Following Arne Duncn’s failed “turnaround” strategy, Chicago Public Schools plans to fire every staff member in three schools. This follows on the heels of closing 50 schools last year.
When will Rahm Emanuel end his reign of destruction?
Closings by Another Name
CPS Wants to Fire Every Adult at McNair,
Gresham and Dvorak Elementary Schools
On Friday, March 21, The Chicago Board of Education announced that it would fire every single adult in three of Chicago’s schools and hand over management of the schools to the Academy for Urban School Leadership— a politically clouted private management group tied to appointed Board President David Vitale.
Calling this practice “Turnaround,” the Board claims it will help students. But studies show otherwise. This is an attack on Black schools that continues the assault carried out by CPS CEO Barbara Byrd-Bennett last year, when she closed fifty schools (claiming they were the last closings for at least five years).
A community hearing will take place Wednesday, April 2 at 6:00 p.m. in each of the affected schools.
McNair Elementary, 4820 W. Walton St.
Gresham Elementary, 8524 S. Green St.
Dvorak Elementary, 3615 W. 16th St.
Stand with these schools by signing up to support educators at one of the hearings for each affected school. By clicking the button above or below you can see other events that are important. Stand up and stand together. Our schools need every voice to ring out for them.
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Diane Ravitch's blog 
I hope that Karen calls for a strike! This is sickening!
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Absolutely disgusting.
Omg. This is shameful.
Rahm is on a roll. He’s bad.
Rahman is a scumbag. Contractually is this legal? They really want to destroy public ed in Chicago. Too bad Obama is too cowardly to intervene. CPU will survive and keep fighting. In solidarity
The DNC held a $32,400-a-ticket cocktail party in Chicago tonight.
These politicians don’t work for us. They work on behalf of their donors. I think their donors should just pay them directly at this point. Cut out the voter-middleman.
Corporate Democrats are owned by their political donors which include Wall Street hedge fund managers looking for profits from charter schools.
Here’s the mayor of Chicago bragging about for-profit pre-K:
“Second, we set up a local “Race to the Top” for any and all providers of early childhood education. For the first time, all schools and community-based organizations — public, nonprofit, for-profit, faith-based and charter — were invited to apply. Our sole focus was on finding and funding those programs that work.”
I knew pre-k was gong to be a huge public funds transfer to private entities.
Note that the mayor includes religious providers and for-profits in his “portfolio” pre-K publicly-funded education program, which is identical to the “portfolio” systems when they privatize public K-12.
It even includes the “choice” website, just like privatized school districts.
They’ll segue right from this to privatizing the whole public K-12 system. Why not? What’s the difference between pre-k and K? If you have for-profit pre-k, why not for-profit first grade?
That’ll be the next PR push from ed reformers. “We do it with pre-k! why not K-12!”
Liberals got rolled. Again. This is Milton Friedman’s pre-k program. They’ll all look like this, publicly-funded private entities.
It’s odd, because I live in a rural area in the middle of nowhere and WE have public pre-k. We put it in years ago, as part of the public school budget. It’s in the public school.
We’re much more progressive than the mayor of Chicago, apparently.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/rahm-emanuel-on-early-education-both-parties-need-to-grow-up/2014/03/31/c7d9e1f0-b6a4-11e3-8cc3-d4bf596577eb_story.html
“Liberals got rolled again.”
Yes, and it happens so predictably and so often that you have to wonder if they secretly enjoy the degradation. It’s sort of like a public BDSM ritual, replaying over and over on an endless loop.
Watching this pre-k train approaching, it becomes clearer that it’s all about the so-called reformers and data miners getting their fangs into the kids as soon as possible, the tell being that charters and other privateers are being allowed in at the very beginning.
I guess they can pay them directly now that the Supreme Court has lifted the restrictions on campaign funding. What a joke. I guess I don’t vote for anyone who isn’t willing to disclose where all contributions have come from and identify ALL the contributors.
I agree but that means we only will be able to vote for losers. At least it will feel good not to vote for the corrupt fascists.
Why vote when you can revolt? I am genuinely afraid this will become a new mentality, and to what end does that serve? This, and now the new Supreme Court votegiving donors more power to buy elections. . . . This is not the America of my youth or yound adulthood.
Does anyone know why ed reformers always leave out a certain percentage when they talk about privatizing whole public school systems?
I’m curious why they always write “75% charters or “90%” charters as the goal.
Do they envision our local public schools as a safety net program, like Medicaid? Why do they always exempt a certain percentage of public schools from privatization or closure?
Because if they leave public schools with the bottom-scoring 10% or the bottom 25%, they realize they’re just creating a privatized and less accountable version of the current system, right?
