Trump's latest target. Historically black colleges

Graffiti at Howard University criticizing its president for meeting with Trump.

It only makes sense that a day after gutting health insurance coverage for million of mostly poor, sick and elderly Americans, Trump would make historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) his next target. Along with threatening to take away federal funding, he's also targeting after-school programs and other ed-related initiatives that support Native Hawaiian and Alaskan Native education on the grounds that they are "race-based" and therefore "unconstitutional".

As if all education in this country hasn't been largely race-based since the days when it was unlawful to teach black slaves to read. It wasn't until the Reconstruction period in the south after the Civil War that freed slaves brought us the first truly public school system in this nation's history. The defeat of Reconstruction and the Jim Crow era that followed, along with the failure of post-Brown v. Board integration, north and south, has left us with the widening two-tiered school system we have now.

HBCUs were and continue to be a response (one of many) to the long history of what I call, white affirmative action. So much for all the Trumpian rhetoric about "school choice".

It's also important to note there’s been no court finding or litigation suggesting racial discrimination at HBCUs regarding admissions or faculty hiring.

W.E.B. DuBois, writing in 1935 pointed out:

Theoretically, the Negro needs neither segregated schools nor mixed schools.  What he needs is Education.  What he must remember is that there is no magic, either in mixed schools or in segregated schools.  A mixed school with poor and unsympathetic teachers, with hostile public opinion, and no teaching of truth concerning black folk, is bad.  A segregated school with ignorant placeholders, inadequate wretched housing, is equally bad. 

Lots have changed since then. But not that.

In February, Trump invited more than 60 HBCU presidents into the Oval Office, where he signed an executive order proclaiming his support of the schools. Turns out, he meant support in the way a rope supports a hanging man.

Enter Trump's newly-appointed schools chief Betsy DeVos, the bible-thumping billionaire, grand dame of  vouchers, privately-run charters and other forms of "school choice". Her photo-op visits to public schools were met with protests and rightfully seen by many parents, teachers and ed activists as a kiss of death for public education. The same can be said about her appearances at HBCUs.

Now I see that DeVos has been invited to give the commencement speech at HBCU Bethune-Cookman, a school founded by Dr. Mary McLeod Bethune to provide African-American students with the opportunity to gain access to higher ed at a time when black students were refused entrance into colleges and universities across America.

It was back in February when DeVos called HBCUs, "real pioneers of school choice", as if the long, continuing history of institutional racism and official segregation in higher education had never existed and that black colleges were simply a matter of private entrepreneurship or "bootstrap" self-help. The uproar that followed forced her to try and walk back her statement.

Tone-deaf, uninformed statement from DeVos. #HBCUs weren’t “more options” for black students – for many years, they were the ONLY option. pic.twitter.com/fD58rXpHIt

— Rep. Barbara Lee (@RepBarbaraLee) February 28, 2017

The New York Times called her statement, "a gaffe" and to some degree it was. But I think it was also a testing of the waters, as is Trump's statement on Friday.

It's not just about the elimination of federal funding for HBCUs, but Republican plans for a complete and total roll-back of the hard-fought gains of the civil rights movement on the grounds that equality for African-Americans and other oppressed minorities poses a threat and is discriminatory towards whites.

It's in some ways understandable that administrators at HBCUs, the United Negro College Fund (and urban public schools) would invite DeVos to speak. I'm sure they are hoping her appearance will bring their schools badly needed support (maybe a private donation from DeVos or Trump himself) and possibly delay the coming assault on historically black institutions.

But it will be interesting to see how DeVos is received at Bethune-Cookman by students and faculty who see through all the "bootstrap" rhetoric. I doubt that her appearance will go down smoothly.

Dear @realDonaldTrump, hire some new lawyers if you think banning muslims is constitutional and funding black colleges is unconstitutional.

— Rep. Emanuel Cleaver (@repcleaver) May 6, 2017

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

Chicago aldermen finally say 'no' to charter expansion

"The vast majority of aldermen oppose the opening of new charters this year, while we face a massive budget crisis and no path to adequately funding our neighborhood schools... The current system pits charters against neighborhood schools in a "zero-sum game." --Ald. Rod Sawyer (6th)

In a strong rebuke of current Rahm/Claypool school closing/charter opening policies, 42 Chicago aldermen have signed on to a resolution seeking a moratorium on new charter schools this year. 

