This goes way beyond Byrd-Bennett

The Sun-Times lays it out perfectly:

Consider this sequence of events:

In October 2012, Byrd-Bennett was hand-picked by Mayor Rahm Emanuel to be CEO of the public schools. Byrd-Bennett’s appointment was approved by Mayor Emanuel’s hand-picked school board. 

On the same day the mayor’s hand-picked board signed off on his hand-picked CEO, the board also awarded a $2 million [later $20M] no-bid contract to Byrd-Bennett’s hand-picked education consulting firm, SUPES Academy. 

Did the board have reason to question that no-bid contract? You bet. The board has reason to question every no-bid contract. But more specifically, just weeks earlier a nonprofit group, the Chicago Public Education Fund, had declined to fund SUPES for that very same purpose — to train school managers — despite entreaties from Byrd-Bennett. The Fund was not convinced it would be money well spent. 

Unfortunately, hand-picked boards do not challenge hand-picked CEO’s. That’s the point of picking by hand.

You couldn't ask for a better argument for doing away with mayoral control of the public schools and for a democratically-elected school board. Funny, but as I recall, the S-T editorial board has always been opposed to an elected board. Back in February, they mustered up enough courage to call for a “hybrid” board -- with a majority of members still Rahm's hand-picked cronies. Yes, they're okay with elections, so long as they're only cosmetic with no shift in power. 

The other newspaper in town is more explicit. Their call is for the school system run by an all-out fascist -- a "Mussolini-type" dictator -- if you will. 

"Don't look at me."

Rahm: "Don't look at me."

Rahm Emanuel on the other hand, wants to retain autocratic rule over the schools. He just doesn't want to be held accountable and probably won't be. Asked by a reporter whether he felt any responsibility for appointing Byrd-Bennett, the mayor did a "no comment". But then he commented anyway:

“The U.S. attorney said this himself . . . [this] is about Barbara Byrd-Bennett, it’s about the executives at SUPES, and both the actions they’ve taken and the attempts to deceive others.” 

Burns fiddles, Rome burns

Rahm's puppy-dog Ald. Will Burns (4th), who runs the City Council’s Education Committee, calls BBB a "role model for inner-city kids". He claims the scandal is no big deal.

So, in the grand scheme of things, I don’t think Barbara’s indictment is hurtful. Part of the reason why is there is new leadership at CPS,” he said.

Yes, new leadership will fix things. Except Forrest  "The Fixer" Claypool is the 4th CEO under Rahm in 4 years. Changes without a difference.

My take is that the SUPES scandal goes way beyond BBB and her crew. Mayoral control of the schools has created a culture of corruption that goes all the way up to the top of the system. Turning CPS into a wing of City Hall -- one of the most disreputable institutions in history -- with an autocratic mayor in charge, was a mistake for which we all now will pay a tremendous price.

Black aldermen mutiny. Rahm rushes to McCarthy's defense.

Supt. McCarthy goes all Che Guevara on us.

"I know what needs to happen. It's clear to me as anything on earth. It's a systematic failure and the system has to change." -- ABC 7 

Yesterday's City Council budget hearings were like none I've seen since the 70s run-up to the election of Harold Washington, the city's first black mayor. The crisis is so deep that the mutiny has spread way beyond the few and the brave in the Progressive Caucus. Previously isolated rivulets of anger with Rahm/Rauner austerity, property taxes, education cuts, school closings, charter expansion and the gun violence epidemic appear to be flowing into one big river of anger around the budget hearings.

Roosevelt H.S. students hit the streets.

Students at three high schools attempted walkouts yesterday in protest of the budget cuts and in support of their teachers. Roosevelt students succeeded. Students at Schurz and Foreman were blocked by cops and CPS security. There's no prison-break manuals in Common Core.

A SmallTalk salute goes out to Roosevelt teacher Tim Meegan for supporting and inspiring his students. 40th Dist. Rep. candidate Harishi Patel (running in Deb Mell's former district) was also out there with the students.

Monday's Black Caucus presser calling on the mayor to dump Supt. Garry McCarthy, sent tremors up to the 5th floor of City Hall. It even included several formerly docile alders joining with the progressives in open revolt. The catalyst may have been the The Tribune's gross Oct. 1 editorial, Aldermen, own Chicago violence, which sounded to me like a McCarthy plant.

Rahm hit back at the Caucus in a show of white solidarity, with a statement of all-out support for his top-cop. He went so far as to second (first) McCarthy's pick of Dean Andrews as his chief of detectives. Andrews is currently under investigation for engineering the cover-up in the killing of David Koschman by Mayor Daley's nephew R.J.” Vanecko and has been named 114 times in Special Prosecutor Dan Webb's 162-page report on the case. None of that mattered when it came to circling the wagons around McCarthy in the face of the Black Caucus threat.

