Last night in Aurora

Daily Herald pic

Tim Furman somehow found a faux-Irish bar in depressed, but murder-free Aurora last night. He also found his way to East Aurora High School where Jobs For Justice folks had organized a Town Hall Pension Forum. Here's Tim's account, complete with video of Brother Fred plunging his oratorical dagger into the heart (how did he find it?) of Rep. Elaine Nekritz, her unconstitutional and immoral pension-robbing bill, and the soulless state Democrats who somehow get union support by parading around as "progressives."

Here's Fred's account, amazingly cobbled together in the wee hours of the morning before hopping on the bus with other union members headed for Springfield.

Wendy Katten's letter to BBB

Letter sent to CEO Byrd-Bennett on Space Utilization: 1/2/2013

January 2, 2013
CEO Barbara Byrd-Bennett
Chicago Public Schools
125 S. Clark Street
Chicago, IL 60603

Dear Ms. Byrd-Bennett,

We are sending this letter because we have made numerous requests through various staff members at CPS to set up a meeting with you to discuss our space utilization findings presented at the last CPS board meeting and have not yet received a response. We also presented to the CEFTF and at Horner Park space utilization meeting where Frank Clark called our analysis "excellent" and stated that he does not refute our data findings at all.

As Chicago parents we are concerned that CPS is still using a flawed formula that exaggerates underutilization, under-reports overcrowding and ignores other factors reducing classroom size such as percent of special education students served and on site community partnerships. We are also deeply troubled by the lack of transparency in the process that CPS is using to make decisions around school actions this year.

For months, CPS and the City have told Chicagoans that our district has too many underutilized schools requiring it to be “right sized.” In recent weeks however, numerous sources have refuted the key arguments and data that have been used to bolster the school closing strategy. As parents and taxpayers, we deserve facts and an open, honest discussion.

On several occasions, you have pledged to rebuild trust in CPS among parents, teachers and community members. We agree this is a critical first step toward moving our district forward. To that end, we respectfully ask for answers to the questions on the attached sheet prior to the January 23^rd board meeting and a date time we can follow up and meet with you personally.

Thank you,
Wendy Katten
Raise Your Hand for Illinois Publici Education

Raise Your Hand "Apples to Apples" School Utilization Data Questions

1)      Why does the CPS utilization formula continue to assume 36 students as the maximum limit allowed in a homeroom when determining a school’s utilization rate, despite the class size guidelines of 28 to 31 students? By using this formula, CPS has claimed that 330 of our schools are underutilized and 140 are half-empty.  We do not believe this reflects the reality as it is based on a formula that adds 20% to recommended class size limits.

2)     At the Horner Park space utilization meeting, Frank Clark said that he does not refute our "Apples to Apples" data and called our analysis "excellent." Will CPS soon change their formula to reflect these findings, adjust the numbers they have put out to the press this year, and share corrected data with major news outlets?

3)      Why did CPS exaggerate its lost enrollment? CPS blames its underutilization on the city’s loss of 145,000 school age children over the last decade. According to a WBEZ analysis of census data however, CPS lost just 31,500 students during this period. Also during this period, CPS created some 50,000 new seats at charter schools.  In 2000, CPS had 432,000 students and 597 schools. This year, CPS has 403,000 students and 681 schools. The district has added 84 schools during a period of declining enrollment and plans to add another 13 schools next year. This is highly irresponsible and as taxpayers we are alarmed at these decisions.

4)      Does CPS or the School Utilization Commission plan to do any physical assessments or walk-throughs of schools labeled underutilized? If so, what is the schedule?

5) Many schools have high special education/bilingual populations which are not taken into account in your utilization formula and many schools rent out space to community organizations which are not taken into account. How are the committee and CPS factoring this into the decision making process?
6)      What are the specific criteria CPS will consider when closing schools this year? In September, you said utilization would be the only criteria. But in recent weeks, other CPS representatives, including Becky Carroll and Utilization Commission Chairman Frank Clark, have said CPS will consider other factors. Guidelines were due in November 2012, so how can you change criteria at this later time?

7)      Please explain the specific process the School Utilization Commission will use to prepare its recommendations. You’ve said the commission will be preparing a list of schools for closure. But it's been reported that the commission chair has said it will only be providing a list of policy recommendations. Please clarify who will report what to the public.

8)      When will you provide an analysis of the specific impacts of last year’s 17school actions on the 7,700 effected students? Any actions taken in the future should be informed by lessons learned in the past. Information regarding prior year school actions would be invaluable to ensure best possible outcomes foraffected students, especially given that even more schools may be closed this year with no clear vision of costs and benefits. Parents across the city need totrust and believe you will ensure the safety and academic stability of students with any action.

