True 'grit'

The next of my fellow academics who mentions the word "grit" to me is going to feel the wrath of my electric sander on their behind. This latest in a long line ed clichés, has become the buzzword du jour of the no-excuses, corporate school reformers like University of Pennsylvania psychologist Angela Duckworth, who claim that grit is the critical ingredient to academic success. The notion was popularized in Paul Tough's book, How Children Succeed and has become the 2014 version of telling poor kids to pull themselves up by their own bootstraps. 

Thanks to Pedro Noguera and Anindya Kundu for this gritty response the other day on MSNBC.

More often than not, we discuss disparities in student performance in isolation from other factors that contribute to them, such as inequity in per pupil spending. If instead of posing the problem as an “achievement gap” which reinforces the idea that individual effort is the key factor determining differences in outcomes, we acknowledged it as an “opportunity gap,” we might do much more to address the disparities that limit the ability of children to learn.

Social science research has consistently shown that public school students with higher-income parents are likelier to attain higher levels of education than their lower-income peers. The United States continues to have the highest income inequality among first-world nations, and all the grit in the world will not change that. -- "Why students need more than ‘grit’".

KIPP charter in New Orleans

If Duckworth's name sounds familiar to readers of this blog, it's because I mentioned her in a post last December which focused on her boss, Martin Seligman, director of Penn's Positive Psychology Center, and the guru behind KIPP Charter Schools. Seligman's positive-psychology experiments were also used by the Bush Administration to develop its so-called advanced interrogation techniques used at Guantanamo.

These behavior-modification theories, now being applied to the field of ed reform as well as GITMO's torture chambers, have little in common with the philosophy of  John Dewey and other progressives who often focused on encouraging intellectual freedom and fostering creative intelligence, self-discipline, and social ethic necessary for students to find a meaningful and productive place within both their local community and the world. It was largely these ideas which drove the early small-schools movement of the 1990s.

That's not what the new grit-ists have in mind.

Was Rahm lying about a deal with Preckwinkle?

Last week's interview with S-T City Hall reporter Fran Spielman, Rahm claimed Toni Preckwinkle has promised him that she won't run against him.

“She has said that and I believe she’s a person of her word. … I believe she’s not running.

I wrote (prophetically?) :  "If he's telling the truth (big if)..." A big IF indeed. Now Preckwinkle's people are denying that she ever made such a promise. Check out this interview with Spielman and other reporters on CST-TV.

Spielman...

Her political people sent different signals and said, no she didn't really say that.  She basically told him, I don't really like you, but I'm focused on my job... The problem is, she needs to be re-elected first. She can't talk about anything else. After the election, if there's a draft movement already starting, then she can turn right around and pull a Rich Daley like he did in '88.

The Reader's Mick Dumke...

I saw this as Rahm's attempt to put her in a corner.

FOX 32  Political Editor Mike Flannery says Rahm fears Toni...

Public employee union leaders tell me, they say flatly, that she's going to run. And one of these people tell me that in the polling they've done, Preckwinkle wins the wipe-out. In a head-to-head with Mayor Emanuel, clobbers him.

Spielman...

Remember the one thing he has is money and he has a ton of it. He already has $6 million. But what is the one thing that trumps money? Movement. And if you get 80% of the black vote or 90% of the black vote, running to the polls in a Harold Washington-style movement, you have the potential, if she splits the lakefront, gets her piece of the northwest side and soutwest side, which she will because there's police and fire there who don't like Rahm Emanuel, she has the potential to win. 

Dumke then points out Preckwinkle's opportunist alliance with Cook County political boss Joe Berrios, which I don't think will help her much in the Latino communities. Let's see if he can even get his own daughter elected. I'm betting on union-backed Will Guzzardi to defeat her.

All in all, it's still too early to sort out this mess. But one thing for sure. Rahm is running scared.

Oh mama, can this really be the end...?

Sens. McConnell & Coburn at CPAC

Now the senator came down here
Showing ev’ryone his gun
Handing out free tickets
To the wedding of his son

-- Bob Dylan

Murphy's Law...Rahm's joke...DFER's $$$

A good question
Georgia parent asks Pres. Obama, "Why don’t private schools adopt your test-based school reforms?" -- Washington Post

Murphy's Law
Jim Broadway, who publishes Illinois School News Service, has a good post on voucher supporter, Matt Murphy's (R-Palatine) bill SB 3533, that would supposedly "give public school students a choice of who will teach them - a teacher in their local schools or a "provider" in a remote location, even in another state." The bill, which is not likely to pass, is backed by ALEC.

Jim refers to my blog when describing ALEC. Thanks Jim.

 You've read my views about ALEC before. Here's how Mike Klonsky, one of my favorite bloggers, sees ALEC: 

"The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) represents the most reactionary, anti-people, anti-teacher, racist sector of the corporate establishment.... They are strongly anti-union and have pushed legislation nationally to dis-empower teacher unions and take away collective bargaining rights of all public employees."

[Okay, if you clicked the link on Klonsky's name you might have read the thrashing Mike gave to Sen. Kirk Dillard, whom we have endorsed for the Republican gubernatorial nomination. Mike makes good points, but we'll stick with Kirk.]

When Jim says "we have endorsed", I think that's the Royal We, not any organization. I understand Jim.

DFER union busters headed for Chicago
Crain's reports, the privatizers are coming in with a big wad of bills ($1 million+) to try knock out the  few progressives on the City Council and anyone else critical of charter school expansion.

