency and product quality.

I was reminded of this, this morning when Duncan's former assistant at the D.O.E., Peter Cunningham @PCunningham57, posted this.

Pivotal moment for New Orleans comes with risks and rewards. Patrick Dobard on restoring local control: https://t.co/DZqD5Hwyp1 #Voices4Ed

— Peter Cunningham (@PCunningham57) August 29, 2016

Cunningham has lately been on the attack against what he and fellow reformers call "local control", meaning popularly-elected local school boards which he fears could undermine systems of top-down authority and "accountability" imposed on schools. Examples of these top-down accountability systems include, Duncan's Race To The Top, mayoral control of the schools in Chicago, or Gov. Snyder's state takeover of schools and entire elected local governments in Michigan.

He even blames this country's legacy of public school segregation on "local control" and then asks the question: "Is School Integration Necessary?,

I'll deal with that one more in coming posts. But Patrick Dobard, who succeeded Paul Vallas as superintendent to the Recovery School District in New Orleans, takes off and runs with Cunningham's anti-local control theme. He calls local control, "the rallying cry for many folks on all sides of education debates, from Tea Party libertarians to Bernie Sanders progressives."

Funny, I haven't heard this rallying cry from either of those sides. The closest to a rallying cry I've heard is from 90-something percent of Chicagoans who come out and vote regularly for an elected school board to replace Mayor Rahm Emanuel's autocratic rule over the schools.

If that's what they mean by local control--yes, bring it on.

Dobard claims that local control is "political" (meaning elections) and overriding local parents and teachers can be justified when it produces "quality schools."

The risk, of course, is that a newly elected school board will default to many of the same practices that produced one of the most troubled school systems in America prior to 2005, rife with corruption, instability and academic stagnation.

Have the hundreds of charter school corruption and financial mismanagement stories blown right past him? Maybe watching John Oliver's charter school takedown might help him back down to earth.

But what I really take issue with is what I would call the Dobard Rationale -- that the raison d'etre for public education is efficiency or "high quality schools" outside of any political or social context. I'll credit Dobard with what appears to be, a (self?) criticism of top-down reformers.

Shortly after the 10th anniversary of Katrina, several of us started to work together on the governance question. Our goal was to avoid the mistakes of the early reform movement where change was more often done “to” people rather than “with” people. Our larger goal was to keep New Orleans on track to excellence.

But his (their) goal now seems simply to "redefine local control" so that an elected board is powerless when it comes to challenging the reformers' control over the schools.

I think Doubard's got it backwards or maybe inside-out. The road to "excellence" can only be traveled with the people. Excellence and school quality are not "larger goals," abstract entities that can be done TO people.

Democracy necessitates that public schools educate students as future participatory members of that society. Overriding participatory democracy in the name of "quality" is to deny both quality and democracy. And that principle cannot be washed away by a storm.

WEEKEND QUOTABLES

Elizabeth Warren on lifting the charter cap

"Public officials have a responsibility not just to a small subset of children but to all of the children, to make sure that they receive a first-rate education," Mass Live

Donald Trump

"African-Americans will vote for me after Dwyane Wade's cousin killed in shooting." -- Politico

Atlanta Journal-Constitution editorial

“… many children in the GNETS Program are consigned to dilapidated buildings that were formerly used for black children during segregation…” -- Think Progress Justice Department Sues Georgia For Segregating Disabled Students

Dana Milbank on ham sandwich

They’re not defending the indefensible Trump but accusing me of being in the tank for Clinton. And I do support Clinton — but only in the sense that I would support a ham sandwich for president if it were the only thing standing between Trump and the Oval Office. -- Washington Post

Maine Gov. Paul LePage's war on POC

When you go to war... you try to identify the enemy. The enemy right now, the overwhelming majority of people coming in, are people of color or people of hispanic origin." -- Tribune

Rev.  William Barber

"Vouchers: You don't just resegregate bodies, you resegregate budgets, curriculum, & political will to do anything" pic.twitter.com/fIo5IPFDCM

— No Takeover of MPS! (@NoMPSTakeover) August 27, 2016

Trump

Dwyane Wade's cousin was just shot and killed walking her baby in Chicago. Just what I have been saying. African-Americans will VOTE TRUMP!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 27, 2016

Training time

Lori Lightfoot, head of the Police Board and the Police Accountability Task Force at yesterday's city council meeting.

