Good riddance to the Charter School Commission

Acero teachers in Chicago won the first charter school strike in U.S. history last year. (Labor Notes pic)

Congratulations to all of us who worked so hard to finally get rid of the Illinois State Charter School Commission. We count our victories one by one.

A new law that goes into effect next year, will abolish the Commission and hopefully limit the wild expansion of privately-operated charter schools. That's the result of Senate Bill 1226, which Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed into law Aug. 23, over the objections of INCS and charter school lobbyists.  Gov. Rauner vetoed a similar bill last year.

The measure was sponsored by state Sen. Linda Holmes, an Aurora Democrat. Holmes made the case that decisions about charter schools, "belong in the community, not at the state level."

I agree. But even with the new law, we're not quite there yet.

Since 2011, when the Commision was established and signed into law by former Gov. Pat Quinn (yes a Democrat), I've worked with several struggling school districts around the state when they've  had to go before the Commission to plead their case. Together we built a research base which was used to debunk the false claims of the charter operators in an effort to stop invasions by powerful, charter school networks. In some cases we were successful and others we weren't.

I found the decisions by commission members to be be completely arbitrary and biased. Keep in mind that the commission was originally the dream of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) and that the money for the commission’s original staffing and other expenses came from the pro-charter Walton Foundation. The Commission has been riddled with conflicts of interest from the start.

Commission members have been generally charter-friendly political appointees chosen by the governor and approved by the Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE). In the eight years prior to Pritzker's election, commission members were handpicked by Rauner, a right-wing governor hellbent on starving and ultimately taking over local school systems, including CPS, using charters and school vouchers as weapons.

But Rauner wasn't the only problem. You might remember when the Commission, acting under pressure from House Speaker Mike Madigan, reversed CPS's rejection of Concept (Gulen) charter schools' application at a time when the FBI was investigating Concept's operations. Records show that the Commission’s Springfield lobbyist, Liz Brown-Reeves, a former Madigan aide, accompanied him on his Gulen sponsored trip to Turkey in 2012.

Earlier this year, the commission approved two Chicago schools: Urban Prep, which the district had ordered closed, and the new citywide school run by Intrinsic.

Currently, there are 140 charter schools in Illinois, 126 of which operate within Chicago Public Schools diverting money, students and teachers away from regular CPS schools. So far there is no evidence that these charters outperform the CPS schools they are trying to replace. In the CPS budget for next year, the district expects to receive $4 million less funding than expected from the state this past school year because “diversions to schools approved by the Illinois State Charter School Commission (SCSC) were higher than expected.”

There are still problems with the new bill. While effectively ending the Commission, the bill shifts its power to reverse local district decisions back over to ISBE, which is also a governor-appointed board.

According to Chalkbeat:

The state board will take over the responsibility of hearing appeals on charter school openings, closings and extensions. The state also will dole out funds it had collected to oversee the schools that the commission had approved. Once the state board takes over the commission’s role, the board will be able to levy a 3% fee on any state-approved charter school to help cover the cost of oversight.

But hopefully, local districts will fare better under the new law and under this governor than under the previous one.

In any case, the struggle continues.

A great charter school hustle

Richmond

I've got to hand it to charter school authorizer and former lobbyist, Greg Richmond for coming up with this great hustle. A law recently pass by the Illinois state legislature created his new charter school agency called the Illinois State Charter School Commission which has the power to create new charter schools even when local school districts oppose them. The commission also has the power to monitor the same charters it authorizes. Richmond is the commission's chairman.

Okay, that's a little shady. But here's where the great hustle comes in (some cynics might call this a conflict of interest). The way the commission raises money for itself (aside from private dollars from pro-charter billionaires)  is by handing out more and more charters. You see, starting next July, Richmond's commission can begin collecting a fee from every new charter it creates. The more charters, the more money in its budget to authorize more charters.  And so it goes. Bada-bing. Bada-boom.

The nine commission members — recommended by Gov. Pat Quinn and appointed by ISBE — are already holding official meetings and overseeing a staff member, attorney Jeanne Nowaczewski. The money for the commission’s staffing and other expenses so far comes from the Walton foundation. Other recipients of Walton grants include the Illinois Network of Charter Schools, a statewide umbrella. The foundation reports that it gave the network more than $1 million in 2010. Andrew Broy, the network’s president, said the amount for 2011 is about $950,000.

The network also serves as an intermediary — a “fiscal agent” in nonprofit parlance — for Walton’s funding of the state commission. Richmond said Nowaczewski receives her paychecks from the network, not the commission. Exactly how big is that paycheck, I wonder?

Rahm's mea culpas don't extend to school closings and wild charter expansion

Given all Rahm's recent mea culpas, the one he hasn't made is about his wholesale school closings, mostly in the black community and his replacement of them with privately-run charter schools. CPS's publication of a new list of supposedly "underutilized" schools, indicates another round of closings and charter openings is coming.

His appointment of Jaime Guzman, a shill for the charter operators, to the CPS board, shows that Rahm's game plan remains intact. Guzman takes Jesse Ruiz' spot as the lone Latino on the seven-member board.

