CPS Waste, Exhibit C: Charter Payments [Update]

While the political stalemate drags on in Springfield between Mike Madigan, Rahm Emanuel, and Bruce Rauner, CPS's fate hangs in the balance. No matter the outcome, increasingly toxic comments will populate every article written about CPS, which boil down to: 1) teachers are greed crazed loons, 2) let the greedy bastards go bankrupt, and 3) fire all the greedy, lazy teachers.

At no point during this time has there been any discussion of what suppliers are doing business with Chicago and how much they're getting paid. 

Here are some payment highlights from the FY 2015 report (this report is no longer online, but a cached version can be viewed by cutting and pasting this link into your browser: http://web.archive.org/web/20150402185313/http://www.csc.cps.k12.il.us/purchasing/supplier_report_2015.xml).

Noble Street Charter School:                              $111,428,107.00

Chicago Charter School Foundation (CICS):         $88,695,497.00

UNO Charter School Network:                              $79,868,697.00

Youth Connection Charter School (YCCS):            $47,987,585.00

LEARN Charter School:                                        $28,308,409.00

Perspectives Charter School:                                $22,617,774.00                          

University of Chicago Charter School Corp.:          $16,637,216.00

Urban Prep Academies:                                       $13,332,826.00 

KIPP Chicago Schools:                                       $10,015,987.00

North Lawndale Charter School:                           $8,762,081.00

Chicago Virtual Charter School:                             $7,362,227.00

Concept Schools:                                                 $7,247,686.00

Total payments to listed schools:                     $442,264,142.00

Total overdue pension payment:                      $634,000,000.00

Payments to charters as % of overdue pension payment:  70%

Projected layoffs as a result of pension payment:  1,400 employees

This doesn't include payments to any charter raking in less than $5M, assorted other profiteers who are consultants, or various small-time kickback artists. 

This yearly spending is 70% of the overdue pension payment. It should be noted that as of April 2015 there are 13,000 empty charter seats.

Where are the calls for mass closures, investigations into who the money is really going to, and the accusations of the greed crazed loonies running these schools? In short, why is this spending going unchecked, while a constitutional obligation like a pension payment is suddenly debatable?

Update: Rahm Emanuel dutifully funded the pension obligation and directed more money to buddy Ken Griffin whose company, Citadel, manages a portion of CTU's pension. As a result, Emanuel projects 1,400 employees will lose their jobs with CPS.

The above questions still apply, and questions about mass closures and greed crazed loonies running our schools now apply directly to Jesse Ruiz and Rahm Emanuel. Their Wednesday press conference to explain exactly how all this happened will likely be an Orwellian display of epic proportions.

Finally! Ed Reform Gets An Ally! [Update]

Readers: if you didn't realize that the education reform movement was on the brink of extinction, don't feel bad. Neither did we. The narrative that ed reform needs saving is just what Commentary Magazine and Peter Wehner would like people to believe based on the recent headline, "Education Reform Gains An Organizational Ally." The ally is former CNN anchor Campbell Brown, and the knowing gaze in her eyes comes from calculating all of the many dollars she can direct into the pockets of charter operators and choice profiteers everywhere.

Let's quickly examine existing ed reform allies to see if Peter Wehner's claim that ed reform needs "a shot in the arm," is true. A revealing article from 2011 provides the following information:

The Bill and Melinda Gates education endowment: $33,000,000,000. (With an additional $30,000,000,000 on tap from Warren Buffet).
Vacuous mi$$ion: High quality education for all and innovative solutions to education problems. We ask again, what about small brains?

The Walton Family Foundation education endowment: $2,000,000,000.00
Vague mi$$ion: Choice, access, and more public charter options.

The Broad Foundation education endowment: $1,400,000,000.00
Scary mi$$ion: infiltrate urban school districts everywhere.

Yes, those are all figures in the billions of dollars. There's enough money to balance the budget of CPS many times over, and yet it's reform movement that's faltering. Last we checked charter operators and profiteers were not being called swine, greedy pigs, or thugs in any comment section of any newspaper anywhere. Instead, readers of the Tribune were being chastised for not welcoming a charter school into their neighborhood because they did not want to reduce enrollment at neighborhood schools.