What’s the net gain there? Other than for, say, the Walton heirs?
Public schools will just be dumping grounds for the most challenging students that no one else wants (i.e., children with special needs, ELLS and kids who can’t comply with military style charters that demand strict obedience 100% of the time.) Rahm claimed 25% in Chicago will amount to nothing…
Chicago corruption. What a bunch of crooks.
Not just Chicago any more the cancer is spreading.
I was under the impression that Al Capone died in 1947.
http://us.cnn.com/2014/04/02/opinion/coval-chicagoland-rahm-emanuel/index.html?sr=sharebar_twitter
“The mayor’s new Chicago is not for black and brown and white workers who toil in multiple service sector jobs that the mayor’s neo-liberal economic advisers hail as job creation. In fact Emanuel and his advisers have been the proponents of a global economic policy that packs up the kind of blue collar jobs that built Chicago and sends them south with ease: Emanuel championed NAFTA at the Clinton White House.
The Chicago that the mayor and his team of wealthy financiers are continuing to create and sell is a second city of tourists and grand inequities. The disparity gap grows between those who have and those who have to rent. Those who can afford private schools like the mayor’s children and those whose public neighborhood schools are underfunded and tracked and given impossible and idiotic standardized tests to validate their existence.”
Rahm is on his way to creating a huge gated community where service workers commute to the city from surrounding barrios (once called suburbs) to serve the needs of the elite. I guess after a while he will have to tax his wealthy buddies when he “gentrifies” everyone else out of the city.
Not going to happen. Chicago service workers, including teachers, are required to live in the city unless they were grandfathered in before the law went into effect years ago.
Easy enough to change. The oligarchs need servants.
Gentrification has been gradually radiating from downtown, but the majority of the south side and the west side have still yet to be gentrified. That includes prime lakefront property on South Shore Drive –for which Daley was hoping the (failed) bid for the 2016 Olympics would finally attract developers.
I know I am being overly pessimistic, but when Rahm pushes pension reform that will eventually make it unaffordable for former city workers to stay in their homes… It is so disheartening.
Large swaths of the South Side – from the Loop through what used to be Bronzeville and all around Hyde Park – have already gentrified and more gets gentrified each year. Large swaths of the West Side are ghost towns, all but abandoned, just awaiting the mayor to swoop in with his clean up crews and developers who will get land for pennies. The West Side is particularly attractive as there are already two El lines running through it – they’ll just have to re-open some of the stations and entrances.
And many people will hail the mayor for “cleaning up” and “beautifying” the city. I know personally when the high rises of Cabrini Green came down and that area gentrified, I used to think how great that transformation was. What happened to the people who had been living there rarely entered my mind and, if asked, I probably would have said that they either stayed and benefited from the development or that they got better opportunities elsewhere. I’ve learned a lot since then, but most affluent whites never do.
Years ago middle school students at the suburban school where I worked read There Are No Children Here and wrote letters to The Chicago Trib related to a series they did on what happened to the residents of Cabrini as it was shut down. Not a pretty picture; I imagine there are still people in “temporary” housing.
The near west side has gentrified more quickly than the south side. I worked at a school in Bronzeville and have seen the areas around it gentrify, but gradually, such as the Gap and Oakland. In Oakland, by the lake, developers built some beautiful new single family homes on Oakwood Blvd, which they were asking $1.5M for before the housing crash. They had difficulty selling them. After the crash, the homes went for as low as $500K. That’s still a lot of money for an area abutting a large low income community, but there’s also new construction now nearby on Oakenwalde, so gentrification there is expanding, though rather slowly.
Hyde Park will probably always have high income housing due to the U of C. There are some other long established high income pockets on the south side, too, such as Pill Hill, in Calumet Heights, and the Jackson Park Highlands, in South Shore –which is the closest thing to a gated community I’ve ever seen within the city. They did this to protect those living in the old mansions there by blocking off most of the street entrances and exits, so there’s limited access from main thoroughfares, and they have private security patrolling the area.
Of course, the issue is where the displaced folks in low income communities will go, as the city becomes a place where mostly just high income people can afford to live, like Manhattan. I agree that what was done with the residents when the city tore down the high rise projects, like Cabrini Green, was disgraceful. In this neo-liberal climate, I do think we are likely to see more of that in the future. It’s not cheap to live in the suburbs surrounding the city either though, like Evanston and Oak Park, so they’d have a long trek to get to their servant jobs in the city. .
Time to recall Rahm Emanuel.
Are we still a democracy? …just wondering…three public schools and every adult in them gone …this is the US of A?
No we are not, and have not been for a time. The charade of voting keeps the masses believing they are in control even though the big two candidates are chosen by elite money. They are happy with either general winner.