The amazing thing about that appointment is that Guzman previously sat on the State Charter School Commission, the group that has the authority to create charters even when they've been rejected by local school boards, including Chicago's.

That's the same group, acting under pressure from House Speaker Mike Madigan, that actually reversed CPS's rejection of Concept (Gulen) charter schools' application at a time when the FBI was investigating Concept's operations.

Last year, the senate voted to abolish the commission on grounds that it had become "too politicized" and a purveyor, rather than an objective evaluator and authorizer of charters. Yet it still survives. Guzman says, he will resign his post on the commission, which is set to hear appeals from three more charter schools that the district has slated for closure at the end of the academic year.

The Guzman appointment and Rahm's commitment to wild charter school expansion may seem puzzling to anyone looking at the underutilization list. The list contains dozens of supposedly underutilized high schools appearing side-by-side with underutilized charter schools.

Among those on the list are several from the Noble Charter Network. That's the group that was pushed back in its attempt to invade the north side recently. They just opened a new charter high school directly across the street from Prosser, even while many of their existing schools are stilling partially empty. Now Prosser is completely surrounded by competing charter schools.

Among the many other charters on the list, are highly-touted Urban Prep, three Perspectives charters. and three KIPP charter schools.

Isn't it clear by now that CPS has to be taken out from under the control of City Hall?

Jeb Bush's "Mystery Guest"

What's Mayor 1% doing in Boston? Why he's the "mystery guest" at Jeb Bush's Education Forum of course. Throw in his support for Republican Bruce Rauner in the upcoming governor's race and it's pretty easy to see what kind of "Democrat" is running our schools and our city. Plus the Mayor always seems to be out of town when his shit hits the fan.

BIRDS OF A FEATHER
From left: Quinn, Rangel, Madigan, and Burke.

HOW HIGH WILL IT GO?

The Bond Buyer reports that the Securities and Exchange Commission is investigating the UNO Charter School Network for potential securities violations apparently tied to its October 2011 $37 million bond issue.

The network issued $37 million of mostly tax-exempt new-money and refunding bonds in 2011 to help fund its ongoing expansion. The Illinois Finance Authority issued the bonds on the not-for-profit's behalf. Robert W. Baird & Co. Inc. and Cabrera Capital Markets LLC served as underwriters with Kutak Rock LLP acting as bond counsel.

CPS oversees UNO's charter and provides funding support for the organization despite UNO's BBB-minus rating from Standard & Poor's, the lowest possible investment grade level. Standard & Poor's reports noted the state support of $98 million. UNO's school network has a total of about $67 million in debt.

The Sun-Times reports that Gov. Quinn has once again, pulled UNO's state funding. Good move. Although he's withholding only $18 million of their $98 million and he still has UNO egg on his face. Remember, Quinn, under pressure from (Quinn fundraiser) Ald. Eddie Burke, Mike Madigan and Rahm, restored the state funding in early June, saying he was "confident UNO had implemented reforms." Last month, Chicago "businessman" Martin Cabrera Jr. — whose appointment as UNO chairman, replacing Juan Rangel, was cited by Quinn as an important reform — resigned.

Now we'll see if the board will pull UNO's charter or run the risk of being legally complicit.

CHARTER HUSTLERS GOING AFTER PROSSER

Even while feds are all over the UNO charter school scandal, the Noble Street Charter network hopes to pull off a similar scheme, using state money and connections with the Rahm and Rauner to do their real estate deal. They want zoning restrictions changed so they can build a new, expensive building to house a charter school across the street from Prosser Career Academy.

Yesterday, Rahm's hand-picked Chicago Plan Commission, which includes Burke as an ex-officio member and is chaired by none other than Cabrera himself, approved a zoning change that allows the Noble Network to build their new school and to try and recruit students and the money that follows them, away from Prosser.

That’s despite a boisterous protest outside City Council chambers by supporters of Prosser High School — including Ald. Nick Sposato — and of other neighborhood schools in Belmont Cragin whose budgets have undergone deep cuts this year.

 The protesters — mostly from the groups Chicago Students Organizing to Save Our Schools, and Communities United for Quality Education — pointed to a projected decline in high school-aged population in the Belmont Cragin area over the next four years, the presence of four CPS high schools within a 1.5 radius of the proposed site, and budget cuts at existing area schools totaling some $6.4 million. -- Sun-Times

Ald. Sposato

Sposato, whose ward will inherit Prosser High School in 2015 when ward maps are redrawn, called the plan “a recipe for disaster here to have two public high schools across the street from each other.”

“I worry about the impact on Prosser,” he said. “I worry about the safety of children.”

As usual, it's the Reader's Ben Joravsky who has the best take on the Noble Street Charter hustle.

With 14 schools and 9,000 students, [Noble founder Mike] Milkie's to charters what Ray Kroc was to fast food. If he keeps it up, he'll have an outlet on every block... But, c’mon, Mayor Emanuel—it's not like we're hard up for vacant lots in which to put your charters. There are hundreds and hundreds all over the city. Why stick a charter across the street from Prosser, which is a perfectly good, high-functioning school?

