This just in from the Chicago Teachers Union. With a teachers’ strike looming, Mayor Emanuel decided to stick his thumb in the CTU’s eye.
STATEMENT
IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT: Ronnie Reese
January 6, 2016 312-329-6235
Illinois Charter School Commissioner Appointed to Fill Seat on Chicago Board of Education
CHICAGO—The Chicago Teachers Union finds it unfortunate that Mayor Rahm Emanuel has chosen to replace one of the most independent voices on his appointed Chicago Board of Education with Jaime Guzman, an Illinois Charter School Commissioner, and someone who led the Office of New Schools for Chicago Public Schools (CPS) at a time when hundreds of students had their education disrupted by school closures and turnarounds orchestrated by his department. Additionally, Guzman is an alumnus of Teach for America, an organization that has contributed to the massive loss of Black teachers and experienced educators both in Chicago and nationwide.
With the mayor’s selection of Guzman, more than half of the Board of Ed’s members are now unabashed charter supporters. Considering that charter schools only serve 15 percent of CPS students while taking in 18 percent of the district school-based funds—not to mention the additional funding and support received from CPS’ Central Office—it is clear that the mayor and CPS CEO Forrest Claypool intend to greatly expand charter schools in Chicago. The public, on the other hand, has shown time and time again that it chooses publicly run neighborhood schools over privately run charters.
“Through overwhelming voter support for an elected school board, it’s clear that the public wants a democratic board of education that represents the diverse interests of students and parents across the city,” said CTU Vice President Jesse Sharkey. “While Mr. Guzman does have teaching experience, which is a rarity for members of the mayor’s handpicked Board, our students and their families do not need another pro-charter, politically connected rubber stamp who will continue the decimation of our neighborhood schools through charter expansion.”
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Diane Ravitch's blog 
Well, of course Rahm did. It fits his agenda. 😦
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That’s what I thought. This is “news?”
I’d be shocked if he appointed a public school supporter. THAT would be news. A real break with the status quo.
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Rahm, the murder evidence suppressor, is at it again.
He is vile and will get his comeuppance . . .
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It’s amazing how like Andrew Cuomo he is.
I attended college in Chicago for a time, and came to enjoy the city, its people, and its culture.
I feel so sorry for the people of Chicago.
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Insert “chicago”
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Is anything in ed reform NOT run by a TFA-er? For goodness sakes. Mix it up a little.
I know they’re a “clout heavy” organization and hugely politically connected but can we cast a slightly wider net?
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Nothing shocking, striking, breaking, new, newsworthy, or breaking here.
Turns out Rahm Emanuel will act like Rahm Emanuel every single day. Here in New York some people are aghast and shocked when Andrew Cuomo acts exactly like Andrew Cuomo on a daily basis.
At some point, being chronically shocked really hinders things.
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Has Chicago’s school board always been Mayor appointed or was that a “reform”?
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Chicago has had mayoral control since 1995. Mayor Daley appointed every member of the board.
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I don’t think that Chicago ever had an elected board, like we have here in Los Angeles.
That’s a question for George Schmidt over at SUBSTANCE NEWS.
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1995, ok. I ask because the relationship between the board and the superintendent is coming up here in Los Angeles, as our board selects a new supe. A reporter asked me if I thought the board wanted to micromanage the new supe. He said in other cities they don’t do that. Clearly he has accepted the relatively new idea that the board is supposed to rubber stamp the superintendents. We need to keep reminding people what the proper set up is.
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Well, the LAUSD didn’t micromanage John Deasy when he was supe, and we got the criminal I-pad fiasco, the MISIS crisis, and the Stalinist persecution and show trials of .. can you believe it? … school librarians.
For more on that last one, go here: (it’s a doozy)
This is what little or no micromanaging of an LAUSD Superintendent — or at least one controlled by Gates and Broad — gets you.
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It would be interesting to see if Jaime Guzman came out of Teach for America’s “Leadership For Educational Equity (LEE),” TFA’s mysterious and non-transparent arm that places TFA alumni in positions of political influence. LEE has been the subject of multiple exposes, such as this one by Barbara Miner over at RETHINKING SCHOOLS:
http://www.rethinkingschools.org/archive/24_03/24_03_TFA.shtml
A few months ago, Diane Ravitch wrore an editorial for the Los Angeles Times opposing charter school expansion, and a California Charter Schools Association charter shill named Sarah Angel wrote a ridiculous response. It turned out that, through marriage, Angel was also connected to TFA, as her husband Dan Nieman is ex-TFA, a current executive with TFA’s LEE, while also connected to charter organizations, where he and his wife financially benefits from those connections, while his wife Sarah is also paid huge money to promote and defend those very charter organizations. This ed reform power couple, both in their early 30’s, make an estimated $300,000 – to – $500,000 total household income (estimated $150,000 – to – $250,000 each, based on comparable salaries of those in the same positions).
