Photo and Tweet: Matt Farmer More weapons of library destruction rolling into #Whittier on an otherwise lovely Saturday morning.
Another cup of coffee for the road. La Casita.
La Casita at Whittier School in Pilsen. Parents and police. Your sister sees the future Like your mama and yourself. You’ve never learned to read or write There’s no books upon your shelf. And your pleasure knows no limits Your voice is like a meadowlark But your heart is like an ocean Mysterious and dark. One more cup of coffee for the road, One more cup of coffee ‘fore I go To the valley
YESTERDAY
Breaking. Demolition crews at Whittier School in Pilsen. Parents threatened with arrest.
Outside Whittier School in Pilsen early Friday evening. La Casita, the building parents and community residents around Whittier School in Chicago’s Pilsen neighborhood wanted for a library may not survive the night. Twitter and Facebook accounts say that demolition crews have arrived. Police are threatening parents with arrest. The National Lawyers Guild has posted: “We have been contacted rega
The in box. “You never want a good crisis to go to waste.” – Rahm Emanuel
- Kenzo Shibata In Klein’s book The Shock Doctrine, she explains how immediately after Hurricane Katrina, Friedman used the decimation of New Orleans’ infrastructure to push for charter schools, a market-based policy preference of Friedman acolytes. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan was the CEO of Chicago Public Schools at the time, and later described Hurricane Katrina as “the best thing that ha
The in box. The invisible (wo)man.
From Jose Vilson: If we believe in two sides of education reform (I don’t), then one side seems to do a better job of proffering their people of color more so than the other, at least from the outside. Even if we believe Michelle Rhee, Steve Perry (the principal), and the rest merely serve as puppets to a corporate agenda, to the casual observer, that side espouses diversity much more than “this”
Saturday coffee.
August in New York. We are officially in the last half of August. Officially. Was last summer my first official summer of retirement? Or was this summer the official one? Retirement was supposed to mean that Anne and I would do our traveling off season. Not in summer. This summer we traveled a lot. This week we are taking our final official summer trip. Saturday coffee is in Brooklyn. Sunday we
AUG 15
Senator Kwame Raoul and the disarray in the Illinois Democratic Party.
Pension bomber Representative Elaine Nekritz and Pension Committee Chair Senator Kwame Raoul. Illinois Democrats have a problem. In the eyes of many voters they appear to be Republicans. Democrats control both chambers of the state legislature, the governor’s mansion and Chicago City Hall. Yet state and local government looks like it is run out of an ALEC play book. The governor’s race has star
AUG 14
Read this: My friends from Occupy Naperville were arrested at the ALEC protest.
By Patricia Herrmann, Occupy Naperville From Paul Sjordal’s “news:” Police Charge Into Demonstrators at ALEC Conference in Chicago (4min video, these arrests happened before Maddie Sullivan was arrested) �In the first part of this video we see police using metal barriers to hem in demonstrators in front of The Palmer House Hilton Hotel in Chicago, site of the 40th annual conference of the America
The in box. At the anti-ALEC protest.
Outside the Palmer House. My friends from Occupy Naperville. From Truthout. Writing on the building outside the Palmer House Hotel in downtown Chicago says “igniting passions since 1871.” The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) held its 40th anniversary conference at the hotel, igniting the passions of protesters who came out to inveigh against ALEC’s agenda during a demonstration Augu
The in box. Teach for America’s civil war.
From The American Prospect: Teach for America is at universities, recruiting high-achieving graduates to teach in the nation’s underserved urban and rural areas. It’s at school boards, lobbying districts to renew its contracts and import hundreds of its members. It’s in corporate boardrooms, asking for tens of millions in funding. With more than 32,000 alumni, its former participants helm the maj
Mark Stefanik: They’re back.
Middle school teacher and activist Mark Stefanik. By Mark Stefanik The Springfield Poltergeist have returned. Just received a survey mailer from Democratic State Representative Robyn Gabel which begins “… it is my privilege to serve as your advocate.” Hoo-Boy… With advocates like Robyn, who needs enemies? Along with Republican-in-Democrat’s-clothing Senator Dan Biss, these ‘advocates’ of
Jason Richwine. The racist wind bag that is a gift that keeps on giving.