Reporter pulls up a rock and finds a charter school rat's nest

Salim Ucan (second from left),Vice-president of Concept Schools speaks to at the Illinois Network of Charter School's conference in Chicago. | Michael R. Schmidt-For Sun-Times Media

Ace Sun-Times investigative reporter Dan Mihalopoulos turns over the rock on Concept Charter Schools and shows exactly how the grand charter school hustle plays out here in Chicago. Under the rock we find everyone from Boss Madigan and son Adrew, his aide and travelling companion Liz Brown-Reeves, and Ald. Joe Moore to retired Caterpillar Inc. Chairman Glen Barton, and a host of other politicians and corporate guys, all receiving free trips (Moore went twice) to Turkey and other goodies from the shady Turkish billionaire Fethullah Gulen, in exchange for authorizing more of his Chicago charter schools.

He’s a politically powerful Muslim cleric from Turkey who moved to this country in 1999 shortly before being implicated in a plot to overthrow Turkey’s secular rulers and install an Islamic government — charges that were later dropped.

This even as the schools's expansion scheme was being nixed by CPS for low student performance.

Gulen didn't care. He appealed directly to the State Board, headed by Rahm's Democratic Party nemesis Gery Chico, who then turned it over to his rump Charter Commission head Jeanne Nowaczewski. No problem Mr. Gulen, sir. How many charters did you say you wanted?

Boss Madigan gets a trip to Turkey

It seems that since Fethullah has gone into the charter school business, Turkey has become a destination of choice for Illinois pols.

State records show Madigan’s visits were among 32 trips lawmakers took to Turkey from 2008 through 2012. The speaker and members of his House Democratic caucus took 29 of those trips, which they described as “educational missions.” Turkey was the destination of 74 percent of all foreign trips Illinois legislators reported.

It seems like everyone makes out on this deal except the kids.

The school’s current board president, Edip Pektas, was treasurer at the time and recused himself from the bond-deal votes. School records show New Plan Learning paid $100,000 to Pektas as a financial adviser.

[Petkas' lawyer] Adelson is with Chico & Nunes PC, former Chicago Board of Education president Gery Chico’s law firm, which was paid more than $67,000 by CMSA. Chico’s wife, schools consultant Sunny Penedo-Chico, was on the school’s board from its foundation in 2003 until 2007.

There should be more than enough here to indict some folks and reverse the charter expansion. Maybe even disband the commission. Wouldn't you think? Oh wait. I almost forgot. Boss Madigan's daughter Lisa, is the Attorney General.

Is this why she's didn't run for governor?

I hope Mihalopoulos doesn't end it here. There's so much more possibly crawling around under that rock. Why did Rahm's crew turn down Gulen in the first place? Was it just a response to community pressure or is there more here in terms of inter-machine rivalry? 

What about a possible Ohio connection with Rahm's former comptroller Amer Ahmad who was indicted for taking bribes in exchange for business when he was Ohio’s deputy state treasurer. Concept runs some charters in Ohio. 

Just askin'.
 

Commission report on school closings means uphill battle for Rahm

"Closing high schools highly correlates to drop out rates and spikes of violence. Hopefully they learned their lesson about that." -- Karen Lewis

Parent and community voices from Chicago's targeted neighborhoods are ringing out so loudly against school closings, that the mayor's "reform" strategy -- replacing public schools with privately-run charters, has now become an uphill battle.

Yesterday, a big monkey wrench was tossed into Rahm's school-closing machinery, when Barbara Byrd-Bennett's own hand-picked, rump Commission on School Utilization issued its Interim Report. The report offers no advice about which of the mayor's targeted 80-120 schools to close in the coming year. But it did make a few recommendations on which schools NOT TO CLOSE. These include:

• Don’t close any high schools. It's too dangerous.
• Don’t close high-performing schools, no matter how empty or full they may be. (BBB has said she wasn't going to take school performance into consideration. Commission members obviously did not agree).
• Don't close schools that are making progress with existing improvement plans. 
• Don't close schools that are close to "efficient utilization." 
• Don't close schools that are in the process of adding grades

The commission also took it upon itself to offer a vague rejoinder that CPS hold privately-run charters to "the same standards to which it holds district-run schools."

While the Commission's recommendations are based upon shaky CPS data (see Wendy Katten's letter to BBB on School Utilization) and while the report is non-binding, the mayor now faces huge political and legal fallout if he goes against the Commission's findings. After all, he had BBB create the group as a way of avoiding legislature's own legally established Chicago Educational Facilities Task Force (CEFTF) and  state law mandating CPS to present a rationale and get community input before closing any more schools. Now the reputation of Commission Chairman Frank Clark, a retired ComEd CEO, and Rahm political backer, is on the line along with the credibility of its members. 

Community protests and opposition to school closings are obviously reverberating inside commission meeting rooms. If the report shows anything, it's that CPS has not met the state's preconditions for any mass closings or charter-izing and that there's a possible battle brewing between Rahm and Byrd-Bennett over school-closing and charter opening strategy. 

I'm glad Frank Clark's group is showing some independence from the mayor and that cracks are widening within Rham's reform plan. But the report still leaves in doubt the fate of 137 elementary schools, nearly all in the city's least served and resourced black and Laatino neighborhoods. The Commission should have gone a step further and supported the call of the CTU, community groups and parent organizations across the city, for a one-year moratorium on all school closings, turnarounds, or on opening any new charter schools. 