But yes, let's breathe a sigh of relief that someone is finally here to save ed reform.

Update:

A June 30th article reveals the Federal government may just be the charter movement's biggest supporter, at least in Colorado. The government has awarded Colorado charter operators $46,000,000 in federal funds because Colorado charters are free to hire and fire unlicensed, unqualified teachers. That must be a real, "shot in the arm," to all of those licensed teachers working at public schools.

Reminder: Its All About the Children.

Although ed reformers haven't yet figured out how to revise the lifeless language that their brand of orthodoxy requires, they have mastered one integral part of their message:  It's All About the Children.

Let's have a look at the yearly salaries of some well-known charter operators in their $ervice of children:

• NYC Success Academy CEO Eva Moskowitz:  $567,000.00
• Washington D.C. Friendship Charters CEO Donald Hense: $356,478.00
• New Orleans Lusher Charters CEO Kathy Reidlinger: $316,306.00
• Detroit Cornerstone Schools CEO Clark Durant: $450,000.000

As a basis of comparison, nurses in Chicago Public Schools make, on average,  $49,000.00 per year, or 24 dollars per hour, which is 9 more dollars per hour than the 15 dollar per hour minimum wage that many fast-food workers are currently advocating for.

In Chicago, the most politically corrupt city in the U.S., it easier for charter operators to keep their profits private.  In fact, reporters at the Chicago Reader sent FOIA (Freedom Of Information Act) requests to 34 of the biggest Chicago charter operators.  Unlike Trib reporters, Reader reporters were curious about Chicago charter salary and payroll information.  Not surprisingly, the Reader's request for information yielded zero results.

This is very reassuring to all Chicago ed profiteers, including One Chance Illinois, the Chicago Public Education Fund, and uber-profiteer Ken Griffin.  Because, as we know, their efforts are All About the Children.

New Name, Same Profiteers: One Chance Illinois

When we last left Illinois' choiceist reformers--Myles Mendoza (plutocrat), Angela Schiavitti (socialite), and fellow profiteers Kevin Chavous (parental choice crusader), Jack Buck (instigator, professional powerhouse, and positive change agent)--they were busy at Choice4kids.org peddling tran$formation, innovation, and the sorry state of traditional public schools.

In 2015, Choice4kids re-focu$ed and re-branded as One Chance Illinois-- a vast army of elitist guilt--amping up the public school desperation. Their mission trumpets, "There are no do-overs...we must do everything we can to ensure Illinois's children get the education they need and deserve." No shit. Every parent, teacher, and citizen-with-a-pulse agrees: education is a big deal. And yet. Bruce Rauner is merrily defunding public education while ed-reformers have the luxury of an ever-expanding contingent of converts who believe that choice, a non-unionized workforce and a robust array of unproven initiatives that are financially self-enriching will save the day. Cha-ching!

Behold: One Chance Illinois. An army of plutocrats who influence policy enough to make failed education initiatives like vouchers sexy all over again when re-branded as "access." 

Let's take a look at where a few One Chance Board members live and the charter/"access" choices that those communities offer:

Jack Buck, Winnetka:  Winnetka charter/"access" choices = 0

Bob Huffman, Northbrook: Northbrook charter/"access" schools = 0

Bob Birdsell, Wilmette: Wilmette charter/"access" schools = 0

Angela Schiavitti, Hinsdale: Hinsdale charter/"access" schools = 0

Conclusion:  Public education with a unionized teaching staff is good for the students of Winnetka, Northbrook, Wilmette and Hinsdale.  But not for students of Chicago.

Further conclusion:  Winnetka, Northbrook, Wilmette and Hinsdale offer limited opportunities for educational tran$formation.  But Chicago?  Cha-ching!

Further, further conclusion: When your local government shutters schools and intentionally creates edu-chaos, of course "access" and groups like One Chance seem like the saviors du jour.

Beat It, Purv!

