Several weeks ago, a Chicago website reported that the Chicago Tribune, the Joyce Foundation, and the University of Chicago were engaging in “push polling.” This is a telephone poll that literally “pushes” the listener in a certain direction, with questions designed to have pre-determined conclusions.
Read the transcript. Do you think this was a push poll?
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Spin, spin, spin that is all they know what to do. And I say so what to them. They do not fool me. I would like to take them on in public and crush them. They really have no arguments which would hold water. Their bucket has holes all through it and it is not below freezing.
Aspects do seem to push opinion. The sampling is what skews results … nearly half are white while under 10% of CPS students are.
This is unbelievable:
Interviewer: As you may have heard Chicago Public Schools is experiencing a financial shortfall that may require some teachers to be laid off. If layoffs are required which teachers should be laid off first, would you say (1) the lowest rated teachers regardless of their level of experience, or (2) the least experienced teachers regardless of their ratings?
John K: Actually that question is false, there is no budget shortfall. There is actually a surplus in Chicago Public Schools.
Interviewer: Okay. I don’t write these questions, so I apologize.
John K: There’s a surplus, so the question is a false question. There is no budget shortfall. Their last audited budget which just came out January 28th /27th it’s a CAFR. It’s a comprehensive annual financial report which is an auditor report by a certified auditor found that Chicago Public Schools actually has a $328-million surplus today while we’re talking, and the budget’s shortfall was underrated by $241-million, so actually there was like a $574-million surplus or variance from the budget deficit that they talked about last year. So at this point in time CPS has no budget deficit.
Interviewer: Okay, and where did you…? This may have been written previous to this publication of this. Where did you get this document?
John K: It’s a public document and published by the Chicago Public Schools.
Interviewer: So I could find it on the CPS website?
John K: Yes. It’s called the CAFR – C-A-F-R, CAFR.
Interviewer: Okay. I will bring that to their attention.
John K: Yeah, there is no budget shortfall. There’s a surplus right now.
Interviewer: Well, I don’t know if you want to answer this question now.
John K: I can’t answer a question when it’s not based on fact. There is no budget deficit period. There is an audited report that says there is no deficit. There’s a surplus right now.
Interviewer: Okay, I guess I’m not sure that you need to answer that then because part of the question is inaccurate, but the other part is suppositional.
John K: Well I don’t care about the suppositional stuff. I’ll answer a question that’s based on fact. That question is not based on fact.
Interviewer: Okay.
John K: Next question.
I’ve seen this argument before about how Chicago schools have no budget problems because CPS reports surpluses in its general operating fund. It’s very misleading.
I’m not an accounting expert, but I know that CPS ends every year with a surplus in its general operating fund, and then it designates a portion of the fund as “unrestricted” and thus available to be applied to future budget deficits. This is partly a “rainy day fund” to deal with unanticipated shortfalls and partly a built-in accounting mechanism that lets CPS smooth out revenue that comes in either sooner or later than expected. Every year CPS takes this “rainy day fund” and draws it down to zero by applying it to the next budget. Budget watchdog types complain about it, but if you want to really see an education budget crisis, wait for what happens when CPS doesn’t have any more rainy day fund or assets to sell off as a one-time shot (sorry, kids, we sold everything).
Or see what happens if Chicago is forced to make its contributions to the pension fund. From the 2012 CAFR:
I’m not saying that CPS’s budget priorities aren’t subject to debate or that its assertions shouldn’t be scrutinized. But it’s just ridiculous to suggest that CPS has no structural budget problems because it has a surplus in its unrestricted general operating fund.
“I’m not an accounting expert, but”
But you couldn’t just leave it at that, huh?
I’m no expert at this either, but from what I’ve read, the failure to adequately fund pensions has been both a city and a state issue in Illinois for years.
What I’ve witnessed at CPS is that, because some revenue comes in later than expected. It’s not uncommon for teachers to be told towards the end of the year that they have thus and thus extra to spend, so they need do it before the close of the fiscal year.
The timing isn’t best, but at least CPS doesn’t typically save all revenues just for a roll over of rainy day funds. AND that is one of the few times money is going directly into classrooms based on teacher decisions.
