It's Int'l Women's Day and Chicago charter school teachers are finding their voice

Marines Martinez from Chicago ACTS Local 4343 tells media that ASPIRA charter teachers are willing to go on strike to “take a stand for our students and our larger communities.” 

BREAD & ROSES...It's International Women's Day and what better way to celebrate than to show some solidarity with Chicago's, mostly women of color, fast food workers who are filing EEOC complaints today against Burger King. The filing will be followed by a protest in front of a downtown Burger King restaurant to demand an end to the rampant sexual harassment and workplace violence happening in their stores.

Fast food workers at BK stores across the city have experienced physical and verbal abuse along with intimidation from general management at several locations owned by the same franchisee. One under-aged woman worker was fired for not consenting to specific sexual requests.

Contact Deivid Rojas, Communications Director Workers Organizing Committee of Chicago,
Fight For 15 Chicago for more. 312.219.0008.

THE KLONSKY BROS. will be talking plenty of IWD stuff and more with 10th Ward Alderwoman Susan Sadlowski Garza on Hitting Left radio, Friday at 11 a.m. on WLPN 105.5 F.M., streaming live at Lumpen Radio. Don't miss.

A SMALLTALK SALUTE goes out to charter school teachers at ASPIRA AND Nobel charters who are unionizing and fighting the good fight on behalf of teachers and students everywhere.

ASPIRA teachers have set March 17th as their strike date unless a last-minute agreement is reached. If they do strike, it will be the first strike of charter schools in the nation. ASPIRA runs four publicly funded Chicago charter schools, serves 1,400 students - who are mostly Latino - and has 106 educators.

Teachers said at a press conference Tuesday that ASPIRA schools were not allocating money correctly, letting basic school building needs - like clean bathrooms and stalls - are falling by the wayside. Educators posted photos on Facebook from inside the high school of leaky ceilings, water marks and bug traps in the building.

"We want to make sure that ASPIRA tells us where they are spending their money. If you walk into our schools... I've been with ASPIRA for five years and every year it seems like conditions are getting worse and worse," said Marines Martinez, an ASPIRA teacher.

 Parents agree. They said teachers put much of their own money into classrooms and need a raise.

"The school needs a lot of things. He knows that. I ask him for minor things and the school don't have it. This school doesn't have a gym, doesn't have anything," said Louis Mendez, an ASPIRA parent.

TEACHERS AT NOBLE, Chicago’s biggest and most heavily funded charter school network, have set out to form a union, a move that if successful would create the largest charter school union in the nation. Founded in 1999, Noble operates 17 campuses across the city, educating more than 12,000 students. They are the darling of Gov. Bruce Rauner who has one of their schools named after him.

As of Friday morning, 131 of the roughly 800 Noble teachers and staff across city had signed on in support of the union. Union organizers told The American Prospect on Monday that they have received many more signatures since then, but could not say exactly how many because online signatures are still being tallied.

Mariel Race, a Noble teacher involved in the organizing efforts, says her charter network has long focused on expansion, but now operates so many schools that it’s time to shift gears towards retaining strong teachers. 

“We’ve given our feedback on teacher retention for many, many years, and I don’t feel like it’s really being heard,” she told The American Prospect. “There’s not a whole lot that’s being done about it. I think that having a teacher perspective at the table is a huge piece, and I think in order to be heard, with legal backing, and collective backing, it needs to be a union.”

CTU Pres. Karen Lewis, also voiced support for the Noble Street teachers.

“The Chicago Teachers Union stands in complete solidarity with the courageous teachers and staff in the Union of Noble Educators, and personally, I am extremely proud of their desire to strengthen their collective voice to better advocate for the students they serve,” she said in a statement.

WEEKEND QUOTABLES

Donald Trump

 “I love Caterpillar. I’ve been driving them for a long time.” -- Feds dig in: Agents raid Trump-touted Caterpillar 

Noble Charter School Teachers

“Today, we the Union of Noble Educators are announcing our effort to organize teachers and staff across the @benobleschools!” 