Despite federal investigation, the battle rages on in post-election Chicago

KOCO Executive Director Jawanza Malone responds to latest attacks.  (Jeffrey Bishku-Ayku)

“Peace: A period of cheating between two periods of fighting.” -- Ambrose Bierce. 

Please excuse all the military metaphors, but it's war out here on the third coast folks.

Those of you who were hoping the post-election Little Emperor would turn back into sweater-wearing Mr. Rogers -- think again. Even while a full-scale federal investigation of pay-to-play at CPS is going on and with Barbara Byrd-Bennett on the lam, the spoils of war are being spread around to Rahm's loyalists with impunity, while the guillotine is being greased up for the progressive opposition.

First on Rahm's agenda is consolidating power in the City Council by handing out key committee positions to toadies like Will Burns. But that won't be so easy given the victories by all seven members of the Progressive Caucus who ran for re-election and the stunning upset victories by progressives over Rahm-back incumbents out in the wards.

Victorious Sue Garza & Chuy

We're all celebrating yesterday's announced victories of Sue Sadlowski Garza over Petcoke Pope in the 10th and Milly Santiago over Rahm's deputy mayor and yes-man Ray Suarez in the 31st.

S-T's Mark Brown calls Garza, "tough as steel rivets". He's right.

Pope will also have to be replaced on Rahm's Infrastructure Trust. I doubt that he will appoint Garza. Don't you? But the Progressive Caucus will be all the stronger for her presence.

Now comes word that the day after the election, the CPS Office of Innovation and Incubation received at least 50 charter school proposals. This despite BBB's promises not to allow any charter schools to open in school buildings shuttered in 2013.

KOCO leader Jitu Brown leading the fight for Dyett

As for the guillotine, they're hoping to use it on the Kenwood Oakland Community Organization (KOCO)  the group leading much of the resistance to south-side school closings and taking it right to Ald. Burns in the battle to save and transform Dyett High School. The attack on KOCO is being led by Rep. Christian Mitchell, who despite being bankrolled by the machine and pro-privatization groups like Stand For Children and backed by powerhouse County Board Pres. Toni Preckwinkle, barely squeaked by KOCO leader and community activist Jay Travis. But taking on KOCO won't be so easy. Community support for the organization is strong and building.

Did I mention that Travis and newly-elected Ald. Carlos Rosa will be on our panel at Saturday's NPE Conference? And KOCO leader Jitu Brown is among the keynote speakers. Should be exciting.

Some good news on the charter front. The House just passed a bill by a 60-40 vote, that would strip away power from the State Charter School Commission. That's especially good news for those inner-ring, mostly-black and Latino suburban districts who have become the target of charter school expansionism. Charter profiteers are banking on the Commission to overrule local districts who vote against them.

Of course the bill must first get through the Senate and then be signed by Rauner. Not likely. So enough votes must be garnered to override his veto. But it's something.

Philly's great public school giveaway now nearly complete

This is a cynical, right-wing and market-driven plan to privatize public education, to force thousands of economically disadvantaged families to select from an under-funded hodge-podge of EMO and charter-company-run schools and to convert thousands of professional and family-sustaining positions into low-paying, high-turnover jobs. -- PFT Pres. Jerry Jordan

He's right. The complete dismantling of the nation's 5th-largest school district and getting rid of collective-bargaining and union rights for teachers has long been the dream of the city's corporate reformers. Taken over by the state and placed under the control of the so-called School Reform Commission, Philly's racially-segregated and underfunded school system was first looted and then sold off school-by-school to companies like Edison and other private charter operators.

What Paul Vallas started a decade ago with his give-away of 40 public schools is nearly a fait accompli with the new Blueprint For Transforming Philadelphia Public Schools. The Blueprint includes a proposal to divvy up city schools among “achievement networks” including charter school operators and other outside organization.

Vallas actually began the process during his tenure as Chicago's mayoral-appointed schools CEO with the so-called Renaissance 2010 plan. Before he was fired by Mayor Daley, Vallas had succeeded in replacing teacher-led, highly autonomous small schools with privately managed charter schools and replacing school redesign with school closings. It was a trend he would take to scale as CEO of Philadelphia Public Schools and later as school boss in post-Katrina New Orleans.

The privatization of Philly schools has been in the works for a long time. It was given the green light by Sec. Arne Duncan when he and pal Newt Gingrich made their infamous tour of the city's privately-managed charter schools back in 2009. 

The process continued in Philly during the scandal-ridden reign of Arlene Ackerman and her Image 2014 plan (modeled on Renaissance 2010), despite mass protests and school walk-outs by thousands of students).

The result, as I've documented in these pages and in our book, Small Schools: Public School Reform Meets the Ownership Society, has been nothing less than a disaster for the city's 185,000, mostly African-American and Latino school children. Study after study showed that the 64 schools turned over to private management companies had failed to outperform the closed neighborhood schools they replaced. 