New Year comes in with roar of Chicago gunfire

The new year rolled into Chicago the same way the old year rolled out -- in a blaze of gunfire.

Chicago ends 2012 with a total of 506 murders, a `16% jump from Rahm's first year in office.  2013 didn't exactly come in like a lamb. Three homicides, and 15 more  other non-fatal shootings were reported around the city's South and West sides between the early morning hours and early evening on New Year's Day.

Rahm's people, including top-cop McCarthy are holding the city's gangs and the weather largely responsible.

The Tribune reports:

"Largely contributing to the spike was the unusual number of homicides that occurred during the early part of the year, when the  city experienced unseasonable warmth. In the first three months of the year, homicides ran about 60 percent ahead of the 2011 rate."

But big cities across the country, all with unseasonably warm weather this past spring, mostly show reductions in murders. New York broke its record for fewest murders and Aurora, Illinois' second largest city which shares Chicago's gangs and weather, recorded ZERO KILLINGS. The state's third-largest city, Rockford, had 14 homicides in 2012, the city's lowest number since the 2004 total of eight.

Since even Rahm, the city's little emperor, can't fix the weather, he'd better come up with some new ideas.

Cook County Board Pres. Toni  Preckwinkle makes a little more sense. She says that even a restructured or enlarged police department can't fix Chicago’s violent crime problem, which is deeply rooted in poverty and a lack of resources for poor communities.

Both the mayor and Preckwinkle could start by reopening many of the neighborhood mental health clinics that have been closed in the past year. Next Rahm could put a hold on neighborhood school closings and other policies that destabilize south and westside neighborhoods.

Break's over...

As I head out the door this cold Chicago morning, free from fear of the fiscal cliff, why does that old "Break's over -- Everyone back on their heads" joke keep popping into my head?

Obama was the big winner over the T-Party fiscal-cliff  ferrets. It's a tiny taste of what happens when the message is framed as the 99% vs. the 1%. Thanks Occupy! But we the people remained largely as spectators to the grand deal and as a result, the deal falls short on making up for the revenue lost due to the Bush tax cuts. This has got to change as the next phase of the battle begins in the weeks ahead.

Paul Krugman writes:

If Obama stands his ground in that confrontation, this deal won’t look bad in retrospect. If he doesn’t, yesterday will be seen as the day he began throwing away his presidency and the hopes of everyone who supported him.

Tomorrow, it's out of the bleachers and into the streets, as thousands of teachers, union members, retirees (now and future), organized by We Are One, Illinois head down to Springfield to have our voices heard and to stop the pension grab. 

Aurorians (that was the name of my high school graduating class in '61) can hear my brother Fred speak this evening on a panel about the pension battle.

Town Hall Pension Forum

When:  Wednesday January 2nd, 6:30-8:30 p.m.

Where:  East Aurora High School (Auditorium)

500 Tomcat Ln., Aurora, IL  60505

Ample parking–enter through Door 5

A big Right On! for Fred, who has become a top-gun in the teacher-pension battle. Don't miss this year-end revue of 10-minute drawings.

New Year's resolution: Ban the term, 'fiscal cliff'

"No matter what happens, let’s agree never again to call anything a 'fiscal cliff.'' -- Gail Collins

Here's where I was at as we headed into 2012. I'm still there as we head into 2013.

Last year on New Year's eve, Obama was busy signing a $662 billion Defense Bill, while at the same time, complaining about certain provisions that supposedly regulated the "detention, interrogation, and prosecution of suspected terrorists."

The news that we intoxicated masses received last night was that we're not going over the fabricated fiscal cliff. Once again, I was not fazed. Did anyone really believe that the Pentagon was going to take a $20 billion hit while the pols played back-room beat-the-clock with the nation's economy? Once again, the "herd of rabid ferrets", as Collins calls them, saved Obama from himself (giving away Social Security) by settling for a $450,000 tax-increase floor (at least for now). The deal fails to bring in enough revenue to avoid major cuts to education and other badly-needed federally-funded social services (entitlements???) in the year ahead.

Even the ferrets knew that a same-time attack on Social Security, Medicare and another tax break for the rich was too risky. So they lived to fight another day. The deal gives them a way out. As ferret Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) moaned, "“I’ll probably be a ‘yes’ vote, even though I don’t like it. “I don’t like the idea of raising tax rates [on billionaires], I don’t think it’s good for the economy, but it’s better than going over the cliff.”

Horray for bi-partisanship. Let's see what happens in the House.