More Training?... I'm having a hard time following this city council debate. How many training and sensitivity sessions do you need to attend before you stop shooting an unarmed black kid 16X or gunning down an alleged teenage car thief with a bullet in the back?

Cunningham responds... Be sure and read Peter Cunningham's lengthy response in the comments section of last Thursday's blog post. Peter begins by conceding that "concentrated poverty and segregation are part of the problem." But then admits he's lost when it comes to a political strategy to solve either one.

That's a strange admission coming from someone who spent the past seven years as a policy maker at the highest levels of government. It seems to me that should have been one of the first questions Obama's people asked when interviewing him for the Asst. Sec. of Ed post. It shows that deseg and anti-poverty were not very high of the current D.O.E.'s list of priorities.

But since Cunningham is frank about being strategically clueless, I will respond to his comment more fully in the next few days. Readers are, of course, welcome to join in.


Best Tweet of the day.

Woke up this morning and found out that @realDonaldTrump has turned into @JebBush. Kafka's Metamorphosis in reverse. Cockroach into man.

— John Warner (@biblioracle) August 25, 2016

27 children shot in Chicago. But no pics going viral.

Photo of Syrian child, victim of bombings, has gone viral. 

The number of Chicago shooting victims this year is approaching 2,700 after 57 were shot over the weekend. Twenty-seven of the victims have been children, all of them children of color. Since the beginning of June, Chicago has averaged about one child shot each week. So far, no iconic photos of any of them to capture hearts and minds. Why not?

CTU members are marching out in the rain this morning, ahead of school board meeting where the district's $5.4 billion budget will be voted on.

.@CTULocal1 members protest ahead of school board meeting. Budget expected to go up for a vote today pic.twitter.com/8w6iT0bXyT

— Progress Illinois (@progressIL) August 24, 2016

The proposed budget, with massive program cuts, is laden with property tax increases and largely reliant on heavy borrowing against future property tax revenue, as opposed to taxing the wealthy or finding other new sources of revenue.

All this while Gov. Rauner continues to hold the state's school budget hostage.

Also protesting is Access Living, a disability rights group, upset about the new way the district is doling out special education money to schools as a lump sum. That's a departure from past practice, when special education budgets were paid for through the district's central office and CPS distributed teacher and classroom assistant positions to schools based on legal requirements and each building's needs. This will put the district in violation of federal law and leave it open to law suits on the part of parents.  In addition, the district is leaving school principals in the difficult position of deciding what gets cut.

Check out this WaPo story about D.C.'s Ballou High School using restorative justice rather than suspensions, to deal with student infractions. A readers' poll shows 88% favoring restorative justice and 12% favoring out of school suspensions.

The voice of corporate-style school reform

Peter Cunningham (right) flack for corporate reformers like Arne Duncan & Eli Broad

Last week, I got into a twitter spat with former Asst. Sec. of Education Peter Cunningham over the issue of school desegregation. He claims that in his heart he's for it, but that it's a lost cause. Better to stop wasting money and energy on fighting segregation and poverty and just focus on creating new "good schools", argues Cunningham.

He accuses me of fighting "yesterday's battles". I'll cop to that, I suppose. Then claims that I'm an agent of the status quo. That's funny.

Forever fighting yesterday's battles @mikeklonsky. You want integration? improve schools. You want segregation? Keep protecting status quo.

— Peter Cunningham (@PCunningham57) August 16, 2016

He's a teachers union basher and part of the "no excuses" crowd who claims we're just using issues of racism and poverty as excuses to keep from working hard on school reform.

@NickKilstein My point: some folks use poverty as an excuse to avoid hard work of improving schools. Some now using segregation.

— Peter Cunningham (@PCunningham57) August 18, 2016

He even wrote a major piece on the topic, "Is School Integration Necessary?, published in U.S. News & World Report.