H/T: Micah Uetricht Back in March I first heard of Jason Richwine when he appeared on a panel along with my brother Mike and Brother Jitu Brown of the Kenwood Oakland Community Organization (KOCO) discussing Rahm’s school closings. Brother Mike and Brother Jitu explained why the closing were wrong. Richwine babbled on about how throwing money at schools was a bad thing. Although I have never unde
Rahm’s chaotic rule: District school close. Charters open.
The bodies are barely cold. The summer began with the closing of 50 Chicago public district schools, mainly on the south and west sides where Black students attended them. Yesterday the district issued a request for proposals to open new charter schools. In a 52-page PDF posted without fanfare on the district’s website, CPS is asking for new charter operators and campuses for the 2014-15 and 20
Losing seniority rights means running schools on the cheap. The CPS budget means winners and losers.
Graphic: Catalyst. The always ridiculous CPS spokesperson Becky Carroll admitted there are winners and losers in the CPS budget. The losers are students and families in district run schools. No surprise that charters are winners when it comes to budgeting. The Catalyst’s Sarah Karp reports: 70 percent of district-run schools lost $100,000 or more (not including the 49 schools that were closed t
AUG 13
North Carolina anti-tenure and seniority laws follows Illinois lead. Local wing-nuts too dumb to notice.
Illinois Policy Institute either lies or doesn’t know. North Carolina citizens are in a battle against a Republican state government that has launched a frontal assault on civil right, women’s rights and labor rights. Thousands have turned out for months of Moral Monday rallies. Ten thousand at the most recent event. While leaders of the North Carolina teachers’ union have been late in joining
The in box. Support for Logan Square TIF – Schools rally Sunday.
From Will Guzzardi: Many of you joined with us in our struggle this past winter to keep Brentano Elementary open. Principal Salgado and the rest of the Brentano family are thrilled that the school will be opening its doors for another school year in just a couple of weeks. Sadly, there will be a cost: $300,000, the amount that Chicago Public Schools has cut from Brentano’s bud
AUG 12
A children’s forced march through murder zones marked by Safe Passage signs.
It was another tragic weekend for the families of the dead in Chicago. It is hard to even keep up with the tally. Over 30 shot. 4 dead. Maybe more. As if to mock The Mayor and his promise of safe passage for students who on August 26th will be locked out of their home schools and sent on a forced march through murder zones, two of the shootings took place under his newly installed Safe Passage si
AUG 11
Bob Lyons. “The pension bill that is finally sent to Governor Quinn for his signature will be declared unconstitutional.”
Bob Lyons represents retired members as a Teacher Retirement System trustee. For Illinois’ current Fiscal Year 2014 TRS annuitants can certainly count on their pension checks from TRS to arrive on time and to include the full entitled amount. This amount will also include – for those who are eligible – the three-percent COLA increase in the pension check to be distributed on the1st of February, 20
The weird Tweets of Park Ridge District 64 board of education member Dr. Dathan Paterno.
Park Ridge school board member, Dr. Dathan Paterno. You know I retired from Park Ridge District 64 a year ago June. Right after I left, Dr. Dan Paterno was elected to the school board, joining Dr. Anthony Borrelli, a Park Ridge foot doctor, as a not exactly teacher-friendly faction. Although Paterno ran as a taxpayer watchdog, he had no problem voting to give administrators thousands of dollars i
Logan Square says restore what has been cut from CPS.
Parents and teachers rally at the Logan Square Eagle earlier this year in support of striking teachers. I’m just back from our Sunday walk to the Logan Square Farmers Market. Aside from fresh corn, beans, berries and some walleye, I have a leaflet. CPS teacher Phil Cantor was handing them out. “Please call the Mayor’s Office and tell him to put our kids first by declaring a TIF surplus and movi
Summer Sunday reads.
Two more shooting deaths in Chicago last night. Note the “Safe Passage” sign at the shooting on West Fullerton. NY school boss Dennis Walcott bans dinosaur, birthday, halloween, poverty and divorce. The Madison, Wisconsin state representative infiltrates the ALEC meeting in Chicago and reports what she heard. In Wisconsin, no more collective bargaining rights means more teachers are getting fired
AUG 10
Saturday coffee.
This is a late Saturday Coffee post. While retirement may mean that everyday is Saturday, some Saturdays are not like others. I got up early. I fed Ulysses and let him out to do his stuff, letting Anne take him for his morning walk. I rode my bike up to the Logan Square train stop and rode it downtown to a meeting of social justice educators from around the U.S. I listened more than talked an