“We are passionate, committed, professional teachers and staff with diverse experiences in the Noble Network of Charter Schools,” they wrote in an open letter signed so far by 140 of more than 800 staffers. “We see our students every day and know they are better served by a lasting staff that can advocate for their schools. To this end, we seek a voice at Noble and beyond.” -- CBS Chicago

Jesse Jackson

The decision on private prisons reflects Trump’s desire to repeal all things Obama. It expresses the ideological bias of reactionaries like Sessions toward privatizing public functions. It also reveals the pervasive corruption already apparent in the Trump administration. -- Sun-Times

Danny Glover

Danny Glover at the March on Mississippi

"I don't abdicate my responsibility as a citizen. I don't need to abdicate (my responsibilities) for better education for kids and reading programs and all that other stuff. That's what a citizen does....that's what a human being does as part of a community." --  NBC

 Betsy DeVos makes course correction 

When DeVos addressed HBCU leaders directly the next day, she struck a different tone, saying: "Your history was born, not out of mere choice, but out of necessity, in the face of racism, and in the aftermath of the Civil War." -- nprED

Rahm's email dump tells little we didn't already know.

Brother Fred captures Rahm boasting about pension theft. 

Yes, he did use his personal email to conduct city business. So if Rahm ever runs for president (not likely), he will never hear the end of it. But if you were hoping Rahm's forced email dump would produce some new revelations or deep insights into the workings of the Chicago mayor's anything-but-transparent regime, forget about it. This was no Wikileaks, but rather a carefully planned dump of personal emails that mostly reads like a collection of the mayor's news clippings assembled by his overstaffed press office. Nothing revealing about the mayor's cover-up in the Laquan McDonald killing.

What is revealed is the easy access to the mayor for the state's corporate and hedge-fund muckety-mucks (Pritzker, Rowe, Griffin, Rauner...), especially on matters of privatization, unions (CTU) and pension-busting and the privileging of charter schools (especially Noble Network) over neighborhood public schools.

Here, for example is a missive from former Exelon CEO John Rowe to Emanuel on public school reform efforts.

The first line has Rowe coming to bury former Mayor Daley, not to praise him, in a statement that reads like it was from Shakespeare's Caesar. 

Here's another by former ComEd CEO Frank Clark, now President of Rahm's hand-picked school board.

And another from Clark bashing union teachers:

From: Frank Clark [frank.clark@fmcenergy.com]

Sent: Monday, September 10, 2012 4:25 PMTo: Rahm EmanuelCC: Spielfogel, DavidSubject: Schools

I strongly support CPS's position with CTU. The strike is regrettable but could have been avoided if representatives for the teachers put education for kids ahead of job protection and outdated seniority rules.

Interesting side-note here. Both Rowe and Clark have a Noble charter school bearing their name.

And then there's more Rahm boasting to city billionaires about how he screwed city workers.
From Chicagoist: 

Emanuel’s controversial call to phase out Chicago’s retiree health program will leave some 10,000 of workers on the hook for coverage—a move he publicly touted as a regrettable but necessary cost-saving measure. In the email, however, Emanuel comes off as downright boastful about the move. Wealthy investor Henry Feinberg asks, “Since when did Rahm Emanuel let a judicial ruling get in his way and not find a creative work around solution[?]” Emanuel replies, “Never which is why I eliminated health care. Only elected official to eliminate not cut or reform a benefit. Thank you vey much. A 175 million saving!”

There's a few other interesting tidbits, like Rahm's Public Affairs Director Lisa Schrader assuring the mayor that indeed, the SUPES/Byrd-Bennett scandal is a big story.

Rahm’s email dump can be found here. You can search by subject. For example, put Rauner in the search box.

Saying 'No' to Nobel charter expansion

A few of the many Catalyst alums (including me) with Linda Lenz

Congratulations again to Catalyst on its 25th anniversary and to friend and departing Catalyst founder and publisher Linda Lenz,

Tuesday night's party for Linda at the House of Blues was great fun. It brought together the whole gang from the first wave of Chicago school reform. Back in the day -- pre-Gates, pre-mayoral control of the schools -- there was room at the reform table for a broad range of activists from corporate reformers to black community activists to the CTU. Never again shall that twain meet, except of course, at Linda's farewell party. Cautious hugs and hand shakes. Very funny to this participant/observer.

Here's Linda's retrospective on Chicago school reform.

Teacher/Principal Retention Rates are a strong indicator of school quality. This finding is based on data just released by the State Board [Warning: You should take all data coming from ISBE with a grain of salt]. The best schools generally have highest retention rates and the lowest rates of teacher attrition. Those schools serving the district's poorest kids have the lowest retention rates. Charters are generally the worst when it comes to keeping their faculties intact.

The Sun-Times reports:

As for the city's growing charter sector, ISBE couldn't say how many staffers have cycled through each school, because in many cases, the numbers were not broken out by campus.

Urban Prep's [charter school] chief academic officer Lionel Allen couldn't believe his three campuses showed, for a second year, zero teachers remaining, saying, "We continue to be frustrated by the incorrect data that are reported for our schools and the lack of transparency around how these metrics are calculated."