The organization had been all but moribund since it was formed in 2011, but suddenly has kicked its fund-raising into high gear, pulling in $60,000 in the past two weeks, including donations from industrialist Jim Crown and his wife Paula Crown, Jennifer Steans from the politically active Steans clan, and the Texas-based Arnold Foundation.

Jay Travis

DFER is also bankrolling Christian Mitchell's campaign against progressive Jay Travis in the 26th Dist. Rep race. Mitchell has already taken money from the corporate "reform" group, Stand For Children.

You can stand up to these creeps by casting an early vote for Jay if you reside in the district and sending a check even if you don't.

Check your watch, deBlasio.

Rahm's joke?
At Axelrod's conference at the U of C, L.A.'s Garcetti, getting in a plug for his city's mild weather, joked that he touched Chicago's snow — which he said hurt — and wasn't sure what it was.

"It's water," Emanuel deadpanned in a reference to California's drought. "We'll sell it to you at a big price." 

Garcetti goes, "he he" but knowing Rahm, whose famous line is, "Never let a serious crisis go to waste", he must have been wondering, was that a joke?

Run Robert, Run!

In Monday's interview with Fran Spielman, Rahm claims Toni Preckwinkle has promised him that she won't run against him in 2015.

Emanuel says he takes Preckwinkle at her word, even though she’s been the most outspoken critic of the mayor’s school closings, charter openings, school budget cuts and the seven-day teachers strike that Emanuel’s bullying missteps helped to instigate. 

“She has said that and I believe she’s a person of her word. … I believe she’s not running.

If he's telling the truth (big if) that appears to leave Ald. Bob Fioretti as the only viable candidate standing in the way of the mayor's re-election. Fioretti has been the leader of the City Council's Progressive Caucus and an outspoken critic of the mayor's, especially on school closings. That alone should gain him lots of support, not only from teachers and north-side parents, but on the city's south and west sides where there's growing anger in the black community over Rahm's school closings, lack of community development, and massive cuts in social services.

But in a low turn-out election, can Fioretti stand up to Rahm's $6 million (and growing) campaign war chest, even with backing from the CTU and other public employee unions? Can he somehow emerge as Chicago's Bill de Blasio? It's hard to say but worth a try. It will certainly take a strong, independent community-based movement, led by labor, of the sort that drove the New York election.

One factor that may make Rahm vulnerable, aside from the fact that most Chicagoans dislike him and think he's an ass (my informal tavern poll) is the widening split between him and the Daley clan. Since Emanuel took office three years ago, he has continually complained about the mess he inherited when he was elected to succeed Rich Daley. He does it again in the Spielman interview.



S-T's Dan Mihalopoulus reports that former Mayor Richard M. Daley’s brother Michael and his recently hired law partner, Mara Georges attended Fioretti's fund-raiser last week. Michael Daley was one of the city’s busiest zoning lawyers during his brother Rich’s reign

CTU Pres. Karen Lewis was the main speaker at the event.

One fundraiser attendee, leaning his head across the room in the direction of Michael Daley and Georges, said, “I’m still trying to get my head around that."

Me too.

 Although he’s received some contributions from Michael Daley’s firm in the past, Fioretti acknowledges he too was surprised to see one of the former mayor’s brothers breakfasting with his supporters and writing a check that could go toward trying to unseat Emanuel next year.

 For almost a year, Lewis has pined loudly for someone to beat Emanuel in 2015. Fioretti won’t rule out doing that, saying he’ll decide in the next two to three months.

Daley and Georges were asked what they thought of Karen's speech.

 “I was very impressed,” Georges said. “She is very articulate ... a very good speaker.”

Georges wouldn’t comment, though, on what she thought of Lewis’ viewpoints. The union leader’s remarks at the Fioretti event featured a call “to change the political landscape" here.

Yes, let's change it. Run Robert, run!

Rahm -- 'I don't want to be a phony'

Nixon -- "I am not a crook"

Whenever a politician begins by saying something like Richard Nixon did -- "I am not a crook"--you immediately know that they are crooked. When Rahm Emanuel begins his Sun-Times interview with Fran Spielman by saying, "I don't want to be a phony..." well, you get my point.

I mean, how's this for phony?

"Trust me, I don’t want to close schools."

 "I have a lot [union] support..." 

“It’s not that I’m polarizing [or]…not polarizing.'

"I don't want to be a phony"

"CTA never had any of the problems that other mass transit systems had — not just here, but around the country."

"And our streets were plowed and  passable — not just for police and fire, but for everybody." 

"Bruce [Rauner] and I are friends, [but I] totally disagree with him 100 percent on policy...He didn’t help me. We worked on a transaction together. We worked on a SecurityLink transaction. ... We developed a friendship from there. But, we disagree with things... I’m helping Gov. Quinn."

Then he essentially takes credit for electing Bill Clinton, Barack Obama and Nancy Pelosi and he implies that he's cut a deal with Toni Preckwinkle with her promising not to run against him in 2015. We'll have to see if he's phony or real on that one.

A SmallTalk Salute... goes out to the CTU for not going along with IFT Pres. Dan Montgomery's endorsement and praise of the man from ALEC, Kirk Dillard, in the Republican governor's race. According to CTU Communications:

 The decision to endorse the Hinsdale legislator who once served as state chair of the anti-labor American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), was made on Friday by the IFT but not the CTU.

