CPS Board of Ed = Bernie Madoff

Can someone please explain how those who raided the Chicago Teachers' Pension Fund are any different than Bernie Madoff?

• The pension fund was close to 100% funded in 2000.
• Between 1995-2005 and 2011-2013 CPS collected more than $2 billion in pension revenue from CTU members and paid none of that money into the pension fund
• The School Board itself sanctioned the pension holidays, periods during which the district was exempt from putting teachers' pension money into the pension fund
• The district does not account for where the pension money was spent; instead, new CEO Claypool lies and refers vaguely to the teacher pension system as "unfair"
• Daley and Rahm's banking buddies are making big $$ from CPS's lucrative pension debt

To add insult to injury, Rahm + Rauner's media machine continues to paint teachers as greedy pigs by distorting the truth about pensions and publishing a useless reporter's desire for a Chicago Katrina.

The biggest insult, however, is Claypool's insistence that CTU members contribute 7% more of our salary into the pension fund.  So we're supposed to reimburse ourselves for the money that the district stole?  No thanks!  Although CPS thinks we're idiots, we're not.  

Ed Reform Fails to Cure Youth Disconnect

The Social Science Research Council recently published a project called Measure of America which, among other things, defines and analyzes youth disconnect.  

Youth disconnect: "Youth between the ages of 16-24 who are neither working nor in school.  Disconnected youth are adrift at societies margins, unmoored from systems and structures that confer knowledge, skills, identity and purpose."

National average of youth disconnect: 14.7%

Ed reformers promise excellence, college readiness, bright futures, disciplined lives, meaningful lives, intellectual growth and the ability to make students' dreams come true.

Let's compare U.S. cities with the most charters to rates of youth disconnect (YD) in those cities:

CITY                       % of Charters            Black YD        Latino YD        White YD

NOLA                      92                              27.5                 n/a                     10.5

Detroit                     51                              25.3                 19.2                   13.5

D.C.                         43                              19                    11.7                   7

Indianapolis           28                              22.3                 n/a                     14

Philadelphia           28                              19.7                 19                      8

Phoenix                  27                              28.2                 23.5                   13.3     

We can conclude that ed reform doesn't seem to be working.  Perhaps this is because ed reform emphasizes an elitist college-for-all agenda which demonizes teachers and unions in the process.

Instead, ed reformers should consider following Measure for America's suggestions, which include providing wrap-around services for disconnected youth, such as medical care and therapeutic counseling.  Another Measure for America suggestion is to bring back vocational training in schools. 

But can you imagine Campbell Brown advocating for shop classes?  The horror!        

CPS Confusion Concern: Cured

An investigation by the Inspector General and more bad press about its stance on transparency seems to have alleviated CPS's need to ensure nobody is confused. Instead, all about the quick follow-up (click to enlarge):

RiShawn Biddle: Evangelizing School Reform

RiShawn Biddle, an attention hungry ed reformer, has no actual teaching experience but frequently touts his communications and marketing experience on his self-serving website rishawnbiddle.org. Biddle is a self-proclaimed tiresome tireless advocate of ed reform (his Twitter profile notes he's chronicling America's dropout crisis, though the dropout rate has fallen 3% since 1990) and his advocating is that of the door-knocking proselytizer seeking anyone who will listen.

His recent Dropout Nation podcast takes an evangelical tone with a rambling 18 minute entry on the 5 Commandments of School Reform (if Biddle is such a believer, he would do well to note God's brevity in issuing forth the 10 Commandments).

Biddle, an example of your typical ed reformer, shows the high opinion they have of themselves and the crusades they undertake with the pretense of $aving $ouls. The entire podcast is linked above and the "commandment$" require embracing every en vogue reform orthodoxy from the tired proclamation that students only have one chance at learning to demonizing police.

Here is a handy boiled-down version:

1. Stand for all children no matter who they are or where they live. We must be good to all of God's children...because Our creator favors doing good and healing, not just following the law. Reminder: We must start from the "cold-blooded premise" all students are geniuses.

2. Fight for better futures for all students. Put families at the head of education decision making. Reminder: laws and institutions cannot love, only people can.

