Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog:
Schooling in the Ownership Society
Schooling in the Ownership Society
Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk
Schooling in the Ownership Society
Sun-Times editors know exactly what's wrong with 'turnaround' strategy
The Sun-Times editorial board has things all figured out. They know exactly why Byrd-Bennett's "radical" plan to turn more schools over to the private turnaround operators at AUSL will be a disaster. They say so themselves:Radical, indeed. This treatment rips a community apart, including many teachers who sought out the toughest assignments only then to be unfairly blamed for the conditi
Saving Gresham
Tuesday's protest to save Gresham (Sun-Times)DIEDRUS BROWN...the principal of embattled Gresham Elementary on Chicago's south side, continued her very vocal fight Tuesday to save her school from undergoing a so-called “turnaround” — but this time with about 40 teachers, parents and students marching with her.SUSPENIONS...Dozens of students marched from Chicago Public Schools headquarters to
APR 16
New study on teacher "effectiveness" misses the mark
Yes, there's lots of evidence to show poor kids and children of color are generally being taught by teachers with less experience (or no experience) which puts them at a severe disadvantage. The Huffington headline calling schools "racist" is one-sided and misleading however. Thanks to Race To The Top. Thanks to TFA. Thanks to re-segregationists and private charter operators. You all con
APR 15
WHITENING THE CITIES [Update]
Following up on this morning's Jackie Robinson post where I pointed out that Jackie's family had been part of the great black migration from the plantation South. They migrated in the 1930s to southern California and settled in Pasadena where there were lots of jobs in a booming defense industry as well as a burgeoning black community. Fast forward to today when Pasadena has lost about one-quarter
Whitening The Cities
Eddie Farmer, 75, lives with belongings thrown on the curb after a foreclosure next door to his home in the Lawndale neighborhood of Chicago. (Chicago Tribune)THE WHITENING OF THE CITIES...Soaring rents are driving poor and middle-class folks, especially African-Americans out of the cities. A major factor along with loss of jobs, evictions, foreclosures,school closings in targeted black communiti
APR 14
Are you ready to rumble? Looks like we have a candidate.
“What happened to the hundreds of children from closed schools who never made it the welcoming schools on the West and South Sides?” Fioretti said.It's cold and gloomy outside. But I'm smiling ear to ear. Here's why.Ald. Bob Fioretti just gave a powerful speech at the City Club. It was a solid left hook to Rahm's jaw and sounded to everyone like the opening salvo in the 2015 race for mayor. And gu
Weekend Quotables
French Economist Thomas PikettyEconomist Thomas PikettyThere is a fundamentalist belief by capitalists that capital will save the world, and it just isn't so. Not because of what Marx said about the contradictions of capitalism, because, as I discovered, capital is an end in itself and no more." -- The Guardian, Occupy was rightArne Duncan responds to mass teacher protest...Tells the crowd t
APR 12
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
Rauner makes big profits off the jailing of children
Thanks to a lucrative state contract given him by none other than Gov. Quinn, Republican billionaire Bruce Rauner is making millions in the prison/industrial complex. Quinn says he didn't know Rauner was still associated with GTCR. Rauner formerly headed GTCR LLC, a Chicago private equity firm in which he still holds a stake as an investor. Since December 2012, GTCR has owned Correctional Healthca
APR 09
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