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.

Chicago Principal LaRaviere: Whose 'Sacrifice'?

Blaine Principal Troy LaRaviere is my early choice for a mayoral run in the next election go-round. He's got the right stuff.

Troy has another hard-hitting commentary ("Why does Rahm Emanuel put business ahead of our children?") in yesterday's Tribune.

He writes:

Politicians frame this as pension payment vs. classroom investment — as if those were the only two expenses our tax dollars are used for and one of them has to be sacrificed. This is patently false. City Hall has had many opportunities for sacrifice in other areas, but it has refused to make those sacrifices. 

Mayor Rahm Emanuel had a chance to sacrifice the diversion of $55 million in taxes to a hotel near McCormick Place. He could have invested some of that tax increment financing money in the pension system instead. 

Emanuel had a chance to sacrifice his relationship with the banking community by suing the banks that are siphoning $100 million from CPS as a result of toxic financial deals brokered by his hand-picked CPS board president, David Vitale. Emanuel has refused to try to recoup these dollars, which he could invest in the pension system. 

Aramark Corp. and SodexoMAGIC Corp. failed to keep CPS schools clean, but Emanuel and CPS would not sacrifice their relationship with those companies by voiding their $340 million in contracts. Some of that money could have been invested in the pension system. 

Emanuel's appointed school board gave SUPES Academy $20 million to provide "training" that I believe was poor in quality and completely unresponsive to the district's professional development needs. That money could have been invested in the pension system. 

City Hall, with such a blatant history of being unwilling to make well-connected and powerful bankers and businessmen sacrifice, has the audacity to announce that it has no choice but to make children sacrifice their education.

Read the entire commentary here.

Last night at the Hideout

First Tuesday at the Hideout last night: Karen Lewis, Ben Joravsky, Troy LaRaviere, and Mick Dumke. 

It was the best First Tuesday yet at the Hideout. CTU Pres. Karen Lewis and Blaine Principal Troy LaRaviere were compelling, powerful and funny guests.

What came across was that the main focus of attention has to be new and equitable revenue streams to solve the city and state pension and debt crises. This ultimately means increased taxes for 1%ers like billionaire Ken Griffin, who makes $90,000 per hour even while he's sleeping, and who, as Lewis points out, "could solve the city's problems himself just by paying his fair share of taxes." LaRaviere described graphically the "parasitic" relationship the 1%ers have with the city. This includes several newly-appointed and former members of the school board, ie. outgoing Deborah Quazzo and incoming Mark Furlong.

The mayor is already working to strike a deal to skip another pension payment.

LaRaviere provided some data:

“Of the 50 highest-performing schools in Chicago, all 50 are public schools that were here before he [Rahm Emanuel] arrived,” he said in the four-and-a-half-minute video, referring to NWEA scores. “Of the 20 lowest-performing schools in Chicago, 13 of them – over half – are turnaround and charter schools, which are cornerstones of the Rahm Emanuel education reform agenda.”

--Fred Klonsky

But the main target of the evening was "sociopath" Gov. Rauner who somehow finds it politically advantageous to shutter prisons, close museums, cut funding for kids with epilepsy, and increase co-pays for parents using the Childcare Program, while preserving tax breaks for wealthy pals.

Lewis made it clear that there's lots riding on whether city Dems like Emanuel and Madigan are willing to go to war with the governor over his cuts -- including the outcome of contract negotiations with the CTU and other unions. While it's too early to talk strike, she made it clear that the union is doing the necessary educational work among its members and parents. She expressed fear that class size in city schools could go up to "50 students per class" under Rauner's budget plan. 

Best aha moment came when Lewis suggested, half-jokingly I suspect, that LaRaviere run for mayor. Some of us didn't take it as a joke and many were visibly moved by his personal narrative after Mick Dumke asked what led him to become a principal.

CPS score-rigging adds new meaning to 'growth'

LaRaviere

In yesterday's post on Chicago's reported gains in graduation and college completion rates, I added this qualifier:

 If that is, you have faith in the transparency of the system and faith that the researchers are measuring the same thing. I don't. But that's for another blog post.