3. We must never stay silent. We must engage in conflict. Reminder: conflicts create cultures of genius.

4. Approach reform with mind and heart. We must be creative radicals who help our students become literate and numerate. Reminder: be aware that accountability matters.

5. Constantly remember why we are school reformers. Reminder: we need a revolution, not an evolution.

WCT notes Biddle is reaching way back to education in colonial times with the overt religious nature of his reformy call to arms. Beyond that, a few other sticking points we have with these "commandment$":

1. All students are not geniuses. Even given the varying definitions of what genius means, we encounter students who, for a variety of reasons, don't possess the intellect, energy, or self-determination necessary to be thinkers and learners of such an elevated level. Labeling everyone as a genius seems disingenuous at best, and also is directly at odds with the idea that students have individual needs.

2. The loving people who run many urban districts believe parents are idiots. CPS has such a low opinion of parents they don't believe they can procure needed school supplies for their children. Instead, teachers have been asked to donate supplies, or better yet, cash directly to schools.

3. Constant conflict does not create a genius factory. The last 5 years in CPS have seen the following ongoing conflicts: teachers vs. administrators, Chicago Public Schools vs. Chicago Teachers Union, Rahm Emanuel vs. the 99%, profiteers vs. families/students/teachers. None of this has created a culture of genius, and has instead brought the school system to a screeching halt.

4. Teachers are already held accountable. State tests, federal tests, local tests, evaluations, endless day-ta analysis. Teachers are well-versed in accountability and must answer for such confounding variables as a student's life outside the classroom, too. Yet, charters continue to open unabated despite the crippling debt cities like Chicago face.

5. Yes, let's have a revolution. Let's be like Jesus and be radically inclusive and fund all public schools equitably, admit there are issues teachers can't control, and see what happens.

Forrest Claypool, Liar

Forrest Claypool -- Rahm's new appointed CEO of CPS and former President of the CTA (during the diastrous 2013 Ventra rollout) -- sent CPS teachers and staff a recent email.  As teachers, we feel compelled to make a few corrections:

Claypool writes: "We are honored and humbled to lead this tremendous team as we work together to make sure every child from every community in Chicago gets the opportunity for a great education."

• Should read:  We are gratified to have the opportunity to work with Rahm's appointed business-people to make sure that every racketeer from every ed tran$formation project in Chicago gets the opportunity to generate profit and to vilify the CTU while remaining free from the meddling of actual public educators.

Claypool writes: "CPS students have made enormous progress in the classroom over the last four years, and our students are improving because you have dedicated your professional life to ensuring that they reach their full potential."

• Should read: CPS students have remained the same in the classroom over the last four years, and yet are able to provide the illusion of enormous progress because of effective grade and attendance manipulation.

Claypool writes:  "Our current fiscal crisis is the direct result of an unfair state pension system."

• Should read:  Our current fiscal crisis is the direct result of the theft of teachers' pension funds -- funds which teachers themselves dutifully generated for over 20 years -- and of intentionally creating lucrative debt to benefit our cronies.

Forrest, you and Rahm go together like peas and carrots.

 

Triple Digit NOLA Murders Despite Charter Proliferation

Laissez les bon temps roulez!

Nearly a decade ago, Hurricane Katrina killed more than 1,000 people and rendered thousands more homeless, leaving large areas of the city without schools.  At the time, 2/3 of New Orleans public schools were deemed "failing."  Sniffing opportunity, charter profiteers descended.

Currently, 92 percent of NOLA students are enrolled in a charter school.

Ironically, New Orleans just hit triple digits in murders 55 days sooner than in 2014.  Furthermore, NOLA's solve rate for homicides has slipped to 50 percent. Detectives in 2015 are handling 30% more cases than in 2014, with a homicide unit that is 25% smaller than 2014.  These troubling statistics are vaguely explained as resulting from various form of [police] attrition.  What could be sapping the strength of NOLA police officers?

And noxious ed reformers, where is the excellence you promised?  Where is the turn-around? Where is the college and career readiness? Where are the bright futures?