It was also a year ago yesterday that D.C. school district's human capital (Uggh!) chief Jason Kamras claimed he wanted  “to make great teachers rich” so long as they stood by silently while schools were closed and hundreds of their colleagues were pink-slipped. Well it's 2013. Any of you rich yet? I didn't think so.

"Throughout my career I’ve lived by the principle that we should use every crisis to mobilize the public and demand change." -- Rahm Emanuel

Finally, I awoke this New Year's morning in a sea of black coffee and ibuprofen, only to read one of the great pieces of political bullshit ever to grace the pages of the Sun-Times (and there have been many). It's was a commentary by our cow-pie-tossing mayor in which he tries to explain his new-found courage in supporting "sensible" gun policies as Chicago gun-death toll streaked past the 500 mark for 2012.

Writes Rahm:

During my two decades in national politics, there has been a commonly held belief that sensible gun policies are the third rail of politics. Many of our elected leaders simply hide behind this empty mantra to avoid an honest discussion about an issue that ends thousands of innocent lives each year.

Are you kidding me? This from the man who almost single-handedly, killed the administration's meager gun-control efforts while he was Obama's chief-of-staff. Remember, it was he who told Attorney General Holder to "shut the fuck up" on gun control legislation.

Hiding behind empty mantras, indeed.

WEEKEND QUOTABLES

Little Emperor, Rahm makes Chicago Sun-Times front page.

Fran Spielman

In year two of his whirlwind administration, Emanuel survived a seven-day teachers strike that he had helped instigate; parted company with a highly touted schools CEO who turned out to be a bad fit, and struggled to control a spike in homicides that became a national media obsession. -- Sun-Times

Jackson Potter

Why should people, by virtue of their money, be able to make decisions that everyone else has to live with but has no power to influence? -- Letter to Sun-Times 

 Sen. Dick Durbin

"It looks awful." -- NYT

 6th-grader, Shemar Bates

"I feel down. I feel shocked. I don't want them to close my school." -- Philly.com

Record Chi-Town murder rate, but not in the schools

Last night in Austin community

The fatal shooting of a 40-year-old man last night on the West Side pushed Chicago's 2012 homicide toll to the 500 mark. Gun deaths have risen sharply since Rahm took office. Is there a direct connection? I can't say. That's for him to explain.

The Tribune blames it on the weather:

Largely contributing to the spike was the unusual number of homicides that occurred during the early part of the year, in which the city experienced unseasonable warmth. In the first three months of the year, homicides ran about 60 percent ahead of the 2011 rate.

Look out, Lake Havasu, Arizona!

Of course, the rise has more to do with easy availability of guns in the city (despite the mayor's post-Newtown reincarnation as a gun-control advocate), growing concentrations of poverty in the most isolated and under-served black and Latino neighborhoods, Rahm's closing of community mental health clinics, and the increasingly competitive drug trade on city streets. Throw into this mix the neighborhood instability caused in part by Rahm's school-closings, charter-ization, and turnarounds and you have an explosive recipe for disaster.

One thing the record death stats don't show is a single murder inside a city school this year. This fact alone should debunk the NRA's response to the Newtown massacre, calling for more guns inside of school buildings.

Arm teachers? -- Yes, with lots of resources, greater autonomy, access to the new technology, professional development, after-school programs, and smaller learning communities and schools will remain relatively safe havens for children.

What not to do

The one thing you don't want to do is to decrease the numbers of African-American teachers in inner-city schools. But that is exactly what Rahm's ill-conceived school reform has done.

Three heroic CPS teachers, Donald L. Garrett Jr., Robert Green and Vivionell Brown Jr. have filed suit, charging CPS school closings and turnarounds  for a steady decline in black teachers from about 40 percent in 2000 to just under 30 percent in 2010. 

CTU's ace attorney, Robin Potter, is handling the case. She says the three are fighting to get their jobs back, plus lost pay, damages, an independent monitor to oversee the turnaround process in the future, and a moratorium on turnarounds until a monitor’s in place.

Really, Gallup Poll?

The latest Gallup Poll shows 54% of Americans supporting the NRA. But remember, these are the same guys who polled Romney winning the presidential election 51% to Obama's 46%. I think they must just poll the same people over and over again, ending up with the same result.

Under the bus?

Environmentalists I know were really looking forward to Obama's second term. This was supposed to be the four years, free from re-election pressures, where he and his EPA chief Lisa Jackson were going to sock it to 'em.  But now that Jackson, among the last of the first-term progressives, has announced her resignation, these same folks are wondering whether she was thrown under the bus or just became so frustrated with the Obama team's surrender to the polluters, that she gave up the ship. Or maybe, as she tells the Post, she just wanted to go back to New Jersey.  Jackson is being replaced for now by Deputy Administrator Bob Perciasepe, a move that makes the White House team whiter than ever.

