Cha-ching!

        Graphic credit: Chicago Tribune, July 25, 2015

Wow! A big WCT shout out to the financial geniuses at the City of Chicago who've accrued $1,052,300,000.00 in fees, settlements, and bad investments.

The Tribune alerts residents to the slew of new taxes and fees they can expect to pay for such gross mismanagement. At the same time, hedge-fundies have also been alerted to this "lucrative" debt and have invested more in Chicago's debt because of the city's ability to raise revenue and cut expenses. This is Newspeak for increase taxes and reduce services for residents.

Chicago, known for record-breaking violence, is now also known for record-breaking interest rates on bond offerings, an apparently unheard of 5.69%.

We're counting down to see when city unions get blamed for this.

Ed Reform's BFF: U.S. Murder Rates

Ed reformers love to bang the gong of U.S. educational crisis:

But if we compare international educational performance with international murder rates, the day-ta is strikingly similar:  

Even a student with below-average PISA scores could probably conclude that nations with higher rates of crime produce students who perform lower on standardized tests.  

We at WCT have to conclude that U.S. murder rates are the BFF of ed reform philathro-capitalists and all who $wallow their bullshit. For if U.S. murder rates were on a par with Japan or Finland, profiteers who conceal their financial ambition and improve their public image via ed reform efforts would have to find another venue.

Next thing you know, ed reformers will be pinning the blame for American crime on failing schools, bad teachers, and greedy unions.  Oh wait...

Idiotic Piece from Ed Reform Now

Chad Aldeman, Washington D.C.education policy analyst who has spent zero hours working in any capacity in any type of school, recently published a really stupid essay on Ed Reform Now's blog.  A few highlights:

• With Congress debating the future of educational policy, here's a thought-provoking statistic: American adults in the 1940's had the same odds of being a high school graduate as today's Americans have of being a college graduate.
• Beyond the pure shock value of this dramatic shift, it begs the question of whether the two rates will grow at the same rates.  Will we boost college attainment rates in this century as fast as we increased high school attainment rates in the last century?

Perhaps these statistics are thought-provoking and shocking for people who have never been inside an actual school for any length of time.

But for those of us who have experience in a field known as "teaching," it's quite simple:

1. Public high school teachers are not permitted to fail students anymore in inner-cities
2. High school grades have been drastically inflated for the past 30 years
3. High school graduation rate data in inner-cities is very easily manipulated
4. A high school diploma now means nothing 
5. Students from inner-cities are pushed to attend college by smug elites because all other viable alternatives have been eliminated
6. Students from inner-cities arrive to college without the necessary skills
7. Students who are unprepared for college drop out

Chad Aldeman, you're a fucking idiot.  

Ed Reform Truth Deniers

Campbell Brown offers us a simpering smile and feeble "inspiring stories," such as her recent lame tweet about students who lined up to get a janitor's autograph before he left their school for greener pastures.

Nevertheless, her non-profit (wink-wink), The Seventy Four, seeks to undermine the foundations of American public education through the usual means; charter profiteering, vilification of labor unions, teacher-bashing, and reliance on the old hoary failing schools myth.  Like all philanthro-venture-investment-capitalist ed reformers, Campbell Brown and her ilk remain silent on the unpleasant and politically tricky truths that shape the lives of many inner-city students.

For example, 10 people are dead and 35 are wounded after the usual violence in Chicago last weekend.  In fact, 1495 people have been shot in Chicago this year to date. Think this might affect student performance?

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?

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.