The Trib brazenly doubled-down on its racist diatribe in today's editorial, leaving no doubt that their accusations and venom were directed only at black aldermen and not all 50 as they previously claimed. Today, the Trib boasts that their "suggestions really got under the skin of aldermen, particularly those who live in the city's most violent wards" (more code language).

Black Caucus Chairman Ald. Rod Sawyer (6th), responds.

This charge that we blame the police is a fiction, nothing more.

It is true that many in our communities have experienced difficult or unjust treatment at the hands of some police officers. Our city is paying huge settlements to victims of such treatment. The relationship can be an uneasy one. This is not some fantasy we made up. From disgraced former Chicago police Cmdr. Jon Burge to "black sites" to stop-and-frisk tactics, it is understandable that there is a breach of trust between the police and people of color and the poor in some of Chicago's most distressed neighborhoods.

I respectfully suggest that your editorial board stop sowing division and casting blame, and instead offer constructive support for our efforts to build a better city for all Chicagoans.

Tribune's disgusting editorial on gun violence. Did McCarthy's people plant it?

City Council Black Caucus chairman Ald. Roderick Sawyer (6th), at podium, and members on Monday call for the firing of Chicago Police Supt. Garry McCarthy. | Rich Hein/Sun-Times

In August, you [aldermen] had more than 40 people shot on four consecutive weekends. In the deadliest September since 2002, you had 60 people killed. Aldermen, for too long you've avoided wearing a jacket for Chicago's mayhem. -- Tribune editorial

The Tribune's Oct. 1 editorial, Aldermen, own Chicago violence, strikes the same divisive tone as their previous ones calling for a "Mussolini-type dictator" to run the schools and for a "Katrina-like disaster" to hit Chicago.

This time though, they've actually outdone themselves, shifting blame for the dramatic rise in gun violence that has occurred during the Rahm/McCarthy years, onto black and Latino communities and their aldermen. It reads as a total ass-covering attempt for the mayor and police officials. And if you can read racist code language [substitute gang banger and terrorist for young black men] it becomes clear exactly which of the city's 50 alders the Tribune is aiming at.

The gangbangers sleep somewhere. Have you insisted that parents in your ward search their dwellings for guns?

The criminals understand that, if they don't act out too much, they can flourish in your neighborhoods because you — the supposed mayors of your 50 little cities — will not make life difficult for them, for their friends, for their parents. You could help identify the terrorists in your midst. You could organize your wards to help cops, instead of complaining about cops.

Is it just me, or does this one read like it came right out of Supt. Garry McCarthy's Office of Propaganda?

Remember, McCarthy is no stranger to juking politically-charged crime stats and trying to make it look like gun violence had suddenly and magically decreased under his watch.

From Chicago Magazine:

McCarthy called 2012’s homicide total a “tragic number” and vowed that things would be different in 2013. The mindset inside police headquarters, recalls one officer: “Whatever you gotta do, this can’t happen again.”

To help gauge each city’s overall crime level, the FBI tracks eight “index crimes.” From 1993 to 2010, Chicago’s annual total dropped by 47 percent. But from 2010 to 2013, it dropped a stunning 56 percent, or nearly 19 percent per year, according to data from the Chicago Police Department.

Garry McCarthy, who became police chief in May 2011, accomplished that huge reduction in part by changing how certain crimes are categorized. 

No one, of course, is "blaming the cops" for the gun violence epidemic, as the Trib editors charge. In fact, it's Rahm's critics like his election opponent, Chuy Garcia, who have pleaded with him to put more cops out in the neighborhoods. They've also hit Rahm for disbanding many of the city's community policing programs.

Rahm & McCarthy. They juked the crime stats. 

And as for the big dust up over the name of Spike Lee's film, Chiraq, it was basically the mayor and two of his city council yes-men, Will Burns and Anthony Beale, who were silly enough to tell Spike what to do. You can't blame the whole council for that.

And it's been Rahm who, after every high-profile shooting, comes out with media attacks directed at the black community and families for supposedly "not cooperating" with the cops. A quarter million stop-and-frisks of young African-Americans may have had something to do with that.  Trib of course, never mentions. 

But when all is said and done and election campaigns aside, more and better policing are only a small piece of the gun violence puzzle. With the collapse of community policing programs, cops role comes into play at the back end of things. There job has been directed at arresting the shooters and put them (or someone they think is them) in prison. 

So now you've got 2 million, most black and Latino males in prison -- the largest prison population in the world -- and Chicago gun violence shooting up again to record levels. 