Currently, the CTU is heavily invested in two local races. In the 26th legislative district the union fully supports community organizer Jhatayn "Jay" Travis, former executive director of the Kenwood Oakland Community Organization, who has a long and successful track record of standing up for working families.  In addition, CTU has endorsed Will Guzzardi in the 39th legislative district who has demonstrated a strong commitment to our issues.

Listen to Mike Klonsky and Julian Vasquez Heilig on Rag Radio in Austin, TX

Rag Radio: Fighting for Public Education with Julian Vasquez Heilig & Mike Klonsky (February 28, 2014)

Julian Vasquez Heilig and Mike Klonsky join Thorne Dreyer in discussing our endangered public education system, the nature and genesis of the flawed "educational reform" movement, and ideas about how public schools can be improved and can be saved from privatization.

Vasquez Heilig hosted the Network for Public Education's first National Conference, held March 1- 2, 2014, on the campus of the University of Texas at Austin. Mike Klonsky moderated a panel on "Movement Building" at the gathering of leading public education activists. The group was founded by noted author and educational policy analyst Diane Ravitch in 2013, and has become a prominent voice in the education reform debate.

CTU Press Release

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                                                  CONTACT: Stephanie Gadlin

 312/329-6250

CPS USES ‘FEAR TACTICS’ TO SLOW ISAT BOYCOTT

Teachers continue bold and moral stance against unnecessary low-stakes test

CHICAGO—The Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) this week continues its steadfast support of the teachers at Saucedo Scholastic Academy and Thomas Drummond Montessori School who are boycotting the Illinois Standards Achievement Test (ISAT), but is extremely concerned about the ever-growing confusion generated by Chicago Public Schools (CPS) in its communication to parents regarding their opt-out rights. Thousands of parents across the city have chosen to opt their children out of the ISAT, and as the number of opt-out decisions increase, the district is creating mass chaos in homes with dishonesty and outright lies.

CPS has not only attempted to ignore parent opt-out letters, but at some schools, staffers have suggested that parents themselves volunteer to supervise students who have been opted out of the ISAT. At other schools, the district is stating that it is the choice of the student—and not the parent–to opt out, and in one of the most egregious actions, Local School Council members were told that they would have to pay a fine if students were opted out of the exam and their schools would lose federal funding.  The confusion was spread through as many as five, robo calls to Saucedo and Drummond parents over the weekend.

“This culture of confusion and disinformation is nothing new for CPS, but they sadly have found a way to take it to the next level,” said CTU VP Jesse Sharkey. “At a time when parents are taking an active stand to guide the course of their children’s education, the district responds with threats and fear tactics as it works to hinder the process in any way it can.

“Who decides what’s best for students—testing companies and bureaucrats or their parents and teachers,” Sharkey said, noting the Illinois Federation of Teachers and the American Federation of Teachers have voiced support for the boycott.

The district also continues to threaten educators who boycott the ISAT, but the CTU remains united in its support of these teachers during this critically important time. Joining the union are more than 120 university educators nationwide who have signed a letter of support for the teachers at Saucedo and Drummond taking a stand against standardized testing. “We understand assessment as the process of gathering evidence about learning, from multiple sources, so that teachers can better support student learning,” the letter stated. “The ISAT, in contrast, contributes virtually nothing.”

The CTU will be on hand at both school campuses on Tuesday to support educators who refuse to administer the ISAT, despite district threats.

###

WEEKEND QUOTABLES

CTU Pres. Karen Lewis asks NPE conferees, "If you support the [test-boycotting] teachers at Saucedo & Drummond, stand up and say aye."

Diane Ravitch 

"A for-profit public school is an oxymoron." -- Speech at NPE Conference

Mark Woods

I’m not even sure where to begin. But let’s start with the music, P.E. and art teachers. Each had a negative VAM score, based largely on student tests in subjects that they don’t even teach. Beyond that obvious flaw, there is seemingly overlooked value of simply having elements of music, P.E. and art... Florida x VAM = SHAM. -- Florida Times Union

Ben Joravsky

 Wait—another update! Teachers at Drummond Elementary—located on the north side—just voted not to give the ISAT. Despite B3's ultimatum. Oh, no. The rebellion's spreading. What's an all-powerful mayor to do?... Here's what you should do, Mr. Mayor. Stick to Polar Plunges with Jimmy Fallon and leave the schools alone. Haven't you learned? Every time you intervene, you only make things worse. -- Chicago Reader

Dawn Neely-Randall, a 24-year veteran teacher in Ohio

But I have to tell you, school just isn’t for children anymore. -- Washington Post

Byrd-Bennett goes postal. Boycott movement grows.

Nice flight down to Austin this morning. It seemed like half the plane (slight exaggeration) was filled with Chicago, NPE Conference goers.  Hilarious -- there was $8 Wi-Fi available on Southwest and next thing I knew everyone on the plane was checking in on FB. I wound up sitting next to old friend Mike Charney, former Pres. of the Cleveland Teachers Union. Thanks Mike, for making the flight seem a lot shorter.

News out of Chicago is both grim and hopeful. Grim because schools CSO Byrd-Bennett has gone postal over the growing teacher/parent ISAT test boycott. She is threatening to yank certification (end the teaching career) of any teacher who takes part in the boycott or even (get this) "any employee who encourages a student not to take the ISAT or who advocates against the ISAT on work time." The Mayor wasted no time is backing up this idiocy, telling the press, "CPS simply cannot allow teachers to do their own thing."