Ted Cox at DNAInfo writes:

State law allows charters to open even if the local district doesn't want them. CPS has denied some charter applications, only to have them approved by the Illinois State Charter School Commission. At that point, CPS has to fund the schools, without having any say over their operation.

The resolution, submitted by Progressive Caucus member Roderick Sawyer, asks for a freeze on new charters both in the city and across the state through the Illinois State Board of Education. 

MORE SAWYER..."With so many neighborhood schools taking severe budget cuts, it is common sense that we should attempt to steady the ship before pushing forward with new schools," he added. "We need to slow this process down. Charter schools are also having problems filling seats, so the mission of these schools is becoming more about marketing than education. Let's deal with our current financial difficulties, see what is working and what is not working. and then do what is best for all our children."

Claudinae Hurt, Gage Park High School student, passes out information pamphlets after a rally against charter school expansion in Gage Park Tuesday. -- DNAinfo/Joe Ward

A previous attempt to pass a similar resolution back in 2013 was blocked in the Rules Committee ("Where good legislation goes to die") by Ald. Michelle Harris (8th) who asked for "more time and patience" and claimed the alders didn't have enough time to read it. I guess two years was long enough, even for this usually compliant crew.

Of course, the still simmering anger over mass school closings and anti-charter revolt in the neighborhoods on the north and increasingly on the south sides of the city, have plenty to do with speeding up the process. Not to mention, the recently-ended 34-day hunger strike by Bronzeville parents and activists, which forced Rahm/Claypool to reopen Dyett as a neighborhood public school, rather than a charter. 

The topper came this week during Rahm's budget speech when the mayor who had closed 49 schools for being "underutilized" complained about overcrowding. 

"Today, some of our schools are so overcrowded that children have classes in stairwells, in hallways – and sometimes even in converted closets."

WEEKEND QUOTABLES Dyett hunger strike ends

Strike over. Struggle continues.

Aisha Wade-Bey

“We do have some other ways to continue to make sure we get this high school in our community, where it’s fair and that they have the resources that it needs for our children.” -- Sun-Times

Jeanette Taylor-Ramann

"I'm not an activist, nor a protester, or a hunger striker. I am a mother who wants what's best for my children and young people in my community."-- Tribune

Jitu Brown

"We decided that we will feed our bodies so that until we win sustainable community schools for all of our children, the mayor and cps won't get a moments rest,"

"We have changed the dialogue... We have exposed the inequality."

"We have had several key victories including saving Dyett as an open-enrollment public (not charter) school". -- Facebook

Biggest Weekend Laugher came from Peter Cunningham

Because Chicago does not have school board elections, board members are insulated from politics. -- Chicago Tribune

Fred Klonsky

Chicago Jewish community members take message of solidarity to City Hall

This afternoon, I was with members of Chicago's Jewish community, who marched to City Hall to voice support for the Dyett Hunger strikers, now in their 30th day without solid food.

The group, mostly members of a new congregation calling itself Tzedek Chicago, sang and chanted "Shalom" outside the mayor's office. After joining hands with hunger strikers Irene Robinson and Mark Kaplan, they presented the mayor with An Open Letter to Mayor Rahm Emanuel and the Chicago Board of Education from Members of the Chicago Jewish Community) signed by more than 200 Jewish community members.

The best news I heard today was that The Chicago Teachers Union has agreed to represent the Chicago Alliance of Charter Teachers and Staff Local 4343 (ChiACTS) to provide bargaining and grievance representation for unionized charter school teachers. As of September 1, 2015, the CTU became responsible for contract negotiations and contract enforcement for more than 1,000 ChiACTS members at 32 Chicago charter schools.

According to the Chicago Defender:

This transition sets the stage for greater collaboration in the Union’s efforts to improve the education of 400,000 Chicago public school students. The IFT previously provided these services to ChiACTS, which were transferred through a servicing agreement with the state union signed by officers of the CTU and ChiACTS.