The pension problem in Illinois is indeed a state problem. Most districts aren’t legally required to make the same annual contributions that Chicago makes (in fact Chicago may be the only one); hence the need for these short-term relief laws. My point is that the “surpluses” that show up on CPS’s financial reports are not an indication that CPS is in good financial condition, and if Chicago isn’t able to keep securing reprieves on its pension contributions, it will have a catastrophic effect that will make 50 school closings look like nothing. Like I said, I’m all for scrutinizing everything the agencies and governments say, but we also should scrutinize what we say ourselves and try to be honest.
This is what I just said on this blog recently. Someone actually looked at the books. When you really get into it you take the preliminary budget, at the beginning of the year and compare line items to the audited actuals, which is what they are talking about. Then you do that year by year for up to 10 years and you will be amazed at what you will learn. Good job.
Here’s a “YES or NO” question from the transcript: (PARENTHETICALS made by me)
“… (ARE YOU IN FAVOR OF CHILDREN SPENDING) more than a year with an ineffective teacher (WHO) hurts their chances at succeeding in school? “”
What a stupid, loaded, dumbass, manipulative question!
I mean really! When a question is phrased that way, how can the answer have any meaningful validity? What person being surveyed is going to answer “YES” to a question that basically says, “Are you in favor of hurting kids?”
Sweet Jesus!
And how about this “YES or NO” doozy… again, from the transcript:
“(DO YOU BELIEVE THAT TEACHERS) should not have the right to strike because it takes children out of school and burdens families?”
Ridiculous!
This is the false dichotomy that the privatizers and the corporate reformers like to push:
“Are you for supporting teacher unions and protecting the adult interests,
OR
Are you for fighting unions and protecting children’s interests?… You have to pick just one.”
Why the kids, of course…
“…research shows that the quality of a teacher is the most important factor in the school.”
Subtle. Research actually shows that the quality of a teacher is the most important in-school factor in student success, meaning the most important factor under the school’s control. The way this is said makes it sound like it’s the most important factor, period — without actually saying that.
These reformers are as slippery as eels.
Remind anyone of the old…”.Have you stopped beating your wife yet?” example of a loaded question?
No you say…well, I’ll call a cop!
Yes you say..well you are a creep who abuses women, run!
No right answer.
There is no lie too blatant or easy to disprove that will not be told, that will not be sworn to with hand on bible by these criminals.
I hope your book, “Reign of Error,” has a chapter on the role of the media. Why would Koch or Murdoch and the others want to buy a newspaper in this day and age when every major newspaper is bleeding money….if it weren’t to promote these crazy ALEC-ky ideas with polls and editorials like this? I’ve spent a generation watching the LA Times trash public education. The Tribune is in the same fiscal family. It is sickening.
CRITICAL UPDATE: Off topic but a must know, something called PEN newsblast has been “relaunched” and the address that is shown in the from box is Public Education Network. It is all pro deformer propaganda. they are once again trying to muddy the waters and sow confusion in the public sphere. The Los Angeles Education Project is the shell group for the publication.
All school districts are required to have a surplus. In California that depends as a percentage of your budget on the size of the school district. So at Chicago what is the required surplus to allow for emergencies. Then does that over $500 million include this or not and if it is included how much is it and them how much, if any, is left.
I said before I even read the transcript of an interview that the questions the Trib published were designed to produce certain results. They are continuing with their insulting, inflamatory series this week. Today’s editorial was about “quality” teachers. I think you can imagine the substance of the piece without even seeing it. I have to force myself to read their propaganda in several sessions over the course of several hours. I can’t stomach it all at once.
2Old2teach: I read the latest blast at teachers by the Chicago Tribune and decided it was too trite to write about.
They learned this from Hitlers propaganda minister. This technique has actually been used constantly through time. It is now highly devoluped through psychological warfare studies and proven techniques tested around the world through overthrows of governments and controll of peoples perceptions of reality now through the media mainly.
Sorry to all the teachers who understand my compulsion to correct “inflammatory.”