We are, as Bernie Sanders said, an oligarchy although to me plutocracy fits better. Plutocracy can be loosely defined as fascism.
America is gone and daily facts support this. We have been losing it since Reagan for but the rapid decline began with NAFTA and Clinton and has accelerated with Bush/Obama. Obama is a traitor to those (like me) who supported him in 2007. I should have known that anyone winning the election had to be owned by the corporate elite.
Hey, it’s Obama’s way of protecting the middle class. He is helping (with Rahm) to create middle class jobs. Can’t you see it? It has nothing to do with shifting wealth upward into your cronies hands.
Here’s some back story on the crony outfit that’s going to take over the schools. One really sick item is that the schools are actually improving, so AUSL gloms onto and takes credit for their success.http://www.newstips.org/2013/05/ausl-turnarounds-called-ineffective-expensive/
Thanks. Good piece.
What I like about it how each parrots the other. The Mayor says “excellent!” then the newspaper repeats that and then the management company repeats what the newspaper said as “proof” of excellence!
Rigorous evaluation. The mayor’s program is a huge success! Ask any of these three interested parties! Conclusion: excellence. A++
“The additional money includes management fees and annual per-pupil payments, in addition to large capital investments in turnaround schools. The CPS supplementary capital budget for this year includes $11 million dollars for improvements to six schools slated for AUSL takeovers. Among other resources, AUSL schools get a second assistant principal and a full-time social worker.”
Newspaper editorial boards have had such a huge role in the cheerleading and pom pom waving. They’re really central actors in this privatization drama. The lock-step backing of any action that privatizes a public school has really been something to see.
They have been one of the three prime drivers of this, along with the donors and the politicians the donors bought. The Big Three.
The university where I obtained my masters runs the program for training AUSL teachers. I have never been able to give much as an alum but stopped giving at all when I saw their involvement. I went to the school when it was still a college; it must have been taken over by the business crowd when it became a university. Sad.
Has anyone been trained through the AUSL program? I would love to hear an insiders’ report on their training and teaching experiences. To me it would feel like being a scab to teach in a turnaround run by AUSL, but a few years ago, I would have interviewed for a job in blissful ignorance. With the spin job, I can see many innocent newbies applying.
This is one of the approved options that has been a part of No Child Left Behind since its inception. The only difference is that back then most school districts and superintendents were highly reluctant to utilize this scorched earth option. Since then many have been replaced with reform-minded non-educators who have no such reticence when it comes to destroying the careers and lives of dedicated public school teachers and employees.
Firing custodial staff, cafeteria staff, crossing guards, etc. has absolutely no bearing on student test scores but it sure makes the reformers feel powerful and mighty to be able to exercise this kind of despotism. Some have said that the NCLB provision was supposed to be a deterrent and that the mere threat would cause teachers to stop being “lazy” and having “low expectations” and test scores would automatically rise.
It hasn’t and won’t happen so another reform lie has been disproven at the expense of the careers and lives of several hundred dedicated adults, many people of color who will be replaced by white upper middle class TFA-type teachers who will willingly employ the degradation and thought control policies of the reform overlords without question.
Expect to see this scenario unfold in many other places in the coming months and years. It was inevitable and built into NCLB for this very reason.
Arne Duncan was implementing “turnarounds” when he was CEO of CPS during the NCLB era. The schools in the area where I grew up were among the first turnarounds here. Since then, they have been shut down and re-opened again. Now, they’ve co-located other schools within those buildings. That’s Gates’ small schools model –which didn’t work before at other schools here. It also means the district is paying high salaries to multiple principals and assistant principals in a single building.
These are practices with a track record of failure. “Reformers” will take draconian measures with children, faculty and staff, but they refuse to deal with the problem of poverty head-on, such as by promoting jobs with livable wages for the parents of these poor kids.
This fits right in with the conservative plan to privatize everything and control the population with controlled education, not done with professionals, but with those able to spread the ideology. This will make an easily controlled group of willing serfs for the elite to use. Of course, the children of the elite will get a much better education getting them ready for their role in the fascist plutocracy.
America as we knew it is over and cannot come back. We much more resemble the USSR than what we had. Our leaders are much more careful than the USSR leaders to continue the American myth-it makes control much easier.
Use “1984” as a textbook it is no longer fiction.
I worked at one of these schools with some really wonderful teachers who’ve been teaching there for decades. It’s a very high risk area but there is a strong sense of community and the school is an anchor in the neighborhood. This was one of the few schools that made wonderful home cooked meals for years, while most others had bland catered food. I will be forever grateful to their alert engineers who saved me from being attacked by thugs when the parking lot was full and I had to park on the street.