What a great step forward in uniting CPS teachers with charter school teachers.

WEEKEND QUOTABLES

Seattle teachers strike enters its second week.

Gary Younge

I delivered the Bernie Grant Memorial Lecture in London on Thursday on Black Lives Matter in the Age of Obama. The first question was about why parents were on hunger strike in Chicago to save their school. -- FB

Jackie Edens, director of The Inner Voice, a Chicago homeless agency

"I don't think it can be stated strongly enough how this turnaround budget is going to undo decades of progress moving forward... Things are bad now, but if these cuts go through at the level we're talking about - that they're talking about - things are going to be catastrophic. And guess what happens between now and the end of the year. It gets really, it gets really cold in Chicago." -- ABC News

Chuy Garcia speaking at Elgin Community College

 But in a city controlled by a Democratic Party "machine, were not accustomed to the brass-knuckle politics of the time." -- Tribune

Alma Harris, Yong Zhao and Michelle Jones

The things that cannot be copied are the things that often matter most. -- "Why borrowing from the ‘best’ school systems sounds good — but isn’t" WaPo

Thanks Kenyon... Hey where's J.C. Brizard? ... Day 25 for hunger strike

Thanks to Kenyon super Prof. Peter Rutkoff for inviting us to come engage with students at Kenyon College yesterday. Undergrads we met, including some from Chicago, were reading Jonathan Kozol's "Savage Inequalities", analyzing it against conditions in urban schools today, and brainstorming ways to support struggling schools, parents and students in Knox County and other communities in Ohio.

Peter helped to create the college’s interdisciplinary American Studies program in 1990. His books cover subjects such as the origins of Bebop, styles of baseball, and social theory in Europe and America. Some of his titles include: his novel, Irish Eyes, New York Modern: The Arts and the City, Shadow Ball: A Novel of Baseball and Chicago, and Cooperstown Chronicles: Camp and Other Love Stories.

Rahm bounced Brizard

CONNECTIONS...Former Chicago schools CEO J.C. Brizard was a disaster for CPS. He was bounced unceremoniously by Rahm Emanuel to make room for triple disaster, Barbara Byrd-Bennett. But don't worry. His golden parachute landed him on his feet and Brizard will be using his insider connections to try and hustle big consulting contracts for Cross & Joftus.

Cross refers to Christopher Cross, a former Education Department assistant secretary who now is connected with the Broad Foundation.

DYETT PARENTS and Chicago community activists are now in the 25th day of their hunger strike. Essence Magazine reports:

Though Mayor Emanuel, who has shuttered nearly 50 schools since 2013, says that the school closures are beneficial to students and allow them to attend better high schools, many parents feel that the reforms target Black residents.

You think...?

The group announced that three activists, Brandon Johnson with the Chicago Teachers Union, Susan Hurley with Chicago Jobs With Justice and Asif Wilson with Teachers for Social Justice have now joined the hunger strike.

North Side/South Side. The pot is boiling over. Hunger strikers ask Obama to intervene.

Labor Day at Dyett...We gathered in support of the hunger strikers, now in the 23rd day of their strike. We heard Jitu Brown's progress report along with a reading of the demands the strikers are making which include greater community decision-making in all things Dyett. They say they're hoping for a quick resolution with Rev. Jesse Jackson handling the negotiations with CPS.

That won't be easy. Negotiations in this city are basically warfare without guns. Remember, CEO Forrest Claypool is already on record refusing to negotiate with the hunger strikers. That's what led to a continuation of the strike in the first place.

He's also blown up the Board's negotiations with the CTU as his first act in office. This, just as Karen Lewis was reporting that they were thisclose to a contract agreement.

This is obviously a man with white entitlement issues. Doesn't work well with people of color.

But shit happens. Remember in 2005, even though he was campaign genius David Axelrod's partner with goo-gobs of money, running as the great white hope with support of both daily newspapers, Claypool still lost his 2005 race for Cook County Board President to John Stroger. This even after Stroger suffered a stroke the week before the election.

Then in 2010, banking heavily on white suburban support, Claypool lost the race for county assessor, this time to wobbly machine boss Joe Berrios. I guess city voters didn't think Claypool was good at assessing. It seems white-skin privilege only gets you so far these days.