CPS Waste, Exhibit D: Tim Cawley and AUSL

In response to a reader's suggestion, we've turned our attention to big league cornholer Tim Cawley, Chief Administrative Officer for CPS and former leader of AUSL turnaround schools.

• CPS Salary: $215,000.000
• Community of Residence: Winnetka
• Value of Winnetka home: $2,650,000.000
• Reason why he lives outside of Chicago: papal dispensation residency waiver
• Reason why he can afford $2 mil home: Aramark kick-backs
• Amount that Cawley's botched Aramark deal cost CPS: $7 million
• Cawley's previous ed experience: AUSL (Academy for Urban School Leadership) Managing Director; AUSL is a "non-profit [wink wink] that partners with CPS to turn around chronically-failing schools."
• Amount of $$ funneled into AUSL by Chicago Public Education Fund while Cawley has been employed by CPS: $1,080,000.00 
• Per diem fees charged by AUSL for staff members' time: $1000 - $3000 based on staff member senority

Current Donors Choose begging pleas posted by teachers AUSL Turnaround Schools (A-D only) that Tim Cawley has tran$formed:

AUSL Turnaround School:  Curtis School of Excellence

• $479: double-wide teaching easel with magnetic upper and lower-case letters

AUSL Turnaround School: Dvorak School of Excellence

• $395: pencils, filler paper, dry erase markers
• $670: document camera
• $275: desktop computer
• $334: iPad Mini

AUSL Turnaround School: Deneen School of Excellence

• $528: math games library, dry erase markers
• $469: dictionaries and thesauri

Tim Cawley's answer to the question, "What are you passionate about personally?": "Helping those less fortunate."

If you weren't schooled about Tim Cawley prior to reading, it should now be clear that his excellence lays in his duplicity.

CPS Debt: Cha-ching!

Floated quietly on July 4th, the Sun-Times outlines the minefield that is CPS borrowing and its associated fees. In the Spring, CPS sold $478,000,000 in bonds, and the $4,400,000 fee for such borrowing has been spread around to those with ties to mayors past and present.

Chris Fusco has connected all the dots for anyone who cares to see how the connected continue to make money while CPS and the city go broke:

• Law firm Katten Muchin & Rosenman's profit: $300,000. The connected: former Mayor Daley who made pension holidays de rigueur is Of Counsel at the firm, and the firm's attorneys have contributed $61,000 to Emanuel's campaigns since 2010. 

• Law firm Thompson Coburn's profit: $350,000. The connected:  John Cullerton, Mayor Emanuel's bro in the Illinois General Assembly.

• Finance firm Loop Capital Markets profit: $180,000 in underwriting fees. The connected: James Reynolds, Jr., firm founder who's also an Emanuel appointee to World Business Chicago and the Illinois Sports Facilities Authority. World Business Chicago has a sleek website but WCT is unsure of what they do to benefit citizens. IFSA is an ineffectual organization who does things like pay the debt on U.S. Cellular while not collecting the rent.

Going broke has never paid so well, at least for some. WCT thought Mayor Daley's continued profiteering from the mess he created was the big middle finger to the taxpayers, but it turns out the giant middle finger is:

• Finance firm Cabrera Capital Markets: A portion of the $2,300,000 in fees for this year's bond deal, plus half of the $18.1M in fees since 2011.  If the name Cabrera rings a bell it should: Martin Cabrera, Jr. was UNO Charter Schools chairman after the SEC probe of UNO's awarding of construction contracts based on best price nepotism. Cabrera Capital, not coincidentally, was one of the underwriters of the $37.5M in loans UNO received in 2011.

The list of the connected goes on and on. Don't be a-feared, citizens, Emanuel spokesperson Adam Collins reassures readers, "...there is no connection between the awarding of CPS bond work and contributions to the mayor's political fund." Thanks for clearing that up. If City Hall says it, it must be true.

Our political ruling class engages in financial malfeasance as its sole practice, and the constellation of cronies assembled in Chicago is continually enriched thanks to such deals. Meanwhile, Chicagoans are bracing for a slew of taxes ranging from increased property taxes to a tax on the cloud so our ruling elite can remain so.