I maintain that concentrated poverty and racial segregation are at the very root of our country's school problems and that it's impossible to build "good schools", charter or public, apart from the ongoing community-based struggles for equity and against segregation.

Cunningham thinks I'm picking on him. He even claims that I and his many critics are "obsessed" with him. That's a little weird.

Give it time @ryangarza89. Soon you will be obsessed with me like @mikeklonsky. Not so much @KatieOsgood_.

— Peter Cunningham (@PCunningham57) August 18, 2016

The reason so many progressives are taking aim at Cunningham is not that they're obsessed. Rather it's because he's become the main flack for corporate-style school reform.

I'll say one thing for him, he's prolific on Twitter (like me) and likes to engage with lefties. Sees that as his role.

He was the public voice and often the script-writer at the DOE for Arne Duncan's Race To The Top and his efforts are now totally underwritten by anti-public-school power philanthropists like Eli Broad and the Waltons. 

Now that Duncan has virtually disappeared from the education policy debate and the words Race To The Top are taboo for any politician hoping to win an election, Cunningham has become the most visible national target for public education advocates and social-justice activists.

He shouldn't be complaining about all the heat he's taking. That's why they pay him the big bucks.

WEEKEND QUOTABLES

Trump's real estate flop in Chicago

Film maker Carol Black 

Science is a tool of breathtaking power and beauty, but it is not a good parent; it must be balanced by something broader, deeper, older. Like wind and weather, like ecosystems and microorganisms, like snow crystals and evolution, human learning remains untamed, unpredictable, a blossoming fractal movement so complex and so mysterious that none of us can measure or control it. -- Answer Sheet, What the modern world has forgotten about children and learning

Leanna Diggs

We can no longer teach a whitewashed history. We can no longer pretend we live in a post-racial society. Not in math class, not in any class. -- Washington Post

Pastor Bullock

David Bullock, Highland Park, MI pastor

“I think one of the things emergency management does, if it doesn’t destroy democracy, it definitely suppresses democracy. It suffocates the civic impulse. Why would I be engaged in a process where there’s no accountability for the person who runs the school? The school board has no power.” -- School takeovers leave parents without a voice

Trump's appeal to black voters

"What do you have to lose by trying something new like Trump? What do you have to lose? You live in your poverty, your schools are no good, you have no jobs, 58 percent of your youth is unemployed. What the hell do you have to lose?" -- Washington Post

Maureen Dowd does Trump apology

 I’m sorry I asked African-Americans “What do you have to lose by supporting me?” in front of a crowd of white people. I’m sorry I can never find my African-American. -- New York Times

GOP down-ticket candidates run from Trump, but not Trump-ism.

IL Senators, Durbin (left) and Kirk. 

Down-ticket Republicans are understandably swimming faster than Ryan Lochte to get away from Trump's sinking ship. But not necessarily away from Trump-ism.

In IL we have several of this type. There's our union-busting, budget hostage-taking Gov. Bruce Rauner for one,  and our faux-moderate Sen. Mark Kirk for another.

SJR reports,

 Kirk is quick to tout himself as a maverick for breaking with his Republican Party on several issues, including his decision earlier this summer to "de-endorse" GOP nominee Donald Trump... But ask Kirk where he goes from here, and things get more murky.

 For instance, if he truly believes Trump is unfit to be president, it's fair to ask what he's doing to prevent him being elected. If Kirk believes that the Senate ought to consider Garland's nomination, he must actively lobby his leadership to do so.”

Kirk un-endorsed Trump in June and said he would instead write in Gen. Petraeus, who resigned in 2012 and later pleaded guilty to mishandling classified information.

But after facing criticism for his Petraeus choice, Kirk reversed course and backed former Secretary of State Colin Powell for president.

Last week, Kirk said on CNN he could not vote for Hillary Clinton because he "can't support someone who is for the Iran agreement."

Turns out, Powell endorsed the Iran agreement, describing it as a "pretty good deal."

So now Kirk is back to supporting Petraeus.

Remember, Kirk was the one who outdid Trump in calling for the mass incarceration of 18,000 young black men, alleged "gang-bangers", without and trials or due process. If this sounds like Trump's proposal to round up immigrants from Mexico and the Middle East, you're on to something.