Well, here's that post. 

Today's Sun-Times reports that CPS quietly changed some growth scores from standardized test results released in August, resulting in a rise in school ratings for seven charter schools. AAPPLE, an activist arm of the Chicago Principals and Administrators Association, pointed out the discrepancies after school ratings were released last week — differences the Sun-Times confirmed in its own analysis.

AAPPLE head Troy LaRaviere has called for a full investigation by the district’s inspector general.

“In a system based on ‘choice,’ parents and other stakeholders must be provided with accurate indicators of school quality. [CPS’ ratings system] cannot serve this purpose if there are clouds of suspicion about tampering with the data used to determine these ratings,” LaRaviere said in an email.

Furthermore, he said, “the changing of scores happened without any public disclosure.” CPS would not say why the ratings usually released in October around school report card pickup were delayed.

The back-room rigging of growth scores proved an embarrassment even to the charter schools whose scores were raised.  The chief of strategy (yes, they have such a position) for Chicago International Charter School, which saw ratings for four of its schools rise, agreed.

“I would have preferred the asterisk. We essentially asked for an asterisk at one point,” Daniel Anello said. CICS had always used the test that wasn’t aligned to the Common Core through the school year to measure their students’ learning, so they saw no reason to change it while it remained an option, he said.

Figures don't lie, but liars sure can figure.

Principals Revolt? Or not...

Bob Moses

I'm taking part in a great event, "Youth Organizing For Social Justice -- Then and Now", at DePaul Student Center this evening. Bob Moses, 60s Civil Rights leader and founder of the Algebra Project, will interact with participants and discuss the significance of the 50th anniversary of Freedom Summer, describing what actually happened, and its implications for America's future. Bob will also be the commencement speaker at DePaul's College of Education graduation ceremony tomorrow morning at the Rosement Theater in Rosemont.

PRINCIPALS REVOLT?...Some friends tell me I'm overstating the case by calling it a Chicago "principals revolt" when only a handful are daring to speak out (See Melissa Sanchez and Sarah Karp's excellent series in Catalyst). They may be right. Maybe listening to Blaine's forthright leader Troy LaRiviere, Gresham's Diedrus Brown and a courageous few others, ripping CPS' plantation culture has left me in a state of delirium. I should probably take a cold shower and tone it down a bit. But I have reason to believe there's a lot more of this, churning just below the surface.

I also happen to know that the growing principal ferment has got Rahm acting all conciliatory and Byrd-Bennett and her damage-control team at Clark St. scrambling to stomp out the sparks before they ignite a full-blown prairie fire. After last night's secret meeting with Principal Assoc. leaders, look for BBB to finally offer principals an overdue pay-increase, apart from the private foundation bonus money currently handed out to the worthy few, and throw some other goodies principals' way. Let's see if that quiets things down for a while.

BTW we haven't heard much from Rahm's attack-dog consultant John Kupper since the Little Emperor made him publicly apologize for his verbal assault on CPA. Pres. Clarice Berry. After all, Kupper was hired to collect negatives on County Board Pres. Toni Preckwinkle to dissuade her from running against Rahm next year, not stirring up the normally passive CPA.

The "fall of Saigon" April 29, 1975

AFTER THE FALL...One line in this morning's N.Y. Times report on Iraq evoked memories of the "fall of Saigon" nearly 40 years ago.

Since then the militants seem to have been emboldened by the capture of American-supplied military equipment left behind by government forces as they withdrew.

This was all too predictable when Bush and the neocons (with support from Clinton and the Democrats) invaded Iraq 11 years ago. Remember, WMDs? al-Qeada? They weren't there then, but they are now. Almost 5,000 American servicemen and women dead. Over 110,000 Iraqis (officially, maybe a million unofficially) killed. An estimated $2 trillion in war costs leading directly to the Great Recession and the global financial collapse, as well as the near destruction of our public school system...need I go on?