Now that the Commission has ignored all the research and has moved ahead with its ideologically-driven district reorganization plan, it will be once again up to the students, teachers, parents and community activists to make their voices heard. 

UNO charter debacle hurts parents. Shows charters aren't 'public' after all.

A single picture tells the story

The latest UNO scandal represents a potential disaster for the thousands of mainly Latino students and parents enrolled in Chicago charter schools. It should also put an end to claims that privately-run charters are truly "public schools"

For those who haven't been following, there's been a split between the scandal-plagued United Neighborhood Organization (UNO) and the charter school chain it founded. Now UNO is threatening to force closure of six of those charters, potentially leaving parents and teachers scrambling to find a new school for thousands of children come next fall.

UNO claims that the separately incorporated UNO Charter School Network owes them $3 million in management fees. The schools are said to be withholding payments to UNO because of lack of transparency about how the millions are being spent and also because UNO is currently the target of ongoing federal investigations.

Mike Madigan

UNO is threatening to sell all four school buildings it owns-- buildings that are home to six schools-- unless the charter network pays up. UNO CEO Rick Cerda says that conflicts between his group and the charter chain “raise a question as to whether the UCSN schools will continue to operate as they do today.”

It's hard to know how much of this is bluff or what UNO would be able to do with those empty buildings. But CPS has plenty of space to house those six schools now that it is sitting on dozens of empty school buildings of its own.

Imagine the power this clout-heavy, private group has over neighborhood parents, teachers, and children through its virtual ownership of their supposedly "public" schools.

Cerda never mentions that his  group only owns those schools because of a $98 million construction grant for the projects which was greased by Illinois House Speaker Mike Madigan, Alderman Eddie Burke, former Gov. Quinn and Mayor Emanuel. The huge state grant was blocked temporarily by Quinn when the feds came in, and then released again by Quinn under pressure from Madigan. This despite flagrant nepotism, conflicts of interest, and a Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) investigation that has already led to a few cosmetic changes at the top and the fall of UNO big-dog Juan Rangel (the co-chair of Rahm Emanuel's first campaign for mayor in 2011). In 2011, UNO received $37.5 million in state-backed loans.

Meanwhile, the school network was handing out its own contracts to more familiar names. Monterrey Security, a firm that was previously co-owned by Alderman Danny Solis’s brother Santiago, won a $75,000 security contract.

Among other charges against UNO was its failure  to make pension contributions for more than 90 certified teachers in its charter schools. So far the federal investigators have failed to produce any indictments although they did help pull the city's bond rating down close to minus. Not that it needed any help in that area.

CPS oversees UNO's charter and provides funding support. It's the largest charter school operator in the state. But UNO has carried a BBB-minus rating from Standard & Poor's, the lowest investment grade level.

It's hard for most to even imagine the power this private group has over neighborhood parents, teachers and children through its virtual ownership of their supposedly "public" schools. But this is exactly what corporate school reformers envisioned when they promoted unrestricted expansion of privately-run charters through mayoral control of the schools and closing schools as accountability and cost-saving strategies.

Mayor Lightfoot is sticking with schools CEO Janice Jackson for now. That's a good thing.

There's hope that CEO Jackson, once liberated from Rahm's self-serving, autocratic rule, will become a real change leader. 

Even though I've had my issues with CEO Janice Jackson's role as Rahm Emanuel's front person on school closings and charter expansion and her opposition to an elected school board, I think the mayor made the right move here. To replace her now, especially in the middle of contract negotiations with the CTU, would only further destabilize a system already in a state of chaos.

Jackson was Rahm's 5th CEO in six years.

Remember how Rahm changed school chiefs like he changed wardrobes, including dumping J.C. Brizard in 2012, the middle of contract talks and replacing him with Barbara Byrd-Bennett. The result was the first teachers strike in 25 years followed by a regime so corrupt that BBB wound up in prison and scandal-ridden Forrest Claypool had to flee or risk following her.

There's the hope that Jackson, now liberated from Rahm's autocratic and self-serving brand of ed politics, can rediscover her educator roots and become a real change leader. I hope so.

Next on Mayor Lightfoot's agenda will be choosing a new school board and here is where wholesale change (draining the swamp) is necessary and I am told, coming.

What a shame that we still have to wait years before there's finally an elected school board in Chicago. Rep. Martwick's ESB bill, was badly written. Even if passed as is, (without considering questions about the board's unwieldy size, raised by the new mayor) it wouldn't take effect for four more years and then have to be reauthorized. The whole setup would be phased out after the 2027 election unless lawmakers in Springfield vote to extend it. What kind of law is that?

There's some good ed news coming from Springfield (did I really say that?). Yes, the State Charter School Commission is on the way out. The unelected Commission has the power to override decisions made by local school boards that reject charter applications. A Democrat-backed bill passed the Senate in April, and a vote is expected in the House before the legislative session ends May 31, despite opposition from INCS and charter school lobbyists. Gov. Pritzker has said he’ll sign the bill. Gov. Rauner vetoed a similar bill last year.

Also House Bill 424, the bill that requires the ISBE to establish standards for interpreters for non-English speaking parents, passed the Illinois Senate yesterday on a vote of 53 yes, 0 nos, and 0 abstentions. The bill will now go to Pritzker for his signature.

