This is one of the best posts ever, written by a Chicago public school parent and blogger.
Julie Vassilatos asks the question: whose schools? Who do they belong to? In Chicago, they are currently “owned” by the mayor and his hand-picked board. In other major cities, they are being given away to boards controlled by hedge fund managers, entrepreneurs, and corporate chains.
In Chicago, the mayor wants to cut the schools’ budget by 39%. Unimaginable!
Julie has a different understanding: These schools belong to US. They are OURS.
She writes:
The public schools belong to us. They are ours. In a very personal way, in a theoretical way, and in an actual, absolute financial way. Chicago Public Schools belong to us, the families who pay taxes to sustain them.
They do not belong to a handful of small-minded men who want to break them down, write them out of their budgets, and sever our communities from each other. They do not.
They. Are. Ours.
Our buildings, some of them historic, we have upheld and gardened and and repainted with our own volunteer efforts. We have papered their walls with our children’s art. We have forged relationships with our teachers, we have worked at this and so have they. We have struggled to get educational access for our special needs kids–struggled to create conditions in which our kid can learn despite draconian state-imposed limits, struggled together with our counselors and caseworkers and teachers and paraprofessionals.
We have chaperoned field trips and ridden on noisy bouncing buses, we have invented, organized, and staffed creative fundraisers, we have helped out in the classroom from stapling papers to reading to kids to finding and putting tennis balls on chair feet.
We have served on PTAs and LSCs, anxious and striving, weeping and sweating, laughing over shared meals and cheering over bake sale profits, working out and forging action on critical things like who our principal is and how we can best allocate our few paltry dollars.
In many cases our kids go to the same schools we went to, and our hearts can be filled with pride over this or with shame that they may be using the same textbooks we used. These schools are ours over generations.
These schools are ours. We pay for them. They are for our children and our society. They are not for the profit and manipulations of a ruler class, some of whom we elected in foolishness, and many of whom are appointed and about whom we have no say whatsoever. These educational overlords have shown that they do not care about our children’s educations. They care about their own children’s educations, as indeed so do we for our own children. It’s comfortable and easy for them, but the costs for this are high–a shrinking Chicago tax base, an exodus out of the city that will soon become a torrent, a generation of kids’ educations in jeopardy, and the moral cost of all the effort to maintain a lower class whose educational opportunities are denied.
Friends, readers, CPS parents, public school parents of the nation, hear this. Your school is yours. Our schools belong to us. Do not forget it. We have some power we need to retake here. We have a district to reclaim.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Reblogged this on Politicians Are Poody Heads.
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The people that want your schools know little to nothing about children, nor do know much about the history of the schools or the school community. What they do know is value. They know the value of your children and the value of the real estate of your buildings, and they want to profit from them. They want to create cheap schools for your children, but not for theirs. With all the money they will squeeze from Chicago’s schools, they will have plenty for tuition at Chicago Laboratory Schools for their own child-
en.
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Correction: children
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Illinois’ Governor Rauner has refused to take any emergency action to fund Chicago’s schools. Instead, he prefers to bring about, through his inaction, a Katrina-like Armageddon scenario of school chaos caused by the deep 39% budget cuts. This, in turn, would enable the same style of city-wide school privatization — and elimination of public schools — that occurred in New Orleans.
Therefore, this seems a good time to bring up:
1) a video / article of the comment made last week by Illinois’ school privatizing Governer Rauner, where he called Illinois’ public schools “crumbling prisons” that — according to his past comments — needed to closed, and replaced with privately managed charters
http://www.chicagotribune.com/lifestyles/stevens/ct-rauner-cps-crumbling-prisons-balancing-0607-20160606-column.html
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2) A video /TV news report of Governor Rauner’s response to a related question a few days later, he told reporters that he has indeed visited some of these “crumbling school” prisons to see for himself.
However, a follow-up to that question left him flummoxed.
Rauner was asked three times by the reporter, “What schools are you referring to? Can you name one?”
He’s momentarily stunned and speechless, before blathering some talking points — i.e. the “whole system” needs to be changed a la New Orleans — and also mentioning how much he and his wife care about schools — yet, after being offered three chances to do so, he can’t name one such school.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/lifestyles/stevens/ct-rauner-cps-crumbling-prisons-balancing-0607-20160606-column.html
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Governor Rauner, promoting privatization as the alternative, referred to Chicago’s traditional public schools as “crumbling prisons” that are failing miserably in education children.
