Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog:
Schooling in the Ownership Society
Schooling in the Ownership Society
Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk
Schooling in the Ownership Society
Quinn: 'Don't compare me to The Almighty...'
IEA members pick their poisonStunning that Democrats like Gov. Quinn now feel it necessary to stand in front of 1,200 educators at the IEA Regional Assembly in Chicago and assure them that,"Eliminating collective bargaining is not part of my agenda.""I respect teachers" [No, really I do]."I'm not going to charterize this system of education in Illinois." "I'm ab
Supporting Chicago's Progressive Caucus...Flexible Arne.
I got to hang out with some of my favorite folks at last night's Progressive Caucus fundraiser at Buddy Guy's. I'm glad we got there early, the room was so packed, they had to stop letting people in. A good sign for upcoming elections. Maybe a mayoral candidate will emerge from this crowd.MORE DUNCAN DONUTS... It all depends who Arne is talking to. First he tells newspaper editors, Common Core is
APR 10
What? Is Duncan really bailing out on Common Core?
“I believe the Common Core State Standards may prove to be the single greatest thing to happen to public education in America since Brown v. Board of Education.” -- Arne Duncan, June 25, 2013“I’m just a big proponent of high standards. Whether they’re common or not is sort of secondary.” -- Arne Duncan, April 8, 2014 report to House Appropriation CommitteeStephanie Simon at Politico reports that C
Packed house at Wishbone to honor ISAT boycotters
Parents 4 TeachersJambalaya...We dined at Wishbone last night, along with hundreds of others who came out to honor and support ISAT-boycotting teachers and parents. Great people, food and music.Question for anti-taxers... Why isn't Rahm's pension "reform" bill considered a massive 29% TAX on public workers and the elderly? Also, the accompanying increase in property taxes will hit retire
APR 09
Florida's Testing Freaks
Florida's test-crazy Gov. Rick Scott and his ed adviser, Michelle Rhee.If you want to see the depths to which Florida's Dept. of Ed. testing freaks can sink, see Valerie Strauss' story in today's WaPo about a Florida mom Andrea Rediske’s fight to help families of children with severe disabilities. Warning -- it's not a story for the faint of heart.MORE...And now their raising the testing bar to cu
APR 08
Rahm's two biggest scams
“Have you changed the way you measure statistics?” one reporter asked. “I don’t buy the premise of the question,” Emanuel answered and quickly moved on. -- Chicago MagazineThe mayor and his two chiefs, schools CEO Byrd-Bennett and top cop Garry McCarthy, have put together a couple of scams any 3-card-Monte hustler or professional illusionist would be proud of.The first and most callous is his ri
APR 07
Weekend Quotables
Captain Clarion Tweet: "When does that dammed trickle down start, already?" "In theory, there's no difference between theory and practice, but in practice, there is. " -AnonymousNEW CHARTER STUDY “The results showed that they were virtually identical,” Mazany said of the 2010 study. “I found that surprising because charters are based on a model that they have greater freedom,
APR 04
Hang tough Gresham!
A SmallTalk Salute goes out to Principal Diedrus Brown, Ald. Brookins and the Walter Gresham Elementary School community for having the courage to resist Byrd-Bennett's move to hand their school over to the private management company, AUSL.They're standing on solid ground when they say the resource-starved schools has been making steady progress. In 2004, when Brown became principal, 34.7 percen
Charters in the 'Era of Accountability'
More than $900 million in state and local tax dollars, some of it approved by local voters, will be transferred this school year from local schools to nonprofit, publicly funded Ohio charter schools that did not exist 20 years ago. Who is watching how all of that money is spent? -- Columbus DispatchI'm just reading one of those tracts, attacking the idea of elected school boards, from a right-wing
APR 05
The story behind de Blasio's defeat on charters
Javier Hernandez and Susanne Craig, writing in the New York Times, tell an eerie tale about how Gov. Cuomo backed by powerful Wall Streeters and hedge-funders was able to defeat Mayor de Blasio's effort to hold back the charter operators' assault on public schools. Cuomo at staged rally: “You are not alone. We will save charter schools.”The Governor, who has always been in Wall Street's pocket, ev