The I word

This week, it wasn't CPS's bond rating that was downgraded. Instead, four years of inflated graduation rates were "adjusted" to discount the quick fixes, like numbers manipulation, that district schools engaged in. Such data-driven solutions tricks included drop-outs being coded as transfers or home-schooled. Whoops.

Then, CPS staff received an oddly congratulatory email from Forrest + Janice in their inboxes tonight. It said, in part:

"This week, you accomplished something that CPS has never done before: helped our students score a record high 18.2 on the ACT test. 

These results aren’t a coincidence, and they certainly aren’t a mistake. These accomplishments are the result of the years of hard work you’ve dedicated to our children, beginning in Pre-K through high school."

It would be nice to think that scores from the ACT are ironclad; however, this is the same company that sent CPS tests to give students that were previously available on the internet. Meaning, results from the tests freshmen and sophomores took were thrown out because some students had artificially inflated scores. 

Nope, no coincidences or mistakes here! As you were everyone!

Profiteer Spotlight: Mark F. Furlong!

Mark Furlong, part of Rahm's latest batch of appointees to the Board of Ed, is a profiteer nonpareil.  LEAP Innovations, a company Furlong was affiliated with, has received a contract extension from the Board for their $ervices. WCT thinks it's time to shine a spotlight on this deft kick-back artist:

1st Notable Profiteer Achievement: Receiving an $18.1M golden parachute payout despite the company he was CEO of, Marshall & Ilsley (M & I), not repaying a $1.7B TARP loan; receipt of bonus was contingent upon loan repayment while he was CEO. Chaaaaa-ching!

2nd Notable Profiteer Achievement: Orchestrating a cheap deal in which M & I, along with its debt, was taken over by BMO Harris. As part of the buyout, the TARP loan was paid by BMO Harris before the deal closed, thus ensuring bonus payout to its executives. Chaaaaa-ching!

3rd Notable Profiteer Achievement: Being offered an executive position by BMO Harris complete with a $6M "transition completion payment" for staying on one year after the 2011 buyout. You guessed it, he stayed. Furlong also collected a $600,000 salary, incentives of up to $800,000 a year, and equity awards of up to $1.1M. Chaaaaa-ching! 

All Chicago politicians rail against, "kicking the can down the road," but Furlong's actions while head of M & I are the very definition of that. Not only did BMO Harris repay a loan that wasn't theirs, but rewarded Furlong's delay with a lucrative deal. The collateral damage left M & I shareholders filing suit for the undervaluing of M & I's stock at the time of sale. 

This is who Rahm Emanuel wants to be a financial steward of our schools?

CPS parents, students, and teachers: you're about to get Furlonged, but good.

Forrest Claypool, Angry Liar

The Better Government Association's Sarah Karp published an op-ed in Monday's Sun Times noting the disparity between the funding of charter and neighborhood schools.

Many differences are noted, but an $11M increase in charter funding with a $146M reduction in funding to neighborhood schools stands out. Within Karp's report, mayoral puppet Emily Bittner calls such comparisons "apples to oranges" because of projected versus actual spending.

Forrest Claypool, feeling the apples to oranges deflection insufficient, has a tantrum in the Letters page. He whines:

"A column published in the Sun-Times this week from the Better Government Association uses faulty math to make wild and inaccurate generalizations about charter and neighborhood school funding."

Faulty math? Perhaps Claypool hopes readers will overlook the city's pension theft and botched contracts.

Wild and inaccurate generalizations?Claypool mustn't have read any comments to any article published about the CTU's contract negotiations in the Tribune

He pontificates:
"Using flawed analysis, the story also falsely claims that neighborhood schools citywide will receive $146 million less than last year." 

Claypool never specifices what is flawed about the analysis, nor does he provide a figure he feels is accurate.

He states the fucking obvious:
"...funding is increasing at both neighborhood and charter schools experiencing rising enrollment and declining at schools with fewer enrolling students."

Thanks for providing the definition of Student-Based-Budgeting, Sherlock.

He parrots Rahm's talking points:
Parent choice. Check! Budget deficit. Check! Pension mandates. Check!

Claypool then has the stones to moralize about transparency:
"In fact, Chicago Public Schools has a transparent and navigable database of school spending information online so that any member of the public can evaluate the data themselves..."

Sure, we trust whatever is online.

Repeat after us: We. Are. Not. Idiots.

Forrest Claypool, Still A Liar

Sun Times, August 10, 2015: 

"CPS already had announced $200 million in spending cuts, including $1 million in cuts from schools CEO Forrest Claypool’s executive office."

