Karen Lewis, president of the Chicago Teachers Union, told the Chicago City Club that the city’s elites were failing the city’s children and public schools. She blamed school closings on public officials, “rich white people,” and banks that decided to disinvest in black communities. She singled out Bank of America as an institution that had exacerbated inequality.
“Lewis said, “there is nothing radical about me other than I want each and every student in Chicago to get the best education we have to offer,” and added the union is more than willing to work with the Board of Education and the Emanuel administration to solve the myriad issues facing the school system, but “we can’t work together on these issues because they keep creating new problems.”
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Reblogged this on David R. Taylor-Thoughts on Texas Education.
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“the union is more than willing to work with the Board of Education and the Emanuel administration to solve the myriad issues facing the school system”
Any idea what this means?
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Rahm has in effect created a crisis in order to profit. He states there is a billion dollar deficit in order to justify to close schools and slash cps school budget by 25%. Schools have seen their bugets lose hundreds of thousands and most high schools have seen million dollar cuts. Now according to CPS (which does what Rahm wants) it is the principal who choses what programs, teachers, stay and go. Right now schools are on record that the art, music, programs are out. Teachers positions are being cut. There is not enough money to buy toliet paper for the year.
The truth is that there isnt a billion dollar deficit, and this will come to light in July when the ACTUAL expenditures are released and not a projected budget, people will see that this was a manufactured crisis and did not have to be.
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So how can the CTU “work with the Board of Education and the Emanuel administration” to solve that?
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In Los Angeles, we have a windfall of cash due to Prop. 30 tax increase. So our LAUSD School Board decides to use $30 Million to purchase I-pads so that inner city students can use them to study for Common Core testing…also our Governor’s idea.
Beware what you ask for!
What our educators all agree on is the need for hiring back teachers so that classes of 40 – 45 students can be ameliorated. But then, who listens to educators?
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Right on and TRUE!
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It means what it says! Duh!
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The same situation exists in Pennsylvania with an artificial budget crisis created to push through a privatization agenda. It’s all being guided by ALEC.
http://tinyurl.com/m555svw
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Those I-Pads are an illegal purchase. It is illegal to purchase any equipment that will not last at least 10 years with school construction bond money in California. It is also illegal to use school construction bond money to pay for educators as in the vote last Tuesday. No one reads the law or seems to care. The general counsel, Holmquist, is an illegal operator. He regularly terminated teachers falsely accused of crimes and does not follow the legally mandated Skelly Hearings and Due Process. Why is this allowed to continue? The controlling language for school construction bonds is the Leroy Greene Act. The U.S. is a lawless country and has been so for a period of time now and this is an example. LAUSD has $27 billion to give away and this is one of the illegal means to do such. LAUSD is technically a RICO organized crime organization by federal law.
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This country is morally bankrupt!
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Yes Yvonne… our country has become one of a “Let’s vote so & so off the island” mentality rather than having a mentality of compassion for one’s fellow human beings.
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That’s the way things are right now. Our government has gone so far to the right that the basic tenets of human rights have become a radical issue, so far to the left as to be untenable. Obviously, marches and union talk always get the liberal stamp, but we’re working in a time when the national zeitgeist might put people like Karen Lewis (and associates) in the “radical” sector. Next thing you know, they’ll actually call her Un-American in public …
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That’s the way things are right now. Our government has gone so far to the right that the basic tenets of human rights have become a radical issue, so far to the left as to be untenable. Obviously, marches and union talk always get the liberal stamp, but we’re working in a time when the national zeitgeist might put people like Karen Lewis (and associates) in the “radical” sector. Next thing you know, they’ll actually call her Un-American in public …
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I always wondered what a “human right” is. Care to offer your definition?
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