As detailed in the commentary section, it’s quite a wild and woolly story — starting with Ms. Angel’s editorial response to Dr. Ravitch — and then progressing from there to a debunking of Angel’s editorial response itself, then onto an exploration of the backgrounds of Ms. Angel and her husband, and what-exactly-the-hell is TFA’s “Leadership for Educational Equity”, where Ms. Angel’s better half is working? This commentary section is full of countless links to other sites that provide evidence, and even a video of Ms. Angel presenting at a forum and Loyola Marymount, along with LAUSD’s Charter Division Leader Jose Cole-Gutteirez, where Angel’s and Cole-Guttierez’ chummy relationship is on display.
Go here to the comments of the link BELOW, and settle in for a fun read:
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BINGO!
I just hit paydirt.
Go to Guzman’s Linkedin page
https://www.linkedin.com/in/jaime-guzman-0891a834
and there you his current connection to TFA’s “Leadership for Educational Equity”, which placed him on Chicago’s rubber stamp-for-corporate reform school board:
Regional Strategy Team
Leadership for Educational Equity
March 2014 – Present (1 year 11 months)Education
The whole corporate reform leviathan is so inter-connected and incestuous. TFA’s probably far more dangerous to the survival of public education, and does more damage to public education because it produces money-motivated reform-bots like Guzman than it does with any of its amateur teaching in the classroom.
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Also on the Linkedin page, in the slot below his name where one cites one’s career or field, Guzman enters:
“Philanthropy”
Uh huh. Sure.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/jaime-guzman-0891a834
He’s also on Illinois Charter School Commission.
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And Allie…we can’t forget that Cole-Guitierrez also worked for and with multi millionaire charter school developer/owner, Ref Rodriguez, who is now on the LAUSD BoE with the help of the Cash for Votes scheme, Voteria. Cole-Gutierrez also worked for CCSA.
So why did LAUSD hire him to be the administrative overseer of Charters? How can he have an unbiased view when his career has been to foster charter schools?
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Just went to Jaime Guzman’s Linkedin.
I’m starting to figure out how TFA’s Leadership for Educational Equity works.
After only two years of mediocre (or better… who knows?) TFA teaching, Guzman has now been put in charge as a trustworthy expert in how and why the government turns over most or all of Chicago’s 150 year-old public schools to de-regulated private management by charter corporations that will then have little if any oversight — all of this orchestrated by TFA’s Leadership for Educational Equity.
By that same logic, a rank ‘n file soldier with only two years in the Army should be viewed as possessing commensurate expertise, then be put in charge of turning over all or most of the 240-year-old U.S. Army to be run by “Acme Armed Forces”, privately chartered to defend out country, with minimal oversight or regulations from any government entity.
Repeat the analogy:
2-year Air Force airman in the Air Force / privately chartered “Acme Air Force”
2-year Navy sailor / privately chartered “Acme Navy”
2-year Chicago patrol cop / privately chartered “Acme Police Services”
They’re doing all this with absolutely no assent from the American voters and taxpayers. Indeed, the overwhelming majority of Americans oppose such privatization, as no country in history has ever improved its educational system by doing this. As someone else here has said, the two countries that tried school privatization wrecked their educational systems, ending up with privatized disasters on their hands, and will take decades to reverse.
Way to go, Wendy Kopp!!! That’s quite a legacy you’ll be leaving behind!!!
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Right on point, Pauline. Excellent comment!
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Well at least they’re transparent.
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Clearly Rahm is an arrogant psychopath but aren’t they all?
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I think he’s perfect to be Hillary’s running mate. What a great match.
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The Big Short movie, about the 2008 financial crisis, makes a final point, about who, today, is paying for the exploitation, deceit and greed of Wall Street. The narrator explicitly mentions “teachers”. it would be more accurate to say public schools are paying the price for the financial sector’s abuse and, teachers are collateral damage.
But, when a major Hollywood producer, Brad Pitt, recognizes the current plot against Americans and gives it visibility, it is heartening.
No surprise, Campbell Brown’s “74” organization has hedge funder, Dan Loeb, as a supporter.
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Why is this any kind of surprise. The Commercial Club of Chicago has a link on its home page entitled “New Schools for Chicago”. It’s been their plan all along. Mayor Daley was a member of the Club, Emanuel is, and so in Bruce Rauner and his wife. Daley and Emanuel have always appointed at least half of the board members from the Commercial Club members list. The board President has been a club member forever. The “economic royalists” of the Chicago area have decided Chicago needs charters, and they’ve been quietly enacting their plan. And quietly be able to do so, I’m guessing because the owners and editors of the major news outlets in Chicago are also club members. Not to mention heads of the major private universities in Chicago.