“Our goal is to protect pensions and to protect the classroom,” Claypool said during a conference call Monday morning. “To do that, it means everybody’s got to pitch in.”

Sun Times, August 11, 2015:

"In what’s likely to be a blueprint of his plan for the Chicago Teachers Union, Chicago Public Schools CEO Forrest Claypool will announce Wednesday that the district will no longer pick up pension contributions for its nonunion central office employees."

The pension flip-flop didn't take long. What about the $1M in cuts from the CEO's office?

Tribune, August 21, 2015:

"Chicago Public Schools chief Forrest Claypool has hired another of his former staff members from the CTA, this time an executive charged with oversight of the district's financial operations.

Ronald DeNard, formerly the CTA's chief financial officer, joins CPS on Friday as senior vice president of finance, according to an email Claypool distributed Thursday.

Each of the district's finance-related divisions will report to DeNard, Claypool said in the email. Those responsibilities were previously handled by Chief Administrative Officer Tim Cawley."

Oversight of the district's financial operations? Ginger Ostro, Chief Financial Officer, would be the person who oversees the district's finances. One would assume DeNard will collect a similar $205,000 salary that he earned at the CTA to take up space in CPS management.

If it sounds like Tim Cawley is out the door, don't get too excited. He'll continue his accounting and contractual fuck-ups with seven other departments he oversees:

"Cawley, a former Motorola executive hired by Mayor Rahm Emanuel in 2011, will continue to supervise seven other administrative departments, according to Claypool's email...Cawley, who is paid $215,000 a year, oversees areas including facilities, food services and technology."

The other CTA hangers-on coming over to CPS:

• Doug Kucia - Claypool's Chief of Staff
• Andrell Holloway - Supervisor of Internal Audits
• Hal Woods - Portfolio Planning and Strategy Director

Six-figure bureaucrats moving from one city organization to another isn't "pitching in." If each of these managers will make a comparable salary at CPS, that's $800,000 back of the $1M cuts Claypool was crowing about ten days ago.

Once again, Forrest, you may think teachers are idiots, but we're not.

CPS Teachers: Greedy Pigs or Priests and Nuns?

Another volunteer request from those who think CPS teachers are priests and nuns:

Dear Colleagues,

The first day of school for all CPS students is Tuesday, September 8, and we need your help to get the word out.

Beginning next week, you can support our Back-to-School efforts by phone banking (i.e., calling CPS families to make sure they know when school begins.) If you are interested, and have not already done so, please email face@cps.edu.  Once you have signed up, you will receive a follow up email with specific directions.

Thank you for supporting CPS students as they prepare to return to school on Sept. 8. If you have questions regarding other volunteer opportunities, please email face@cps.edu.

We do have a few questions:

• Why is it assumed that teachers should want to work for free?  Especially since our new CEO wants to cut our pay by 7%? And especially since the city will not negotiate a new contract for us?
• Why is it assumed that CPS parents cannot independently understand or find out when school starts?
• Does the Back-to-School campaign have anything to do with the alarming rate at which CPS students are being shot this summer?

The Blame Game: CPS edition

In a sparsely attended Chicago Public Schools budget hearing tonight at Malcolm X College, about twenty speakers addressed funding questions to BOE VP Jesse Ruiz and CPS chiefs Ginger Ostro and Dr. Markay Winston. Assorted other CPS bureaucrats shared the stage, but they did nothing but nod or smile when appropriate. Tonight's theme: blame Springfield! Lack of pension parity? Springfield. Cuts to Special Education? Springfield. Decreased funding for CPS? Springfield.

Bruce Rauner likely doesn't know or care that all fingers are pointing at him as he had a grand old time at the Illinois State Fair today. To prove he has the biggest stones (and checkbook) of anyone, he purchased a prize steer at auction for $61,000. Then, he moseyed over to the dairy barn to get himself a raspberry milkshake! It sure must be hard work trying to bust unions and implode public education, but you'd never know it from his insipid grin.

Something else Bruce Rauner doesn't know or care about: the families who are already bracing for the impact of CPS budget cuts. In particular, families who send their kids to Jackie Vaughn Occupational High School were vocal about the loss of 23 paraprofessionals and 5 teachers at this school which serves the needs of 208 students with cognitive and developmental disabilities. While $61,000 is a drop in the bucket for Rauner, students who attend Vaughn will be hard-pressed to earn this much in the workforce. A 2014 article notes that only 11% of people with a cognitive disability work full-time, while 33% live in poverty.

Some of the more pointed remarks Vaughn parents directed to the coterie of assembled CPS brass:

• Do any of you have a child with disabilities?
• How would you feel if you had a blind child going down stairs at school without an aide?
• Have you visited Vaughn? You'd be pleased and proud.
• I'm pleading to your humanity to stop cutting to the bone, we're the bone.
• I want my child to be able to fill out a job application and be productive.