Sen. David Vitter (La.), the top Republican on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, said Thursday he would seek a more business-friendly nominee to run the agency. “Moving forward I’ll be working with my colleagues in the Senate to make sure the new nominee is thoroughly vetted, puts sound scientific standards above political ideology and understands that EPA’s avalanche of regulations can crush the growth of American businesses,” he said in a statement.

Who will Defend Rahm?

Now that the entire labor movement is after Rahm for his union-busting policies, the only ones left to come to his defense are the far-right. Jumping all over the SEIU for its push-back campaign against Rahm's anti-unionism, is none other than Breitbart -- yes I know he's dead, but his support for the mayor radiates from the grave.

T-Party's version of gun-control

Aistov Alexey/ShutterStock

In case you were thinking that we ought to be more like the Tea Party...

Here's the way the tea-baggers handle policy debates within their D.C. group called FreedomWorks.

WaPo reports: 

Richard K. Armey, the group’s chairman and a former House majority leader, walked into the group’s Capitol Hill offices with his wife, Susan, and an aide holstering a handgun at his waist. The aim was to seize control of the group and expel Armey’s enemies: The gun-wielding assistant [later identified as former Capitol Hill cop, Beau Singleton -- M.K.]  escorted FreedomWorks’ top two employees off the premises, while Armey suspended several others who broke down in sobs at the news. 

The coup lasted all of six days. By Sept. 10, Armey was gone — with a promise of $8 million — and the five ousted employees were back.

Right-wing Illinois Billionaire Richard Stephenson, founder of the for-profit Cancer Treatment Centers of America and a director on the FreedomWorks board, agreed to commit $400,000 per year over 20 years in exchange for Armey’s agreement to leave the group.

Take-aways:

• The Tea-Party is not just a group of regular folks who want their taxes lowered and the size of government reduced.
• Wing-nut Stephenson, a pal of the Koch Bros., has a vested interest in private health care and has good reason to use the tea -baggers in his war on ObamaCare
• The aptly-named Dick Armey isn't to big on gun control. 

What happened to Runcie's anti-truancy plan?

Byrd-Bennett gets a whisper of advice on CPS truancy from  state Rep. Barbara Flynn Currie at a Nov.meeting. (Tribune )

The CPS focus on the so-called "under-utilization" of schools is all wrong and their plan to close hundreds of schools is misdirected. That's the only reasonable conclusion one can come to, especially after reading the latest report on the district's failure to implement its own anti-truancy program. 

It turns out that the problem of dwindling attendance, particularly in low-income communities on the south and west side, has been ignored by the past three administrations at CPS, even though millions of dollars had been allocated for a comprehensive anti-truancy plan.

The Tribune reports that the plan, developed in 2010 by  Ron Huberman's Chief Administrative Officer Robert Runcie, who left Chicago the next year to become superintendent of the Broward County, Fla., was shelved soon after it was written. Millions of dollars in anti-truancy funds that were apparently given to non-performing, outside consultants remain unaccounted for. 

The Trib quotes former CPS Office of Student Support and Engagement leader Paige Ponder, whose division helped oversee the effort before she left the district in frustration. Truancy and absenteeism are "such an enormous, complex issue. But the money, the will, the leadership just wasn't there to tackle it in a sustained way."

It's not clear who's leaking these internal documents to the Tribune. This is the second major leak in a month, following the report of the secret list of supposedly underutilized schools marked for closing. The latest leak may have come from Runcie himself, a Harvard grad who was trained at the infamous Broad Superintendents Academy, but passed over for the top spot at CPS in favor of J.C. Brizard. 

The long and short of it is that communities are not under-utilizing their schools. Rather, dwindling populations in some south and west side neighborhood schools are the product of a myriad of problems having to do with poverty, violence, and  failed policies (over-development of charter schools) and misuse of public funds at the top of the system with its lack of transparency and public accountability. 

Merry Christmas from Gov. 'Squeezy' and the Civic Committee

Retiree, living on fixed income, Thea Halvorson, uneasily envisions the possibility of losing here home. (Sim-Times)

Sun-Times headline: Retired state workers in cross-hairs of Illinois’ pension crisis 

Cross-hairs is right. Who would have imagined that a gaggle of "progressive" Democrats, along with a Democratic governor who has a Dem majority in both houses, would be stuffing rocks in the Christmas stockings of the state's elderly, retired public employees?

