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.

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.

CPS's Acute Case of Confusion Concern

According to Transparency International, "As a principle, public officials, civil servants, the managers and directors of companies and organisations, and board trustees have a duty to act visibly, predictably and understandably to promote participation and accountability and allow third parties to easily perceive what actions are being performed." Right on! 

**

You might wonder what the principle of transparency has to do with anything, at least in Chicago. A reader emailed to let us know our links to the CPS Supplier Reports were not working. Sure enough, there's not one CPS Supplier Report to be found online. These reports list listed awards to vendors not found in the Contract Award Report. WCT enjoyed browsing the vendors in the Suppliers Doing Business with the Chicago Public Schools Report because it was a clear list of how much money was going to which profiteer, kick-back artist, and scammer cashing in on CPS and taxpayers. Thanks to such reports, it was obvious who the biggest and best shakedown artists infiltrating CPS were. 

Let's time travel, reader. In 2011 Rahm Emanuel made a transparency pledge to, "...make the city government more accessible to everybody," and, "to create the most open, accountable, and transparent government the City of Chicago has ever seen." Ironically, any evidence of Emanuel speaking these words has been removed from the internet, so WCT has to rely on references to this statement. WCT also assumes the transparency pledge was strictly a first-term pledge.

In a February 2012 Tribune interview, Rahm Emanuel used some form of the word transparent 19 times. A sample:

" I did talk about transparency and I feel — to what I said — I am achieving it. Achieving, not achieved. And I don't put any period at the end of the sentence. This is only nine months into it [Emanuel administration], but there is no doubt given the backlog of potentiality from a transparency standpoint, I am making government information available, I am making sure people have access to it, I am bringing back a level of trust."

**

Let's see where Rahm's "backlog of potentiality from a transparency standpoint" has brought us. In August 2015 the city finances are shredded, Chicago Public Schools in disarray, and pensions disappeared. Residents would like to know exactly how the city has accrued such a sizable debt, where the money went, and why it keeps going. Documents, like the Supplier Report, while maddening to read, clearly show whose pockets are getting lined. 

Harkeing back to Rahm's transparency pledge, WCT emailed the CPS Purchasing Department inquiring about the missing reports.

The legalese response: "This report used to be required by a city ordinance, but that ordinance was repealed and the report is no longer legally required.  We actually took the link down from the website quite a while ago after the ordinance was repealed, but we learned recently that the direct link still worked, even though the data was stale or incorrect.  We recently have removed the old file to eliminate the confusion, as it was not accurate." 

Accuracy! Obeying the law! Non-confusion! Suddenly, City Hall and CPS have taken it upon themselves to not confuse people who are seeking day-ta, stale as it might be. Yes, let's remove the information so nobody is confused. Let's get all revisionist and hide information, substituting one piece of nonsense for another. God forbid anybody know anything in case they ask questions or attempt to hold the people doling out the money accountable. 

This must be an acute onset of Confusion Concern, as there is a long history of Chicago's confusion-inducing decisions:

October 16, 2009 headline: Calendar confusion--Or Citywide Chaos

May 23, 2013 headline: Confusion follows CPS school closing decision

February 24, 2015 headline: Confusion continues over standardized-testing in Chicago

May 24, 2015 headline: CPS forgot 22 schools in estimate for Aramark at a cost of $7M

Fortunately, for those of us who don't mind being confused, the internet is crawled frequently and pages cached (saved). As our Thought Partners would chirp, "daaay-ta!" Here are the cached Supplier Reports (copy and paste into browser) so you may be predictably, visibly, and understandably angered:

http://web.archive.org/web/20150402185313/http://www.csc.cps.k12.il.us/purchasing/supplier_report_2015.xml

http://web.archive.org/web/20150402182046/http://www.csc.cps.k12.il.us/purchasing/supplier_report_2014.xml

http://web.archive.org/web/20150530200734/http://www.csc.cps.k12.il.us/purchasing/supplier_report_2013.xml

http://web.archive.org/web/20141111132437/http://www.csc.cps.k12.il.us/purchasing/supplier_report_2012.xml

http://web.archive.org/web/20120107043404/http://www.csc.cps.k12.il.us/purchasing/supplier_report_2011.xml

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.