Rahm Skips Chiraq for Aspen

Rahm Emanuel had a busy week: funding CTU's pension, laying off 1,400 CPS employees, and then borrowing $500M back from the pension to pay to keep schools open. Whew! After all of that, one might expect him to keep a low profile, or be around for the 4th of July weekend since in Chiraq it will mean bodies piling up. Nonsense, readers! Rahm jetted right to Aspen to be interviewed at the 2015 Aspen Ideas Festival.

The Aspen Ideas Festival is billed as, "the nation's premier, public gathering place for leaders from around the globe and across many disciplines to engage in deep and inquisitive discussion of the ideas and issues that both shape our lives and challenge our times." People who live on planet Earth have *ideas festivals* all the time and they're called conversations. Aspen's fresh mountain air and spectacular vistas must make it a special place for plutocrats and profiteers of all stripes to exchange trade secrets.

Rahm Emanuel felt the need to announce, "I am not an education reformer. My job as mayor is to make sure you have quality."

Here are some key issues of education reform and Rahm's stance:

School choice: The more, the better. Words like excellence, rigor, and tran$formation are regularly bandied about. Headline after Rahm won his second election: "A victory for Rahm Emanuel is a victory for school choice."

Teacher tenure: It is lazy, complacent teachers who are the ruin of the school system. The Reader's Ben Joravsky points out that CPS has in effect abolished tenure by redefining positions and creating other bureaucratic workarounds to the union contract.

Teachers' Unions: It is union teachers who make it impossible to effectively teach the 21st century student. Chicago's 2012 strike, massive school closings, and teacher layoffs indicate Rahm agrees.

Privatization: The free-market, corporate-driven policies of ed reform will cure all education ills. Rahm and his elected school board recently privatized school nurses who work in our buildings, the janitorial staff in our schools, and have funded a wealth of external partners to come into our schools and indoctrinate staffs in corporate edu-speak.

Rahm fully embraces every tenet of education reform, but he's not a reformer. He's the quality guy. WCT can only guess what the Doublethink Dept. will come up with when, in several months, schools open with an unparalleled level of chaos and a dearth of funds to actually accomplish anything. Will he then say he's the austerity guy?

Ed Reform in Chiraq?

The Illinois Network of Charter Schools glibly states, "We know all children can achieve academic success and have bright futures!"  As actual Chicago public school teachers, we at WCT would, of course, like to believe the same.  CPS has certainly supported INCS's ed reform tran$formation efforts, with $442 million of tax-payer money given to charter schools in 2015.

But will busting unions ed reform really provide bright futures to all children? What are some other factors that get in the way of children's bright futures besides unions lack of charter schools?

Yesterday's Trib published two interesting op-eds on Chicago's violence problem:

• In the first, Robert Milan, Cook County State's Attorney, asks that the National Guard be called in to protect Chicago.  Milan notes that "CPS's regular school year is over and thousands of teenagers are now on the streets."
• In the second, Cook County Commissioner Richard Boykin calls for 1. strict curfew enforcement 2. prosecution of gangbangers as domestic terrorists 3. increased presence of Cook County Sheriff's police 4. an increase in parenting/drug rehab/work training programs.

These op-eds, plus the ongoing debate over Spike Lee's new film, provisionally titled "Chiraq", warrant a review of Chicago crime data:

• A person is shot every: 3.22 hours
• A person is shot and killed every: 19.21 hours

In other words, a Chicago student, parent, cousin, aunt, uncle, grandma, grandpa, brother or sister commits, witnesses, or is the victim of an act of gun violence every 4 hours.  And that's just guns.

So, Illinois Network of Charter Schools and ed reformers everywhere, we ask you:  How are you so sure that all children can have bright futures if only unions are busted and education is privatized?

Perhaps Ken Griffin and his ilk can get moving on some lucrative corporate police reform.

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.

CPS Waste, Exhibit B: The Networks

While the Trib continues to make dark suggestions about 1. declaring bankruptcy in CPS and 2. teacher lay-offs, we again humbly suggest that reporters take a look into the CPS Networks, of which there are 13.

