Troy LaRaviere is a prominent elementary school principal in Chicago. He has been outspoken in his opposition to Rahm Emanuel’s budget-cutting and his preference for privately managed charters. He is on the honor roll of this blog for his courage and articulate support of the children and educators of the Windy City.
He recently spoke at the Chicago Club and titled his address, “A Love Letter to Chicago’s Teachers.”
Much to his surprise, he received an anonymous love letter from a teacher. She was deeply inspired by his speech.
Her letter to Troy begins like this:
I’ve been reading and listening to your love letter over and over the last few weeks. Your passion is contagious. Your sweet words, hard and true, light the darkness in my heart; the light I had forgotten. Although, your words I hold dear to my heart…I cannot leave my man (CPS). He provides for me…without him…I don’t know how I would be able to feed my kids. Yes, he is abusive…He constantly threatens to quit me. He reminds me annually that I can be easily replaced by someone younger, cheaper and less experienced. He doesn’t respect me…in fact he constantly belittles me with tests that constantly change and evaluations that are subjective and punitive…as if I haven’t proven that I am worthy or good enough despite the years that I have sacrificed for our relationship. He sends people to check up on me in hopes of catching me doing wrong.
Troy says he is a shy man by nature, but clearly he was moved by this letter. You can bet he will fight even harder now for justice and equity and respect for the city’s teachers, parents, and children.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Off-topic, but this is a must-read article (just not on a full stomach): http://www.salon.com/2015/09/27/the_business_school_trained_are_taking_on_education_but_what_about_the_teachers_and_students/
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One of the main reasons that there is an organ black market in India is to pay for education for children. This is not an amazing for profit solution. It is exploitation of desperate poor people.
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I like how this article openly admits that there are individuals and groups which freely admit to profiting off the poor. Oh, yeah, I know, they are “social entrepreneurs” who are trying to help the poor. But they’re making a profit – doubt the poor are. What a sick world we live in.
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Let’s revive the 70’/s term for working class Union teachers. I believe these entrepreneurs are the real poverty pimps.
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It’s funny because even Larry Summers, who has been making the neoliberal case for 20 years, is now backing off it:
“He also rejected one explanation for rising inequality — that the workforce is inadequately educated — in favor of the more liberal economist’s argument that businesses simply aren’t creating enough jobs and that technology has allowed profits to accumulate in the hands of the top 1 percent. He reiterated that point of view yesterday, as well.
“There’s a view that I think was a plausible view to hold in 1995, which I would call ‘preserve my carried-interest tax break, the market’s great, yes, there are a lot of people left behind, we need to give them better education, I’m really involved in a charter school, it’s all going to be okay,'” Summers said. “That is not a credible response to the challenges of the American economy in 2015.”
I think we should all say that to politicians- “that is not a credible response” 🙂
http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonkblog/wp/2015/09/10/larry-summers-has-become-one-of-organized-labors-biggest-advocates/
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Yes, Chiara, you know conditions are off the charts when Larry Summers thinks they’ve gone too far.
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http://www.latimes.com/local/california/la-me-0927-lopez-kaplan-20150927-column.html
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These principals are far and few between.
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