That’s purvy

The Sun Times Natasha Korecki proves just how much Gov. Rauner loathes both public school teachers and anyone who requires help with a hidden disability like autism or epilepsy. Elizabeth Purvis, a bonafide profiteer cloaked in academia, is one of Rauner's highest paid employees whose salary is drawn from a state agency experiencing massive cuts in the name of austerity:

"In March, Rauner tapped Beth Purvis, a former charter school director, as his education secretary at an annual salary of $250,000.

At the time it was the highest-paid position in the governor’s cabinet.

But her contract, signed March 13, indicates that she’s being paid out of the Department of Human Services, even as it indicates she will “report directly to the governor’s chief of staff or designee.”'

Somewhere between Ms. Purvis’ years as teacher of the blind and her stint at University of Illinois at Chicago, she must have gotten the sweet taste of charter money. Chicago International Charter Schools received $62,966,609.00 from CPS last year, with a management strategy that some CICS teachers call divisive.

Rauner’s perversion in funding this newly created bureaucratic position is obvious. Ms. Purvis must hope her five years in the classroom and polished academic record will confound people enough to overlook her search for the cha-ching.

Minor Cornholer Alert: Jim O'Connor

Since June 6th (official date for teacher cornholing) is rapidly approaching, we at WCT have been turning the spotlight on Illinois cornholers big and small.  Like dandelions and ants, ed reform cornholers seem to turn up everywhere.  Let's turn the spotlight on a minor cornholer from Oak Park:  Jim O'Connor!

First, though, a review of the qualities many ed reform cornholers have in common:

• Few to no years of actual teaching
• Strong aversion to due process and collective bargaining rights
• Passion for corporate lingo and funding
• Reluctance to live in the disenfranchised communities they $erve
• Need to disguise ego and financial ambition as quest for social justice

Now, a closer look at Jim O'Connor:

Actual teaching experience:  2 years of requisite resume-padding with TFA; 2 years of requisite charter ass-kissing at Noble Charter

Administrative experience: 7 years as principal at a KIPP charter, notable for high teacher turn-over, reluctance to enroll children with disabilities, avoidance of outside analysis of their data, and passion for "grit."

Current Alliance:  Advance Illinois, whose mi$$ion is to "improve Illinois' persistently below-average academic performance" and to ensure that public teachers' collective bargaining and due process rights are diminished

Current "Elected" Position:  Oak Park Elementary School District 97, purchased with $18,000 worth of lawn signs and junk mail funded by Washington D.C.- based Leadership for Educational Equity, a TFA cabal whose website is so boring we can't be bothered provide the link 

Problem:  Oak Park District 97 is 77% proficient on ISAT scores; Jim O'Connor's opportunities to $erve the disenfranchised of Oak Park will be impeded.

Solution:  Jim O'Connor is advised to submit a charter proposal to CPS where there are enough vendors, kick-back artists, educational profiteers, number crunchers, media specialists and poor children available for him to enjoy a long and lucrative career.

Rock on, Jim O'Connor!

A Questionable Legacy

If CPS families, teachers, and staff need further hints that Chicago's media and corporate elite are ready to make them a relic of the past, look no further than the Tribune's Thursday editorial subheading: "Let charter schools breathe life into empty CPS buildings." The editorialists seemingly believe these buildings are self-organized entities who chose to empty themselves. It's not as though CPS willfully underfunded schools and then, ahem, closed them or anything.

Today's Tribune shameless charter plug is for Legacy Charter in the North Lawndale neighborhood. The hot investment property (cha-ching!) Legacy would like to acquire is the former Pope Elementary School, located at 1852 W. Albany Ave. We're informed Legacy's possible probable expansion is, "a terrific idea for students, parents, and teachers...and the North Lawndale community." Nothing like a neighborhood being told by a bunch of non-residents what is or isn't good for them.