Firing everyone from security guards to teacher aides makes no sense. Many who will be losing their jobs are minorities from the area. The “turnaround” method is one of the ways that Chicago has dramatically reduced the number of African American teachers. This is so sad.
“there is a strong sense of community and the school is an anchor in the neighborhood. ”
I don’t think they want “strong anchors for neighborhoods”
I think they want parents fragmented and devoid of any collective political power re: public education”, “choosing” individual schools as service providers.
I think it’s such a huge, tragic mistake, as far as communities go.
“I don’t think they want ‘strong anchors for neighborhoods’”
The less “anchored” those neighborhoods are the easier it is to take control and ownership of said neighborhoods. Many overlook the real-estate “play” that is occurring in these situations.
This entire nonsense about idiot politicians working to rid society of public schools is really all about down grading the teaching profession. The teaching profession will go back to how it was say 10 years ago or so where no one wanted the job – why? – Because the teaching/education profession will take a step back in that the jobs in the private sector world of education will be low paying with no pensions and certainly harsh working conditions. So, people do you see what really is happening? Instead of teachers and educators earning a good salary (relatively speaking) with good working conditions instead will revert back to the draconian days of teaching for no money and now with no pension either. Just take a look at these so called charter school teaching staffs – they are suckers just happy to be earning a salary coming to work with peanut butter and jelly sandwich for lunch and are ass wiping people like moskowitz who then walks to the bank to deposit her half million dollar a year salary – the teaching profession is no longer a profession it is a job – a lousy job. It is sad that this entire revolt against our public education was spurred on by obama and duncan – yes people you are paying the price now for electing a president who we all knew would screw up our country and livelihoods. Arnie duncan dunce with no education experience – we can only hope to wait out this sad administration of dunces and boneheads – just look at our health care system now – any more questions?
“Duane Swacker
April 3, 2014 at 9:30 am
“I don’t think they want ‘strong anchors for neighborhoods’”
The less “anchored” those neighborhoods are the easier it is to take control and ownership of said neighborhoods. Many overlook the real-estate “play” that is occurring in these situations.”
The real estate value question is interesting in the big-city urban privatization push, but it doesn’t apply in Ohio. There’s nothing particularly valuable about the charter property here, other than that the publicly-funded rental costs for the charters goes to private entities who own the property.
I think the issue of who gets the gain on publicly-funded value-added to to the charter schools is a huge issue, though, and it’s completely unexamined.
Should the public get some long-term return on their investment in property, or do all those gains go the private owners of the schools?
Duane Swacker
April 3, 2014 at 9:30 am
As an example, my question would be “who owns UNO?” Who owns that property? It’s a huge public investment. Shouldn’t the public know if they don’t own it? Does the public want to invest in an entity they don’t own? Why?
Why can’t these teachers and parents file a class-action suit? We could start a fund on a donation site to help finance the suit. I don’t see how they can close the schools down and fire the teachers. This doesn’t seem possible.
http://m.theatlanticcities.com/jobs-and-economy/2014/04/40-years-chicagos-rising-inequality-one-gif/8786/
Nifty little map on the rising inequality in Chicago, over 30 years.
Thanks for sharing that link, which has been shown a lot in Chicago as well. Actually, it covers 40 years and demonstrate how the middle class (gray areas) have been disappearing, replaced by shades of reddish brown (low income) and shades of green (wealthy). I was born and raised in Chicago and have always lived in gray areas, first in neighborhoods on the south side, when I was growing up, and then on the north side as an adult.
The ironic thing about that map is that, for people like me, who have not moved from our neighborhoods in 30 years, in the past 15 years, the cost of my rent and utilities have doubled, while my income has declined. So, although my community is still marked gray, it’s actually mixed income and one of the few integrated areas on the north side, and I am definitely now low income, NOT middle class.
I think the only politician who really cares about the working poor is Bernie Sanders. Wish I lived in VT.
Trade salaries, pensions for profits. And destroy the union also. Sounds like a home run.
Hmmm…”over 30 years.” ALEC is about to celebrate its 41st birthday.
They celebrated their 40th–at the luxe Palmer House Hilton–in Chicago.
Time to make ALEC’s 41st birthday its last.
Twitter was buzzing last night with complaints about how Robert Redford let Rahm Emmanuel off the hook in CNN’s #Chicagoland http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/us/chicagoland?sr=CHItvpromo
The NEA will do nothing. They will wait till all teachers are fired and replaced with TFA and low paid teachers. Conditions will woosen for students and teachers, NEA will sweep in and form a much needed union because of the mistreatment of workers. We are all pawns in the big busineess scheme of things.