Where would Kirk put 18,000 new prisoners?

Back in 2013, Kirk and Democrat Dick Durbin, approached Zachary Fardon, the nominee for U.S. Attorney in Chicago, and urged Fardon to begin rounding up every member of the Gangster Disciples street gang. Kirk wanted the Senate Appropriations Committee to give him $30 million “to go after gangs like the GDs . . . and pick the biggest and baddest for a federal effort.”

Where did Kirk and Durbin think they were going to put 18,000 more prisoners? Cook County jail was already stuffed to overflowing, mainly with young black and Latino men. The court system was so backed up, some prisoners have been held for up to 10 years without  trial.

Chicago's Guantanamo?

The answer wasn't forthcoming but worth considering, especially in light of Pres. Obama's recent announcement that private prisons would be phased out by the Justice Dept. Democrats have long attacked the Homeland Security Department's use of privately run facilities, particularly the detention centers that have housed thousands of immigrant families.

At the time, Congressman Bobby Rush lit into the Kirk-Durbin plan, calling it  “ a sensational, headline-grabbing, empty, simplistic, unworkable approach.” If there is $30 million for Congress to spend, better most of it be allocated for “job creation and job training,” to address the gang problem, Rush said. Rush said an arrest sweep “is not going to work. . . . It is not a law and order, lock ‘em up solution.”

Kirk also outdid Trump on union bashing. He claimed that SEIU and other "big unions are already running the state."

Now Durbin is planning to run for governor and Kirk is playing Trump keep-away to retain his senate seat and maintain the GOP senate majority. Not happening.

Kirk, who called for the mass arrest of 18,000 African Americans, was apparently fine w/ Trump's #StillTooRacist call for mass deportation

— Tammy Duckworth (@TammyforIL) June 8, 2016

Claypool not worried about a strike. It's all good.

Claypool with top lawyer Mormer, the man from Jenner & Block

Given that Chicago schools CEO Forrest Claypool is under investigation once again, this time for funneling CPS contracts a connected law firm, you would think he would tone down his arrogance a notch or that the mayor would put someone else in front of the media for a while.

Claypool suddenly exudes a false sense of optimism after forecasting a deficit hovering near $1 billion less than a year ago. This even while Gov. Rauner, in a political death spiral himself, is still holding the state's school budget hostage.

After a year of CPS teachers working without of contract, Claypool still had the audacity to assure everyone that contract negotiations with the CTU were going swell with no need to worry about a teachers strike.

"We are at the negotiating table. I don't see any reason why we should not be able to come to an agreement. Teachers do important work. We want to give them as generous a contract as we can possibly provide given the dollars that are available."

Well here's one reason for no agreement. Claypool continues to push for an end to the 7% pension pick up which was negotiated in lieu of a pay increase. With no corresponding pay raise, this would mean a huge cut in pay for thousands of city teachers.

Here's another reason. Claypool just pink-slipped 1,000 teachers and school staffers, a blow not just to them and their families, but to the city's economy as well. That's a thousand paychecks that won't be spent on goods and services in city businesses each week. That's also a thousand school faculty and staffers like that won't be out there in the schools and neighborhoods, working to improve the lives of our children.

CPS has a debt load of nearly $7 billion and its debt service spending is estimated to consume more than 10% of operating budget funds in the 2016 fiscal year, more than any year since at least 2007. That translates into downward pressure on wages, more school closures and larger class sizes.

"It's not good government, it's not sound fiscal policy, " says Ralph Martire, executive director of the Center for Tax and Budget Accountability. "It's not as if we are seeing a budget that is moving towards fiscal health. What we're seeing is a budget that's under significant pressure."

The CTU's Stephanie Gadlin responds:

"He seems to ignore the fact that we live in the city and pay taxes, and CTU members have seen their pay frozen and then cut with furloughs, have seen over $1 billion diverted from their pension fund, have seen contractually guaranteed raises canceled and have witnessed conditions in schools worsen throughout layoffs and privatization deals."

