3 More CPS Students Shot This Week

Three more active CPS students have been shot during the week in progress: 8/18 Chicago Vocational Academy H.S., 8/19 Gage Park H.S and 8/20 Fenger H.S.  This brings the total number of CPS students shot during the week in progress to eight.  City-wide, 56 people have been shot in Chicago during the week of 8/16 - 8/22.  Of those, seven died. This reflects a 40.4% increase in shootings during this time period compared to 2014.

Rahm?  Claypool?  Anything to say?

5 CPS Students Shot on Monday

Of the 33 people shot in Chicago during the week in progress, five are active CPS students:  Camelot Safe Academy, UNO Hector Garcia H.S., Bogan H.S., Englewood Academy H.S.and Mahalia Jackson E.S.  All five were shot on Monday 8/18.  And as usual, nobody with influence cares. Where's Rahm's outrage?  Where's Claypool's statement?

CPS students are scheduled to report to school on Sept. 8th.  We're assuming that the city is currently digging up some money to provide the requisite yard signs, door hangers and public service announcements urging CPS students to attend school.  And giving thanks that they had the foresight to stall on CTU contract negotiations in order to avert another fall strike.

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?

Truth Time

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

Another Stupid Statement from the Trib

After the tragic shooting death of yet another Chicago child, 7-year-old Amari Brown, the Chicago Tribune Editorial Board issues yet another stupid statement: "We don't yet know the tick-tock that preceded the shooting of Amari - the swirl of bad acts and motivations that left him bleeding to death."

Yes we do.  Here's the tick-tock:

• Amari's dad, Antonio Brown, is a high-ranking member of the Four Corner Hustlers
• Antonio has a 22 page rap sheet, with 45 arrests for gun crimes, narcotics crimes, and forcible felonies
• Antonio has a 5-pointed star tattooed on his forehead and a blunt tattooed on his cheek
• Antonio was the intended victim of a gang shooting
• Antonio had his 7-year-old son outside after midnight on a historically violent night in a historically violent neighborhood

But apparently Garry McCarthy is a bully for pointing out that Antonio Brown is responsible for his son's death.

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.

Dumb luck + $$$ = success

Safe Passage Greatest Hits

Seven weeks into the school year and all of the finger-crossing done by BBB, Rahm, the CPD, and the CFD, must be paying off. The one goal of the program: student safety, is intact. It's not powerful strategies that have kept students safe, but plenty of good luck. There's also plenty of idiocy: workers being shot at and beaten on the job, the many sex-offenders who live along the routes, other city services suffering because city workers are being pulled off their jobs to monitor Safe Passage routes (especially while this warm weather lingers) and the price tag: $15.7 million dollars. Sounds real successful, everyone. 

We've helpfully broken down Safe Passage problems into five categories.

#1: Safe Passage workers and their "issues": We've always been taught to keep your personal life at home, but Thursday's Trib reports an attempted drive-by shooting on a Safe Passage worker. The police say this was likely a domestic dispute since the worker's ex-husband is a reputed member of the Gangster Disciples and has a record going back to 2009. The same article also gives additional clues about workers and the problems they bring to the job:

• Another SP worker has been arrested twice on the job, the second time for failing to show up for a court date when he was arrested on his route in September. 

• Another worker arrested on her route (and presumably on the job) for beating a woman and stealing her LINK card.

• Unrelated to the article, we've heard that someone was mugged by a SP worker, or someone posing as a SP worker.

#2: Safe Passage and their contractors: In order to staff the streets, the city has contracted with numerous, questionable non-for-profits in neighborhoods with SP routes. One route, to Haley Elementary is subcontracted to CeaseFire Roseland. Yes, this is the same organization that Chicago has already given $1 million dollars to so they can "interrupt" violence with no measurable results. Yes, these are ex-gang members who've still managed to pass what CPS describes as "vigorous background checks."  Does anyone else see a problem with ex-gang members patrolling gang lines? It seems like this category, and the worker issue category, are closely related.

#3: Safe Passage routes and their "safety": An article in the Sun Times several weeks ago that pointed out the following:

• 48 of the 53 Safe Passage routes designed by the city to get kids safely to and from school have registered sex offenders living along the routes or within in a block of the routes.

• 10% of the city's total registered sex offenders live along Safe Passage routes.

• Cather Elementary has 80 offenders along its route.

#4: Deputized Safe Passage workers and their "real jobs": DNAInfo reports about 100 city employees from 15 agencies are still be used to assist in "back-to-school" efforts. Just a heads up from WCT: back-to-school season really only lasts about 4 weeks. Anyhow, things like building inspections and street cleaning will just have to wait. The city workers are not getting overtime, but are instead working their 8 hour day, leaving items for their real job, undone. Taxpayers who pay for these services must be thrilled.

#5: The CPS and city response to any questions about problems: It appears anyone who is in the upper ranks of any city agency and their spokespeople suffer from denial on a pathological level. The medical term for this is "impaired awareness," where the afflicted cannot recognize their reality. The following quotes reveal this might be the case:

• Becky Carroll on Thursday's attempted shooting: "No children or other community members were present during the time of the alleged incident." Alleged? There were two witnesses.

• Becky Carroll on routes loaded with sex offenders: The city took a 'holistic' approach to routes. We guess this means, "on the whole, things could be much worse."

• BBB on walking the SP routes: she did not feel "unsafe." Well, we'd hope a 62 year old woman, likely with reporters and a security detail in tow, didn't feel unsafe. What about the 6 or 7 year old walking?

The city will end up spending $15.7 million for this?! Will they spend this much again when school ends this year, and then again when it begins next year? There are many schools who could use $15.7 to ease over-crowding, update and replenish resources, and offer more to their students in the way of college or career readiness. Instead, let's throw money to groups like CeaseFire, leave long waitlists for city services, and then call it a success. Yep, sounds like Chicago.

Does anyone work or commute along a Safe Passage route, what do you think? Has anyone reading noticed a lack of city services because of workers being put on SP? Leave a comment and let us know what you think!