But Daley and Rahm still enjoyed Claypool's political loyalties and his willingness to reward their friends and take an axe to city services, so they started appointing Claypool to various manager jobs at the Park District, the CTA, and now at CPS, instead of making him run for office.

Beginning today, the hunger strikers will gather in Washington Park from 1-6 p.m. and then organize daily ("non-aggressive") marches to President Obama's home in nearby Kenwood. They are calling on Obama to intervene on behalf of the strikers. Jitu Brown and April Stogner just returned from D.C. where they met with Education Secretary Arne Duncan, who, Brown said, expressed his "sympathy" but offered little else. 

State Rep. Will Guzzardi, Sen. Iris Martinez & Ald. Milly Santiago support protest at Kelvyn Park H.S. today. 

This morning we were up on the north side at Kelvyn Park High School where parents, teachers, students and community supporters stood outside the school for an opening-day protest and press conference. As a result of budget cuts, the school is opening without badly needed counselors, coaches or programs.

‪"I've been waiting for 4 years to be a senior. I worked hard. Now, I learn that I won't have a college counselor. No one to help me figure out how to get to college. It's like they my wings are getting clipped before I could fly,” says Kelvyn Park High School senior Sherilyn Royce.

 “We are Dyett,” says Kelvyn Park teacher Jerry Skinner. “We’re starting the school year with a $2.2 million budget cut, on top of cut after cut, year after year. This is how neighborhood high schools get destroyed by design.”

Lots of media here. None yesterday at Dyett. Just saying.

LABOR DAY WEEKEND QUOTABLES

Kim Mead, president of the Washington Education Association 

"Instead of diverting taxpayer dollars to unaccountable charter schools, it’s time for the Legislature to fully fund K-12 public schools so that all of Washington’s children get the quality education the Constitution guarantees them." -- WA Supreme Court rules charters unconstitutional

Valerie Strauss

 Thus, while claiming to be “public,” and while having some elements that are public (most importantly, public funding for a no-tuition education), their operations are basically private. -- Washington Post

Jitu Brown on meeting with Arne Duncan

"He was sympathetic. He said that he would talk to the mayor. I think it was interesting because...in 2008 Dyett had the largest increase of students going to college in all of Chicago Public Schools. And Arne Duncan and Mayor Daley did a big press conference at Dyett and he stood right next to me and asked me, "How did you all do this?" -- Melissa Harris-Perry interview on MSNBC

Jeannie Oakes

Jeannie Oakes, AERA president

I have reviewed the plan in light of my decades of experience as an educational researcher by training and profession. As a UCLA professor, I have spent years studying efforts to create high quality and equitable schools for young people living in communities like Dyett's -- communities of concentrated poverty and racial isolation. I currently serve as president of the American Educational Research Association, an organization of more than 25,000 educational researchers. Based on my experience and educational expertise, I find the coalition's plan to be outstanding. -- Answer Sheet 

"In essence,CPS killed a school that was on the rise." Jitu Brown on #FightForDyett on the @MHPshow today: http://t.co/e1SmTYgdj0 #Phled too

— Caucus of Working Ed (@CaucusofWE) September 5, 2015

Hunger strikers say: It's not over 'til it's over.

Dyett hunger strikers meet this afternoon. Decide to continue the strike. 

"We need to unpack this," said Jitu Brown of the Kenwood Oakland Community Organization, one of about a dozen activists who began a hunger strike Aug. 17. "But I think they have underestimated our resolve." -- Chicago Tribune

There's no doubt about that or about the fact that the Dyett hunger strikers scored an important victory yesterday when Rahm was forced to do a complete 180 and accept their demand for an open enrollment high school for Bronzeville. But if the mayor and Forrest Claypool thought the strikers would go home and end the struggle here, they were mistaken.

From the beginning, the Coalition to Revitalize Dyett made it clear that their fight was about something much larger than just opening a school.

Remember, CPS leaders already had a school at Dyett and intentionally ran it into the ground as part of their planned neighborhood gentrification. To just let them have it back; to let them make all the important leadership and curriculum decisions as they had done before, with no community input would be a hollow victory.

