Just saw this amazing interview and could not resist posting it in full:
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An Interview with Paul Horton : What Goes on in Chicago—Should be exposed to the world?
[Paul Horton is a History teacher at the University of Chicago Laboratory High School]
Posted by Michael Shaughnessy EducationViews Senior Columnist on May 18, 2013 in Commentaries, Daily, Editor’s Pick, Insights on Education, Teachers | 0 Comment
Michael F. Shaughnessy –
1) Paul briefly, what the hell is going on in Chicago?
54 schools are targeted for shut down and 90% are in African American communities within the city. As you may know, the public teachers in Chicago struck last year and made our mayor look bad. Most teachers think that this is payback now. Our County Commissioner, a former history teacher, just called the hearings to close the schools a charade. Our mayor has taken heavy campaign contributions from some people who are heavily invested in charter schools and they are starting to worry about the return on their investments.
Our Mayor is under heavy pressure to close schools if he wants to continue to raise money for his party and a possible future run for Illinois senator. Most political analysts are thinking that our mayor will run for President in the next cycle following a potential Clinton term.
He is very ambitious to make things happen to build a record of accomplishment. The problem is that his decisions about schools might not be the best for the kids of Chicago. He appoints Board Members for the city schools and he is their de facto dictator. He does his best to let his superintendent do the talking, though, to give the impression that he is not in charge.
The Superintendent, Barbara Byrd Bennett, is very good with handling the press. She has command of her Broad Foundation script, as she is a Broad Foundation Administrator School graduate, like her immediate predecessor and Arne Duncan. They are all well schooled in the Broad Foundation lingo:
Layered on top of this is a situation in the Woodlawn neighborhood (where I live) involving the encroachment of the University of Chicago into a neighborhood that it has an interest in gentrifying, located south of its campus. The University has purchased a lease on the best and biggest public school from the Chicago Public Schools (CPS) in the Woodlawn neighborhood, Wadsworth School.
The students from this school will be forced to attend a school five blocks to the southwest without a green space play area. The move will bring together students from three elementary schools and into a school packed as tight as sardines without adequate play space. The high school that the University is taking for its charter high school, on the other hand, has plenty of park space and several new playgrounds appropriate for elementary age kids. In another case, students will be asked to cross the most dangerous gang boundary in Chicago every morning and afternoon to accommodate a shutdown.
2) Tell us about the demonstration.
The demonstration bought together parents, teachers, and students from the neighborhood and all around the city. It was staged at a very busy intersection along the gang border where the kids next will have to cross next year to go to their new school. It was also staged after school and during the shift change of The University of Chicago Hospitals nearby. Thousands of people commute through this intersection to begin their after school commute. The apex of the protest involved students, teachers, and parents sitting down in the street with blood stained shirts to call attention to the violence potential at that intersection next year. Innocent people are often caught in gang gun battles in and around this intersection. A few months ago a two-month old child was shot and killed in gang crossfire in a child seat in a parked car near this intersection. We have a lot of worried parents who don’t like their kids crossing this intersection at any time.
3) Have you spoken off the record to any police—what do they have to say?
Most of the police I spoke to were very sympathetic to the protests because the mayor is hostile to unions in general. The only cop I talked to who did not share this opinion was the afternoon Grand Crossing Precinct Shift officer who responded with a “no comment.”
4) And our brave firefighters—what is Rahm Emmanuel proposing?
The firefighters I have talked to are upset that the safety corridor plan developed by the city to protect students making this and other commutes to new schools will move them away from their (fire) houses, and in some cases, trucks. They feel that this is a public safety issue and that it violates their contract. The firemen have suggested that the mayor hire more cops to take care of the safety corridors.
5) I heard you were interviewed. What happened?
I was picketing and representing my Union local, AFT 2063, at the protest and a TV reporter asked me for an interview, so I talked to him.
6) Do you have a link?
Here it is: http://chicago.cbslocal.com/video/8884241-police-arrest-demonstrators-protesting-school-closings/
7) What have I neglected to ask?