The Tribune piece never mentions that the city is saturated with guns, crack and heroin. That there's large areas of concentrated poverty in racially segregate and isolated neighborhoods of the city where no jobs exist and where schools, clinics, and business stand boarded up.

That's a recipe for gun violence.

The Tribune's attempt to cover that up and blame the victims, rather than the real causes of gun violence deserves to be dissed. If indeed, this piece of crap journalism came from McCarthy's people, it's just another reason he needs to go.  There are plenty of others. 

WEEKEND QUOTABLES 'No confidence' in Duncan/King

"No Confidence" in Duncan/King.

Jeanette Deutermann, Public school parent and founder of Long Island Opt Out

“Throughout his term in New York, John King was notorious for his complete disconnect from parents, teachers, and school officials. His blatant disregard for concerned parents and educators fueled opt outs to historic numbers. Our only hope is that this bizarre move by the White House will have the same effect across the country, spreading the Opt Out movement to every corner of the nation.” -- NYSAPE

John King

"It's [Duncan's]an incredible agenda and I'm proud to carry it forward.” -- Politico

Pres. Obama on Duncan resignation

"He's done more to bring our education system -- sometimes kicking and screaming -- into the 21st century more than anybody else." -- CNN

Diane Ravitch

So this is what the 21st century will look like: boot camps for minorities; teachers with scripts; schools run for profit; school scams by corporations; education industry traded on Néw York stick exchange; high-yield online schools with high attrition rates; the monetization of public education. -- Blog

Randi Weingarten

...his tenure as New York state’s education commissioner created so much polarization in the state with parents and educators alike that even Gov. Andrew Cuomo is finally doing a mea culpa over the obsession with testing. We can only hope that King has learned a thing or two since his tenure in New York.” -- AFT Press Release

'NO CONFIDENCE'...

NYSUT delegates applaud following the no confidence vote against Commissioner John King on April  5, 2014. ( Photo byAnnette Konoske-Graf )

Did Duncan just feather his nest in Chicago?

So just before announcing his resignation as Sec. of Education, Arne Duncan dropped $157M on privately-run charters. $42.2M of it is coming to IL with the lion's share going to Arne's pals at Noble St. and Lawndale Educational and Regional Network.

Anybody want to predict where he'll end up when he returns to Chicago?

Duncan's grand charter give-away. Feeding the beast.

Arne Duncan has turned the D.O.E. into little more than a feeding trough for even the most corrupt and unaccountable charter school operators. His latest gift of $157M to charter privateers comes virtually accountability-free. The most stunning part is that Duncan knows and admits it, making him complicit.

"We still see too many reports of unscrupulous behavior of charter schools and their authorizers," Duncan tells reporters.

Ohio, where unscrupulous/corrupt is the name of the game and where charter operators like K12 Inc. and White Hat Management stuff millions into their own pockets, has just received another Duncan grant of more than $32M with another $40 million on the way. It's the largest single award of any state, leaving Ohio's Democratic Congressman Tim Ryan shaking his head in disbelief.

From the Washington Post:

“The charter school system in Ohio is broken and dysfunctional,” said Ryan, who sent a letter Thursday to U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan, asking him to “place stringent restrictions” on the federal dollars he is sending to Ohio. 

“There are people making a lot of money off schools,” he said. “Why would we send more money to schools now, when we know it’s going into the pockets of people?”

Rep. Tim Ryan (D-Ohio) can't believe it. 

Ryan isn't alone. Even pro-charter Republicans are blushing.

Ohio State Auditor Dave Yost, a Republican, said he was “shocked” by Duncan’s decision to pump $32 million into Ohio charters. “Heck, my first thought when I saw the grant award was concern,” Yost said.

In a special audit this year, Yost found a pattern of charter schools inflating enrollment in order to pocket taxpayer subsidies for students who don’t actually attend their schools. Yost, a supporter of charter schools, has called the state’s charter system “broken” and repeatedly urged lawmakers to pass reforms.

The Cleveland Plain Dealer reports:

It turns out that Ohio's grand plan to stop the national ridicule of its charter school system is giving overseers of many of the lowest-performing schools a pass from taking heat for some of their worst problems. 

Gov. John Kasich and both houses of the state legislature are banking on a roundabout plan to improve a $1 billion charter school industry that, on average, fails to teach kids across the state as much as the traditional schools right in their own neighborhoods.

Illinois is running second to Ohio in Duncan's grand charter give-away. Gov. Rauner's Dept. of Ed is receiving $21.1M of a recommended $42.2M with much of of it going to politically-connected Chicago operators Noble Network of Charter Schools and Lawndale Educational and Regional Network (LEARN).

This even while IL is entering its 4th month without budget. CPS schools are facing massive layoffs, exploding class size and draconian cuts to special education and after-school programs.