One woman, a 33 year old single mother, spoke with a trembling voice and begged to have some positions restored at the school. Her son, she said, is 16 years old with Cerebral Palsy and she equated the slated cuts to limiting her son's life.  After this, all Dr. Winston could guarantee was that one position at Vaughn has been restored.

Tomorrow will likely bring another round of dire warnings, finger-pointing, and tough talk. Meanwhile, Bruce Rauner will continue living out his State Fair dreams as parents and students appear to be the unfortunate losers in this blame game.

Concede, Teacher Pigs! Part 2

In today's installment of teachers better make some fucking concessions, Bruce Rauner picks up where Forrest Claypool left off. We learn:

• Rauner is selling faulty idea that the CTU is a dictatorship and controls everyone from the mayor to the mayoral appointed School Board and is responsible for the financial malfeasance of Chicago politicians. Rauner:  “The power of the teachers union has been overwhelming. Chicago has given and given and given. It’s created a financial crisis that the Chicago schools face now...” Unlike Bruce Rauner, the CTU can't issue Executive Orders rescinding laws, as Rauner did 10 weeks into his term.  Maybe Rauner was at his wine club when Mayor Daley issued pension holidays to divert the funds.

• Rauner finds the notion of destroying teachers' unions and all public-sector unions empowering. Rauner, "We believe the right answer is to empower the people of Chicago, the voters, the mayor...should be enabled to decide what gets collectively bargained." Wisconsin residents likely don't find it empowering that dismantling unions has meant lower median incomes and average earnings growth.

• Rauner sees no value in students who attend our schools as he talks about the benefits of outsourcing (i.e., firing everyone's union ass) to save money. No doubt he's ensured TFA's contract is paid-in-full so a steady stream of replacements are at the ready.

Online comments continue to show Rauner and Rahm's highly effective manipulation of the media and public perception continues:

• "It is those CTU thugs that have failed children."
• "Amend the constitution to eliminate those outrageous pensions."
• "Entitlement! Give me more than I've rightfully earned! Screw everyone else, I want mine!"
• "Too bad we can't eviscerate the CTU...they're all corrupt, inefficient, radical leftists anyway."

Thugs! Outrageous pensions! Entitled leftists! Yes, everyone still fully on board with Plan A: concede, swine.

Gary Solomon: B3's Babysitter

It's amazing what happens when reporters are able to investigate stories instead of reviewing Bruce Rauner's talking points for inclusion in any and all editorials. Such is the case with the excellent investigations the Sun-Times continues into the ceaseless connections between City Hall and its contractors. In this week's installment, readers  learn about Gary Solomon: SUPES CEO and B3 "conduit." 

Solomon's emails to Beth Swanson, Emanuel's then-deputy chief of staff for education issues were so frequent that Swanson described him in an interview Friday as, "Barbara Byrd-Bennett's conduit--an extension of her team who pushed for her hiring."

Conduit seems like a polite word for someone who, according to the article, complained on B3's behalf that she was kept out after midnight by high-ranking CPS officials (waah!), lobbied the Mayor's office for her "Wish List" (all charters please!), and negotiated how exactly how many days B3 could be counted on to be physically present in the district (zero!) though she would be serving as the CEO. Aside from k being a "serial networker who emailed constantly," Solomon served as nanny-in-chief for Triple B.

Solomon's judgement is questionable--and kickback likely steep--for him to proclaim Bennett would "nail" the top post in CPS. She nailed it, right out of the district and into a Federal investigation as a result of SUPES. Chicago taxpayers and anyone employed by CPS is still getting nailed thanks to the $20.5M contract Bennett and Solomon are now infamous for.

CPS officials, when asked about the glaring conflicts, answered with variations on the theme of huh?

A Perk For One, A Perk For All

For those of you hired after 2011 (known in teacher pension world as Tier II), don't fret. Tony Smith, the new ISBE superintendent is getting a perk. Since we're all in this together--shared sacrifice, all about the kids, insert insipid phrase here--it should apply to all Tier II hires:

"Smith is getting a special perk: The Illinois State Board of Education is giving him a stipend each year, expected to be worth thousands of dollars annually, to make up for his reduced pension...it is intended to match retirement benefits of his predecessor, who was a member of the more generous Tier I plan." This is on top of his $225,000.00 salary, the Tribune reports.

It's almost as if by doing this, Bruce Rauner acknowledges there is such a disparity between the two tiers of the pension system, no one in their right mind would work under the Tier II system knowing they do the same work as a Tier I employee, and yet will receive a lesser benefit upon retirement.