CPS's Opinion of Parents and Teachers: Idiots

CPS teachers and staff recently received the following email:

"Dear Colleagues,

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

There are several ways to participate in our Back-to-School campaign, including the annual Bud Billiken Day Parade on Saturday August 8. We want CPS to have a major presence at this event, so please consider volunteering your time for a portion of the day.  Visit cps.edu/b2svolunteering to see your options and to register.

You can also 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 in this option, please email face@cps.edu.

Finally, you can support our students by helping them start the school year with the classroom supplies they need.  Many children will arrive at school on September 8 without adequate supplies. To purchase school supply kits for these students, or to find out how you can donate supplies to our schools, visit cps.edu/supplythefuture."

CPS teachers and staff also received the following flyer reminding us of free meals provided by CPS:

"LunchStop serves free, healthy meals at 40 outdoor CPS locations!  Any child 1-18 years can receive a free meal every Monday through Friday from June 28th to August 28th (children do not have to be CPS students)."

Although Rahm has claimed that "CPS continues to set new standards of excellence," we disagree.

According to the city, CPS parents are unable to:

• Independently understand or determine when school begins. 
• Provide school supplies(which cost less than $10) for their children. 
• Independently feed their children 

And additionally, according to the city, CPS teachers should:

• Volunteer their time to provide phone reminders to CPS parents of school start dates
• Volunteer their money to purchase students' school supplies
• Ignore the fact that we will start working this fall without a contract, since the city will not negotiate with the CTU

So to sum up, the city clearly believes that CPS parents and teachers are fucking idiots.

More $$ Nonsense

Reporters for major Chicago newspapers are giving us some confusing information.  First, the Sun-Times reports that spending at neighborhood schools will drop by $60 million.  Next, the Trib reports that CPS plans to spend $500 million that the district does not have.

We have become somewhat immune to the power of big numbers.  $85 billion in Illinois unfunded pension liability?  Yup.  $443 million to charter schools in 2015?  Got it.  $9 million to CPS Network Instructional Leaders?  Whatever.

The "takeaway," as our loathsome U. of C. thought partners are wont to say, is that money does not solve the academic problems of our CPS students.  As we discussed in a recent truth alert, many of our students come to school with issues that schools cannot solve.

Truth Alert!

It's happened again readers, our newspapers are publishing items that reveal some truths about the lives that many students who go to CPS experience.

Sun-Times columnist Laura Washington writes:

In a new published study, Dr. Bell and a colleague examined 611 patients at a family medical clinic on the South Side. They identified 237 as "having profiles consistent with neurobehavioral disorders associated with prenatal alcohol exposure." That's 39%.

Washington goes on to report the additional findings by Dr. Bell and his colleagues. Those affected by Fetal Alcohol Syndrome often have explosive tempers, bad judgement, and "they are doing stuff that doesn't make sense. Explosive violence."

Some other unpleasant realities that Dr. Bell has observed:

• Black communities are saturated with liquor stores.
• Black women have high rates of unplanned pregnancies.
• Women drink unknowingly during pregnancy.
• Children with Fetal Alcohol Syndrome often go undiagnosed.

As Washington points out, these observations are difficult to hear, but a place to start. This would also be a problem which could be described as systemic, intractable, and an issue which contributes to the generational poverty urban students experience. 

These students are likely also some of the same who experience violence on a regular basis. Despite students with explosive tempers, impulsivity, and poor judgement, these students are expected to sit through hours of tests, and additional reform-y hoops as put forth by CPS.

 WCT wonders where in Noble Street's mission of, "scholarship, discipline, and honor...to lead exemplary lives and serve as a catalyst for education reform in Chicago," the school addresses this. Wait, they don't. Neighborhood schools, currently starved of resources and funding, are expected to not only address issues like these, but reverse them.