Change is in the air.

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."

Chicago's hard-hit suburban schools resist charter invasion

Parents, teachers, activists, and students showed up at the Chicago Heights District #170 Board meeting on Feb. 12 to oppose opening the district to the LEARN Charter School Network. LEARN was voted down by an almost unanimous vote. (John Booz, Tribune)

Chicago Heights is a south-of-the-city suburb with a high concentration of poverty and a rapidly-growing Mexican immigrant population. District #170 schools have in many ways borne the brunt of an eroding tax base, loss of manufacturing jobs and the recession of the past decade. While the schools struggle to implement the district's reform plan, including a new middle-grade STEM academy, and prepare at the same time, for the next round of PARCC tests, progress remains slow. Test scores remain the carte du jour for judging schools and teachers, leaving districts like the Heights vulnerable to interventions by the state.

Gov. Rauner now threatens even more draconian cuts to school budgets and health and social services that will negatively impact the schools and communities in Chicago's inner-ring suburbs. He's proposing that suburbs' income tax revenue be cut in half

Towns like Chicago Heights have become the new target areas for poorly-regulated, expanding networks of privately-run charter schools which have already saturated the inner-city market. Recently, District #149 in Dolton/Calumet City was able to beat back a charter takeover attempt by over-hyped Urban Prep.

Nearby South Holland also rejected an assault on their district by a company called LIFE Academy Charters. Their board also voted unanimously in September 2013 to reject a charter proposal by Urban Prep.



Now District #170 is being targeted by the LEARN Charter Network which has a dismal track record of low performance, lots of unlicensed teachers, and a record of exclusion of English language learners and students with special needs. But at last week's meeting, a near unanimous vote by board members, to the delight of a cheering crowd of parents and teachers, scuttled the expansion plans of the charter operators -- at least for now.

With heavy financial backing from big hitters like the Walton Family, and political support from the Illinois Network of Charter Schools (INCS), LEARN is preparing to appeal its rejection to Rauner's State Charter School Commission. LEARN's director Greg White, founder of Chicago Venture Partners, with no background in education, thinks he will get a better deal from the corporate cronies who sit on the Commission. With Rauner in the gov's mansion and his newly-appointed board president, Rev. James Meeks, a voucher/charter advocate in place, White may be right.

All the Chicago Heights board and Supt. Tom Amadio can do is make their case for survival, show off the slow but steady academic progress they are making, rally their troops again with help from the teachers union, and hope for the best.

'Jeb Bush's Waterloo'--A Florida teacher speaks out

I received this in the mail this morning. Definitely worth a read.

M.K.

---------------------------------------------------------------

Be careful what you set your heart upon--for it will surely be yours.

When he wrote the above line the great James Baldwin, who’s A Talk to Teachers should be required reading in every school of education, was doing a riff on the age-old warning to be careful what you wish for because you might just get it.

Jeb Bush has dreamed his whole political life of plunging a dagger in the heart of public education. His fond hopes were probably best confessed in his second inaugural address as Florida's governor in 2003. Bush told the rapt crowd gathered to hail him, "There will be no greater tribute to our maturity as a society than if we can make these buildings around us empty of workers; as silent monuments to the time when government played a larger role than it deserved or could adequately fill." Bush could already see it in his mind’s eye. Yes, school buildings empty of teachers, monuments to an abandoned American crusade for universal public education.

On August 9, 2010 at 2:26 a.m., the Florida House of Representatives voted Jeb Bush closer to his life’s dream than he has ever been. At the very same moment they destroyed it. Jeb Bush, like Icarus, has finally flown too close to the sun. A sleeping giant has been roused.

 

Jeb Bush’s Waterloo comes at the end of a long road.

First give the man his due. He is a brilliant. As a youth he sensed how important US relations with Latin America would become and he made the region the focus of his studies in college. He foresaw how important Spanish-speaking immigrant voters would someday be and he made himself fluent in the language and took a Mexican woman as his bride. Early in the movement he sensed the political power of Christian fundamentalism and so he began pretending to be a man of faith.

He would have been President of the United States before his brother George but the first time Jeb Bush ran for governor in 1994 he lost. During the campaign Bush was asked by reporters what his administration might do for Black Floridians. He made a tactical blunder. He gave an honest answer. He said, "Probably nothing". Jeb Bush got 4% of the African-American vote and Lawton Chiles beat him in a close race.

Nothing if not politically astute, during his second run for governor in 1998 Bush teamed up with the conservative African-American Director of the Urban League of Greater Miami, T. Willard Fair, to establish Florida's first ever charter school in Miami's iconic Black community Liberty City. The Liberty Charter School served as an effective campaign prop for Bush and he received 17% of the Black vote this time around. Soon after taking office Bush severed his ties with Liberty Charter and appointed T. Willard Fair to the Florida Board of Education where he remains to this day giving slavish devotion to a man who he once told, "In my judgment, there is no greater person on this Earth than you. I love you."

Ultimately when historic Liberty Charter School failed and closed its doors due to a lack of funding The Miami Herald sought reaction from Bush. He wrote back, "I am not aware of what this is about."