The great pension theft will impact some 700,000 retirees and family members -- who vote. Bye bye Gov. Squeezy. The Civic Committee's liar-in-chief, Ty Fahner blames the crisis on “too many [retirees] taking out and not enough paying in.” But brother Fred demolishes Fahner's arguments and lays bare the duplicity of the so-called "progressives" in his appearance on Live From the Heartland.

He also offers the pathway out of the crisis. Go ahead, Fred!
It's not so difficult, says Fred. Just takes some Democrats with spine. Oh well.

Remembering Christmas 2008

That's when workers at Republic Windows & Doors on Chicago's north side, took over the plant and are demanded to be paid for their labor. Republic had shut its doors with little notice, leaving its workers high and dry for Christmas. They refused to pay the workers their due severance pay and had begun sneaking assets and equipment out of the plant for weeks. The takeover stopped all that. President-elect Obama even sent a message of support to Republic workers. Ah, those were the days.

U of I profs join pension fight

Here is the text of a letter sent to University of Illinois email accounts on Tuesday evening from Cary Nelson, an emeritus professor at the UI and the president of the American Association of University Professors.

Pension side bar

Illinois State Board of Investment Executive Director William Atwood says that agency's $12 billion portfolio includes about 84,000 shares worth $1.7 million in three gun-makers — Olin, Sturm Ruger and Smith & Wesson. Spokesman Dave Urbanek says the teachers' system is reviewing its $37 billion portfolio for connections to other gun-makers as information for its trustees. -- News Gazette

Oh, almost forgot. Merry Christmas!

Will Sandy Hook reshape ed reform policy?

The heroism of the Sandy Hook teachers has helped reshape the national discussion about the policy direction of school reform -- or at least it should, according to AP education writer, Christine Amario:

That gratitude for teachers is a respite from recent years in which politicians and the public have viewed them as anything but heroes. Instead, teachers have been the focus of increased scrutiny, criticized for what is perceived as having generous and unwarranted benefits and job security.
More from Amario:

Over the last four years, a wave of reforms, prompted largely by the U.S. Department of Education and its $4.35 billion Race to the Top competition, has led states to strip teachers of tenure and institute tougher evaluations based in considerable part on student scores on standardized tests. The heavier emphasis on testing has led to a narrowing of what is perceived as the teacher's role in the classroom.

Amario goes on to quote Harvard ed prof Pat Graham who I first met when she was president of the Spencer Spencer Foundation here in Chicago back in the '90s.

"Most of the talk about teachers lately has been, `Should we judge teachers simply by children's performance on standardized tests?"' said Patricia Albjerg Graham, a professor of the history of education at Harvard University. "And while it's very important that teachers assist children in learning, it's also true that they help them get in the mood for learning and protect them and care for them while they're in school." 

Whether the courageous actions in Newtown, Conn., lead to anything more than a temporary shift in the tone of how the nation talks about teachers remains to be seen. But for the moment, teachers are grateful, concludes Amario.

WEEKEND QUOTABLES

Maps show charter schools are on average several blocks closer to elementary schools that Chicago Public Schools considers under capacity

CPS Liar-In-Chief Becky Carroll

“What you’re seeing is just by looking at the location of these charters, more are located in areas that are underutilized than over capacity, but they are not the main driver of underutilization.” -- Sun-Times:  Union sees problem with charters being closer to under-capacity schools  

Times of Trenton Editorial

To fully appreciate the conditions at Trenton Central High School requires watching for showering plaster from the peeling ceilings, sidestepping warped floor tiles, and sniffing the musty odor of mold. -- "Gov. Chris Christie, please visit Trenton Central High School to witness deteriorating conditions"

The Wilmington 10

 Most of the defendants were young — some just high school age — when they were collectively sentenced to a total of more than 280 years in prison. Prison robbed them of the promise that their young lives had held. Even after the sentences were overturned, the notoriety associated with the case made it difficult for some of them to find or hold decent jobs, and sometimes led to their being shunned. -- NYT editorial

NRA's Wayne LaPierre

A dozen more killers? A hundred? More? How can we possibly even guess how many, given our nation's refusal to create an active national database of the mentally ill? -- Forbes

Maureen Dowd

President Obama, who should have been alarmed that his re-election inspired a boom in gun sales, seems daunted at the prospect of taking on gun lovers, having handed the matter off to Joe Biden to study. The president seems to be setting the table for defeat. If only he had the visceral outrage of a Bloomberg. Who knows what could happen? -- NYT

The rabid ferrets

Obama is trying desperately to avoid the so-called fiscal cliff by putting more Medicare and Social Security cuts on the table and letting all but all but the super-rich off the tax hook. Boehner tried to cover his ass with House Republican loonies by coming up with a ludicrous "Plan B." But as Krugman writes in a great NYT piece, Obama was once again "saved from himself by the rabid ferrets." 