At least this bonus could have been contingent upon Smith becoming a licensed teacher or administrator in the State of Illinois and passing all requisite tests just like every other educator must.

Should do wonders for attacting the top teaching candidates to the state, retaining teachers, and morale.

Here A Cut, There A Cut

Photo credit: WBEZ

WBEZ posted this memo from CPS to their Twitter feed today.

While WCT does not have the benefit of 9 data strategists at our disposal, here are some "takeaways" (admin-speak for conclusions) from this release:

*Two groups of schools are virtually untouched: magnet schools (save for how students are transported to and from) and selective enrollment schools. How plutocratic that the best resourced schools--like the kind Governor Rauner clouted his kid into--get to stay that way. 

*Neighborhood and elementary schools seem to be disproportionately affected since they often have a greater need for Special Ed services. 

*Newspeak alert: the the Orwellian terms "transform" and "rightsizing" are used to explain how Special Ed services will be delivered.

*Funding has also been cut for turnaround schools--those schools whose entire staff has been fired because of chronically low performance--which is at odds with providing resources to help failing schools improve their performance.

*Hope everyone puts a toolkit and plunger on their back-to-school shopping list as many repairs in buildings will suddenly be D.I.Y. thanks to a 25% reduction in repair and maintenance. What's a botched $260 Aramark contract between friends, especially now that engineers will be shared.

Rahm, ever the steadfast blowhard, says he does not regret his decision to close 50 schools. Clearly. He's making fast moves to put schools into such turmoil, collapse, and chaos that he will get free reign to do just what his buddy Ken Griffin suggested: close 125.

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.

Where did the money go?

With the usual poisonous comments about CPS teachers (pigs, whiners, swine) being posted in response to the CTU's announcement that contract negotiations have stalled, we turn our attention to one of the essential questions:  Where did the money go?

Background info:

• The teachers' pension fund was close to 100% funded in 2000
• Between 1995-2005, CPS collected more than $ 2 billion in tax revenue from CPS teachers, counselors and paraprofessionals (and paid none of that revenue into the pension fund)
• At the request of the School Board, CPS has been twice granted "pension holidays," periods of time during which CPS does not have to put any money into the pension fund
• Pension Holiday #1: 1995-2005
• Pension Holiday #2: 2011-2013
• Currently, Illinois has the worst unfunded pension liability in the U.S., at $85 billion
• Tax Increment Financing (TIF) districts were established under Mayor Washington in 1986
• TIF $$ comes from property taxes within each district that are diverted from government units, including public schools, for public and private inve$tment in community improvement projects
• Chicago's TIF program was greatly expanded during Mayor Daley's term

On 6/30, a $634 million pension payment is due from the city to the pension fund. The city's cry: BROKE!  Which brings us back to the question:

Where did the money go?

• Block 37 Development:  Over $50 million; paid from diverted TIF funds; still largely unoccupied
• Block 37 Underground Loop Train Station: $213.3 million; paid from diverted TIF funds; designed to connect Midway to O'Hare but currently non-functional
• Millennium Park: Over $280 million paid from diverted TIF funds
• Central Loop Public Improvement Projects: $365.5 million in TIF funds spent in 2008, with no obligation for Mayor Daley to account for the recipients 

Where else did the money go?

Cronies, kick-back artists, charter profiteers, Aramark big wigs, vendors, University of Chicago thought partners, number-crunchers, CPS Talent Office staff, CPS Network chiefs, and David Vitale and Deb Quazzo's banker buddies

CPS Waste: The Talent Office Pt. 2

Recent reporting by the Trib refers to CPS's financial crisis as "appalling."  We find much that is appalling in CPS, including the Newspeak renaming of the Human Resources office as the "Talent Office."

More appalling facts:

• Number of employees at CPS's Talent Office:  206
• Combined salaries of all Talent Office employees:  14, 436, 239.00  
• Notable Broad Resident Profiteer currently at CPS Talent Office:  Traci Thibodeaux
• Ms. Thibodeaux's prior corporate experience:  Sales Finance Manager at Frito Lay
• Frito Lay's former blunder:  Olestra fat substitute
• Unpleasant Olestra side effect:  anal oil leakage

Clearly, Ms. Thibodeaux's Frito Lay experience will assist her and her ilk in their continued cornholing of CPS teachers and students.

CPS Waste, Exhibit A: The Talent Office

While the media's solution to everything CPS revolves around: 1) declaring bankruptcy or 2) massive layoffs of the teaching and support staff in schools, we humbly suggest all reporters examine the CPS Talent Office (Newspeak for HR) for some possible places to save money.

