Governor Bruce Rauner and top Republican legislative leaders are discussing a plan to declare Chicago bankrupt and take control of the city, its finances, and the Chicago public schools.
This would give control of the city, its services, its pension obligations, and its children to an aggressive new Governor with no prior public service. Rauner was a hedge fund manager before he ran for governor. He would gain the power to appoint an Emergency Manager to make cuts. Rainer is known as an advocate for charters and privatization.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
How long before Rauner and his emergency managers are piping lead-filled water (and, metaphorically speaking, lead-filled charter schools) to children in Chicago as a “cost-saving” measure?
While some people clutch their pearls when class warfare is mentioned in regard to the behavior of our Overclass, they successfully practice it, as Warren Buffett indiscreetly said in 2006, and in fact are rapidly intensifying it.
If Rauner (or Rahm for that matter) could figure out how to use Chicago River water for only certain Chicago neighborhoods, he’d do it in a New York minute. Chicago is safe only because it would be too hard to separate the neighborhoods, plus they are trying hard to gentrify the neighborhoods, so you wouldn’t want corrosive/lead tainted water to scare away the rich white folks. Some of the majority-minority collar suburbs where black and brown people have been fleeing Chicago, however, had better be careful.
An entire school district — in this case, the 3rd
largest district in the country — is a school
privatizer’s wet dream.
Remember that corporate reform panel where Andy
Smarick and the rest were yukking it up with glee
at the prospect of “blowing up” school districts
with bankruptcy? One of them Rebecca Sibilia
even argued that an entire school district
going bankrupt is “not a problem for children
it’s only a problem for adults” —-
i.e. tens of thousands of unionized teachers
losing their pension that they contributed to in
an Enron-style apocalypse & and other
horros —
Here’s coverage of that HERE:
CORRECTION:
I mean to say ..
“An entire school district GOING BANKRUPT is a school privatizer’s wet dream”.
From a blog I wrote on January 11: “I follow K-12 policy and practice across the nation–teacher leadership and teacher professionalism are my personal passion. And I think teachers across the country know far more about what’s happening in public schools in Chicago, New York, Washington D.C. and Los Angeles than what’s happening in Detroit. Which is a shame, because many of the outrages–from democratic disenfranchising to charter abuses–were pilot-tested here in the mitten state. With the same lousy results they’re getting in bigger cities.”
This rolling movement to suspend democracy started here and has resulted in the literal poisoning of an entire once-proud, working class city full of people, most of whom are black and live–now– in poverty.
Rauner has a lot of nerve–does he think people aren’t paying attention? Oh, that’s right. They’re not.
My view: A very fundamental one. When government tells us what we must believe, our “education” is based on how well we indoctrinate our children with that, we have entered totalitarianism.
Education involves the never ending search for truth, not on truths imposed by government. When that fundamental basis for real education is lost, again, totalitarianism, something we abhor in other governments.
Corporations run our government. ALEC writes bills, our Congress passes them verbatim. Congress passes laws which allow 6 major corporations to control 80 – 90% of our “news”.
This is democracy at work?
Mitch McConnell before Obama was even sworn in proclaimed that EVERY thing Obama tried to do would be opposed. In my book that is treason. Different views should be debated but when someone deliberately for political power makes the government dysfunctional in my opinion that is treason.
Now Mitch is Senate majority leader. He got what he aimed for
and
people did not even notice.
In this blog Obama is vilified often and with good reason regarding education
but
what about these other people who have deliberately caused dysfunctional government?
These have a direct effect on education.
Too, might I add
If any of you can get freespeach TV, there is an excellent program on education. Dr. Ravitch has several comments within it. I highly recommend it.
Most of you will not get freespeach TV. It is non commercial, ergo, it is not carried by the corporate media. I get it on Dish Network. I believe it is carried on another network also but it has several superb programs. Many of them highly educational, something with which educators should be involved.
Detroit…here we come. Excellent state run education for everyone!
There is one basic item that many have forgotten. Rauner has been in office for 1 year and he has yet to pass a budget for Illinois.
Yeah – Illinois does not have a budget since July 1, 2015, has not paid its bills, state universities will close soon because of no state money. Heck, lotto winners had to sue to get their winnings.
So the guy who does not have a working budget for the state and doesn’t pay his bills wants to take over CPS and the City of Chicago.