Hopefully the union leadership of the We Are One Coalition will be saved from themselves by pension-grabbing ferrets, Quinn and Madigan.

What's That Smell?

Finally, as we head into this wet, cold, Chicago weekend, I'm wondering what that foul odor is, emanating from Byrd-Bennet's supposedly independent Commission on School Utilization? Is it the already-composed (decomposing) secret list of "underutilized" schools to be closed in black and Latino Communities and handed over to charter operators? Or is it Frank Clark's consulting deal with the Civic Consulting Alliance?  Or both?

Wait, what? I thought "we are one."

We Are One Coalition leaders make their case at Wednesday's press conference

A coalition of public employee unions Wednesday blasted legislation to address the state's underfunded worker pension systems and offered instead to make increased contributions — if the state guarantees its share of retirement payments and raises $2 billion by ending corporate tax benefits and imposing new taxes. -- Chicago Tribune

I'm sorry, but I don't remember giving these guys the authority to negotiate away any part of my meager but constitutionally protected retirement money. In fact, I can't recall any of us retirees ever being asked to be part of the conversation about how to save the state's underfunded worker pension systems. 

I know the pension fund is in trouble and I'm glad the We Are One Illinois coalition is there as part of the growing movement to fight back against Gov."Squeezy" Quinn's proposed legislation. I was planning to go down to Springfield with them on the 3rd of January to protest the latest fund grab.

We Are One has always been clear on the fact that the trouble wasn't caused by teachers, cops, firefighters, disability caregivers and other public employees taking too much out of the fund they have paid into for years. Everyone knows it's because the state has failed to meet its legal obligation and make payments into the fund.

So why are they offering up increases in our contribution to the fund as a negotiation starter? Who gave them the authority? And in exchange for what? A supposed "ironclad guarantee" in state law that government would fund its share of pension obligations? 

But who can make such a "guarantee"? And once you agree to the first cut, aren't you opening the door for more and weakening our legal stand in the courts? And where will this iron-clad guaranteed money come from? Increased payments from local school districts that are already on shaky financial ground?

Coalition leaders are proposing in their White Paper, eliminating some corporate tax loopholes and imposing new tax increases. These are all good ideas and discussion starters. An even better one would be a state graduated income tax, which, when combined with a refinancing of the state’s pension debt, would allow for a 30-year payoff of the debt and a reduction in taxes for a large number of the state’s citizens.

But our gutless Democrats, most of whom operate under the thumb of Boss Madigan, have never been willing to stand up to the corporations, who are their major campaign donors. The only iron-clad guarantee I see is that our pension benefits are guaranteed by the State Constitution--even if Quinn, Madigan and the rest believe that's not worth the paper it's written on. Iron-clad means nothing to them. They always have their fingers crossed when they make promises. Let's see them in court and on the streets of Springfield. 

Here's Brother Fred's take on the White Paper.

The post-Newtown view from right field

First grade teacher Victoria Soto was one of six faculty members killed in the Dec. 14 shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn.—Rex Features/AP

Rick Hess of the far-right American Enterprise Institute (AEI) claims to be "horrified by advocates and education pundits who seize upon Newtown as a "hook" to place an op-ed or push their favorite talking points and agenda items."

He's not mentioning any names, but it's clear that he's talking about Diane Ravitch who posted a thoughtful and powerful tribute to the heroism of teachers (union members at that) on her blog. Diane's piece was picked up and circulated by lots of other bloggers and tweeters, (including Brother Fred).
Hess confesses, he hasn't written about Newtown because "I haven't had anything useful to say. I'm not a K-12 educator, a religious or community leader, a public official, or a role model. I'm inclined to defer to those who have something to say or inhabit positions of public trust."

In other words, Hess is OK with policy makers moving quickly to strategize and push new legislation and government policies, but is "horrified" that any of us would dare to contribute to that discussion. Some democrat, that Hess.

Of course, what Hess is really doing is staking out his own position. He and AEI have an agenda and that's why he blogging about it, as he should. So should Diane. There nothing disrespectful to the shooting victims or their families about praising the heroic actions of the teachers and other first responders nor is it disrespectful to advocate for gun-control policies or more resources for mental health care in the wake of the Newtown shooting. In fact, had this discussion gone on the way it should, free from fear of political retribution from the NRA and other conservative opponents of gun control, the Newton massacre might have been avoided. Hess' organization has long been in alliance with the NRA in opposition to all gun-control legislation and made no bones about it in the wake of the Virginia Tech shootings.