Hunger strikers Jitu Brown and April Stogner had not even returned from their D.C. meeting with Arne Duncan, Randi Weingarten and Lily Eskelsen García when the announcement came down that Dyett would be opened as an "arts school". What duplicity, coming from a leadership that has for years, diminished and de-funded arts education throughout the Chicago school system.

There's been no report yet on what was discussed or resolved in D.C. with Duncan.

Catalyst quotes Brown on his return to Chicago:

“We are happy the school is opening as a neighborhood CPS-run school,” says Jitu Brown, a longtime activist with the Kenwood Oakland Community Organization (KOCO) and one of the 12 hunger strikers. “All is not lost. But what we want is what the community demanded.”

Invited to the CPS press conference were a handful of local pols who had done nothing to support the hunger strike. To make matters worse, the hunger strikers were locked out of the conference altogether -- Rahm's revenge for getting run out of his own budget hearing by protesters, the night before.

Claypool announced the plan for Dyett at the district's Loop headquarters alongside Chief Education Officer Janice Jackson, senior adviser Denise Little and a group of Rahm-loyal African-American elected officials including Congressman Bobby Rush, Ald. Will Burns, and state Rep. Christian Mitchell.

Jackson, who a day earlier had given all the reasons why no new school would never be allowed in Dyett -- too many under-enrolled schools in the area; we don't want schools competing for students -- now was proclaiming a "victory" for the community.

"We should see this as a win for the community, because after all, the request was for an open-enrollment high school that gives access to the children in the community which they so truly deserve," she said, portraying the decision as a resolution to the debate.

Then came the kicker:

 Jackson said, adding that the district will identify and install a principal for the school "immediately," someone who will be responsible for community outreach and building out the new school. "We believe that this is the best resolution, and the best solution to meet the demand," Jackson said.

Then came Claypool to explain the 180 turnabout. Earlier, he argued that the school would have trouble attracting enough students to keep it sustainable without harming enrollment at neighboring schools. On Thursday, the very same Claypool, showing amazing agility, said the district's proposal would be sustainable.

"Dyett may have been closed before for under-enrollment and poor performance, but we believe with this concept we're going to have good enrollment and without in any way hurting the other schools in the area that are struggling with enrollment issues." 

Brown on Friday announced today that the group will continue to fight for their demands, including green technology and global leadership in its curriculum; a ‘sustainable school village’ with a coalition of local school councils; for the school to be open until 8 p.m. every day with programs created by the community; an immediate publicly elected local school council; and at least six members of their coalition part of their design plans. The demands also include a voice in the hiring of the new principal.

The group has named Duane Turner as their pick. Turner is a former CPS teacher and principal who lives three blocks from Dyett and helped put the Green Tech proposal together.

They've also enlisted Rev. Jesse Jackson to serve as their negotiator.

Jitu Brown summed it up this way:

“When people say it’s a win. ‘You all won something. You should be happy.’ There was no negotiation with the Coalition to Revitalize Dyett. There was no negotiation."

I think there will be now.

Rahm runs for cover. Claypool must be having second thoughts. Hunger strikers in D.C.

Dyett hunger striker April Stogner speaks in front of Education Department in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday. To her right is Jitu Brown (seated), another hunger striker who is national director of the Journey for Justice Alliance. Behind Brown are John Jackson, president of the Schott Foundation; Judith Browne Dianis, co-director of the Advancement Project; American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten; National Education Association President Lily Garcia; and Martin Blank, director of the Coalition for Community Schools. | Lynn Sweet/Sun-Times

Things fall apart; the center cannot hold -- W.B. Yeats

If Forrest Claypool knew what his first month on the job as Rahm's appointed schools boss would look like, he likely would have stayed hunkered down as chief 'crat at the CTA.

No one's buying Claypool's subtraction-by-addition move, stocking the supposedly broke CPS bureaucracy with expensive CTA political loyalists while he purges the remnants of Byrd-Bennett's crew. It's true, he cut 12 and hired 5. But those five are making double what BBB was paying the 12 and none of them know a damned thing about schools -- or as Arne Duncan likes to call it, the education business.

