Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog:
Schooling in the Ownership Society
James Meredith: The civil rights issue of our time...
An easy slide from Gates to Pearson
Enron's "King of Natural Gas" turns to power philanthropy. Goes after "lavish" pensions.
We thought we were done with Vallas but... he's back
Racing to the top?
Chicago Tonight's panel of "experts". No teachers allowed.
Schooling in the Ownership Society
Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk
Schooling in the Ownership Society
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Accompanied by U.S. marshals and surrounded by jeering crowds, James Meredith enrolled as the first African-American student at the University of Mississippi in 1962.“The civil rights issue of our time is to stop unproven co-called education reforms from totally destroying our children’s public education,” says Meredith, “and to get parents, teachers, community leaders and elders, the whole ‘Family of God,’ to take back control of our children’s education from politicians, bureaucrats and for-profits, who have turned our public schools into pawns in a game of money and power.” -- Diane Ravitc
Kate JamesA week ago I gave the example of Bruce Reed, the assistant to President Barack Obama and chief of staff to Vice President Joe Biden, being named president of the Broad Foundation, to illustrate the easy movement between government, corporate reform and power philanthropy. Another earlier example would be Joel Klein's transition from N.Y.C. schools chancellor to a power position within Rupert Murdoch's publishing empire.This is a hallmark of current corporate-style school reform. It's similar in many ways, to the movement between government and the war industry, usually referred to as
John and Laura ArnoldPower philanthropist and billionaire hedge-funder John Arnold comes out of Enron's criminal enterprise. Arnold made millions trading natural gas derivatives at Enron and then billions from his hedge fund. He was known on Wall Street as the "king of natural gas." But when natural gas prices slumped, he turned full-time to running his foundation along with wife, Laura. According to the John and Laura Arnold Foundation, the fund has assets of $1.2 billion. They probably figured, if Bill and Emily could make the jump from Microsoft...The pair have tried and reinven
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Look out. Vallas is back in town. We tried to finish him off back in 2001 but...No sooner had I finished posting about how the Working Families Party and allies were running Paul Vallas out of Bridgeport, than I get the news that he has been selected as Gov. Quinn's running mate here in Illinois. Yes, the master of the disaster in from Philly to New Orleans and from Haiti to Chile, the buster of teacher unions, the school privatization guru himself, is back with a vengeance.Sun-Times political reporter Fran Spielman and David McKinney call it, "a stunning political move that puzzled many
Arne Duncan, as usual is sticking to his misfiring guns but criticism is mounting over his $5 billion in Race To The Top grants showing no real measurable improvement in schools. No surprise there since the whole strategy was flawed from the get go. The money was used to drive massive school closures in minority communities, the unfettered expansion of privately managed charter schools, standardized testing mania, and the firing of hundreds of thousands of public school teachers. What could go wrong?Silly usTrinity Washington University president Patricia McGuire asks, "Can anyone differ
Just watched Chicago Tonight show on dropout prevention. Shouldn't have eaten first.The panel, which included CPS' new accountability chief John Barker, must have set the world record for empty, meaningless cliches abut Common Core and data-driven this and new metrics that. Barker was aided in elevating data about freshman-on-track above any and all other issues, by Elaine Allensworth from the Consortium on Chicago School Research.Accountability Chief BarkerThe panel was sailing right along on Phil Ponce's soft-ball questions until a few people in the audience began raising issues of poverty,
NOV 21
Mayor 1%
I'm catching up on my reading. Here's what I'm plowing through:Mayor 1%: Rahm Emanuel and the Rise of Chicago's 99% by Kari Lyderson (Haymarket Books)Here's a handbook for the anti-Rahm candidate in 2015. It's well-researched and remarkably up-to-date considering how fast things are moving.Filling The Seat; The Pathway to the Superintendency for One African-Americn Woman Superintendent by Shelly D
Turning the neediest overcrowded Chicago schools into beggars
BBB calls parent protest a "knee-jerk reaction" to overcrowdingThe Mayor runs the schools the way he runs the city. It's a two-tier system with wealthiest and politically-connected getting the lion's share of the resources while the poorest neighborhoods and schools go begging. As a result, his hand-picked, rubber-stamp school board has become the regular target of protests by parents wh
NOV 19
School community votes and rejects the 'military coup' at Ames Middle School
This from the Logan Square School Facilities CouncilAmes activists organize against military coupThe Results Are In!Maldonado's Military Coup at Ames Even Less Popular than Anticipated97% of Parents and 94% of Students Vote to Keep Ames as a Neighborhood School, not Military School Last week, Ames Middle School LSC members held a vote among parents and students on the future of Ames. Alderman Ro
At CPS there's a new colonel in town
Rumor has it that there's a shake up brewing atop Byrd-Bennett's CPS bureaucracy. Some on the 5th Floor tells me that the roundly-despised Tim Cawley is out as BBB's Chief Administrative Officer and that he being replaced by former Marine Col. Tim Tyrrell.If true, Tyrell's appointment appears to be the colonel's reward to commanding the "successful" closing of 50 Chicago public schools w
Sec. Duncan's attempt to silence, intimidat Common Core critics was a miserable failure
“It’s fascinating to me that some of the pushback is coming from, sort of, white suburban moms who — all of a sudden — their child isn’t as brilliant as they thought they were and their school isn’t quite as good as they thought they were, and that’s pretty scary.” Duncan's racist and chauvinistic swipe at "white suburban moms" for their opposition to Common Core, likely got him a spanki
NOV 18
Weekend Quotables
Chicago Neighborhood Schools Fair (Sarah-Ji Fotógrafa) Julie Kosowski, CPS parent"We are standing on the shoulders of lots of other people who have worked hard for public education to be an opportunity for everybody, and we do feel that it's being dismantled," Kosowski said. "And we're responding to that." -- At the Neighborhood Schools FairArne Duncan on Common Core“It’s fasc
NOV 15
'Hope springs eternal...'
Yesterday was the first official day of basketball practice. Alexander Pope said, "Hope springs eternal." Well, at least in November before we've played our first game. I've got a promising squad of hard-working, fun-loving kids and even have some height for a change. What Pope didn't say is that you can't teach height.Great news! Diane Ravitch's health has improved (I'm certain it was m