In the words of the late Warren Zevon, "Send lawyers, guns and money. The shit has hit the fan."

At Saucedo this afternoon

Hopeful, because today, teachers at a second school, Drummond, have joined the boycott and as I'm writing, the streets around Saucedo Elementary, where the current boycott began, are filled with angry protesters calling for BBB's head and for citywide support against threatened recession.

I'm fantasizing about thousands of teachers chanting, "I am Spartacus." Here at the NPE Conference, I'm hoping for a resolution backing Chicago's boycotting teachers. BBB's latest assault on the teaching profession calls for a national response.

I even got to mention the boycott and the conference during a session on Austin's Rag Radio with old friend Thorne Dreyer and UT Prof. Julian Vasquez Heilig.

Suspensions/expulsions key to building charter school 'culture'

"Charter schools should not be allowed to 'expel' their way to better performance if they are truly public schools." -- Ald. Bob Fioretti

Last month, the U.S. Department of Education and U.S. attorney general's office released national guidelines on student discipline codes, acknowledging many urban school districts' zero-tolerance policies have created school-to-prison pipelines.

Chicago schools CEO Byrd-Bennett claims she wants to reduce expulsions and suspensions that hit hardest on African-American students. She claims that she "inherited a really punitive zero-tolerance code of conduct." But in fact, every district she has led, from Cleveland to Detroit became notorious for black-student expulsions and suspensions.

BBB and Rahm's problem now is, they're both afraid to take on the privately-run charter schools where, according to this morning's Sun-Times, students in Chicago are 11 times more likely to be expelled than students in traditional schools. They've both made their total political investment in the expansion of charter schools, at the expense of publicly-run neighborhood schools but can't move the needle on expulsion/suspension numbers without taking on the powerful charter lobby. Something they won't/can't do.

“I can’t make ’em. But, I can persuade them, show them a different model,” says Rahm. “And we think they’re going to be cooperative and work with us because it’s so promising what we’re seeing at CPS.”

I don't know exactly what the mayor thinks is so "promising" about 15% more elementary school kids being suspended last school year than in 2011-2012. Or about the fact that though black kids make up just 41% of CPS students, 75% of all out-of-school suspensions were handed out to black students.

But charters are 11 times worse. And they expel and suspend in larger numbers, not because their leaders aren't aware of "different models", but because their policies have been successful in boosting their performance numbers. Just listen to Noble Charter Network chief Mike Milke defend his expulsion policies as "heart-breaking" but central to building charter school "culture."

"What we cannot do, however," says Milke, "is compromise the culture and learning environment of the 99 percent of students for the disruptive 1 percent. We must not perversely disincentive our schools from addressing those who compromise the learning environment for the majority of students."

To better understand the kind of punishment culture Milke envisions, just take a look at his history. His Noble Network of Charter Schools charges students at its 10 Chicago high schools $5 for detentions stemming from infractions that include chewing gum and having untied shoelaces. Last school year it collected almost $190,000 in discipline "fees" from low-income parents, from detentions and behavior classes — a policy drawing fire from some parents, advocacy groups and education experts.

Milke previously had gained notoriety when he banned a gay/straight alliance group at his school until a federal law suit forced him to reverse his discriminatory policy.

Andrew Broy, the president of the Illinois Network of Charter Schools, said charters will work with CPS to "address the issue", but adds that stopping expulsions "isn’t a solution."

Maybe not, but it's a good start.

Saturday in Austin

I'm looking forward to the NPE Conference taking place Saturday and Sunday in Austin at The Thompson Conference Center at the University of Texas. I probably won't have much time for Mad Dog Margaritas at the Chile Parlor Bar as in Guy Clark's Dublin Blues.

But I will be moderating a Movement Building panel on Saturday morning, which includes:

Jitu Brown

Jitu Brown - formerly the education organizer for the Kenwood Oakland Community Organization (KOCO) on Chicago's south side, Jitu has been a leader in the citywide movement against the school closings and their replacement with privately-run charters. He was recently named national director the Journey for Justice Alliance.

Ken Zarifis

Ken Zarifis – Recently-elected President of Education Austin, the largest organization of teachers and AISD employees. Created in 1999 Education Austin is the first merged local in Texas and is affiliated with the NEA, AFT, TSTA, Texas AFT, and the AFL-CIO. 

Jim Branson - community and union activist and organizer for 45 years. He is recently retired as the Assistant Organizing Coordinator for Texas State Employees Union/CWA Local 6186. TSEU is the largest local union in CWA. Jim has also worked with community based organizing in W.Va. with the Southern Appalachian Labor School on health care and toxic poisoning in mining communities and done cultural work based around traditional Appalachian culture with the Appalshop in Eastern Kentucky.

Courtney Koger - Membership Coordinator for the Workers Defense Project in Austin, Texas. Courtney is active in the local struggle in defense of immigrant rights. The WDP as recently featured in the New York Times. It was founded in 2002 and has emerged as one of the nation’s most creative organizations for immigrant workers. Its focus is the Texas construction industry, which employs more than 600,000 workers, about half of whom, are described as unauthorized immigrants.

I'll also be on a panel later that afternoon called Education Blogging as a Political Tool in the Debate with fellow ed bloggers, Jonathan Pelto (Wait, What?), Darcie Cimarusti (Mother Crusader), and Ruth Conniff (Progressive Magazine).

