Chicago: Public Schools Broke, But Board Will Open New Charters

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1. itsjustanevent says:

   November 1, 2015 at 1:08 pm

   All you need to do is go to the website for The Commercial Club of Chicago to understand why this is happening. They have a link for “New schools for Chicago”. It used to link to the Chicago International Charter site. 350 of the wealthiest people in the Chicago area decided they were going to turn CPS into charters and they’ve been doing it. Former mayor Daley was a member, Emanuel is, Bill Daley is, and Bruce Rauner and his wife are. Both Daley and Emanuel appoint school board members and half have always been from the Commercial Club, including this Clark guy. And you never hear about this shadow government because the people who own and run media outlets in Chicago are members as well.

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2. itsjustanevent says:

   November 1, 2015 at 1:11 pm

   For as much as I like President Obama, he’s connected to the CCofC as well. It’s what I suspect helped get him elected. It’s why we got Arne Duncan as Sec. of Ed. and first Emanuel, then Bill Daley as his Chiefs of Staff. It’s why we have Penny Pritker as Sec. of Commerce (also a member) and why we’re getting TPP. And yet we never even hear the words Commercial Club of Chicago anywhere, even on this blog. They also spearheaded the attempt to “reform” the pension system in IL and replace it with 401K’s. Many of their members would personally benefit from such a switch.

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3. Laura H. Chapman says:

   November 1, 2015 at 1:17 pm

   CorruptCorruptCorrupt

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4. Jack says:

   November 1, 2015 at 1:31 pm

   This is exactly why Chicago needs an elected school board.

   Earlier last summer, Jesse Ruiz was also briefly the interim Chicago Schools CEO (not Superintendent… schools are a business in Chi-town) after the then-CEO Barbara Byrd-Bennett had to resign after prosecutors announced an investigation of her conflict-of-interests in spearheading a multi-million-dollar contract to a principals’ training organization that she had ties to… but that’s another story.

   Anyway, back to Jesse Ruiz.

   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.”
   —————————

   I don’t know about you, but Jesse’s really “un-pleasing” me with his justification for the 20-years-and-counting cancellation 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 replaced 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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5. DonnaJoy says:

   November 1, 2015 at 1:35 pm

   This is what you get when you have an appointed School Board. Chicago needs an elected School Board which cares about our children and not pleasing the mayor.

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6. mscrabtreenyc says:

   November 1, 2015 at 2:40 pm

   Get the names of the people paying them to do this

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7. Jon Lubar says:

   November 1, 2015 at 3:11 pm

   There is a stellar grass roots parent driven activist organization in Chicago called RaiseYourHand who have found that there are almost 13,000 empty seats in Chicago’s existing charter schools, yet the mayor and his cronies insist on opening more. The blatant hypocrisy of this, of opening more charters after closing 50 schools due to their being “underutilized” is par for the course for the mayor and his appointed board of rubber stamp cronies. Diane, they should be add to your honor roll for standing up to the reformy crowd on a frayed shoestring budget! Here’s RYH page on the situation. http://ilraiseyourhand.org/content/behind-ryh-numbers-charter-spaces-2015

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8. Jon Lubar says:

   November 1, 2015 at 3:20 pm

   On an unrelated topic, but FYI on another atrocity that was attempted in Chicago (and elsewhere) underlying the draconian cuts to SPED, read this horror story on how GS profits from keeping kids out of SPED. http://schoolingintheownershipsociety.blogspot.com/2015/10/jb-pritzker-and-goldman-sachs-doing.html

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9. Chiara says:

   November 1, 2015 at 3:45 pm

   T”he votes taken by a board rarely known to dissent hardly came as a shock. Still, hundreds on both sides seized the meeting as their last chance to sway the votes after months of lobbying.”

   You really wonder why they bother with the public meetings and the statements from people who are affected. None of it makes a bit of difference. They’re obviously winding down the public schools and replacing them with charter schools. Why conduct these ridiculous sham hearings and waste peoples’ time?

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10. Christine Langhoff says:

    November 1, 2015 at 8:15 pm

    It comes back to CRPE, funded by BillandMelinda. (Why do the reformistas come up with such unfortunate acronyms?) This is part of the District-Charter Compact for Chicago:

    Click to access Chicago_Compact_Nov11_0.pdf

    The grant to date is for $2.76 million. Here’s the Gates report from 2015:

    “Public education in Chicago has a tortured political history. Recently, the city has faced a teacher strike, a CEO resignation amid allegations of financial fraud, and heated public battles around the growing number of charter schools. 150 of 650 public schools in Chicago are now chartered. The Chicago Teacher’s Union is powerful, well organized, and has taken a strong anti-charter stance. Yet Mayor Rahm Emanuel, who has the power to set the course for Chicago Public Schools (CPS), has been elected and re-elected (albeit narrowly) on an education platform that considers high-quality charter schools a critical tool to provide strong school options to as many parents as possible.”

    See: http://www.crpe.org/sites/default/files/city_summary_chicago_9.2015.pdf

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11. Christine Langhoff says:

    November 1, 2015 at 8:20 pm

    Here in Boston, CRPE has also been active, and perhaps is the insipration behind Mayor Marty Walsh’s (who has announced he intends to seek re-election) recent declaration in favor of lifting the charter cap currently in place. Parents have filed an FOIA request as the updated Boston Compact’s details have not been revealed.

    Here’s the Gates take on Boston from 2013:

    Click to access boston_city_summary.pdf

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12. Michael Fiorillo says:

    November 2, 2015 at 8:40 am

    Typical Shock Doctrine tactics…

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13. EdM says:

    November 2, 2015 at 5:24 pm

    Marc Tucker’s 3-10-2010 article in the Kappan went even further to (advocate) removing school boards from their historic place of necessary representative government. There was no mention of elected vs. appointed, but I wonder if this is now interim to the plan of total loss of public control. Tucker characterized local boards’ duplicity of effort, being dysfunctional and subject to corruption. The zinger is at the end of the article – getting rid of them, or severely limiting their roles. The running of schools would be left to the professionals, understood as private entities. I have a .pdf attachment, but not a link.

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14. Francisco Martinez says:

    November 3, 2015 at 3:11 pm

    There is a growing animosity and generalization towards charter schools but I believe that what the mayor and the board is doing is trying and testing a new method a new system in education that is not just full with greedy administrators as many like to generalize. There are tired and proven charter chains that have preformed better than their counterparts. The board is closing down schools that have not shown results for a long time, despite their measure of success being disagreeable. Only time will tell whether that choice will pay off for the educational system in Chicago. If charter schools also start not to preform at the same level expected of public schools then I would expect the board to start looking at another system of education.

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