This is “the City of Broad Shoulders” and we aim to teach the Broad Foundation that they cannot steal our schools or harm our kids. The people of Chicago worked for a hundred years to build these buildings and the public needs to continue to invest in them. We don’t like the idea of private companies profiting from public property that we have invested in. We don’t like not having a say in how and why this happens. What we have here is classic machine politics. The aldermen will support the mayor because he controls who gets what and who doesn’t. The aldermen have been told to shut up, and with a few exceptions, they are shutting up.
This teacher works at the private school that Rahm’s kids go to! Major kudos to him for standing up and speaking out. Many other Lab School teachers have stood up in support of the CTU and Chicago’s kids as well.
I thought the name of that school sounded familiar – I live far from Chicago.
WOW! That takes courage for him to take a stand – thanks for mentioning the fact that this is the private school that Rahm’s kids go to. I wouldn’t have noticed it if you hadn’t noted it.
Emmanuel is walking into the same do-do as Mayor Villaraigosa, King Tony, has and that is their personal promotion machine is going to make Emmanuel irrelevant also. Let him damage himself more so as to make himself irrelevant in the future as a pariah. When you attack the public like this now with the sentiment starting to change finally you are sealing your own fate. Most who have the vote are real angry. The porkers at the troth are few in number. With the sentiment in Chicago building and the national support they have I can see Emmanuel crashing as is Jindal. Good Riddance to all of them who are bought and sold against the PUBLIC’S best interests. Let’s throw out all the bums no matter the party they say they are in.
“Our mayor has taken heavy campaign contributions from some people who are heavily invested in charter schools and they are starting to worry about the return on their investments.”
This alone is enough scandal to sink a small ship. The blatant corruption is astounding. Isn’t there anyone out there with legal expertise to start the wheels of justice turning?
Thank you, Dr. Ravitch for your posts. You are beyond a treasure!
Rather a “large” ship … so angry I cannot find the words …
Amen! I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again…these are the PUBLIC’s schools not the Mayors! The people should be allow to elect their own board of education and they should have a say in what happens to their communities (no matter where they live).
I’m developing a comprehensive list of these types of organizations. I’m calling them Educational Terrorist Organizations (ETOs). If you have suggestions for organizations or specific criteria used for consideration then please make a comment.
http://phiguritowt.wordpress.com/educational-terrorist-organizations-etos/
I will not vote for Hillary in 2016 unless she cuts all ties to Rahm. I don’t want to vote for anybody who might appoint him to a Cabinet position.
Are we supposed to be impressed by your integrity. Hilary is Obama in skirts. Vote Tea Party or be prepared for more of the same.
I feel the same……
Harlan,
Is it necessary to point out the gender differences? You could have just said that you believe Hilary and Obama are one-in-the-same as far as their politics go. Besides, Hilary rarely wears skirts (at least every picture in my mind, she is in a pant suit).
Yep, she’s a “pantsuit”!
Not necessary to mention or emphasize the gender differences. But she’ll run on it: “The first woman president.”
Politics is dominated by those who see it as a game. There are some politicians who hold their nose and play the game because there is no other choice; then there are those politicians who embrace the game, glory in it, revel in it as blood sport. The former are basically decent people who have been coopted by a corrupt system; the latter are legitimized gangsters. And the gangsters set the rules for the game.
Which type do you think fits Emmanuel better? Which type is running things in cities like New York, Chicago, LA? And why is it that they are running things? Simple: Because they have a pathological need for power that normal people cannot fathom, and because people who don’t have that need are only rarely willing to pay the price required to play the game. Few decent people have the chops for it–the courage, integrity, and smarts.
So these gangsters fight among themselves for position, and the rest of us choose the least bad of those who make it to the ballot, and the result is things like Chicago and the U.S. Congress. Such is the state of democracy in the U.S. today.