Ronald DeNard, Claypool’s new $225,000-a-year senior vice president of operations who was chief financial officer with Claypool at CTA doesn't even live in the city.

Rahm runs

Tough guy Rahm, who promised to have Claypool's back while he chopped the school system to smithereens, is having a tough time even showing his face in public after first ignoring and then trying to pacify the Dyett hunger strikers with a 30-minute meeting Wednesday night.

Neither Claypool nor the mayor can offer the community anything substantial after Rahm had painted himself into a corner on Monday by telling the media there would be no new neighborhood public high school in Bronzeville.

Now two of the strikers, along with AFT Pres. Randi Weingarten and NEA Pres. Lily Eskelsen García, are in D.C. trying to appeal to a higher power -- Arne Duncan. But it's not clear that Obama's guy Duncan has any interest in bailing out Clinton's guy Emanuel. The split within the Democratic Party has grown that wide. My god, they're running Biden against Hillary (but I digress).

Now Rahm is set to impose the largest property tax in Chicago history. That should bust the whole thing wide open.

The topper came last night as Rahm had to be hustled out of his own budget hearing by security after protesters rushed the stage.

Things fall apart.

Proud to be standing with the #FightForDyett hunger strikers & their supporters. @arneduncan are you listening? pic.twitter.com/MC3hkssYkw

— Lily Eskelsen García (@Lily_NEA) September 2, 2015

Hunger strikers on their way to D.C. to see Duncan

Last night's vigil. 

LAST NIGHT was that rare combination of a dazzling summer Chicago nights on Michigan Ave. and being in the belly of the corporate beast. A couple of hundred of us gathered at the foot of the Tribune Tower at a vigil in support of the Dyett hunger strikers.

We sang together, Marley's Redemption Song and Ella's Song ("We who believe in freedom cannot rest..."). I got to hang out with some of my favorite people and together, we renewed our commitment to stick with the struggle til we win. 

While Rahm was compelled to meet with the hunger strikers Monday night, he made no commitment to act on community proposals for a new school in the now-vacant Dyett building. So the strike continues.

But there's signs of movement. Now Rahm's office is putting out a softer line to the media than it did on Monday when they had CPS ed chief Janice Jackson get up in front of the cameras and say essentially, there would be no new school at Dyett. 

Now they're saying this: 

“The mayor appreciates there are strong feelings about Dyett, and he understands there is a desire for a quick resolution about its future, however what’s most important is the right decision. CPS is engaged in a thorough review of Dyett, and while they are closer to a decision, they continue to weigh all the factors at play in an effort to achieve the best outcome possible — one that will ensure a strong Bronzeville and a strong future for our children.” -- Sun-Times

A change of heart or testing which way the political wind is blowing? The latter of course.

Little Village 2001 hunger strike.

Hunger strikers Jitu Brown and April Stogner, now in their 17th day of life-threatening fasting,   plus AFT Pres. Randi Weingarten, are traveling to D.C., to deliver a letter to Arne Duncan, urging him to push Emanuel “to do the right thing.”

Remember it was Duncan, who as Daley's newly-appointed schools CEO in 2001, was given the assignment of ending the 19-day Little Village hunger strike after predecessor Paul Vallas had failed to bring about a solution. Duncan showed up at the strike site and told the strikers, "OK, we found the money for your new school. Please eat now."

"I support them," Duncan said [afterward]. "I solved the thing. I actually have a hell of a lot of respect for them." -- Tribune

But that was 14 years ago. Let's see what he says now.

An Open Letter to Mayor Rahm Emanuel and the Chicago Board of Education from Members of the Chicago Jewish Community https://t.co/vhPBGHNdJJ

— Mike Klonsky (@mikeklonsky) September 2, 2015

Rahm's budget hearing not exactly what he had in mind

Rahm finally meets with Dyett hunger strikers. But makes no commitments. Strike continues into Day 16. 

The Sun-Times  reporter Stefano Esposito keeps referring to last night's public response at Rahm's budget hearing, as a "gripe session". Strange, but not a surprising view of democracy.

The mayor says his current public meetings are "to discuss the City's current budget outlook and solicit savings, reform and revenue ideas from residents to assist in the preparation of the 2016 budget." But in reality, as David Vitale once told me, such meetings are really about "reining in" dissident community voices.