Last week 42 out of 50 Chicago alderman called for a moratorium on charter school expansion.

Duncan continues to the beast.

The 'Cone of Uncertainty' and other random notes...

The Cone of Uncertainty

We were heading out for D.C. this morning and then on to the Bethany Beach. We turned around. Lucky we checked the weather. I always thought the "Cone of Uncertainty" was a research/risk-management term 'til I heard Al Roker use it yesterday. I always called it, The Black Swan after Nassim Taleb's book of the same name.

This morning, I'm CERTAIN that Jauquin has the same travel plans as we do. Note to my old high school friend, Floyd at UM. I'll take a rain check on that beer.

Jake in Wauwatosa

Poll: There's 2 guys, Reggie and Bob, in Green Bay, Agnes in Oskosh, and Crazy Jake the exterminator in Wauwatosa, who still support Walker. -- Politico

Chiraq...After 14 people were shot here yesterday in just 15 hours, including an 11-month-old boy and a 2-year-old boy, the mayor jumps out and says gun laws must "reflect the values of the people". All this had me harking back to '09 when Rahm, while serving as Obama’s chief of staff, told AG Eric Holder to “shut the f--k up” on his proposed assault weapons ban. 

Speaking of Rahm, his boy Forrest Claypool ran a board hearing on charter expansion yesterday, that was shady enough to do the mayor and his predecessors proud. Critics were barred from entry and even run out of the hallways, while the room was stacked with Noble charter supporters. Final score: 86 speakers for Noble St. 10 for anti-expansion. 

Note to Sen. Warren...If you're serious about exposing think-tankers who are on the take from Wall Street, call me. I've got names and addresses. 

“Big oil companies shouldn’t be able to peddle phony research on climate change, and the financial industry shouldn’t be able to support phony economics hiding behind a think tank. People expect think tanks to be independent in the research they produce, and the fact that more and more of their work is funded by wealthy corporate interests — often in secret — further tilts the playing field for those with money and power.” -- Lacey Rose, a Warren spokeswoman.

SpEd cuts delayed? If you don't hit it, it won't fall

At yesterday's board meeting... Parent Wendy Katten of Raise you hand says, "My son's school lost four positions, they have no change in their enrollment there. You are going to face lawsuits."

At least one Board member (Jesse Ruiz?) apparently agrees with Wendy. He mutters into a hot mic -- "Yes we will." Look for him to be called on the carpet today by Rahm's people who will remind him to "speak when we tell you to speak."

Ald. Scott Waguespack (32nd) appeared on the parents’ behalf to offer a mild threat in language he thought the board could appreciate.

“These children need more assistance, not less,” he said, adding that “the lawsuits that will rain down” on the board by special ed parents will cost more than the cuts are projected to save.

Slick CEO Claypool is feeling the heat and moves to cover his ass. Now he's saying that CPS says it will delay the cuts until it "reevaluates every school's needs". A small victory. Shows that if you hit it hard enough, it will fall.

Cielo Muñoz, a special education teacher at Penn Elementary, described how the school security guard is now pitching in to change diapers. “Students are not getting the services they need,” she said after the board meeting. “I have three students with wheelchairs,” Munoz tells the Sun-Times. “They need diaper changes. Some of them are not verbal.”

ABC7...

"These teachers are going to be taken, but these students will still be there without the service," says Troy LaRaviere, principal of Blaine Elementary. LaRaviere says if the cuts go through, he will lose four Special Ed positions.

Others took their concerns to the school board today, including Special Ed teacher Sarah Chambers. "My school lost a position over the summer now we are not able to cover our students' legally-required minutes," Chambers says.

Winston jukes stats. Ignores CPS's own report on SpEd needs.

CPS is juking the stats again...In justifying new cuts to special education, the head of the CPS Office of Diverse Learner Supports and Services, Markay Winston, tells the Board that there are 3,000 fewer special needs kids than there were a year ago.

But Melissa Sanchez at Catalyst writes:

Winston ignored one critical fact. According to CPS's own reports, district staff typically identify, during the course of a year, about 3,000 new students who need special services. That means the number of so-called “diverse learners” typically rises by about 3,000 by the end of the school year.

“They trot out numbers like this to give the sense that the district is losing students, and having a decline in the need for services … when their own reports shows that special education enrollment jumps up about 6 percent on average during the school year,” says Pavlyn Jankov, a researcher at the Chicago Teachers Union. “It’s completely part of their framing to justify cuts, but this is just a blatant lie.”

This is part of a pattern. Rahm's crew continues to use the whitenizing of Chicago and the forced outward migration of black families as a rational for cutting services to schools and communities.