Oh, almost forgot. On Friday afternoon, I will be on Thorne Dryer's Rag Radio show, along with UT Prof. Julian Vasquez Heilig. It will be my second time on with old '60s friend, Thorne. You can listen to my first appearance, back in September, here. Prof JVH will be welcoming conference attendees on Saturday morning. Check out his blog, Cloaking Inequality: The Reformers Guide to Reforming Reformers Since 2012.

Saucedo test boycott -- 'A step towards reclaiming humanity, joy of learning and education.'

A SmallTalk Salute...This one goes out to the 40 teachers at Maria Saucedo Elementary Scholastic Academy who voted unanimously Tuesday to boycott the Illinois Standards Achievement Test. Byrd-Bennett warns that they could face disciplinary action.

But CTU V.P. Jesse Sharkey says: “I think it would be outrageous and wrong. . . . The teachers aren’t doing this for any gain. They’re doing this because they want to teach." He promises the union will “mount a strong defense” if the teachers are disciplined.

“We are not afraid. We’re standing strong for our kids and what is right,” says boycotting teacher Sarah Chambers. “This is one step towards reclaiming humanity and the joy of learning and education.”

Rendering of new arts building at Lab.

I'm so happy for Rahm's kids... whose private school is getting a new $43.7 million arts building, courtesy of a $25M gift from billionaire George Lucas & wife Mellody. The new addition to Arne Duncan's alma mater, the Lab School includes a lobby/art gallery, 700-seat auditorium, 250-seat theater, 150-seat drama studio and four art studios and will even be named after an African-American photographer and movie director Gordon Parks because Mellody "is a deep believer in diversity".

As for our kids in CPS schools, not to worry Mr. Mayor. They don't need all that fluffy art stuff. It's not on the ISAT. A new survey of 170 Chicago public elementary schools by Raise Your Hand Illinois found that 65 percent do not offer the expected minimum of two hours of arts education per week, as Rahm and BBB claim.

The survey found that:

14%  of CPS students have no arts instruction
51% have less than two hours of arts instruction per week
26% have two hours of art instruction
9% have more than two hours of arts instruction
31% saw a decline in arts instruction this year   

 Raise Your Hand also found 68 art positions, 47 music positions, 19 performing arts positions and more cut from the budget for 2013.

Ah yes, diversity.

The war on teachers: Test 'em all, let God sort 'em out

Arne Duncan demands Value-Added teacher evaluation asking, “What’s there to hide?”

BUSH MENTALITY...Remember when Bush and Cheney decided to invade Iraq even though they knew Iraq had nothing to do with the 9/11 attacks and that there were no WMDs? Now that same mentality is being used by the current administration, only in this case, it's applied to teacher evaluation. A stretch, you say? Take a look. 

Well we already know how crazy it is to rate teachers' performance on the basis of their students' standardized test scores, using this insane Value-Added metric.

y = Xβ + Zv + ε where β is a p-by-1 vector of fixed effects; X is an n-by-p matrix; v is a q-by-1 vector of random effects; Z is an n-by-q matrix; E(v) = 0, Var(v) = G; E(ε) = 0, Var(ε) = R; Cov(v,ε) = 0. V = Var(y) = Var(y - Xβ) = Var(Zv + ε) = ZGZ^T + R.

But here's where that kill-'em-all-let-God-sort-'em out mentality comes in to play. In Florida, where Bush Brother Jeb ruled the roost for years, about 70% of the Florida teachers are being evaluated, and often merit-paid, promoted or fired using scores based on test results from students they never taught and/or in subjects they don’t teach. 

According to Washington Post columnist Valerie Strauss: 

There are numerous problems with using VAM scores for high-stakes decisions, but in this particular release of data, the most obvious and perhaps the most egregious one is this: Some 70 percent of the Florida teachers received VAM scores based on test results from students they didn’t teach and/or in subjects they don’t teach. 

Yes, you read that right: Teachers are being evaluated on students they didn’t teach and/or subjects they don’t teach. How can that be?

Yes, how can that be? For an answer, one might turn to former Defense Sec. Rumsfeld, who after 9/11 gave the order, "Go massive . . . Sweep it all up. Things related and not.”

Different administration, I know. Same mentality, only now there's a war directed at teachers.

Evaluate teachers -- things related and not. 

"So if Christian didn’t like the pension bill, then why did he vote for it?"

In this morning's mail... Jay Travis asks a great question of her opponent, incumbent 26th Dist. Rep. Christian Mitchell. He's quoted in the Sun-Times as saying he “didn’t like Senate Bill 1”—that is, House Speaker Michael Madigan’s bill that slashed the retirement security of elderly teachers, social workers, and other state employees. Asks Travis: "So if Christian didn’t like the bill, then why did he vote for it?"

Answer: Mitchell is bought and paid for with big dollars from the union-busting group Stand For Children. In other words, he's one of those reformed progressives or sellouts, as we used to call them BITD.

According to the Trib's IL CampaignCash Tweet site, Mitchell recently received $56,683.53 in just 6 contributions. Here's the list. elections.il.gov/CampaignDisclo…

The Trib's Noreen S. Ahmed-Ullah reports that despite promises made by Chicago schools chief Byrd-Bennett that closed schools wouldn't be turned over to charters, there are moves afoot to turn shuttered Pope Elementary School over to Legacy charter. Valerie Leonard, who sits on that council and is a co-founder of the Lawndale Alliance, was quick to rally residents against Legacy's proposal.