Me too, Mr. Allen. Me too.

Lindblom students protest charter expansion.

A SmallTalk Salute goes out to Lindblom H.S. students who, along with some teachers, marched in protest over the Board's awarding Noble Network a competing charter school in the Brighton Park neighborhood. They marched to the Bank of America and then to Ald. Raymond Lopez's office to let them know their dissatisfaction.

They may not have known that Ald. Lopez has been openly opposed to the Noble charter in his area. Maybe he should invite the students over for lunch and let them know that he stands with them on this issue.

"Bank of America robbed our schools..." Lindblom students & staff chanting, referring to #CPS toxic swaps. @CatalystChicago

— Stephanie Choporis (@Steph_Choporis) October 29, 2015

Aldermen hand Rahm a big win. Biggest property tax increase in history hits hardest on poor.

Parents and community groups carry anti-privatization signs as they gather in front of Ald. Will Burns (4th) office Tuesday morning, demanding that Burns be replaced as Education Committee chair with someone who will not stifle fair community representation.

Remember how Rahm got elected? Along with buying $30 million worth of votes with bankster pals' money, he savaged Chuy Garcia during the campaign debate with lies about him voting for "the largest property tax increase in history"? During the first of five mayoral debates, Emanuel pulled the property tax charge out of his pocket like a trump card.

“You increased property taxes to the largest amount ever with your vote,” he told Garcia.

Today compliant aldermen will vote for Rahm's own $720 million property tax increase, truly the largest ever. The largest previous hike was Mayor Daley's which amounted to $83.4M.

The biggest payment will be due in August of next year and will hit hardest at low-income property owners, those on fixed incomes and renters. It will also include a new garbage collection fee, something Chicago has never had before.  The fee will be tacked onto water bills. So if homeowners can't or won't pay it, the city can threaten to shut off their water as they did in Detroit.

Hundreds of Southwest Side Chicagoans and students rallied Monday afternoon outside local Ald. Ed Burke's (14th) office against charter school expansion proposed for their community.

Rahm is also getting a $45M tax levy to pay mainly for new privately-run charter and selective enrollment schools.Yesterday Rahm proposed a scheme to have schools borrow money from the banks with interest paid, until the tax levy money comes through.

Rahm's brother Ari's company, Uber will be a big winner. During this morning's hearings, lots of racist comments coming from the Uber section of the gallery aimed at immigrant cabbies who were testifying against the Uber deal.

Rahm's hand-picked school board will also vote today to approve Noble charter network's plan for a new charter high school on the Southwest Side. This despite ongoing protests from neighborhood parents and community groups. Noble's original plan was to build three high schools, but they were forced to retreat after parents successfully railed against a North Side campuses proposal.

This morning, Kelly High School students walked out in protest against the new Noble charter.

Charter expansion is in full swing even though Rahm has closed 50 neighborhood schools and many charters, including Noble, are unable to fill the seats they have. Austin Business and Entrepreneurship Academy High School, for example, has only 13 registered 9th graders. Chicago International Charter School’s Larry Hawkins campus in Altgeld Gardens registered only 37 freshmen.

On the agenda of tonight's board meeting -- $50M for Noble Charters. Stop it!

From CPS teacher Lucia Podraza

Hello Mike,

I just found out last night about the proposals for Noble at tonight's board meeting. The Chicago Teachers Union brought this to our attention. No one at CPS contacted any admins of schools in the affected area.

If there is a budget deficit, I don't see how giving Noble 50 million will fix it or fix our crumbling neighborhood schools. Here is an impassioned plea from a fellow staff member. We don't have the luxury of support from aldermen that the North siders had when they stopped Noble. Please see if you can use this or spread the information for people to know that the fight against corporate democrats and privatizers never ends.

"On the agenda the Board of Education of the City of Chicago monthly board meeting from 4:30 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. at Gwendolyn Brooks HS is a proposal to vote on an additional $50 million for three new charter campuses to be built and opened for the 2016-2017 school year.

With all due respect to the Board of Education of the City of Chicago, why are they even considering approving this expenditure when the Board of Education’s deficit is so high and we are all asked to take reductions in pay and benefits? I can't hold my tongue any further, and I can't sit passively by as all the great work we have done at Kennedy will be pulled out from under us after the next school year.

Today's Board Meeting -- Gwendolyn Brooks College Preparatory Academy HS, 4:30 PM

If only that $50 million were reinvested in existing schools to make them appeal as much to our neighborhood kids as the gleaming gems of charter schools which have proliferated around our city. Kids and parents are attracted to what is new, certainly not better quality just new.

