Charter operator CICS would rather spend public dollars on scabs than on student needs.
That’s wrong – and we can do something about it.
We learned this weekend that the management of CICS – Chicago International Charter Schools – has made arrangements to hire in scabs to break a planned Tuesday strike for smaller classes and no cuts to student programs, social workers or counselors. CICS bosses are currently sitting on $36 million in hoarded public dollars – more than half ‘invested’ with a company owned by its co-founder. Yet it says it doesn’t have a penny to provide to classrooms or student needs.
This is wrong, and you can help stop it!
This is wrong, and you can help stop it!
We’ve been bargaining for months with this greedy operator for living wages for our paraprofessionals – some of whom have masters degrees yet earn barely $30,000/year. Management has offered low-wage teachers an 8% raise for the first year of a new contract, but only if we agree to cuts in social workers, counselors and student programs – and throw paras under the bus by agreeing to a 1% ‘raise’ that doesn’t even keep pace with the inflation rate.
CICS siphons off close to 30% of public dollars it collects for top management costs and ‘reserve’ funds. CICS’ CEO Elizabeth Shaw earns more than $230,000 a year to run 14 schools – almost as much as CPS CEO Janice Jackson earns to run more than 500 schools. This is naked management greed, and it comes at the expense of students, their families and our school communities. Take action, join us and say no to CICS’ scheme to put management greed ahead of student needs. |
Diane Ravitch's blog 
I hope that there is NO EXCUSE for citizens to be jealous how much money the corrupted corporate is grabbing. A big BUT is that all 99% of population SHOULD FOCUS ON FIGHTING TO
1) STOP privatization all public common good programs in all its forms
2) STOP looting tax payers fund in all its forms under new regulations, new innovative programs, such as R2TT, SIB, …
3) ENFORCE all corporate IN pharmaceutical industry, technology manufacturers, banking industry, insurance industry, oil and gas industry, and all entertainment industry:
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Reblogged this on David R. Taylor-Thoughts on Education.
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Did the centrist democrat media get clobbered so thoroughly by real teachers in California that we are going to have minimal coverage of, and emphasis upon what is happening in public education? I hope I did not misinterpret Diane when she mentioned that Kamala Harris was helpful in the upset victory of Tony Thurmond. I never let up on the Post Dispatch in St. Louis….which is in it’s 8th day of saying absolutely nothing about Kamala Harris, while running stories on most of the others.How is the Illinois media handling this story?
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“CICS’ CEO Elizabeth Shaw earns more than $230,000 a year to run 14 schools – almost as much as CPS CEO Janice Jackson earns to run more than 500 schools.”
The “CEO” stuff is not that important in the scheme of things but really gives one a window into the ed reform mindset.
These charter school chains they are “founding” are 100% funded with public funds. There is absolutely no risk associated with “founding” one and then appointing yourself “CEO” of a publicly-funded entity.
The whole movement is riddled with dishonest and self-aggrandizing language, and it is language they mimic from the private sector, like they’re ashamed to be publicly funded and have to pretend they’re private sector entities in order to appeal to their donors and the leaders of their “movement”
This is just nonsense. These entities aren’t “start ups” because they have a guaranteed public funding stream, along with as much donor funding as the ed reform billionaires can possibly throw at them.
Words mean something.
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“CICS bosses are currently sitting on $36 million in hoarded public dollars.”
Did they promise you a rose garden? Did they tell you “We know the best,
think like us, follow us, become like us, and all will be well”?
The LAUSD bosses are STILL sitting on the largest reserve in the history of
California education,even after the “real” teachers strike.
” Arbitrator David A. Weinberg, the Neutral Chair of the California Public Employment Relations Board fact-finding panel, while noting the challenges LAUSD faces, found that the District’s reserves skyrocketed from $500 million in 2013-2014 to $1.8 billion in 2017-2018.”
Did they promise a rose garden? Did they say “We know the best…”
“Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me again and again, shame on me.”
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sidenote: I am reminded with this that in our state so much money was ‘borrowed’ from the ed. funding pot back with the ’08 crash, and many IOU promises written to return the money once the economy got back on track…and here we are in what newscasters and political pundits argue is, at least in our state, an amazing economy but that money IS NOT BEING RETURNED.
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