"It flies in the face of the promise CPS made," Leonard said. "They promised when those buildings would close they would not be turned over to charters. But before we can even get a repurposing policy in place by CPS, there's a proposal before us for a charter school."

A SmallTalk Salute... goes out to Philly high school senior Faheem Williams, 18, for speaking out about the desperate conditions facing his school, legendary Overbrook High School. Faheem is in a close race for class valedictorian with only a few months left before graduation. He's also an excellent defensive back on the school football team (I've watched his videos).

PhillyTrib reports:

The teen said the learning environment has changed in the four years since he was a freshman. In that time, the school district has lost millions in education funding, which contributed to serious debt and resulted in widespread layoffs and severe cutbacks in programs and services. Students, parents and community activists say funding cuts have translated into huge loss of educational opportunities for their children.

The school district shuttered 24 schools in 2013, forcing the reshuffling of more than 9,000 students. 

WEEKEND QUOTABLES

Michael Brenner

A feature of the Obama presidency has been his campaign against the American public school system, eating way at the foundations of elementary education. That means the erosion of an institution that has been one of the keystones of the Republic. The project to remake it as a mixed public/private hybrid is inspired by a discredited dogma that charter schools perform better. -- The American Public School Under Siege

Ald. Bob Fioretti

“There is a lack of respect for neighborhoods and lack of leadership.” -- Emanuel’s re-election nightmare

Dwayne Truss, Chicago community activist

“They’re blurring the line, big-time.” -- Charter school’s religious affiliation raises questions 

N.Y. Principal Carole Burris

No one would have predicted that the Common Core tests would close the achievement gaps, however, there is no defensible reason why those gaps should have grown. Every policymaker and researcher concerned with equity should question what exactly these new tests measure. -- The Answer Sheet

Calif. pension battle brewing. Sounds eerily familiar.

UC service workers, members of AFSCME Local 3299,  picket at UC Irvine Medical Center. The union has scheduled a five-day walkout starting March 3. (Glenn Koenig / Los Angeles Times). 

IN L.A. THIS WEEK… The weather's different, but the education issues sound pretty much the same here in Cali as they do in the IL tundra. The proposed so-called "pension reform" sounds eerily familiar. Like IL, the state has failed to meet it's payment obligations. Schools, for their part, are wary of paying more for pensions after suffering budget cuts during the recession.

It's a revenue crisis, not a pension crisis but "reform" always seems to mean placing the burden squarely on the backs of the retirees and sparing the wealthiest and the corporations any new tax increases.

The L.A. Times reports:

Gov. Jerry Brown and legislative leaders are pledging to repair and replenish the $181.1-billion retirement system that is supposed to finance more than 800,000 retirements for public school teachers, administrators and community college instructors. The second-largest public pension fund in the country, after California's primary pension system for public employees, it faces a $71-billion shortfall that worsens by $22 million every day, according to pension officials.

But the question is "repair and replenish" how?

Teachers do not receive Social Security, and the average retiree last year left his or her job at age 62 with a monthly pension of $3,980 after working 25 years. In the fiscal year that ended in June, payments into the pension fund were far short of what's needed to keep the system healthy, according to state reports.

The Legislature and governor must approve any increases in contribution rates, but negotiations will be fraught with political peril, especially in an election year.

Cali, like IL is heading for a showdown as corporate reformers try and break the public employee unions.

After following the 2-day faculty strike on the part of my former colleagues at UIC, I see that out here on the Left Coast, it's the UC's 21,000 AFSCME service workers and patient care employees who are carrying the ball. They are planning a five-day strike starting March 3 -- which would be their third and longest walkout in less than a year.

BACK HOME, IT'S JAY TRAVIS…asking who is Christian Mitchell?  Early voting begins on Monday, March 3, just over a week away, and we still don’t know the truth about Christian Mitchell.

Mitchell says that he’s a progressive who cares about working families. But he shares the same donor base as billionaire Republican Bruce Rauner… Christian has also received over $50,000 from Stand for Children, a special interest group funded in Illinois primarily by Lester Crown's family (as well as John Arnold, the Texas-based former Enron executive and notorious anti-pension activist).  

NEXT THURSDAY… February 27th, Women for Fioretti are hosting a breakfast at The Cliff Dwellers Club, featuring Guest Speaker Chicago Teachers' Union President Karen Lewis.

The view from L.A.

The way schooling is supposed to be-- I'm out on the Left Coast. taking a few days off from Chicago tundra, watching a school field trip to Leo Carrillo State Park.

I'm in L.A. but still envious (no, really) of those who got to join the UIC picket lines or march yesterday  in Springfield in defense of public employee pensions. This show of strength, especially in anticipation of upcoming state and local elections, is bound to have some effect.

Now the question is, can this positive motion produce the kind of unity and organization needed to put a hurt on Rahm, Rauner, Madigan and their gang? I don't think the progressive movement really has a horse in the governor's race, but we should be able to use the growing rifts in the enemy's camp to our advantage.

Locally, the Will Guzzardi (39th) and Jay Travis (26th) state rep races are strategically key. The machine, including Boss Madigan's thugs, have jumped into the Guzzardi/Berrios race with both boots as Guzzardi's poll numbers continue to grow. Madigan's people are apparently taking  messaging and propaganda duties away from Toni Berrios' own incompetents. As a result the panicky Berrios campaign is headed straight for the gutter.