I suppose we should take solace in that we’ve been here before–in the late 19th century, and there’s always hope we can recover from it. (Well, maybe not in Chicago; it has special kind of corrupt status all its own.) There’s a reason, though, that the ancients thought democracy the worst form of government except for tyranny. They saw democracy as the antechamber to tyranny, the last step before devolving into tyranny. They had good reason to think it, because they observed the democratic mob too often and too easily manipulated by demagogues who with the mob’s enthusiastic support installed themselves as tyrants.
I believe in the common sense and common decency of the average American, but there is no party that represents their interests anymore. And there won’t be until people who are driven by common sense and common decency get motivated and get organized. Maybe what these gangsters are doing to our schools will be the trigger.
So, Karen Lewis for mayor, anyone? She has the chops. But then again, it’s Chicago.
Yes! Karen Lewis for mayor!
We don’t have true democracy. The Supreme Court has declared corporations to be legal “persons” and campaign spending to be “free speech,” so it’s more like one dollar = one vote than one person = one vote.
A viable alternative for Chicago mayor (if she can be convinced to run) is County Commissioner Toni Preckwinkle.
-David R. Stone, a Chicago Public Schools teacher
Correction to my previous post: Toni Preckwinkle is President of the Cook County Board, not a County Commissioner. (That’s the Illinois county that includes Chicago.)
And an elaboration: Despite my cynicism about the corrupting influence of money in a “democracy,” I remain optimistic about the power of the people to make a difference when enough people care — and plenty of people care about education. Rahm can raise millions of dollars, but Toni could give him a run for the money.
-David R. Stone, Chicago Public Schools teacher
Great article, Diane! Thanks for publishing this interview. I thank Paul Horton for his candor. Unfortunately, stories like this seem to run throughout the Chicago school closing saga. This is not about benefiting anyone’s children,unless you count the ones who are driving this. Hint: They’re not students, teachers or residents of impacted neighborhoods. In North Lawndale, a low income African Chicago neighborhood on Chicago’s West Side, in which I live, we lost 5 schools. Bethune, named after Civil Rights leader, educator and advisor to President Roosevelt, is controlled by AUSL, a multi-million dollar nonprofit organization whose board includes venture capitalists and real estate investors. Their former board chair is the current president of the Chicago Board of Education. Tim Cawley, a former managing director of AUSL, is the Chief Administrative Officer for Chicago Public Schools. At any rate, Bethune will be closed before they can realized the turnaround promised by AUSL. The school will be taken over by Kellman Corporate Academy, right across the street.This fact was not disclosed to the public until the last minute. Closing Bethune frees up AUSL to take over Chalmers (which performs better than Bethune), located across the street from the northeast corner of Douglas Park. AUSL operates a poorly performing high school situated inside Douglas Park. Pope School, which is making significant strides, is located across the street from the southwest corner of Douglas Park. It will close, and students will go to Johnson, which is situated across the street from Douglas Park, and is controlled by AUSL. Henson school, named for Matthew Henson, the first African American to reach the North Pole, will close. Even though the receiving school is Hughes, a higher performing school, the new boundaries are drawn such that only 30% of the Henson children can go there; 20% will go to Webster, and 50% will go to Herzl, a poorly performing school managed by AUSL. When the dust settles, we see that essentially every school in and around Douglas Park will be controlled by AUSL. AUSL schools, as a group, have only recently gotten to the point where they perform as well as North Lawndale schools as a group in reading. The AUSL schools operating in North Lawndale don’t perform as well as North Lawndale schools as a group in reading or math. The remaining school in North Lawndale that will be closed, Paderewski, draws from the Latino and African American communities. About 82% of the children are African American, and 18% are Latino.The designated receiving schools are at capacity, and are higher performing than Paderewski School. They are also in the Latino community. The new boundaries are drawn such that the African American students will be relegated to attending one of two schools that perform worse than Paderewski, while the Latino children will be sent to one of the two higher performing receiving schools. That is, if they can get in due to over-crowding. This is insidious at best.