Jeb Bush’s political modus operandi has always been to divide the people in the service of his only true constituency—wealthy business interests. That sliver of Florida’s population has always found the public school system to be little more than a boondoggle where billions of dollars escape their clutches. So throughout his first term as governor Jeb Bush relentlessly pounded on public schools with voucher programs, charter school promotion, merit pay plans, standardized testing schemes, larger classes and less money for schools struggling with poverty and deprivation.

 

In 2002 Florida voters were asked to consider the re-election of Jeb Bush and the Class-Size Amendment to the state Constitution on the same ballot. Both Bush and class-size reduction won. Jeb Bush graciously accepted the will of the voters that he serve a second term as governor but never stopped scheming to reverse the class-size mandate.

Florida Today reported, “Gov. Jeb Bush rolled out of bed the morning after his re-election party with a class-size headache.” The pain had been delivered by now U.S. Representative Kendrick Meek. As the most prominent public face of Florida’s Coalition to Reduce Class Size, Rep. Meek had won the first in a series of epic political battles to genuinely improve public schools. It became a series of battles after Gov. Bush refused to accept the will of Florida’s voters. Commenting on that, Rep. Meek has said, “Floridians expect their governor to be up at night thinking of ways to improve the lives of their children – not hatching ‘devious’ plans to keep them trapped in overcrowded classes.” Meek’s reference to devious plans came from another occasion when Bush was caught telling the truth. He was unaware of a tape recorder in the room.

 

During the 2005 session of the Florida Legislature Bush hatched his plan to gut the Class-Size Amendment. It deviously pit rural school districts and teachers against the larger urban school districts. The idea never got out of the Legislature thanks to a principled Republican State Senator named Alex Villalobos. Bush's retribution against him was swift and vindictive. Sen. Villalobos had been a champion of spinal cord research at the University of Miami and assistance to Miami Children's Hospital. Funding for both of those projects was among $27 million in cuts directed at South Florida counties in Bush's state budget that year. Apparently unsatisfied that the vetoes had chastened Villalobos, Bush engineered his political humiliation. The man who once was in line to become the first Cuban-born President of the Florida Senate was stripped of the majority leaders post and shown to his new office in the Capitol Building—a broom closet.

 

The same year, as the Florida Supreme Court heard oral arguments in yet another attempt to win private school vouchers, proto-typical Bush-backer, Tampa millionaire venture capitalist John Kirtley bused hundreds of school skipping children and their parents to Tallahassee to rally for the governor's program. Many of the same parents and their children were recalled to the Capitol on February 15, 2006 to hear Gov. Bush announce that he would lead a drive to resurrect his thrice declared unconstitutional school voucher program by way of amending the Florida Constitution. With a sense of neither irony nor shame Jeb Bush told his predominantly African-American audience, "In Florida and the United States today, if you've got money you can make a choice. What about the children whose parents don't have the ability based on income to make that choice? Don't they have the same dreams? God gives every child the ability to learn. God does that!"

 

Although term limits forced Jeb Bush to give up his Tallahassee office at the end of 2006, it did not thwart his determination to keep the apparatus of state government under his control. To this day Gov. Charlie Crist can only dream of having as much influence over education policy in the state as Jeb Bush. Bush loyalists were left on the Florida Board of Education and throughout the Florida Department of Education bureaucracy. In 2007 his minions were shot through the Florida Taxation and Budget Reform Commission which meets every twenty years and has the extraordinary power to go directly to the voters with amendments to the State Constitution. When his former chief of staff as governor, Patricia Levesque, got Bush’s anti-public schools wish list through the Commission, the two traded celebratory text messages.

 

Funny when State Senator John Thrasher from Jacksonville won passage of Senate Bill 6 he called Jeb Bush immediately too!

 

Public school teachers in Florida, 168,000 of them, have been frightened and confused by Jeb Bush's success in the Legislature. They have had to ponder over how ideas so clearly absurd and destructive could win the votes of legislators. They have asked why rationality seems to hold no sway in this matter. The short answer is of course that money trumps reason in the Legislature. In fact money trumps all! What Jeb Bush and the Chamber of Commerce and the builders and the developers want they get in the Florida Legislature.

But the teacher's initial fear is giving way to something else. They are calling in sick in Miami-Dade. Their student allies are walking out of classrooms and into the streets in protest. Their parent allies have conducted a hunger strike and marched up and down the state on their behalf. Even if Gov. Crist fails to muster the courage to veto the teachers will stop whatever legislation Bush wins in the implementation phase. I know from a quarter century of teaching experience that we run the schools in practice and while we are deferential to authority we're not suicidal. We will see to our survival and feed our families.

 

A sleeping giant has been roused.

 

Paul A. Moore

Public School Teacher

Miami Carol City High School

Florida

Guzzardi's bill would limit charter expansion. Sends INCS into panic mode.

Rep. Will Guzzardi calling for limits on the expansion of privately-run charters in IL

The charter hustlers at INCS are in panic mode. Until recently, they've been riding a wave of rapid expansion of privately-run charter schools even as seats in many of their charters remain unfilled and while hundreds of neighborhood public schools are being closed or severely underfunded.