The Tribune describes the vacant Pope as "hollow," waiting for 500 learning children to populate it. We are to infer that no learning occurred when Pope was a public school, and the sanctimonious pearl clutchers who write today's column further this notion by quoting a central office pencil-pusher who talks about, "finding a good use for these closed schools." WCT wonders if said bureaucrat is aware the school was previously in good use as...a school. This fact is not lost on residents who WBEZ captured in an August report lamenting Pope's fate. Long a community hub, a former North Lawndale resident narrated her many family members who went there and the sense of loss she felt as Pope marched towards its inevitable shuttering.

Still, readers are exhorted to think of the "opportunity and positive change" schools like Legacy might bring to a community. As an afterthought readers are told, "any strong school" could generate this energy, too. 

Unmentioned in this unabashed endorsement of privatization is that by CPS's own measure Legacy is considered weak in the following areas: student growth, student attainment, culture & climate, and safety. WCT supposes that Legacy's hedge-fundy, corporate-y board members from Wealth Strategist Partners, Dentons, and Willis Stein & Partners make the school's meh performance acceptable because nobody knows education like the business world.

Do That Crazy Charter Dance! [Update]

Tuesday's Tribune op-ed page picks up where Sunday's left off: the sweet, sweet sounds of the School Choice Rag. Get your dancing shoes out, today's steps are: admonishment, half-truths, and rhetoric! We hope you can keep up, readers!

Step 1: The editorial board criticizes Toni Preckwinkle for daring to speak out against what she sees as the transfer of public resources into private hands. The Trib tut-tuts , "...it's astonishing to see her [Preckwinkle] launch a pre-emptive strike on a Chicago school board that faces some hard decisions for the future of Chicago's children." 

Funny, but it's the Tribune who's launched a pre-emptive strike on city teachers by featuring a litany of guest editorials by non-educators BBB, Rahm Emanuel, and local profiteer Myles Mendoza. While they proclaim choice, excellence, and high standards, they are unwilling to invest in the resources we currently have.

Step 2: Deeming charter schools with questionable motives as "excellent." WCT wonders if the writer of this editorial bothered to Google, "Concept charter school" and learn anything about this organization. Dan Mihalopoulous over at the Sun-Times thoroughly dismantled Concept in December, citing trips by elected officials to Turkey as well as raising questions about the school's ties to the exiled Islamic cleric Fetullah Gulen.

Intrinsic Charter also gets the editorial nod thanks to their promise to staff "master teachers" as well as, "teachers who deeply understand what students need to know and be able to do...". We work in a building with many teachers like this. Unfortunately due to the consistent underfunding of neighborhood schools and shifting administrative mandates, their livelihoods are left to the whims of the me-first leadership from the Board of Ed.

What's left out of this unabashed endorsement of charters is the recent data analysis by Illinois Raise Your Hand which shows 11,000 empty seats in charters. Whoops!

Step 3: A form of the word innovate is used three times in this editorial. This appealing but vague term is apparently the only solution to the "staggering need" for new schools; the students who "languish" on waiting lists; and finally the "huge need" for quality schools. The students we see who have staggering needs, who languish, who are hugely in need don't need another choice, but they do need the schools they currently attend to be resourced at a functioning level.

When the Board of Education votes on the proposals tomorrow, they will undoubtedly add more confusing steps to this dance. They'll also likely add more money to the pockets of private charter operators and friends lining up to benefit from the crisis CPS has brought upon itself.

Update:

• B3 was absent from today's meeting. It must be in the SUPES handbook to be absent from important meetings. Our REACH evaluation would surely get dinged for missing "big days," does the BOE follow the Danielson model?

• The Board of Ed. approved seven charters today, the approved groups include Rauner-funded Noble Street, Concept, and Intrinsic. Mike Madigan and Bruce Rauner must be toasting somewhere. Cha-ching!

• Aldermans Arena, Fioretti, Wauguespack, and Sposato spoke in favor of neighborhood schools, while Alderman Howard Brookins said he welcomes Concept to his neighborhood. Might he also be welcoming a boatload of money?

• Boardmember Dr. Mahalia Hines said she was not aware that the Illinois State Charter Commission is able to overrule BOE approval, thus allowing denied charters to still open. It's helpful to know the rules before jumping into the game, Doc.