If you are parent of a special needs student, Claypool says to contact CPS if you don't think your child is getting his or her services.

Don't worry, Forrest. We will.

Sun-Times columnist Mark Brown who is hot on the case, adds: "Another option would be to contact me."

#Cpsboard now no longer allows people who sign up to speak if THEY think the topic is similar to someone else's.

— Martin Ritter (@MartinLRitter) September 29, 2015

Mentions that BOE changed rules today to limit speakers. Unelected Boe only accountable to one person.

— Raise Your Hand (@ILRaiseYourHand) September 29, 2015

Is Rahm looking for a war on special ed?

As the grandparent of a CPS student with special needs, my message to the mayor is -- if it's a battle you want, it's a battle you'll get.

Our autocrat at City Hall appears bent on dismembering special education in Chicago by a thousand cuts. SpEd took its first major deep cut over the summer eliminating 500 positions at CPS. More cuts announced late Friday mean approximately 160 schools would lose special education teachers, while 184 would lose aides.

Rahm has put his bureaucrats and principals on radio silence regarding the latest cuts, says DNAInfo's Heather Cherone. 

CPS officials declined to answer repeated inquires from DNAinfo Chicago reporters Monday about the formula — apparently based on enrollment figures also released Friday evening — used to make those cuts, and ordered principals not to speak with reporters trying to figure out what the cuts would mean for special education students in neighborhoods throughout Chicago.

Originally, principals were given to the end of the day Monday to appeal the cuts, which sent parents scrambling on social media to figure out if their children's schools would have enough staff to meet the requirements of each student's specialized education plan.

The latest round of cuts, coming weeks after the start of the school year, further destabilize the schools (could it get any worse?), expand class size, and disrupt the lives of the system's neediest students and families -- the ones who need stability the most. Principals are outraged. But will more than a courageous few speak out? Doubtful.

I just woke up…. had bad dream that CPS decided to cut special education positions after the school year started.

— James Gray (@PrincipalGray) September 27, 2015

News of the cuts "exploded across social media", says Cherone, with Wendy Katten, the co-founder of parent-advocacy group Raise Your Hand, leading the charge on Facebook. Katten is worried that only those schools where parents are able/willing to sue will get some of these positions back.

Nathan Pietrini, principal of Hawthorne Scholastic Academy in Lakeview tells WBEZ:

“No one told principals this was happening. All the sudden, I had five special ed teachers. Now, I’ve got three.”

Blaine Principal Troy LaRaviere (my choice for next mayor of Chicago), who was chastised last month for criticizing the mayor and CPS, writes:

“Adjustments” is CPS’ latest euphemism for cuts to student services. If they keep it up, they’re going to “adjust” students out of their education entirely. CEO Forrest Claypool often repeats a talking point that the cuts CPS will “have to make” are “unconscionable.” If one thinks the cuts are “unconscionable” then one does not give those cuts a false euphamistic name like “right-sizing.” 

It also could put CPS in violation of federal law. Look for a wave of lawsuits and expensive legal battles (a re-run of Corey H?) to follow, wiping out any potential savings gained from the layoffs.

Billions in federal special-ed dollars flow to school districts and federal law requires public schools to meet the needs of all students with learning difficulties and to do so without isolating them from other children.

Rod Estvan, education policy analyst at the disability-rights group Access Living, predicts there will be fewer special education teachers to support the regular classroom teachers, which could lead to more students in isolated classrooms. If that’s the case, the district could end up out of compliance with federal law.

“They’ll be penalized by the federal government on next year’s allocation for federal dollars for  (special education). They’ll have even less money to function.”

 Without substantial funding coming from the State, as many as 5,000 more teachers could lose their jobs later this year.

CTU's Jesse Sharkey, on Chicago Tonight, says:

"Virtually every student will experience chaos as every school in the city will need to be reprogrammed in the middle of the school year. The educational experience of our students would be gravely damaged in ways that go beyond those immediate frontline layoffs."

SPEAKING OF EXPENSIVE LEGAL BATTLES...The Sun-Times reports that The Board will likely hire Ronald Marmer as its new lead attorney for the district who apparently has no public sector experience and has donated nearly $30,000 to CEO Forrest Claypool's past campaigns.