For your review I've attached the proposed budget for the Noble Street Network of Charter Schools as well as the narrative for the request for purchase (RFP).

We have had the highest growth on the ACT in 2012 in both Composite Gains and Meets/Exceeds Increases. We have been recognized by the Illinois State Board of Education for increases in Student Achievement by being placed on their Honor Roll. We have been authorized as an IB Diploma World School. What more can we do to prove that Kennedy is a great general public high school which services all students from low-incidence to IB, and everything in between.

When Noble Charter students are asked to leave for minor discipline infractions and lack of academic achievement, they come to Kennedy and we educate them. We don't have the ability to ask students to leave our school for discipline issues, while at the same time having the Student Code of Conduct rewritten to handcuff our abilities to truly discipline students and hold them accountable for their poor behavior.

 We have achieved the most impressive turnaround in student achievement for a general public high school in all of Chicago. We did not do it through a multi-million dollar school improvement grant. We even managed to work through this with a $1.9 million budget shortfall in 2013. We have done this through collaborative effort, blood, sweat and tears at times. When will be the moment when our voices are heard? We were never asked to submit an RFP for capital improvements at Kennedy. We don't have the opportunity to request additional resources to improve our building.

We have had a leak in our library since I started at Kennedy HS on September, 2006. Our gym floors are embarrassing and dangerous for our children. The ceiling collapsed in the Varsity Gym Office and still has not been fixed. We have to  use School-based Budget funds to fix it ourselves.

I can go on and on.about our  auditorium, classrooms, bathrooms, locker rooms, auditorium seats, etc, etc, etc.

Can we use a portion of the $50 Million about to be ear-marked for Noble Street Charter Network?

This is all happening now, while in the past $21 million was spent on the worst principal professional development our principal was required to take.

It really breaks my heart to see the priorities of the District not aligned to what is best for students and the teachers to whom parents entrust their children."

Lucia Podraza
Kennedy High School

An entire Chicago community resists charter expansion

“Because CPS funds on a per pupil basis, every kids who’s not sitting at Lakeview or Senn or Amundsen is $5,200 that school doesn’t get.” -- Northside parent, Wendy Vasquez

  "As governor, I'm all in for you. I want to expand your charter network and get high-quality charters in every community throughout the state of Illinois." -- Bruce Rauner

Okay, it should be pretty clear by now that parents and educators don't want Noble Charters invading their North Side neighborhoods of Rogers Park and Lake View. Amundsen is one of two area high schools backed by growing, community support. Lakeview is the other. And when north-side parents, principals and community activists speak out, local pols listen. That's how the north side ducked Rahm's mass school closings.

Karen Zaccor, a teacher at Uplift Community High School and a resident of the Uptown Community, offers some strong testimony on Tim Furman's blog, about Noble's so-called "no excuses" approach to school discipline.

CPS, you need to use our public tax dollars to support our neighborhood schools, who educate every child, not just the best and the brightest. You need to invest your limited resources in full development of restorative justice programs that keep students in school and teach them better ways to resolve actual conflict. You need to invest in wrap around services to help students who are dealing with the traumas so often inflicted on poor children of color in our city. Say NO to Noble. 

Also, check out the letter to CPS from Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky and most North Side reps opposing the proposed Noble Academy invasion. 12 elected officials and 15 LSCs wrote letters opposing Noble's expansion.

Ironically, the other thing the Noble opponents have going for them is Bruce Rauner. He's is a huge backer of Noble charters. Billionaire Rauner has given over $6.5 million to Noble and other charter organizations. And these days, anything that Rauner touches fires up the opposition. And that's a good thing that was missing during the Quinn days.

Like all charter schools, Noble’s are privately operated but publicly financed by tax dollars and with huge private donations from powerful foundations and corporate donors. It is one of the largest and oldest charter operations in Chicago.

I'm still feeling sorry for all those Rauner Charter students who were forced to walk around town during the governor's race wearing uniforms with the name Rauner emblazoned on them. Somebody please tell me how that's even legal.

But as it was for school closings, for the charter resistance movement to be successful it has to link up with communities south of Belmont Ave. A good way to start is by building opposition to HB814 House Amendment #2 which lifts the cap on charter expansion statewide.

Another is to oppose the attempt by the board to insert privately-run charters into those shuttered schools on the south and west sides that were supposed closed to save money. This, despite their own "promise" to the community that they wouldn't.