Charter Forum [Update]

On January 22nd the Board of Education will meet about the possible addition of 21 new charter schools. 

The world of charters is confusing, ever-changing, and has a direct impact on neighborhood schools. Consider attending the January 14th forum at Shields Middle School, 2611 W. 48th Street. The forum begins at 6:30 P.M., and is sure to be informative. 

Update: As promised, tonight's charter forum did not disappoint. The Southwest side communities of Brighton Park, McKinley Park, and Pilsen spoke up loud and clear in their resistance to charters. Specifically, these communities do not want outside organizations coming into their communities and dictating not only who serves their children, but who receives schools funding.

The research panel clearly detailed the many ways CPS undermines its own neighborhood schools:

• While inflation and money to charters have increased, CPS budgets have not.

• Charters are often treated to $1 rent and outside services to CPS.

• Funding to charters has increased faster than enrollment.

Wonder how the CPS Board of Ed will vote on the 22nd? 

Readers, leave a comment or email wct.tips@gmail.com if you attended this panel and have more information to share.

Corporate Police Reform: Cha-ching?

We at WCT like to wonder "what if?"  The "what if?" question for today is:

What if education reformers applied the same ideas to police departments?

Corporate Reform Efforts	Public Schools	Police Departments
Examine data	Student performance: low test scores reveal failure in inner-city schools.	Crime: high crime reveals failure in inner-city neighborhoods
Determine parties responsible for failure	teachers, schools	police officers, police departments
Initial action regarding failure	Offer corporate-sponsored charter school replacements for failing inner-city public schools	Offer corporate-sponsored alternate police squads for failing inner-city neighborhoods
Policies regarding older, tenured staff	Replace with young grads of selective universities with no teaching experience	Replace with young grads of selective universities with no policing experience
Policies regarding leadership	Train corporate-style administrators who have no educational experience in fast-track programs	Train corporate-style leaders who have no police experience in fast-track programs
Policies regarding standards	Assume that all American children -- regardless of location, background, socio-economic status, and English language proficiency -- will learn the same skills at the same time, given proper instruction	Assume that all American people -- regardless of location, background, and socio-economic status -- will behave in a cooperative, compliant and law-abiding manner, given proper police supervision
Policies regarding accountability	1. Schools that serve students with low test scores are threatened with punitive measures 2. Teachers’ salary increases tied to improvement in students’ test scores.	1. Police departments that serve communities with high crime rates are threatened with punitive measures. 2. Police officers’ salary increases tied to reduction in crime rates.

Maybe some Chicago ed reformers or thought partners could contact CPS to make a pitch!  Maybe they could go for a ride-along and offer advice on how to lean into discomfort, how to socialize all shareholders into the informational experience, and how to promote excellence and rigor?

Myles Mendoza's Campaign Against Anonymity

Looks like we hit a nerve with our post on Myles Mendoza's ed reforming and choice-promoting devilry. First, he quickly changed his Twitter page from the original to an updated version (which oddly links "school choice" to support of abortion rights).

Next, he emailed us:

"Knowing you see [my efforts] as combative towards you and/or traditional education as you see it, I wanted to ask you to coffee or lunch to listen to your views, and if possible ask you to hear my imperfect perspective"

We responded (mollified by his pseudo-humility):

"Thanks for your kind email. If you've had a look through Windy City Teachers, you might have noticed that we have chosen to remain anonymous.  For that reason, we're unable to accept your invitation to meet in person, however, we are open to communication electronically, if that interests you."

We also posed a question:

"In your case, we are suspicious of Rupert Murdoch's funding of Education Reform Now, the group you worked for in Denver.  As you read in our post, we also strongly disagree with several of your claims regarding Chicago and CPS.  If you would be interested in further communication, we wonder if you would provide more information regarding your claim that "unfunded liabilities" are one of the results, rather than one of the causes, of under-performance in CPS?  We understand unfunded liabilities in Chicago to include the pensions of CPS, CPD, Streets and San, Cook County Sheriffs, Cook Country Forest Preserve, the Fire Dept., CTA and the Park District.  As the city nears junk bond status, can you further explain your beliefs regarding CPS's role in Chicago's fiscal disaster?  And can you explain how charter expansion will resolve this problem?"