Hess of course, isn't the only one trying to hush up democratic discussion. Teach for America marketing VP David Rosenberg demands that Diane take down her “reprehensible” post. Isn't it obvious that what Rosenberg and TFA find reprehensible is her mention of the word "union."

Jersey Jazzman makes a similar point in his post, "It's Politicizing If You Disagree With Me!".

Look what's In Byrd-Bennet's 'hidden drawer' -- The real school-closing plan

Angelique Harris, a member of the Bronzeville Community Action Council, attends a hearing on school closings Monday at the Metropolitan Apostolic Community Church in Chicago. Harris has a child enrolled at Wells Preparatory Elementary Academy. (Warren Skalski, Photo for the Tribune /December 17, 2012)

"Unless my staff has a hidden drawer somewhere where they've got numbers in there, we don't have a number." -- Schools CEO Barbara Byrd-Bennett in November.

Pretty clever of the new school boss to slip in that escape clause when responding to media questions last month about how many and exactly which "underutilized" schools CPS planned to close. When it inevitably comes to light that Rahm already knew back in September, which schools and in which communities (nearly all black and Latino of course) they were going to close, she could always point back to her "hidden drawer" escape clause, as in "I told you there might be numbers in a hidden drawer."

The latest problem for Rahm, Pritzker, Vitale and BBB is that one of their very own has leaked the contents of the hidden drawer to the Tribune.

An internal Chicago Public Schools document obtained by the Tribune shows for the first time that the Emanuel administration has weighed how many elementary and high schools to close in which neighborhoods and how to manage the public fallout.

Yes, managing the public fallout, or as David Vitale is fond of saying, "reining them in," is always the number-one problem when you have the mayor running the schools and when CPS is made a wing of Tammany City Hall. 

The 2010 state law requiring the district to release the list of school closings every year by Dec. 1 created the need for the drawer and for CPS officials to ask for an extension to March 31 for the next round of closings and charter school openings. That would supposedly be followed by five years with no closings — but only if CPS got its extension from the legislature. They did, by hiding the fact that the list already existed. All the B.S. about "community input" and establishing a new fact-finding commission proved to be exactly that. 

The secret document, prepared three months ago, when J.C. Brizard was still around and 30,000 Chicago teachers were going on strike, discusses how to deal with public reaction to school closing decisions, with ideas ranging from establishing "a meaningful engagement process with community members" to building a "monitoring mechanism to ensure nimble response to opposition to proposed school actions."

But Brizard proved to be incapable of "meaningful engagement" and nimbleness was never part of his skill set. Thus, the back-door entry of the more nimble, if not meaningful, Barbara Byrd-Bennett. 

As you might expect, BBB and her crew are now running as fast as they can from the secret document. As CPS' always nimble liar-in-chief Becky Carroll put it, "this plan was proposed by past leadership at CPS and is not supported by CEO Byrd-Bennett. In terms of whatever document you have, I don't care when it's dated, as of today there's no list and there's no plan."

Carroll's lips are moving so you know she is lying.

Back in November, Robert Starks, director of the Harold Washington Institute for Research and Policy Studies at Northeastern Illinois University, told Rahm's rump commission that he was deeply concerned about the possibility of mass closings, especially in poor African-American neighborhoods. "People out there right now, in this community … they are saying that this is a done deal," Starks told the panel.

Commission Chairman Frank Clark, retired chairman and CEO of ComEd, responded, claiming that his panel had requested information on all CPS schools to start working on recommendations. "I have not seen, nor do I believe any member of this commission (has) seen, any prescribed list of schools designated to be closed," Clark said.

Starks (and the community) had it right. Clark was blowing smoke. 

Post Sandy Hook: Did GOP win the election after all?

Beautiful speech, then more concessions on health care, taxes.

If you thought that the reaction to the Sandy Hook school shootings would provide impetus for more mental heath care resources, think again.

Following the Pres. Obama's beautiful speech in Newton, he went and met with Boehner and offered the Republicans a deal sweetener on the mythical "fiscal cliff" that would cut $400 billion from federal health care programs, including those for mental health. Obama also agreed to cut $122 billion more in cost-of-living increases in Social Security and other benefits by using a different formula for measuring inflation. Obama is reportedly also retreating on the level of a tax increase for the wealthy,  permanently extending Bush-era tax cuts for those making below $400,000 (rather than $200,000) meaning that only the top tax bracket, 35 percent, would increase to 39.6 percent. 

Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., is urging  renewed attention to the issue. “Medicaid is the largest payer of mental health services in the U.S.,” he said in a statement. “Unfortunately, as both state and federal budget cuts have mounted nationwide, both inpatient and community services for children and adults living with serious mental illness have been downsized or eliminated. We must fix that.