INCS sent out a mass mailing Friday, warning their base that...

On Tuesday, March 28, 2017, at 2:00 pm, Rep. Will Guzzardi (D-Chicago), will debate HB3567, a bill that will place a 10-year or longer ban on charter public schools across the state. This bill will limit the educational options of Illinois' families, and disproportionately affect communities currently without high-quality open-enrollment public schools. Thousands of children and families across Illinois need your help to stop this harmful bill.

The INCS letter is misleading. HB3567 doesn't place a 10-year ban (or any ban) on charters. It doesn't call for the closing of a single charter school in the state. Nor does it "limit the education options" of a single student. Rather, the bill is aimed at restricting the unlimited expansion of privately-run charters in districts that can't afford to build or operate them. The bulk of Illinois’ 857 school districts would not be affected. In 2016, ISBE reported 32 school districts on the financial watch list — the state’s worst rating — and another 61 a step above on the financial early warning list.

Lauren FitzPatrick, writes in the Sun-Times:

The bill introduced Friday by state Rep. Will Guzzardi, D-Chicago, would block the opening of any new charter campuses in any school districts with the Illinois State Board of Education’s two lowest financial ratings. The Chicago Public Schools system has been on that list for years.

 “Our priority must be investing in the schools we have,“ Guzzardi said Monday outside Prosser Career Academy High School on the Northwest Side, where he was accompanied by other lawmakers, members of the Chicago Teachers Union and parents from the neighborhood.

“If your district is broke, take care of the schools you have before you open new schools,” Guzzardi said. “This isn’t about shutting down any charter schools that are already here.”

Rep. Guzzardi is right, as usual.

His bill would also constrain Gov. Rauner's appointed State Charter Commission from overruling local school districts who turn down applications for new charter schools they don't want or can't afford.

It's significant that Guzzardi made his pitch for the new bill on the street outside of Prosser Career Academy. Despite neighborhood protests,  Noble Charter Network opened a franchise directly across the street from Prosser, hoping to recruit Prosser's best students.

I suppose, INCS expected to continue charter expansion unabated, especially with Trump in the White House and Betsy DeVos running the DOE. But proponents of uncapped charter expansion were defeated by Massachusetts voters last November, despite spending million of dollars to pass their expansion proposition.

IL needs to follow their lead. Guzzardi's bill is a good one and needs to be supported.

A color-coded visual of Chicago's reform failure

Blaine Principal Troy LaRaviere

Thanks to Blaine Principal Troy LaRaviere for sharing this excellent color-coded visual on Reading Growth in Chicago's Public & Charter Schools. @TroyLaraviere on Twitter calls it a "visual of Chicago's Charter Reform Failure." He's right.

On one side, the chart shows the 45 CPS schools with the highest growth in reading scores. They are all public, with no charters, contract schools or turnarounds in the mix. On the other side are 45 schools showing the lowest growth, with 22 of them being charters, contracts or turnarounds.

This after more than a decade of test-based reform strategies under Daley/Duncan and now under Emanuel/Byrd-Bennett, leading to the closing of dozens of traditional public schools and the uncapped expansion of charters, contracts and turnarounds.

Given this data, how can Rahm and BBB possibly take credit for the slight overall bump in test scores reported last week? They can't, writes LaRaviere in this op-ed Sun-Times piece.

When mayor Rahm Emanuel recently heralded a small gain on the average Chicago Public Schools elementary “MAP” test results, I knew something wasn’t quite right. It wasn’t what he said; it was what he didn’t say. You see, this is the first year the MAP scores can provide a more decisive apples-to-apples comparison of charter schools and traditional public schools.

Author Nye and family

Good Read in WaPo by Naomi Shihab Nye, a chancellor of the Academy of American Poets. Growing up in both Ferguson, MO and Gaza has given her some insights few others share. I will definitely find a way to use this in my course this quarter. Thinking #FergusonSyllabus.

Ferguson was a leafy green historic suburb with a gracious red brick elementary school called Central. I loved that school, attending kindergarten through sixth grade there. All my classmates were white, of various derivations – Italians, French-Canadians, etc. My father was the only Arab in Ferguson. But he ran for the school board and won. 

Speaking of Charters...Feds from various agencies are bumping into each other investigating UNO's charter hustlers. This time around it's the IRS, according to the Sun-Times. Their audit involves nearly $37 million in bonds issued in 2011 for the UNO Charter School Network Inc., whose 16 campuses across the city receive a total of about $50 million a year in funding from the Chicago Public Schools.

In a letter to the Illinois Finance Authority, IRS officials said the 2011 bonds were "selected for examination because of information received from external sources or developed internally that caused a concern that the debt issuance may fail one or more provisions" of the federal Internal Revenue Code.

In June, UNO and its charter-school network settled a civil case filed by the federal Securities and Exchange Commission that accused them of defrauding investors who bought the bonds.

S-T's Dan Mihalopoulos reports:

UNO began in the 1980s as a Hispanic community activist group. Under Rangel, it moved into the lucrative charter-school business in 1998, expanding quickly with support from political figures including Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan (D-Chicago), former Mayor Richard M. Daley and Emanuel.