Cheating Kids for Twenty-Five Years in Chicago

Former Huntley School Board Larry Snow has found a chink in the armor of Illinois Democrats.

And from whence did it come?

From newly-elected Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel.

Snow picks up on an April 17, 2011, letter to the Chicago Tribune containing the following gem:

“Nothing is more critical to Chicago’s future than our children’s education. And yet for years we have cheated them.”

And, who has been running Chicago since before I was born?

That’s right.

Democrats.

The evidence?

Here’s another quote from Emanuel:

“It’s no wonder only half of Chicago Public Schools’ students graduate from high school.”

And, who was in charge of Chicago schools?

President Barack Obama’s Secretary of Education, Arn Ducan. From the Department’s web site:

“Prior to his appointment as secretary of education, Duncan served as the chief executive officer of the Chicago Public Schools, a position to which he was appointed by Mayor Richard M. Daley, from June 2001 through December 2008, becoming the longest-serving big-city education superintendent in the country.”

Read the rest of the article, if you think this might be an issue Illinois Republicans could capitalize on.


Comments

Cheating Kids for Twenty-Five Years in Chicago — 7 Comments

  1. Give me a break, Cal. You and Larry don’t care about the kids, you only care about the taxes. That, and creating conservative little clones of yourselves

  2. So after years of the Education Industry patting itself on the back every opportunity it can – now that the Internet makes it easier for the public to know what’s going on – the politicians step up to the plate and tell the truth. Why are they stepping up to the plate – because they want to get reelected and they want their buddies to get elected or reelected. Wow, they found “religion”. they discovered “sliced bread”, they discovered that people are ticked.

    Yah, right. More likely they’ll just wait till things calm down and then it will be business as usual.

    It’s almost like when some major charities were exposed and religious members’ offenses against children finally hit the fan.

  3. Caring about kids includes not “stealing” from their parents, the kids piggy banks and college savings accounts.

    That means being financially smart – not filling your cronies pockets with truly unearned money.

  4. Jack Sprat says: “Give me a break, Cal. You and Larry don’t care about the kids,…”

    Neither do you, apparently.

    “…you only care about the taxes.”

    Apparently, you favor high taxes. You must be a union teacher or union organizer.

  5. I am not so sure it’s something the Republicans can capitalize on. Let’s look a little bit further back in history.

    From the Illinois Association of School Boards (IASB) website. “In the 1970s, the IEA contributed $80,000 into the first campaign of Governor Jim Thompson, by far the largest interest group contribution (adjusted for inflation, the amount would represent $300,000 today). Later the Republican chief executive signed collective bargaining legislation for the union.”

    Acronym elaboration for those in need. The IEA referred to is the Illinois Educational Association, the largest teacher union in Illinois and the Illinois affiliate of the NEA, the largest teacher union in the United States. The collective bargaining legislation referred to is the Illinois Educational Labor Relations Act (IELRA) that was signed by Jim Thompson with effective start date of 1/1/84.

    However, here is something to which everyone should be paying attention.

    Flash forward to Education Reform SB7/630 that unanimously (all Senators voted yes) passed the Illinois State Senate April 15, 2011. SB7 now sits in the Illinois House.

    Depending on the final contents when reconciled with the House bill, SB7 could substantially change the way teachers are evaluated and fired and more. However it seems the 111 page SB7 contains numerous potential union loopholes.

    I was interested in who was on the committee to create the bill. Here is what I discovered. Here are the people on the Senate Education Reform Committee that met from January 2011 – April 2011 to create the bill.

    For simplicity sake you can categorize these entities.

    Illinois State Senators: Lightford, Maloney, Luechtefeld, & Murphy

    Unions/Labor: CTU, IEA, IFT.

    School Management: CPS, School Management Alliance, LUDA, LEND, SCOPE, Ed-Red.

    Parent/Child advocacy: Advance Illinois, Stand for Children, (Parent PAC?).

    IL State Government: ISBE

    A more detailed breakdown follows.

    Illinois State Senators: Lightford, Maloney, Luechtefeld, Murphy
    Chicago Teachers Union (CTU): Karen Lewis, Jennifer Ross
    Chicago Public Schools (CPS): Stephanie Donovan, Rachel Resnick
    Parent PAC: Jonathan Goldman
    Illinois Education Association (IEA): Audrey Soglin, Mitch Roth
    Illinois Federation of Teachers (IFT): Dan Montgomery, Steve Preckwinckle
    School Management Alliance: Ben Schwarm, Sara Boueck
    Advance Illinois: Robin Steans, Jon Furr
    Stand for Children: Jessica Handy
    Large Unit District Association (LUDA): Diane Rutledge
    Legislative Education Network of Dupage (LEND) and South Cooperative Organization for Public Education (SCOPE): Peg Agnos
    Education, Research, Development (Ed-Red): Erika Lindley
    Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE): Darren Reisberg

    Even more detailed breakdown follows.

    Chicago Teachers Union is an affiliate of the Illinois Federation of Teachers (IFT) which is an affiliate of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT). IFT is the second largest teacher union in IL, and AFT is the second largest teacher union in the USA.