13 Chiefs of Schools; combined salaries:  $1,964,703.00
9 Deputy Chiefs of Schools; combined salaries:  $1,080,000.00
80 Instructional Support Leaders; combined salaries: $8,656,080.00
9 Data Strategists; combined salaries: $975,051.00
1 CEO Administration of School Transformation; salary: $132,036.00

Combined salaries (not including administrative assistants making less than 50K): $12, 808, 758.00

Let's take a closer look at the 80 Instructional Support Leaders collectively pulling in $8.6 million.

Amount of times that CPS teachers have received instructional support from an Instructional Support Leader: 0

Amount of times that CPS students have received instructional support from an Instructional Support Leader: 0

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, 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.

WWJT of Pastor Corey Brooks?

Several months ago, Corey Brooks, pastor of the New Beginnings mega-church, baffled Southsiders by lending his support to billionaire Bruce Rauner's purchase of the position of Governor of Illinois.  Perhaps Mr. Brooks was seduced by a glass of merlot from Rauner's exclusive wine club?  Unlike Jesus Christ, though, who turned water into wine at no cost, Bruce Rauner pays $100,000 per year for his wine, an expense that's twice the average Chicago household income.

We've also noticed that Pastor Corey Brooks has taken a $pot on the Board of Directors at One Chance Illinois, aligning himself with Myles Mendoza's anti-union plutocrats, socialites and ed reform profiteers.  More recently, Bruce Rauner has named Mr. Brooks to $erve on the Illinois Tollway Board.  Cha-ching!

This makes us wonder:  What Would Jesus Think?

• According to Mark, Jesus said, "It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God."
• And according to Matthew, Jesus said, "You cannot serve both God and money."

The Language of Ed Reform: Vague, Vacuous, Insipid and Boring

From George Orwell's essay Politics and the English Language, written in 1946:

• Political writing is bad writing.
• Orthodoxy, of whatever color, seems to demand a lifeless, imitative style.
• Political speech and writing are largely the defense of the indefensible.  Thus, political language has to consist of euphemism, question-begging, and sheer cloudy vagueness.
• The great enemy of clear language is insincerity.

The future is now:

Perspectives Charter Schools' Mi$$ion:  All Perspectives Charter Schools will provide students with a rigorous and relevant education based on the principles of a disciplined life, preparing them for life in a changing world and helping them to become intellectually reflective, caring and ethical people engaged in a meaningful life.

Noble Charter Network Mi$$ion:  Noble prepares low-income students with the scholarship, discipline and honor necessary to succeed in college and lead exemplary lives, and serves as a catalyst for educational reform in Chicago.

KIPP Charter Foundation Vi$ion:  Our vision is that, one day, all public schools will help children develop the knowledge, skills, character and habits necessary to achieve their dreams and make the world a better place.

One Chance Illinois Mi$$ion:  OCI believes that children only get one chance at a high quality education. [Our] mission is to advance public policy that expands quality educational options for Illinois' middle and low-income families.

Read Between the Lines

In the halcyon days of 2010, Rahm Emanuel outlined his education platform: "Our goal should be nothing less than ensuring that every child in this city has access to a world-class education...but without a good qualified teacher, those things [infrastructure, small class sizes] cannot guarantee learning." Yes!

Mayor Emanuel in an uncharacteristically optimistic 2014 press release: "We will continue to make all the investments necessary for a high-quality education that prepares our students for success in college, career and life." Right on!

Mayor Emanuel in 2015 announcing that 6 CPS high schools (all non-charter...awkward!) are among the state's Top 10: "I applaud the hard work of our students, and also the teachers...who have supported them in attaining success in the classroom." Sing it, brother!

With all the big talk of a world-class, high-quality education and qualified teachers, one would expect CPS spending to put dollars directly into the classroom, not profiteers' pockets. The CPS Department of Procurement shows where rhetoric meets reality:

CPS contract with 10 vendors for the Chicago Leadership Collaborative: $4,300,000 (over 3 years) Ineffective principal training, Cha-ching!