This from Gapers Block:

Maybe the memory of a close margin explains the recent outflux of advertisements from the 2014 Berrios campaign that range from the sensational to the horrific. "Will Guzzardi doesn't want you to know where sexual predators are hiding" declares one 8-by-10 inch card in red letters above a man's face emerging from the dark. "Sexual predators could be living near the park where our children play," Berrios's message continues on the back, "...and Will Guzzardi doesn't think we should know."

My feeling is that Berrios' gutter politics will backfire and Will will be able to pull it out.

DEBTORS PRISON?…The Illinois unemployment rate is now among the nation's highest and even worse than midwest neighbors Ohio and Michigan. Wow! And as public employees have their standard of living reduced, pensions threatened,  and face mounting debt and trouble paying their bills, feudal lord Rahm puts the squeeze on them to pay up quickly or risk suspensions or firings. He's even using increased teacher debt as a reason to undermine the CTU contract. What's next, debtors' prison?

FACULTY POWER...The two-day UIC faculty strike appears to have had a major impact. Hundreds of classes were cancelled as tenured and non-tenured teachers and profs flexed their collective muscle. Hopefully this show of strength will force the administration to negotiate a fair contract with decent pay for university workers and empowerment of faculty over curricular and other decisions that affect teacher/learning and student well-being.

According to the Ward Room:

Instead of simply being about who gets paid what and when, the school’s first-ever strike is as much about what kind of an institution UIC is and will be, and whether or not educators are in the business of adding value to students or adding value to a university’s bottom line. 

Writing in Jacobin Magazine, however, two UIC English professors, Lennard Davis and Walter Benn Michaels, make the case that UIC faculty are also committed to educating working-class students and say the strike is also about whether or not they’re able to fulfill that mission

UIC STRIKE, DAY 2. BUSES ROLL TO SPRINGFIELD

Hundreds of classes at the University of Illinois at Chicago were canceled Tuesday as part of the first faculty walkout in the school's history.

While faculty march outside UIC, busloads of teachers, cops, firefighters and other public employees are on their way from Chicago to the state capital this morning to confront legislators over their unconstitutional attack on our pensions.  The mass protest is being organized by the We Are One Coalition.

Real Deal...
I told you Jay Travis was the real deal. Running for State Rep in the 26th, she not just a good talker but will be in Springfield today rallying with thousands of teachers and other public sector workers.

The rally in Springfield comes on the heels of a Chicago Teachers Union report showing that public pensions generate tens of millions of dollars in economic activity across the city, and especially in some of the South Side zip codes that have been hit hardest by the recession, including in parts of the Illinois 26th District. Despite the vital importance of public sector jobs to the families of the 26th District, incumbent Representative Christian Mitchell voted last spring for Senate Bill 1, which slashed the retirement security of state-employed retirees and workers. Jay, who is challenging Representative Mitchell in the March 18 Democratic primary, is the only candidate in the race who supports efforts to overturn SB1.

Rauner/Duncan Soul mates...

Brother Fred takes note of the fact that billionaire, union-basher, public-space destroyer, Republican candidate for governor Bruce Rauner, talks to Arne Duncan "all the time." Don't miss his hilarious post. 

Steans

I deserve some kind of medal for successfully wading through Steans Family heiress Robin's interminable and vapid defense of Common Core testing madness. Steans somehow got the job of leading the corporate "reform" group, Advance Illinois, and was an architect of SB7. I suppose Catalyst has to print this crap or risk having their funding cut. But once you get the gist of it, you can skip down to the comments section where Valerie Leonard and others pose some good questions.

Lesser-of-two-evils theory on crack

Lesser-of-evils theory on crack. IEA Pres. Klickna endorses ALEC leader Dillard for governor.

The union is understandably worried about a Rauner victory. But still... The union gave Dillard’s campaign $250,000 along with a cadre of political foot soldiers. "These are dark days for active and retired Illinois teachers. Sad, dark days," says blogger Ken Previti. 

Brother Fred writes:

I truly don’t get why the IEA leadership wants to throw away a quarter million bucks on Dillard. And worse, prettify his putrid record, including his chairmanship of Illinois ALEC. 

 They say they have a letter that says he resigned “last year.” But it turns out that “last year” was four months ago. I have asked for a copy of the letter but have not received one. And a Google search comes up blank on his resignation as head of ALEC in Illinois. I’d be interested in reading why he was Chairman of this group for so long and why he quit only four months ago.

UIC Strike...
Today  tenure track and non-tenure track faculty who make up the University of Illinois-Chicago faculty union UICUF Local 6456 are out on the picket line this morning, the beginning of  a two-day strike. The union is asking for a 4.5% pay raise for 2014, while the university is offering 3.25%. UIC Art Professor Therese Quinn said, “There are many people who have PhDs, who are full-time faculty here and I’ve heard that they’re earning $30,000 a year, which is very low for someone who’s spent so many years in school.”