Estvan: restoring 60 positions already indicates this audit that was done was not correct. Something is WRONG. #cpsboard

— WBEZeducation (@WBEZeducation) August 26, 2015

WEEKEND QUOTABLES

Mercedes Schneider

America needs less of Pearson. A lot less. -- Deutsch29

NEA president Lily Eskelsen Garcia

“I don’t know anyone who doesn’t think Arne is decent and honest,” says National Education Association president Lily Eskelsen Garcia, whose union has called for Duncan to resign. “But his reforms are so ridiculous, he’s uniting teachers, PTA’s, principals, everyone. We’re writing each other’s talking points!” -- Politico: Arne Duncan Wars

Rosenbaum

R.I.P Terry Rosenbaum

“My goal was to be a teacher of history in the New York City high schools. Which I did. I loved teaching.” -- NYT: Teacher Who Was Fired After Defying McCarthy, Dies at 97

Bob Quellos, one of the founders of No Games Chicago 

“They were there early, they were bulky guys, and they just didn’t fit the activist profile.” -- THE WATCHDOGS: Spy cops: Chicago police routinely spied on protesters

Rebecca Sibilia, CEO of Edbuild

“When you think of bankruptcy … this is a huge opportunity. Bankruptcy is not a problem for kids; bankruptcy is a problem for the people governing the system, right? So, when a school district goes bankrupt all of their legacy debt can be eliminated . . . Look, if we can eliminate that in an entire urban system, then we can throw all the cards up in the air, and redistribute everything with all new models. You’ve heard it first: bankruptcy might be the thing that leads to the next education revolution.” -- PR Watch

We need to end 'regurgitation education' now https://t.co/I6rhn790PN

— John Merrow (@John_Merrow) September 28, 2015

Student debt tripled after passage of @VP Biden-backed bill to help Wall St prevent students from reducing their debt http://t.co/cgjXVBo6WC

— David Sirota (@davidsirota) September 28, 2015

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."

Gen. Tata led the efforts to re-segregate Wake County schools. But now...

Gen. Tata with his pal Palin. 

Remember Brigadier Gen.Tony Tata?

He was fast friends with Sarah Palin and Michelle Rhee's second in command in D.C. who then became the superintendent who led the school re-segregation initiative in Wake County, North Carolina.

For some reason, it became trendy a few years ago, to appoint former generals and colonels as school leaders. We did it here in Chicago when Rahm Emanuel appointed Marine Col. Tim Tyrrell and paid him $180,000/year to run his mass school-closing operation. Tyrrell also was charged with selling or finding new uses for closed school buildings, a project that so far has failed miserably.

BUT BACK TO TATA...After mass protests by the NAACP and court actions, the school board finally was forced to fire Tata. But he was then appointed by Tea Party fave, Gov. Pat McCrory to head of the State Dept. of Transportation.

Col. Tyrrell resigned in January.

It was Tata’s credentials as military man that helped him land the superintendent's job and become state transportation secretary, and the retired general continues to trade on his military experience as a TV news commentator and the author of action thrillers. But it turns out, Tata’s Army career included phony court order, at least 2 affairs, according to the News&Observer.

After Tata decided in June 2008 to retire from the Army, Pentagon officials were still asking questions about a mysterious, phony court document he had given investigators in 2007. An Army probe found that Tata had committed adultery with “at least two” women during his career, court and military records show. The adultery complaint against Tata involved affairs with three women and a son born out of wedlock.

Tata resigned as Department of Transportation secretary suddenly in July, citing the needs of his family and the demands of his burgeoning side career. He said he was considering a run for Congress.

According to Army investigators rejected Tracy Tata’s complaint that her ex-husband had failed to meet his court-ordered obligation to support their daughter, based on evidence in the general’s favor -- a court order that criticized Tracy for willfully burdening Tony with medical bills that “need not have been incurred at all” because Brooke qualified for free military health care.

But this court order turned out to be a fake. Military and court officials agreed later that someone had forged the signatures of two lawyers and the Georgia judge.

It remains a mystery.

Tyrell resigned from CPS in January to pursue an unspecified "opportunity in public service."

Pushing Chicago's poor out of the city. Who will stand up to Rahm Emanuel's death budget?

At last night's Progressive Caucus community forum in Logan Square, Caucus members and community groups spoke out against Rahm's austerity budget and massive property tax increase. 

Will enough typically spineless Chicago Alders finally find their way out of Rahm's pocket to push back on his draconian budget proposal? Doubtful.

There are 11 members of the City Council progressive caucus who generally don’t side with the mayor on fiscal policy (including Arena); an 18-member aldermanic black caucus that plays nice with Emanuel but doesn’t back the garbage-fee proposal; and a handful of Hispanic aldermen, including Ald. Roberto Maldonado, who think the mayor’s budget proposal, as it stands, well, stinks. -- Mark Konkol, DNAInfo

Rahm's strategy, like his predecessor Daley's, includes selling off or privatizing everything that's not nailed down. Closing schools and getting rid of public space also weakens unions and public decision making.