In the first link above, Heidi Stevens, an op-ed writer and public school parent let him have it (surprisingly, Stevens’ piece is from the pro-privatization Chicago Tribune) :
HEIDI STEVENS:
“A skeptic might argue the governor is using such loaded language not to shine a light on the conditions of the chronically underfunded district, but to make the nation’s third-largest school system seem beyond repair and in dire need of privatization.
“Several people, in fact, argued just that.
” ‘@GovRauner face it, all you want are charter schools to put more money in your friends’ pockets. You don’t care about us,’ tweeted one such skeptic.
“Wendy Katten, director of Raise Your Hand for Illinois Public Education, shared a similar sentiment on Facebook:
” ‘Governor Rauner and his elite buddies like to make these kinds of comments about CPS so they can justify slashing our budgets instead of investing in our schools, so as to not impact their own wallets,’ Katten wrote. ‘So disgusting. Everyone should invite him to their school so he can see what’s really going on instead of perpetuating this nonsense.’
“Ald. Howard B. Brookins shared his thoughts on Facebook as well, writing,
” ‘If the Governor wanted to respect our students, teachers and principals, he would start funding all our schools equitably instead of punishing poor students throughout the state of Illinois.’ ”
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Here’s another idiotic analogy or description of public schools.
Not to be outdone by Chicago’s mayor, Orange County Register staff columnist John Seiler compared the U.S.’s two-centuries-old system of traditional public schools to the U.S. car industry — particularly GM — that was demolished by “spirited competition” from the Japanese car industry starting in the 1970’s. He views the Japanese car industry, of course, as being the educational equivalent of the billionaire-backed movement to privatize schools through the unregulated expansion of privately-run charter schools.
http://www.ocregister.com/articles/schools-718107-charters-students.html
Yep, that’s right. Total deregulation and unbridled free market forces and competition “uber alles.” That approach will solve all, and create the educational paradise we’ve been seeking for over 200 years. After all, that worked out so well for the Wall Street / finance and housing industries during the years 2001-2008 — when, as a result, the world was brought to brink of economic collapse.
(Oh, and that same free market approach also worked out so well for the educational systems of countries like Chile and Sweden. We know how badly this wreaked havoc on the schools there, so hey, let’s do it here in the United States).
Of course, in 2008, the U.S. government bailed out those industries, and in effect, suspended and contradicted George W.’s and the neo-liberals’ faith in all that total deregulation and unbridled free market forces and competition. In that instance, of course, it was okay. Wall St. and the housing industry were worth bailing out.
However, when the Chicago Public Schools need a similar bailout — for a disaster that no one working in, that no student attending, and that no parent whose children attend those schools HAD ANYTHING TO DO WITH (See Next Post) — well, according to the Illinois government and its governor, those schools are NOT worth bailing out.
Any-hoo, back to the article from Orange County Register.
The Orange County Resister columnist John Seler compares supporting public schools to “buying a used Pinto.”
http://www.ocregister.com/articles/schools-718107-charters-students.html
JOHN SEILER:
“Back in the late 1960s, almost every automobile sold in America was built by General Motors, Ford, Chrysler or American Motors (later merged with Chrysler). Then the energy crisis hit in the 1970s, and cheap, reliable Japanese compacts made huge inroads, especially against such junkers as Chevy’s Vega and Ford’s explosion-prone Pinto. U.S. companies had become complacent with the lack of competition and were shocked when drivers enjoyed alternatives.
“The same has happened to traditional public schools in California as charter schools have given parents and students more choices for education. Charters also are public schools, paid for with tax dollars. But they get to chuck most of the state’s cumbersome Education Code (except for such things as anti-discrimination statutes), allowing the flexibility that advances innovation.”
” … ”
“Back in the late 1960s, almost every automobile sold in America was built by General Motors, Ford, Chrysler or American Motors (later merged with Chrysler). Then the energy crisis hit in the 1970s, and cheap, reliable Japanese compacts made huge inroads, especially against such junkers as Chevy’s Vega and Ford’s explosion-prone Pinto. U.S. companies had become complacent with the lack of competition and were shocked when drivers enjoyed alternatives.
“The same has happened to traditional public schools in California as charter schools have given parents and students more choices for education. Charters also are public schools, paid for with tax dollars. But they get to chuck most of the state’s cumbersome Education Code (except for such things as anti-discrimination statutes), allowing the flexibility that advances innovation.