According to their own website they have no accomplishments to date.

For a department that doesn't hide their uselessness, they are certainly well staffed. 

We took a "deep dive into the data," as our Thought Partners are wont to say and discovered the following:

• 4 Broad Center residents on staff at $95,000 each. The Broad Center bills itself as tran$formative by pushing for charter expansion and merit pay. Broadies actively perpetuate the notion that urban school systems can only succeed by removing the teaching staff and replacing them with disruptive leaders from outside the education field.

• An Orwellian Education Pioneer Analyst fellow apparently on staff to explore the uncharted territory of data as a profiteering mechanism. The Education Pioneers have investors from the plutocrat hall-of-fame including: the Gates Foundation, the Walton Family Foundation, the Broad Foundation and a donor from Chicago named Anonymous (Bruce Rauner or Ken Griffin is that you?)

• Numerous Talent Generalists, Talent Specialists, and Executive Directors who collect 6-figure salaries.

• Managers of managers of managers who oversee the up-and-coming profiteers earning close to 6 figures.

Potential candidates report months long waits for returned calls, convoluted steps in the hiring process, and no answers to questions.  Clearly, the Talent Office is hard at work ignoring qualified candidates and soliciting those who only see teaching as a stepping stone on the way to something better. This tidily continues the urban district-as-failure myth (No qualified candidates, better privatize!) whilst lining the pockets of numerous profiteers.

Broke You Say?!

Chicago Tribune headline, June 14, 2015: "Emanuel prepares to borrow $1.1B to juggle Chicago debt, pay bills."

Chicago Tribune headline, June 23, 2015: "Chicago to replace Navy Pier Ferris wheel with taller one." 

A Navy Pier Inc. spokesperson assures readers that public funds will not used to finance this $26.5M project, instead Fifth Third Bank will foot the bill. Passengers on the new luxury wheel will be able to recline in both heated and air-conditioned luxury as the gondolas drift over the financial ruin that might be Chicago depending on who needs the money.

This brings to mind many questions, but chief among them, just how good are the corporate tax breaks and loopholes that companies have so much to give away? Also, how many palms will be greased throughout this project?

Money for a bigger Ferris wheel, but no money for education, CPD, CFD, or anti-violence initiatives? Got it.

Tribune Crusades for Rahm. Again.

The Tribune's monthly quota of articles that begin to frankly address the problems of the urban poor must be exactly three (lead poisoning, poverty, and corruption). Or, maybe now that Rahm Emanuel's Blackhawks bromance is waning, his lackeys are back on high alert for anything less than glowing written about Emanuel's management of Chicago. Whatever the reason, the Tribune's hot streak of truth-telling comes to a screeching halt with Monday's editorial posting (paywalled) that is a direct response to the CTU's charge that CPS is broke on purpose.

The Editorial Board helpfully reminds readers, "The value in the stark report prepared for CPS by Ernst & Young is that the firm has great credibility. The report, released over the last few days, underscores that this is not a manufactured crisis. It is real; it is happening now."

The CTU never said it was not real, they've simply outlined--ad nauseam--the many repeated missteps that Mayor Daley and David Vitale, among others, have taken along the way to ensure a crisis. Toxic debt swaps? Check. Rampant cronyism? Check. An open checkbook to any and all but traditional schools? Check. Fat checks to charter operators and opportunists? Check and check.

The Tribune dutifully points to Ernst & Young's claim (a week before the CTU contract expires) that, " 'CPS teachers are well remunerated compared to their peers in other large US/Midwest school districts.' " This, despite the 2012 report by arbitrator Edwin Benn that suggested pay be commensurate with increased work.

The Editorial Board further carries the mayor's water by suggesting that CPS seek bankruptcy authorization, "No one would relish a bankruptcy declaration; the repercussions would be difficult to predict. But the Illinois General Assembly needs to pass legislation to allow that, just in case." Needless to say the charter operators who are already making a windfall of profits would relish such bankruptcy proceedings so they can gleefully continue to make private a public good.

The writers plant a nice wet one right on Rahm's ass when they can't even be bothered to suggest getting rid of David Vitale or suing the rubber stamp Board of Education for orchestrating the tidal wave of financial malfeasance the families, students, and teachers are now bracing for.

Swine! Thugs! Greedy Pigs! 3rd World Educators! Boss Hogg's Minions!

Following Tuesday's rally, the CPS School Board, ed reform profiteers, kick-back artists, hedge fund managers, and David Vitale's banking buddies breathe a sigh of relief as online comments posted to the Chicago Tribune demonstrate that Rahm's media machine is fully operational.

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!