 "No educator wants to strike for the sake of striking, If they do so, it is because they must protect their students and their profession from technocrats who don't realize these are real lives they are messing with."

There are many options available to the CTU, including a strike. They can continue working without a contract as a holding action against the cuts. They can mobilize support from the base through street protests. I think it's Claypool and his boss, Rahm Emanuel, who are the ones on the ropes here.

Peter Cunningham's reform apologia: 'Fighting segregation and poverty too expensive'.

White ladies' signs read: "We want equal & segregated schools"

Peter Cunningham's latest apologia for school segregation, in U.S. News & World Report, is basically a defense of current reform policies that have been shown to re-segregate schools. It represents more than just the opinion of a lone education gadfly. Cunningham is paid millions to speak for some of the most powerful and wealthiest among those who influence national ed policy.

It's run up the flag pole at a time when corporate-style "reform" has come under attack from civil rights groups and teacher unions, and appear to be losing their cachet, even within the Democratic Party establishment.

Cunningham tries to come off as a tormented soul, torn between his personal and "pragmatic" side, the latter arguing that ending poverty and integration are just too "politically difficult and financially expensive" and therefore, instead of spending hundreds of billions more to reduce poverty and reduce segregation, we should just "double down on our efforts to improve schools."

At a recent DFER-sponsored forum at the DNC, Cunningham laid out his anti-deseg line in an obvious attempt to influence Clinton's education agenda. He answered a question about school integration this way:

"Maybe the fight's not worth it. It's a good thing; we all think integration is good. But it's been a long fight, we've had middling success. At the same time, we have lots and lots of schools filled with kids of one race, one background, that are doing great. 

There nothing original in Cunningham's comments. If they strike you as a throwback to Plessy v. Ferguson and the separate-but-equal doctrine, you're definitely on to something. As we learned back then, when it comes to schooling, separate is never equal. Following the Brown v. Board decision in 1954, the difficulty and protracted nature of the struggle against de facto segregation and poverty has caused some to throw in the towel.

Cunningham is basically echoing the call of his boss at the D.O.E., former Sec. of Education Arne Duncan. It was he who tried to put the kibosh on a Justice Dept. civil right suit against the state of Louisiana, which would have blocked expansion of the state's school voucher system.

When asked about the suit being pushed by his fellow cabinet member, Attorney Gen. Eric Holder, Duncan said he was opposed to "forced integration," echoing the language of the old southern segregationists. The suit was then dropped, to the applause of segregationists.

Current battles are going on in states like N.C. where privately-run charter schools are being used to promote re-segregation and evade civil right law. The Voting Rights Act itself has been dismembered by a conservative-led Supreme Court in 2013. And now, the new K-12 Education law, ESSA, has shifted much more authority back to the states and away from federal oversight, setting the stage for even more school deseg efforts.

It's in this context then, that Cunningham's "pragmatic" call to abandon the cause of school desegregation is all the more pernicious.

WEEKEND QUOTABLES

Cédric von Niederhäusern

David R. Stone, special education teacher, Gallistel Language Academy

Yet the biggest sacrifice of all is one we tragically share with our students and their families. Violence increases when after-school programs, counseling services, special education, tutoring, and social workers are sacrificed due to CPS budget cuts. Since joining CPS, I personally have lost three of my students who were murdered before they could graduate. Nobody should be asked to share such sacrifices. -- Chicago Sun-Times | Sunday Letters

Kesi Foster, a reform advocate with the Urban Youth Collaborative in N.Y.

“Yesterday, we felt that, even if the city wasn’t ending the school-to-prison pipeline, it was committed to some progress. After last night, we’re not sure we’ve taken a step at all.” -- The Atlantic

Cédric von Niederhäusern

Maureen Dowd

The Republicans have their candidate: It’s Hillary. -- New York Times

Ben Jealous, former NAACP president

“Secretary Clinton’s decision to aggressively court Mitt Romney’s base has her looking more and more like Mitt Romney every day. That’s not a good thing.” -- New York Times

Neil Gross

Union decline has left the working class politically and economically vulnerable, and it’s this vulnerability Mr. Trump has been able to exploit. -- NYT Sunday Review