Maybe Republicans won the election after all.

WEEKEND QUOTABLES

A man plays violin along Church Rd. in Newton.

Stephen Landman (Global Research)

US civilian gun ownership is the highest worldwide. Yemen ranks second. America doubles the Yemeni level.  Gun related violence follows. In America it’s endemic. In Chicago alone, gun-related deaths exceed one a day. More Chicagoans are shot and killed than US forces in Afghanistan by any means.  -- Gun violence in America

Rev. Jesse Jackson

What more "do we require?" before something is done to stop such events from occurring again. "We are the most violent nation on earth. We make the most guns and we shoot them, we make the most bullets and we fire them." -- FOX News

Rahm to Holder on guns

“Emanuel was furious. He slammed his desk and cursed the attorney general. Holder was only repeating a position Obama had expressed during the campaign, but that was before the White House needed the backing of pro-gun Democrats from red states for their domestic agenda. The chief of staff sent word to Justice that Holder needed to ‘shut the fuck up’ on guns…” -- ABC Political Punch Blog 

More Rahm 

Children in the Chicago public school system with an interest in nutrition will benefit from a million dollars in unspent NATO funds.

“I saw the kids that were planting there, garlic,” said Emanuel. “And they were planting garlic and they were doing it by how much distance do you need, how you put it outside, what is the best way to nurture it.”

The tour was interrupted by a small, but loud group of protesters, claiming this was a diversion from the bigger picture, that a budget deficit could force dozens of schools to close. -- CBS News

Father Michael Pfleger

"When are we gonna draw the line and say this proliferation of guns, and this sense of violence has become a norm of American culture?" --  Huff Post Chicago

Nassau Junkanoo and the King H.S. sit-in

Junkanoo in Nassau

NASSAU, BAHAMAS-- On winter break. We couldn't pass up a chance, between family visits in Florida, to grab a cheap fare from Miami over to Nassau for a couple of days of R&R. It's nice to be able to escape the Chicago winter for a few days but I've still got my mind on Chicago schools, especially after reading the Sun-Times story about yesterday's student sit-in at King College Prep, where 500 students demanded the firing of principal Shontae Higginbottom.

King sit-in

King students are angered over Higginbottom's imposition of key changes this fall, including closing the new media center where students used computers after school, and locking students outdoors after they’ve left the building during the day.

“I want the rules to change,” sophomore Joshua Phillips said. “And if things can’t change, I guess it’s time for a new principal.”

Back to Nassau where we were lucky enough to take part in yesterday's Junior Junkanoo festivities, a prelude to the Christmas holiday Junkanoo which looks like a mix between Mardi Gras and festival time in Rio. No one here is quite sure about the origins of Junkanoo but it may have West African origins as the costumes and conduct of the masqueraders bear similarities with the Yoruba festivals. I read that this festival began during the 16th and 17th centuries when slaves in The Bahamas were given a special holiday around Christmas time, when they would be able to leave the plantations to be with their family and celebrate the holidays with African dance, music and costumes.

Today, despite it's heavy corporate sponsorship,  Junkanoo marchers satirize politicians and social issues through costume and Junkanoo music and art.

The streets are filled with locals and tourists from the huge tour boats. Food stands compete for prizes for best conch salad, ribs or jerk chicken while thousands of Bahamian school students take to the streets in dazzling costumes and masks and march down Bay Street to steady rhythms and applause from the huge crowd of onlookers that lasted past midnight.

Among the hundreds of predominantly-black public schools marching last night, was an apparently all-white group from the nearby Spanish Wells All-Age School on tiny St. George's Cay. Spanish Wells, it seems, was settled by a mix of Bermudan pirates and British loyalists (who brought their slaves with them) fleeing the American Revolution.

Where's the connection here? Well, check out the rules for Spanish Wells students:

1. Be neat and tidy in your dress. Your appearance says a lot about you.
2. Litter makes your surroundings unsightly. Put it where it belongs.
3. Obey orders right away. You might be giving them someday.
4. Be courteous, kind and respectful to all.
5. Never leave the school premises without permission.
6. Show enthusiasm, pride and perseverance in all that you do.
7. Be on your best behaviour at all times.
8. Wear only the prescribed school uniform and accessories.
9. Stealing, fighting, and cursing are bad habits. Do not engage in these.

I guess no matter what country you're in, you can tell the class character of the schools by the hidden curriculum. For working class kids its almost always about rule #3.

The King student protest kindles hope that critical thinking and democratic ideas are still alive, even in the most oppressive schools.