How about investigating and exposing the Commercial Club of Chicago and exposing them and the role they’ve played in privatizing CPS?
The Commercial Club is the same organization trying to undo the teacher pension system in IL, and in Chicago.
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Reblogged this on 21st Century Theater.
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When the CTU walks out on strike, can they convince charter school teachers to strike along with them in solidarity?
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Do you want to see how Mayor Rahm can make such a decision to appoint someone like Jaime Guzman, and do so in opposition to what the citizens of Chicago actually want?
Below is an example of how Rahm’s puppet board actually thinks.
Years ago, Ruiz was also appointed to the Illinois’ State Board of Ed, where he served for several years. At Ruiz’ aforementioned appearance at a City Club of Chicago forum, Jesse started talking about how hundreds of school districts in Illinois had elected boards, and while serving on the Illinois State Board, he got along well with the members of those elected boards throughout Illinois—Ruiz calls them his “colleagues”.
However, then-CPS Vice-President Ruiz nevertheless argues that Chicago must NOT have an elected school board, and made the following justification:
(here’s the video.. go to about
06:59 – 07:35)
(06:59 – 07:35)
JESSE RUIZ, Chicago Board of Ed.: “But for our city, I honestly do believe that it would be best left as it is, as an appointed school board, because it (CPS) is an incredibly complicated and diverse district. There are very difficult decisions to be made, and sometimes they’re not very popular decisions, and I would have to—I WOULD HATE to have to worry about my next election when making a vote.
“I NEVER worry about that. I’ve NEVER HAD TO worry about that, or worry about WHO, WHO… uhhh… who I am pleasing, or who I am un-pleasing with my vote. All I worry about is what’s best for the students in the city of Chicago.
“And so therefore, that’s the system that I prefer.”
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I don’t know about you, but Jesse’s really “un-pleasing” me with his justification for the decades-old denial of popular democracy in the governance of Chicago’s public schools, and where the corporate reformers and profiteers that bankrolled Rahm Emanuel’s election now drive the policy… and not Chicago’s citizens.
How about you? Are you as “un-pleased” with Board Member Ruiz’s comments as I?
You can extrapolate this Chicago scenario to other situations… say… that of Hitler after he passed the 1933 “Enabling Act” that dissolved the Weimar Republic and its democracy in early 1930’s Germany. I can just see Adolph sitting around with Goering and Goebbels shooting the breeze.
——————
HITLER: “But for the Reich, I honestly do believe that it would be best left as it is, subject to my dictates as Fuehrer. There are very difficult decisions to be made, and sometimes they’re not very popular decisions, and I would have to—I WOULD HATE to have to worry about my next election when making a decision.
“I NEVER worry about that. I’ve NEVER HAD TO worry about that, or worry about WHO, WHO… uhhh… who I am pleasing, or who I am un-pleasing (!!!) with my vote. All I worry about is what’s best for the citizens of the Third Reich.
“And so that’s the system that I prefer.”
——————
Yeah, I BET you do, Adolph.
You could write the same parody for Saddam Hussein, Fidel Castro, or whatever undemocratic dictator you choose.
But seriously, isn’t that how democracy is supposed to work?
When some policy implementation in the works is found to be unpopular and “un-pleasing” with the citizen-taxpayers, might that not lead to its cancellation? No matter how much Board Member Ruiz—or any elected official, or any official’s backer—is desirous of such implementation, that fear of being removed from office in an upcoming election is a necessary check-and-balance that motivates the office holder in a democracy to change or cancel the implementation. Is it not?
Indeed, that fear of the electorate is supposed to rein in Ruiz and his fellow Board members from doing something that the voters—his ultimate “bosses” in a democracy—do not want to happen. The will of the people will usually prevail in this scenario… theoretically, at least.
This was particularly relevant when Ruiz and his un-elected Board closed 50 traditional public schools—with them ultimately to bereplaced by privately-run charters—despite overwhelming polling saying that the tax-paying citizens of Chicago would be very “un-pleased” by this. (I know, I’m beating the “un-pleased” joke to death… that was the last one.)
At the very least, these schools being closed had elected Local Schoolsite Councils (LSC’s) made up of parents and community members, with albeit minimal decision-making power. The privately-managed charters that are currently in the process of replacing them, however, have no such LSC’s, and thus, the parents have ZERO input. Parents are barred from the meetings of that board, which are held in secret, and chaired by businessmen who have ZERO experience as teachers and/or administrators.
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While this is yet another in a LONG list of reasons why I dislike and distrust Rahm Emanuel, it’s about as surprising as hearing that the Koch Brothers deny global warming.
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