"One of our issues in this strike is to take back decision-making power over the issues that matter to us — curriculum, teaching conditions, the distribution of monies, and the like.  The administration is fighting ferociously to retain that power — since giving it up would in effect be returning it from management to workers. " -- Read more at Jacobin Magazine

Pension Rally Tomorrow...
The CTU will join other public sector unions at a rally in Springfield Wednesday to lobby against pension reductions. --WGN

NPE Backs Baraka...
I'm heading for Austin, Texas in two weeks for the Network For Public Education (NPE) conference where I will be leading a Movement Building panel. This morning I was glad to hear that NPE has endorsed Ras Baraka for mayor of Newark.

Councilman Baraka had a long career as an educator – ten years as an elementary teacher, and twelve as an administrator. He also served as a teachers union representative for five years. This experience gives him a deep understanding of the challenges facing our schools, which was reflected in his responses to the questions posed by NPE.

Councilman Baraka said, “…our focus must be on strengthening, and enhancing our traditional public schools as the core educational reform strategy.” He is an advocate of small class sizes, and supports the right of parents to control their students’ private data. He is aware of the flaws in the corporate reform model now being implemented in Newark, and told us: “The notion that teachers are solely responsible for educational outcomes of children is a political view that is unsubstantiated by any research.

The Great Chicago Pension Caper

CTU PRESS RELEASE:

New CTU study shows disparate impact of slashing teacher pensions in an age of austerity 

CHICAGO – The Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) today released a report examining the true impact of pension cuts on the public sector workers living in our city’s neighborhoods. Three of the top four employers in Chicago are the City itself, the Chicago Public Schools and Cook County. These three entities employ over 90,000 people, all of whom depend on public pension plans to ensure dignified retirements and stable communities. The mayor’s proposal will amount to roughly $270 million in cuts to retirement income over a period of just five years.

The report, “The Great Chicago Pension Caper: Neighborhood Destabilization in an Age of Austerity,” was authored by CTU’s Research Department. It shows that when Senate Bill 1 is used as a model for so-called pension reform teachers, police, firefighters, librarians, social workers, engineers and other public sector workers in Chicago are likely to see their retirement incomes reduced by at least 10 percent over a 20-year period. Pension cuts will immediately harm retiree livelihoods and also disrupt current city workers’ retirement planning. [SB1 is the pension cutting legislation passed by the Illinois General Assembly. If it survives legal challenges will reduce pension benefits for hundreds of thousands of workers in the state pension systems.]

“This report demonstrates the unintended consequences of misguided pension reform,” said CTU President Karen Lewis. “SB1 and proposals similar to this will not fix the problem. We need sensible revenue solutions. People need to understand, that unlike many Americans, our retirees do not receive social security and have to pay for Medicare Part A out of our own pockets. We must put an end to this pension caper so that people can survive in an economy that is not kind to older Americans.”

Current public workers will have their pensions reduced the most. Many will face nearly a 20 percent cut in anticipated retiree income over their first two decades of retirement. These cuts will negatively impact not only public workers’ quality of life but entire communities.

“The Great Chicago Pension Caper” also shows:

• The pension benefits earned by teachers support roughly 6,000 jobs in the City of Chicago alone. A pension is not a gift, instead it is deferred compensation for years of public service.

• SB1, as applied to the Chicago Teachers’ Pension Fund, will see an average cut totally about $700 per month, or a 20% reduction in the average CTPF benefit of $42,000 per year.

• Retirees living in the city’s majority-Black zip codes earn over $600 million in annual pension incomes from the four public funds. The African American middle class in Chicago will be the hardest hit by reductions in retirement benefits.

###

Martin Ritter
Chicago Teachers Union
Local 1 AFT - IFT
desk 312.329.6283  cell 312.890.4891

WEEKEND QUOTABLES

Jordan Davis' mother, Lucia McBath leaves the courtroom with her husband Curtis McBath.

Ta-Nehisi Coates

The most mendacious phrase in the American language is "black on black crime," which is uttered as though the same hands that drew red lines around the ghettoes of Chicago are not the same hands that drew red lines around the life of Jordan Davis, as though black people authored North Lawndale and policy does not exist. -- On the Killing of Jordan Davis by Michael Dunn

Bill Daley 

“Rahm misjudged the public on this. What he didn’t seem to grasp was that the only good, middle-class jobs left for blacks in most of the neighborhoods are teaching positions in the schools. The closures cut deeply into whole communities. He could have shown greater empathy." -- FT Magazine

Brother Fred

"The Illinois Republican Party and all four of its candidates are in the grasp of the Tea Party Right. To make a distinction among them is looking for 'a needle in a haystack'... In pushing this Dillard endorsement, the IEA is praising Dillard as pro-education. What will the people think of us when we tell such lies?” -- Fred Klonsky Blog

Jersey Jazzman

 Let's be clear: Chris Cerf may be stepping through the public-private revolving door once again, but he's hardly alone. We now live in a country where gobs of public officials passing back and forth between jobs in government and industry is a normal state of affairs. - Blog

IEA backs Dillard. He's ALEC's go-to guy in IL

The union gave Dillard’s campaign $250,000 along with a cadre of political foot soldiers.

Yes, you're reading this right. The Chicago Tribune reports that the IEA is backing Kirk Dillard, ALEC's top guy in Illinois, in the Republican gov's race? You shouldn't be surprised. They endorsed him last time around as well.

Yes, I know, I know, he's "not as bad as Rauner" (really?), Rutherford is a crotch grabber (how do IL Republicans keep coming up with these guys?), and they'll give even more money to pension-grabber (even worse that a crotch grabber) Democrat Quinn in the finals. But still...