His idea of privatizing the 311 call center came in his 2016 budget address, saying it would save the city "about a million dollars a year" to replace union workers with outside contractors. It was one of the few pieces of actual news Tuesday, after the mayor's administration had spent the past week dribbling out many of their financial proposals for the coming year. -- John Byrne, Tribune  

His budget proposal includes an unprecedented increase in property taxes and fees which will hit hardest on the poor (renters), the middle class whose incomes can't keep pace with increases on assessed home values, and those on fixed income (retirees and disabled). The wealthiest and the connected who pay the same tax rate as the working poor, will be fine.

How about a Mansion Tax like they have in N.Y., on sales of homes valued at over a million bucks? Fat chance.

As usual, it will be Rahm's cronies, his big campaign donors and downtown developers who will reap super-profits off the plan. The new budget represents another huge transfer of wealth from the poor to the wealthiest.

Planned DePaul basketball arena.

The [DePaul basketball] arena, which was announced about a week before City Hall closed 49 public schools in 2013, has been controversial since it was proposed. City Hall approved $55 million in tax-increment financing funds towards the Marriott hotel... -- David Matthews, DNAInfo

The net result is the continued the whitenizing of Chicago, (already the 7th most expensive city in the world to live in) and the continued push of the poor out of the city.

Behind Rauner's call to 'end unfunded mandates'

Rauner and Smith

Unfunded mandates. I hate 'em. Schools and school districts hate 'em.

It didn't take our demagogic, education-know-nothing governor, with help from his much-smarter State Supt. Tony Smith, very long to figure that out and issue a call to end all unfunded mandates -- which these days virtually means ALL mandates.

Former Oakland supt. Smith is a veteran of the old Coalition of Essential Schools and founder Ted Sizer's less-is-more philosophy. In Oakland, he talked the Sizer Essential Schools talk in order to close public schools, fire teachers, and replace them with privately-run charters in their place.

Sizer's progressive vision, expressed beautifully in his book, Horace's Compromise (a seminal text and must-read, especially for high school educators) was about smaller schools (including charters) and classrooms which were more like learning communities than shopping malls, where skilled teachers were empowered to make the most important educational decisions (and yes, compromise between what's nice and possible), to teach and not just test, and where students could engage in meaningful learning based on their interests and experience.

For Sizer, who served as dean of Harvard's Ed School, less-is-more was never about union-busting or forcing schools to choose between basic necessities because of draconian state budget cuts to public education. It was never about austerity and do-more-with-less.

For Rauner/Smith that's exactly what the call to abolish mandates means. Rauner wants nothing less than to privatize all public space and eliminate civil rights protections and public employee unions altogether.

Yes, let's get rid of unfunded mandates like, Rahm Emanuel's longer school day, like Common Core and PARCC testing madness. But we need to keep mandates that ensure student safety, special education, ELL, class size ceilings, caps on charters, and school desegregation as well as all other fundamental civil and human rights -- including teachers' right to bargain collectively with elected school boards.

The response to necessary, but unfunded, mandates, should be to adequately fund them, not abolish them.

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

Good riddance, Tim Cawley. Champion of privatization and disinvestment in neighborhood schools.

Fred Klonsky

Good riddance to Tim Cawley, the very worst of Rahm's army of CPS bureaucrats who's gone from Number 2 honcho under Byrd-Bennett, to under the bus. I hope readers won't remember that I predicted his demise two years ago. Wishful thinking, I suppose. He's even outlasted the guy I thought would replace him back in 2013 -- Marine Col. Tim Tyrrell, who engineered the mass school closings.

It was Rahm who allowed Cawley to skirt the residency requirement, much to the chagrin of the CPS Inspector General. He commutes from Winnetka and was somehow given a special waiver while other staffers and teachers were fired for violating the residency rule.

More importantly, he was the architect of the privatization of school janitorial services, a scheme that has left hundreds of CPS staff without jobs and many buildings ankle-deep in trash and principals screaming for mercy (Where were you, SEIU?).

Thanks, Tim Cawley

It was Cawley's mismanagement of the Aramark privatization deal that left the district on the hook for some $20 million more to Aramark than promised, essentially wiping out the $18 million Cawley said the district would save in the deal's first year. A bad deal all around.

It was Cawley who became the main cheerleader for disinvestment in neighborhood schools and replacing them with privately-run charters. These were the very policies that led to the closing of Dyett High School and the current hunger strike by parents and Bronzeville community activists.

Back in 2011 he told the Tribune:

 "If we think there's a chance that a building is going to be closed in the next five to 10 years, if we think it's unlikely it's going to continue to be a school, we're not going to invest in that building... We believe that we get more bang for our capital investment buck when we couple it with a program change in the building."

