Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog:
Schooling in the Ownership Society
Schooling in the Ownership Society
Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk
Schooling in the Ownership Society
UNO laying low 'til the heat blows over
The Reader's Ben Joravsky is at it again. He's still dogging UNO charter school hustlers who have handily ripped off the taxpayers for more than $98 million, thanks to the largesse of Gov. Quinn, Boss Madigan, and Mayor Emanuel.Ben tells us how UNO uses its non-profit front, UNO Charter School Network, or UCSN, to hide behind while ace Sun-Times reporter Dan Mihalopoulos tries to make them account
DEC 19
Right On, Pittsburgh
A Small Talk salute goes out to the new school board in Pittsburgh for giving the boot to TFA before its recruits even had a chance to put boots on the ground..“I really don't see Teach for America as a program to help us,” said new Pittsburgh Public Schools board member Sylvia Wilson, a former teacher and former official with the Pittsburgh Federation of Teachers.D.C. 'A DIFFERENT CITY'The latest
DEC 18
Chicago's Grand School Closing Cost Scandal
Movers haul books from closed schools to shuttered Von Humboldt Elementary for storage. The amount the district is paying to empty the closed schools is poised to triple. WBEZ Linda LuttonBoard will vote today to triple its payments to GWSBack in November of 2012, our CReATE research group began warning that the planned closing of more than 50 Chicago schools would not only fail to produce promis
DEC 17
The view from sunny Florida
Here's how things look in Broward County where I'm trying to escape the Chicago frost for a few days. American Prospect has the story of the district's attempt to reverse the school-to-prison pipeline.The new superintendent [former Chicago administrator Robert Runcie] released the data and acknowledged that the problem had a racial dynamic. “It’s a problem all over the country,” Runcie says, “and
The Alderman From UNO Cuts Deal With Another Toxic Corp.
The potential site for Pure Metal at 2201 S Loomis across the street from Benito Juarez High School on Nov. 29 2013. (The Gate/ Theresa Campagna)The Alderman from UNO, Danny Solis, has cut a deal with (not so) Pure Metal Recycling Corp. to put another dangerously toxic plant in the Pilsen community. If Ald. Solis, a close ally of Mayor Rahm Emanuel and a founder of charter school scandal-ridden UN
Pearson caught in the act. Says they're sorry.
Pearson, the textbook/testing publishing giant, was caught misusing its non-profit arm to bribe N.Y. and other state educators with international junkets. The British-based conglomerate which has made billions in profits as a result of its dominant role in Common Core testing, was fined a paltry $7.7 million and let off the hook for its misdeeds.According to WSJ:State Attorney General Eric Schneid
DEC 14
Behind the big money flowing into Common Core
The Common Core market is booming, especially for the tech companies and textbook and testing companies. Perhaps that is why self-interested and connected companies as well as power philanthropists like Bill Gates, are investing so heavily in it.In the Dec. 10th Answer Sheet column in the Washington Post, ("Millions in private money poured into Common Core promotion") award-winning Princ