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Wednesday, February 20, 2013

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Ruiz gets an F, Katten an A+ on Chicago Tonight

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Ruiz gets an F, Katten an A+ on Chicago Tonight:


Ruiz gets an F, Katten an A+ on Chicago Tonight

I almost felt bad for Jesse Ruiz last night as I watched him play the fool to Wendy Katten on Chicago Tonight. Armed only with an embarrassed grin, a pocket full of cliches ("it's for the kids"... "it's about teaching and learning"..."all hands on deck"...) and a bag full of half-truths and misinformation, Rahm's hand-picked board V.P Ruiz was sent out to face the Raise Your Hand's Wendy Katten and Catalyst's Rebecca Harris to try and defend the indefensible -- CPS's list of 129 "underutilized" schools slated for closure.

It was a total mismatch. Katten, armed with credible information, waited patiently as Ruiz spouted the party line:
"It's under-utilization that's driving it. We want to right-size the footprint. There's been a drop in the