Myles's response to our question:

"I appreciate the response.  My intention for reaching out was really to bring down the wall of anonymity.  That was my goal with you and an offer than will stand should you ever choose to take me up on it.  Warm regards and may you succeed in improving kids [sic] educational quality."

Perhaps picturing himself in league with the heroes who tore down the Berlin Wall, Myles is continuing to rail against the wall of anonymity during his Internet research of himself, as seen in his comment on Diane Ravitch's post about our blog.

Being an (albeit minor, at least for now) educational profiteer, Myles Mendoza is secure in his position of power, since he wears the educational bohemian bourgeois cloak that makes him irreproachable. Myles has the luxury of confidently pontificating his opinions on choice, excellence, high expectations, rigor, and tran$formation.

Unlike Myles, we are teachers.  We are not in positions of power.  It is understandable that the bohemian bourgeois might not understand the realities of not being powerful, even though they do enjoy buying local, $erving (but not living near) the poor , identifying with the common man,  and using heart-warming photos of cute minority kids for promotional purposes.

For that reason, we have laid out the consequence of not remaining anonymous:

1. We might lose our jobs.  Permanently.  

We hope that Myles Mendoza might be willing to reconsider his unwillingness to provide an electronic answer to our question:  How has CPS ruined Chicago and why are charters the answer?

Education Hotspot: Turkey?

Pack your bags, readers! Ever since Sun-Times columnist Dan Mihalopoulos exposed the intertwined stories of education, profit, and political overseas trips, we've been looking for our passports and wondering what the Turkish translation for cha-ching! is. 

We want to pad our retirements and offer our services to the newly-crowned global education profiteering capital of the world: Turkey. Since Turkey is not even a country with a PISA rating, we thought it the unlikeliest of education destination$. But, speaker of the Illinois House Mike Madigan, his corporate-raider son Andrew, and numerous other Illinois Democrats have made many trips there. Worry not, darlings, for once the taxpayers did not foot the bill for Mike Madigan's four visits. Instead, the Niagara Foundation, whose honorary president is noted Islamic cleric Fetullah Gulen, did. 

Fetullah Gulen not a household name yet? Never heard of the Niagara Foundation? Good thing Illinois lawmakers have taken such a keen intere$t. After all, Fetullah Gulen has the distinction of being associated with the largest charter network in the United States while simultaneously trying to take down the Turkish government. In Chicago, the Gulen-inspired schools--Chicago Math & Science Academy and the Horizon Academy McKinley Park--are part of the Concept School Network which hopes to expand into several other Chicago neighborhoods in 2014. 

Did the Niagara Foundation and the Turkish American Chamber of Commerce show Illinois lawmakers priceless architecture from antiquity through the Ottoman Empire? Or, did they just get down to business and talk cold, hard American dollars Turkish lira? We're guessing it's the latter, because upon return from these trips the Gulen-inspired charter school network, Concept, got the green light to open their schools in Chicago. They also got a nice bonus, 33% more funding than other schools thanks to the OK from the Illinois State Charter School Commission. Cha-ching!

Chicago Public Schools initially said no to these schools due to their uneven performance, but luckily the appointee-laden Illinois State Charter School Commission said yes, or evet as the Turks would say, to this charter-seeking organization. At the recent charter schools hearing at CPS headquarters, Concept bused in rent-a-supporters who were unsure of who or what they were supporting. Positively gras$root$!

While most Chicagoans would not readily equate Chicago with Turkey, they bare a closer resemblance than you might think. The unfolding political drama in Turkey has its roots in extensive political and corporate corruption much like daily life in Cook County. It seems that members of Turkey's current government have resigned because their sons were caught up in an anti-graft sting (An anti-graft sting? Has Chicago tried this?). Pressure for this crackdown is coming from U.S.-exiled Gulen, who critics charge with trying to establish a parallel state within Turkey. We can see why the Illinois Charter Commission and Mike Madigan are so enamored with Gulen since they are trying to establish a parallel education system in Chicago.