    Kimberley Lightford (D-Westchester/Maywood). Chair of this Committee, Asst Majority Leader, IEA friend. Career State of IL employee.

    Edward Maloney (D-Chicago). Former HS teacher and administrator.

    David Luechtefeld (R-Okawville). Asst Republican Leader. Former teacher.

    Matt Murphy (R-Palatine). Republican Caucus Chair. Attorney.

    Stephanie Donovan is an attorney for Franczek Radelet respresenting CPS. From the Franczek website, “Stephanie represents public sector employers in all aspects of labor relations and collective bargaining matters, including the development and implementation of personnel policies, strategic business plans and legislative initiatives.”

    Rachel Resnick is a Labor Relations Officer at CPS.

    Parent PAC (Jonathan Goldman). Jonathan is an Environmental lobbyist. Parent PAC was formed Jan 2011 as “Illinois’ public school parents advocating for their children’s educations.” In 2010 lost to Annazette Collins in the Democratic race for 10th Representative District in the Illinois House (Lincoln Park, Bucktown, Wicker Park, Noble Square, Ukrainian Village, West Loop, Humboldt Park, Near West Side and Garfield Park).

    Illinois Education Association (IEA) is the largest teacher union in IL and is the Illinois affiliate of National Education Association (NEA), which is the largest teacher union and largest labor union in the USA. Audrey Soglin is the Executive Director of IEA. Mitch Roth is General Counsel at IEA. IEA is the most powerful and influential force in Illinois education politics and through it’s local, state, and national affiliates donates the most money (millions annually) to political campaigns in Illinois.

    IFT remember is the 2nd largest teacher union in Illinois. Dan Montgomery is the President of IFT. Steve Preckwinckle is Director of Political Activities for IFT.

    The Illinois Statewide School Management Alliance is a consortium of executive directors and boards of the Illinois Association of School Boards (IASB), Illinois Association of School Administrators (IASA), Illinois Association of School Business Officials (Illinois ASBO) and the Illinois Principals’ Association (IPA).
    Ben Schwarm is the Associate Executive Director of IASB. Sara Boucek is Associate Director and Legal Counsel of IASA.

    Advance Illinois is an education policy and advocacy organization dedicated to improving education in Illinois. Robin Steans is Executive Director. Jon Furr is an attorney from Holland & Knight that practices in the areas of state and local government contracting, education, and state advocacy.

    Stand for Children is a child advocacy organization that has affiliates in several states. Jessica Handy is the Policy Director in Illinois.

    Large Unit District Association (LUDA) represents the largest fifty-three unit districts in Illinois. Diane Rutledge is the Executive Director.

    Legislative Education Network of Dupage (LEND) is a legislative group representing DuPage County school districts. South Cooperative Organization for Public Education (SCOPE) is a legislative group representing south and southwest suburban area school districts. Peg Agnos is Legislative Director of LEND/SCOPE.

    Education, Research, Development (Ed-Red) represents Cook, Lake, and DuPage school districts by monitoring and influencing education policy in Springfield. Erika Lindley is Executive Director.

    Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) is the part of Illinois State Government that administers public education in the state of Illinois. They have a wealth of statistical data at the school and district level on their website. Darren Reisberg is Deputy Superintendent/General Counsel.

    By Illinois standards, the Senate bill is being billed as historic. But we do have to remember, we are in Illinois, what is historic in Illinois is to be expected in other states, and that is no elaboration.

    Here is the 111 page engrossed bill.
    http://ilga.gov/legislation/97/SB/PDF/09700SB0007lv.pdf
    It really is an eye opener to read it. This is the proposal as to how teachers will be evaluated, etc. Speak now to your Representative or forever hold your peace. This is your chance to participate in the legislative process on behalf of your child and tax dollars.

    Good luck! Advocate for your children and become an informed consumer of Illinois Public Education! Leaving the process to the politicians and special interests may not be in your best interest!

  6. Cal and Aileen, could you please provide an example of a Public School system in a large city in the US that does better? Particularly one with similar poverty rates among the students? And don’t forget to include an analysis of property taxes within that city, and taxes within the state.

    It is called Facts, Cal. Interested? Aileen? any chance???

    since Chicago Public schools are the fault of the democrats, are the State’s problems overwhelmingly due to Republicans, due to their long tenure over the past 2 decades? Can we say Republicans are 2/3 to blame, perhaps?

  7. Re: the chance for reform

    Will striking still be allowed – as far as I can tell – yep. So, during negotiations, which side has all the power? Oh, right, the Union. Therefore no change.

    So, you say they are going to change the evaluation/retention/tenure/rif – ON PAPER anyway. Except in rare circumstances, does the public really expect the Education Industry to actually change? Yep, this teacher gets a passing grade. Yep, that teacher gets a passing grade. Yep, we’re going to let some teachers go – the easiest ones to let go are those w/o tenure. Less lawsuits. The Ed Industry works on a protect-the-host, this is our turf program. Teachers don’t voluntary move on and out unless they want to or have done something that appears on the front page of a major newspaper.

    So, pretty much, not much change expected.

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