“Although this spirited competition is happening in most places in the state, including Orange County, the most dramatic shift is happening in the Los Angeles Unified School District. As reported by the Associated Press in a story that ran in the Register, union consultant Susan Zoller “delivered a startling assessment to the LAUSD board: More than 100,000 students in the nation’s second-largest district were now enrolled in charters, draining more than $500 million from the budget in a single academic year. … If current trends continue, the district could be significantly diminished in another 10 years – at least a third smaller than at the start of the century.”
“Zoller said, ‘The financial future of Los Angeles is difficult.’ Board member Richard Vladovic added, “We are bleeding.”
“That sounds a lot like the squeaks made by GM when it began losing its 60 percent market share as Americans ditched their Vegas for Honda Civics. Today The General’s U.S. market share is just 19 percent, a third of that during its heyday as the world’s biggest and most profitable company.
” … ”
“I’ve been advocating for charters in these pages since they first came up and were passed in 1992 – by a state Legislature, then as now, controlled by majority Democrats. The California Charter Schools Act of that year stipulated, “It is the intent of the Legislature … to provide opportunities for teachers, parents, pupils and community members to establish and maintain schools that operate independently from the existing school district structure … to accomplish all of the following:
“(a) Improve pupil learning. (b) Increase learning opportunities for all pupils, with special emphasis on expanded learning experiences for pupils who are identified as academically low-achieving. (c) Encourage the use of different and innovative teaching methods. … (e) Provide parents and pupils with expanded choices in the types of educational opportunities that are available within the public school system.”
“That’s what happened. Opposing charters makes as much sense as buying a used Pinto.”
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What and who is behind this deliberate de-funding of Chicago public schools?
Well, Rahm Emanuel told Chicago Teachers Union president Karen Lewis that 25% of poor kids in Chicago are hopeless, so he’s not going to waste money on them —something Emanuel denied later:
http://www.examiner.com/article/emanuel-says-25-of-chicago-students-can-t-be-helped-according-to-ctu-president
In addition, here’s another example from Tim Cawley, who was in charge of facilities back in 2011. Carrying out Rahm’s mandate, Cawley put out an order not to invest in or repair any public schools unless and until those campuses were later closed and given over to private charter management. While those schools remained as traditional public schools, however … well, let them go to Hell and rot:
http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2011-12-15/news/ct-met-cps-buildings-20111215_1_urban-school-leadership-cps-operating-officer-tim-cawley
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From the last link about the intentional starving of public schools:
http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2011-12-15/news/ct-met-cps-buildings-20111215_1_urban-school-leadership-cps-operating-officer-tim-cawley
“Julie Woestehoff, executive director of Parents United for Responsible Education, who has watched teachers, parents and community members complain about a lack of investment in their schools at school closing hearings and in front of a state legislative facilities task force, said Cawley’s admission was ‘appalling.’
” ‘I think it’s deliberately starving these schools so that they become weaker and weaker before they’re killed off,’ she said. ‘It shows that they feel absolutely no responsibility toward schools that are struggling. They’re deliberately undermining them.’ “
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The Twitter #notaprison theme Chicago public school parents are using is clever.
Lovely photos too.
Why does the Governor of Illinois believe Illinois public schools are “prisons”? The schools in these photos don’t look at all like prisons.
Maybe he should get out and about more. He’s clearly been attending too many ed reform donor fundraisers.
https://twitter.com/foolforcps
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I am embarrassed by a society that exhibits much more nostalgia for a aged football stadium or a crumbling bridge or an abandoned theatre than they do for a school that marveled the minds of children, helped form their lives, blossomed their creativity, polished their skills, filled their souls with empathy, taught them to dare, and allowed them the sweet opportunity to fail … so they could rise again and meet success.
Chicago is everyone’s embarrassment.
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Not just Chicago.
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Says it all
Please ask the author to contact me
Thanks,
Bill Iacullo
Biacullo@local143.org
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The original story is cross-posted at http://www.opednews.com/Quicklink/Whose-schools-are-Chicago-in-Best_Web_OpEds-Chicago-Politics_Children_Corporate_Lies-Liars-160613-534.html
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“Friends, readers, CPS parents, public school parents of the nation, hear this. Your school is yours. Our schools belong to us. Do not forget it. We have some power we need to retake here. We have a district to reclaim.”
There should be “parent academies” explaining this, so parents don’t take schools for granted until it’s too late.
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