Cawley also came up with the brilliant idea of having CPS borrow $500 million from the Teachers Retirement Fund in order to pay the fund the billions it still owes because of pension holidays.

He's an old AUSL guy which makes this story timely indeed. Wednesday, it was announced that the group is once again the target of lawsuits over its "ongoing pattern and practice of systemic race discrimination".

It seems Cawley's problem at CPS is -- he's not part of Forrest Claypool's trusted inner circle, especially now that Rahm's new schools boss has brought over his loyalists from the CTA like old pal Ronald DeNard, who's pulling down $225,000-a-year from our broke-on-purpose school system.

BTW, DeNard lives in suburban Flossmoor.

Remember, this is all about the kids.

Hey Tim -- Don't let the revolving door hit you in the ass on the way out.

HUNGER STRIKE, DAY 32 -- 70% fail PARCC exam. Duncan calls it 'telling the truth'

Test results for IL's 2,000,000 students have plummeted to their lowest point in a decade. They purport to show nearly 70% of them failing the PARCC. Pearson will deliver the rest of the test results on Monday and then it will take the state board two more weeks to check the data. But the results were a foregone conclusion long before the tests were given.

Rauner's schools chief Tony Smith, whistling past the graveyard.

"I think the promise of PARCC is greater than the promise of most of the other assessments we’ve ever had. Kids can test to the edge of their knowledge."

Arne Duncan agrees...

"It actually doesn't concern me at all. What Illinois and many other states are doing is finally telling the truth." (EdWeek)

Yes, the truth. Duncan doesn't even have to see the numbers to know that they tell the truth. In fact, numbers only confuse him.


DAY 32 of the Dyett hunger strike. Don't miss Carol Marin's excellent interview with hunger strikers Jitu Brown and Anna Jones.

Jitu on Facebook says that hunger strikers are meeting with CPS leadership over the next few days. He will keep us posted.

Here's an Open Letter to Alderman Will Burns on the Dyett Hunger Strike from Julie Woestehoff, former Executive Director of Parents United for Responsible Education (PURE)

KOCO’s decision to sponsor a hunger strike is a reflection of their extreme frustration with you and other education policy makers. The fact that several members of your community have been willing to put their lives on the line to join them, and that others are actively supporting them, suggests that many share this frustration.

You can join the hunger strikers & NBC National Nightly News on a peaceful vigil to Obama's home, beginning at Dyett 555 E 51st, at 6 P.M. ‪#‎FightForDyett‬

After all the wasted test-prep hours and Common Core testing madness...

"We've been writing and meeting with ISBE officials for over two years to stop this madness. We've told them that our technology isn't ready, our Common Core curriculum isn't ready and the test will be hurting kids," said Argo Community High School District 217 Superintendent Kevin O'Mara, who also is president of the Illinois High School District Organization.

The results from last spring's PARRC exams are dismal by anyone's standards.

No, your eyes aren't deceiving you. Statewide, even counting the wealthy high-scoring districts, selective-enrollment schools and privately-run charters, we're seeing single digits (2% of 3rd graders, 5% of high school students) in numbers of kids exceeding expected measurable outcomes in language arts/literacy. Nearly 70% fail rate across the state.

I'm still waiting to see how this breaks out in Chicago and by race and special ed. 

Millions of dollars spent on Common Core and PARRC testing (you're welcome Pearson). Thousands of classroom hours diverted away from teaching/learning and into testing and test prep. School districts threatened with loss of funding if parents opted-out. Teachers evaluated, paid, promoted and fired, using skewed value-added formulas based on students' test scores. And most importantly, nearly all of Illinois' 2 million students set up for failure.

The fallout could be disastrous. Early test failure usually leads to more kids dropping out. Chicago's school population is already down 100,000 students from a year ago.  

This is what decades of corporate-style "reform" and years of No Child Left Behind and Race To The Top has left us with. Thank you Margaret Spellings and Arne Duncan. 

This isn't about failing schools or bad teachers. It's about a failed system with failed leadership. It's also about rising conditions of concentrated child and family poverty and the under-funding of schools.

Rauner's new state schools chief, Tony Smith, thinks this is all great. "A new baseline" he says, with the admonition that the scores should not be used to "shame or punish". Where has he been these past two decades? That's all they've been used for. 

Parents who opted-out were spot on. Subjecting children to hours of standardized testing when everyone knew the game was rigged, served no educative purpose. It's too bad there weren't more. Maybe next time there will be enough to stop the gears from turning. 

Let's get behind Rep. Guzzardi's Opt-Out bill. 

PARCC test does just what is intended - set students, teachers up to fail (STATEMENT) http://t.co/Am4lhHUAiC

— ChicagoTeachersUnion (@CTULocal1) September 16, 2015

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.