Friday, February 1, 2013

School Tech Connect: Dear Barbara Flynn Currie

School Tech Connect: Dear Barbara Flynn Currie:


Dear Barbara Flynn Currie

Dear Barbara Flynn Currie,

Thank you for sponsoring a legislation allowing Chicago Public Schools to be exempt from the law requiring them to adhere to a school-closing list deadline.

You will be happy to know that they have returned this favor by outsourcing community engagement to the Walton Family Foundation, which has spent at least $350m on the creation of charter schools throughout the nation.

The Waltons have engaged a marketing firm, Loran Marketing Group, to "handle" the community engagement piece.

The Loran group has decided, evidently, that the First Amendment to the United States Constitution is no longer viable, and that entire segments of the "community engagement" piece are off limits to journalism.

Here's the Sun Times' Lauren Fitzpatrick:

Our Overlords

I'm late on this one. 
District officials have said they don’t want to link the volatile issue of school closings with the equally volatile issue of charter school openings. But a major pro-charter foundation is providing financial backing for the current crop of school closing meetings taking place around the city this month.
The Waltons own CPS and they're determined to dismantle the thing. What's the name for a society that has