Rahm's attack dog, Kupper is on the loose

No sooner had Rahm tried to reinvent himself as a gentle, warm and caring ("I welcome principals' concerns and ideas") mayor, than his CPS plantation ignited once more. The arsonist this time was Rahm's own attack dog, John Kupper who in one single mouth-fart, attacked both the Sun-Times for giving too much play to the mayor's critics and Chicago Principals Assoc. Clarice Berry, for being a "CTU shill."

Chicago principals leader Clarice Berry

Here's Pres. Berry's response:

“I am appalled at the demeaning and disrespectful characterization by Mr. Kupper and, by extension, to my principals. That man does not know me. He’s never spoken to me. He has no idea what my relationship is to the CTU or Karen Lewis. We are colleagues. We respect each other and we’re friends,” Berry said.

“I want the mayor to direct his employee to make a public apology to me and to my members, whom he insulted in public. I hope the mayor reprimands him. He should work on the political side — not the education side. We want the politics out of our job.”

Berry accused Kupper of “engaging in the same kind of intimidation and repression of principals” that her organization and its members have been complaining about for the last week.

“We have every right as citizens of the United States to exercise our First Amendment rights to say things are upsetting us,” she said.

“What credentials does he have to assess that my principals’ complaints don’t have validity just because he works for the mayor? l invite him to shadow a principal in an urban school to see how tough the job really is.”

 If it's any consolation to Clarice Berry, she's not attack-dog Kupper's only target. He was actually brought on staff to plan the mayor's slime attack on Toni Preckwinkle in case she decides to take him on in 2015.

Good News! Judge Belz's Injunction and the New ('All-Ears') Rahm

GOOD NEWS...Circuit Judge John Belz has issued a temporary restraining order blocking the implementation of the new state pension-robbing law, SB-1.

“I do think it has led to great confusion … almost across-the-board confusion,” Belz said in a Sangamon County courtroom as he issued a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction blocking implementation of the law until further action of the court or resolution of the case. “There’s just too much uncertainty.”

Sen. Cullerton (left) knew SB-1 was unconstitutional, calling his bill, SB2404,"less unconstitutional."

No surprise here. Everyone who cynically pushed the bill, including Madigan & Cullerton, not to mention Gov. Quinn who signed it into law,  knew it was unconstitutional from the get-go. Judge Belz's injunction just means that the final court decision won't be as costly and destructive as it might have been.

The decision takes the pension issue off the table, at least until after the elections. But it also allows pols to dodge the revenue issues -- like taxing the state's free-loading mega-corporations, Mercantile Exchange transactions, and/or implementing a fair and reasonable state income tax to support public works and pay the state's pension bills.

LOOK, IT'S THE NEW RAHM...Blaine Principal Troy LaRaviere and all the Rahm-dissing principals who've signed their names to comments on LaRaviere’s blog have it all wrong. The Mayor's not trying to "gag" or "intimidate" them. In fact, he's all ears, he tells the Sun-Times.
He now says he welcomes ideas and even criticism from principals...Sorry, but I'm laughing so hard, I fell off my chair. There...ahem. Now where was I? Oh yes, Rahm and his puppet Byrd-Bennett have a democratic style of work and welcome criticism from his staff and especially from CPS principals.

Meanwhile, Rahm has his mad-dog  flack, John Kupper, out running in high gear, lashing out at the media for giving critics too much play. Referring to LaRaviere, Kupper wrote, “First, this guy got a full page in the Sun-Times on Saturday. Now, a story as well? When does he get a column?”

Wow, what a great question. Yes, S-T. When does he get a column?

Clarice Berry, president of the Chicago Principals and Administrators Association, says, LaRaviere is “one of the few principals willing to stand up” to City Hall and the central office, and “may have opened the floodgates” among those who feel the same way about intimidation, budget cuts and unfunded mandates.

Kupper responds by calling Berry a "CTU shill.” There, see how Rahm welcomes principals' ideas and criticism? He's all ears.