Well, that sure as hell didn't work yesterday. With the creditors and Moody's breathing down his neck and with Dyett hunger strikers now into a health and life-threatening 16 days without solid food, those voices were not about to be reined in. The budget meeting at Malcolm X College, was turned into a demand for Rahm to stop stonewalling the Dyett school process they themselves launched months ago, and to meet face-to-face with the hunger strikers and begin serious negotiations.

Tresser: "Where is our money?"

Others grilled the mayor about the lack of transparency over the city’s tax-increment financing districts (TIFs).

“The question I have for our mayor is: Where is our money?” asked Tom Tresser of the TIF Illumination Project

In the end, Rahm was forced to agree to meet with the hunger strikers or face direct responsibility for further risks to their lives. I hear it was Forrest Claypool, Rahm's new schools CEO who pushed for the meeting. He needs this to go away.

The mayor and Claypool did meet with them after the budget meeting. But according to hunger striker Jitu Brown, the meeting with Emanuel, Claypool and board Vice Chair Jesse Ruiz lasted only about a half hour.

“It was a cordial meeting, but they made no commitments,” Brown said. “That’s not acceptable. So we’ll be on this hunger strike.”

Brown said the mayor’s office asked the protesters to end their hunger strike.

“What we got from Claypool is that he’s new, the board is new,” Brown said. “We hear that from every regime. We are not going to be pulled on that string again.”

Where does that leave things? Last night was a small victory. The protests forced some movement on Rahm's part. Possibly some division in his camp. But hunger strikers are saying that token gestures are not enough. There needs to be some serious movement on a public high school for Bronzeville and more before this battle ends.

Speaking of serious discussion, don't miss this dust up between the brilliant former Chicago teachers and Harvard doc student, Eve Ewing and charter flack Peter Cunningham on WBEZ. Brilliant Eve is too much for over-matched Peter and his consumer model (smooth-or-chunky) of education. It's about Dyett and a lot more. Listen to the whole thing.

Nice job, Eve. Facts are indeed stubborn fellows.

More support is needed. Come to the VIGIL FOR DYETT this evening at 7:30PM, Tribune Tower 435 N. Michigan

CTU PRESS RELEASE: CLERGY CALL FOR EMERGENCY HEARING ON DYETT

CLERGY TO APPEAL TO MAYOR EMANUEL TO END TO THE DYETT HUNGER STRIKE NOW IN 14^th DAY

Parents, educators, activists continue to refuse food until Bronzeville receives a neighborhood high school

CHICAGO—As activists enter the 14th day of a dangerous hunger strike, a group of clergy, representing various faiths, will hold a press conference Monday, August 31st to call on Mayor Rahm Emanuel and Board of Education President Frank Clark to end this dangerous non-violent protest by immediately calling for an emergency hearing on Dyett High School. 

Three strikers have already required medical attention and many fear that more will succumb. The school district moved its Dyett vote to the end of September,which places these parents, grandparents, community activists, teachers and clergy refusing solid foods in serious health danger, according to medical professionals. Theprotesters have vowed to continue the hunger strike until their community receives a neighborhood high school.

WHO:             Rev. Robert Jones, currently in the 14th day of a hunger strike, will be joined by various faith leaders, including Rabbi Brant Rosen, Rev. CJHawking, and others in a direct moral appeal for fairness, democracy and education justice. The clergy will represent various faiths and represent a cross-section of Chicago.

WHAT:           Clergy will conduct a press conference to call the “moral question” about Mayor Emanuel’s refusal to entertain the Dyett proposals ashe previously promised; and to call on city leaders to help end this hunger strike as 12 protesters move into a critical phase of protest. The clergyintend to deliver a plea to the mayor in hope that he will act quickly, hold an emergency hearing on the matter, and end the hunger strike.

Chicago PEACE (Parents, Educators and Community for Education), a CTU faith-based group, will also participate in the news conference.

WHEN:           Monday, August 31, 2015

10:00 a.m.

WHERE:         CITY HALL, 5th FLOOR

121 N. LaSalle Street