Additionally, as fellow blogger Rogers Park Neighbors for Public Schools points out, should the ownership of American public schools be associated with the political and religious implications of Turkey's government? 

Further, what does Rahm Emanuel think? While he has seen fit to establish a task force to drum up tenants for the newly vacant Dominick's stores, he has remained entirely silent on the foreign interests encroaching upon our public schools.

Readers, do you have any experience with Concept schools? What about Rahm Emanuel and CPS's silence on Concept? Leave a comment or email us at wct.tips@gmail.com. 

Meet Chicago Bond Mutant: Juahm Emanugel

UNO's Debt Addiction

Time to dig out your notes from your college Econ class, readers! We're taking a look at UNO's finances, and it's not pretty.

We're not forensic accountants at WCT, but we sure could have used a team of accountants and MBAs to explain all the numbers in this alarming presentation on UNO Charter Schools. Researched and presented by Byron Sigcho several weeks ago and hosted by fellow blogger Rogers Park Neighbors for Public Schools, this presentation should be required reading on how private industry seeks to profit off the public and what charter schools have to do with it.

Educational excellence in the 21st century has become synonymous with the charter movement.  Neighborhoods might not be so welcoming to these schools--especially UNO--if they understood how they operated. 

Here are a few highlights, or rather lowlights, of UNO's finances:

• This year, UNO will generate $91 million dollars of debt, $61 million of which is private loans.

• UNO is paying over $2 million dollars a year in debt interest, while only paying $70,000 a year toward the principal (maybe UNO never went on a college spending spree, but we learned the hard way you can't just pay interest!).

• The bonds that UNO has issued are backed by the state, meaning that the state can use any available revenues including taxes, to repay the investors. In UNO's case,  one investor is the local Nuveen Securities. Those investors are waiting for some high yield returns, while taxpayers should await higher taxes! Cha-ching!!

• "Fees" are listed in the revenue table and are projected to increase each year, kind of like that $7 million $70,000 marijuana ticket ordinance the city was hoping to cash in on. One former UNO teacher said fees are generated when, for example, a student deigns to speak Spanish in the classroom. No excuses, amigos!

• Despite UNO running a $21,000 per student debt (or $71 million dollars), in 2012 UNO managed to have net revenues and then something we assume is even better: excess net revenues. Revenues on top of revenues? That's some magical accounting.

Ironically, the Tribune published an editorial on Tuesday about Chicago's "runaway bond habit." UNO and City Hall must co-plan because the city has spent $9.8 billion dollar in bonds since 2000 on such items as: spare vehicle parts, trash bins, library books, obsolete software, and other short term issues. 

Bonds are supposed to pay for long-term projects for the benefit of all, not to be used as payday loans which benefit a few.

The entire UNO presentation is available here. We encourage you to take a close look at the information and see for yourself how Rahm Emanuel and Juan Rangel have morphed into the bond mutant Juahm Emanugel. 

NYC charter families, hear our cries

Psst...Coalition for Education Equality in New York, hi, it's Windy City Teachers asking you for two favors: one, can you make sure Rahm Emanuel and BBB never ever see the letter you just sent to the next mayor you elect, and two, could we have some of whatever great prescription (or off market drug, that's cool) you've gotten your hands on? It must be really awesome shit for you to ask for the following:

• Free rent (we're going to try this with our landlords and mortgage lenders!) for charters that will be co-located in city-owned buildings. We're guessing charter schools are so virtuous and excellence-inducing with their private funding and public funding that they deserve free rent.

• To support the opening of 100 co-located charter schools to help the apparently educationally starved masses numbering 50,000 who want choice, choice, and yet more, choice.

Your proposition is just the thing BBB and Rahm, plus all the charter CEOs, would cackle over in their meetings on Clark Street, and then try to get a group of parents to agree to. Now that a 5 year moratorium on school closings is in place, CPS announces  new rules about how and why schools can close. So, equity-seekers, we're nervous all over again.