CPS contract with University of Chicago: $1,800,000 Championing made-up metrics, Cha-ching!

CPS contract with Teach for America: $1,300,000 Contracting inexperienced teachers who have no interest in teaching, Cha-ching!

CPS contract with Wilson Reading: $72,000 Training teachers to help students learn to read, Cha-ching?

One might argue the most money should go to the most effective resources. Here is a testimonial from the contract awardee who provides training to teachers to become high-quality instructors, "I taught English in the village school [in the Sudan]...I am so glad I finished my certification before I going. I felt prepared to provide meaningful and relevant instruction to help the students and teachers...." No TFAer would ever be caught dead in the Sudan, unless it helped their impending law/med/biz school application, so TFA is out.

Still not sure which program puts effective teachers in front of students? Here's another testimonial, "Patrick Lombard has come full-circle; from a struggling reader in third grade to a master's candidate is elementary education pursuing certification." University of Chicago doesn't take struggling readers, even if it was way back in the third grade. U of C is off the list.

Yes, the jargon-free Wilson Reading provides relevant training and produces results, but only received a $72,000 contract award in 2014 (point of reference: Ken Griffin makes this much money in 48 minutes). Yet, the new-agey Leadership Collaborative which often pushes teachers with little time in the classroom into administration is raking in a cool million this year; the University of Chicago who've proven to be total education hacks by defending CPS's juking of graduation rates gets almost two million this year, and Teach for America, an organization that willfully puts under-trained teachers warm bodies in the classroom gets tossed another million.

Rahm Emanuel and CPS tell the kids of Chicago to sit and spin when it comes to directing dollars into the classroom and developing high-quality teachers whose instruction can make a difference.

Alert! Profiteer Gets Feathers Ruffled!

Apparently Myles Mendoza's only quibble with our June 7th post is the observation that the organization he heads up--One Chance Illinois--is anti-union. Our one measly observation that ed-reformers are only anti-union in urban areas seems like chump change compared to the notion that OCI is a self-enriching organization fueled by elitist guilt that peddles unproven initiatives. But, okay, let's talk about how not anti-union OCI is.

Surely, if One Chance Illinois were not anti-union there would more than just established and up-and-coming profiteers on their advisory board. These people are policy advisors who, "assist One Chance Illinois in setting its policy agenda...and provide national perspective on effective policy making." Certainly, an organization whose philosophy claims to, "...not favor one type of school over another..." would have a robust collection of advisors to reflect all of the many educational choices they keep shoving down the public's throats.

Let's examine this Team of Rivals One Chance has established:

Thomas B. Fordham Institute (Chad Aldis) - A conservative, education policy think tank whose mission describes students being held hostage by, "...adult interest groups, including but not limited to, teacher unions." No mention of mandated tests like PARCC that literally held students hostage for hours this winter and spring.

The Clayton Christensen Institute for Disruptive Innovation (Michael B. Horn) - Paging George Orwell! After we consulted our Newspeak dictionary, we found this non-partisan think tank refers to products, services, brick-and-mortar schools, and customer needs. Not one mention of students or teachers.

DFER Illinois (Rebecca Nieves Huffman) - An organization notorious for union bashing. In September 2012, a Tribune article linked DFER as a sponsor of anti-teacher ads during the teachers' strike. Most recently, DFER-Illinois put money behind aldermanic candidates in wards with CTU candidates running.

Digital Learning Now (John Bailey) - A national initiative of ExcelinEd whose goal is to, "...create a high-quality digital learning environment." No mention of providing students with high-quality educators.

We will spare you the rest of the organizational profiles of this twenty-nine member panel. The lone representative of public education is the Debate Director from Evanston Township High School. Hopefully his expertise in making a reasoned argument is used to advocate for equitable funding and experienced teachers in all of our schools so students and families are protected from the whims of education reformers who feel emboldened by their moral crusading for the civil rights issue of our time.

Oh, and the intent of this blog should be clear from the previous 90 posts WCT has published: we are public educators who are disgusted with the corruption, insincerity, and sanctimony of the education reform movement.