Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog:
Schooling in the Ownership Society
Schooling in the Ownership Society
Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk
Schooling in the Ownership Society
More two-tier schooling in Rahm's Chicago
A couple of items before I shut down SmallTalk for the weekend and get busy on Bridging Differences with Deb Meier.First is Rahm's decision to use $60 million from his TIF slush fund towards another selective-enrollment high school, this one named Obama College Prep, in the upscale Lincoln Park neighborhood. On the bad side, the planned school is too big. It's too selective and it's in the wrong l
Bundy's Racist Moocher Army Headed for Motown?
Cliven Bundy's moocher Army.BREAKING... Justice Scalia announces he is deputizing Cliven Bundy and his Nevada moocher army to ride herd on Schuette decision. Moochers were last seen headed for Michigan to put down any protests and to graze their cattle for free on the overgrown fields in Detroit. Their banner reads, "Slavery Worked Better. Let's Do it Again."ScaliaQUOTABLE SCALIA “As Ju
APR 24
The Schuette Decision -- This generation's Plessy vs. Ferguson
Justice Sonia Sotomayor: Affirmative Action ‘Opened Doors in My Life'It's not surprising that the right-wing and conservative ed bloggers in particular, are applauding the Supreme Court's racist Schuette decision. The decision, called "this court's Plessy vs. Ferguson" by Shanta Driver, the attorney who argued the case before the Supreme Court, essentially puts the nail in the coffin of
APR 23
Ctu On Today'S 'Turnaround' Decision
Gresham StudentsDespite strong community opposition, the Board of Education prepared to wipe clean teachers and staff at three schools designated for "turnaround" at its monthly meeting Wednesday. -- DNAInfoHere's a statement by the Chicago Teachers Union on today's CPS decision to "turnaround" three elementary schools: CHICAGO—The Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) released the f
Rahm finds $100M for air conditioners. Does Ari have an A/C company client?
A cool $100M for A/C. A hundred million here. A hundred million there. It soon adds up.But that doesn't seem to be a problem for Chicago's mayor, who can always find $100M lying around whenever he needs it for one of his favorite projects. It just so happens that contributing the city's required share to the pension fund or paying teachers and municipal employees what they deserve is not one of th
APR 22
'The reform movement in US is led by a bunch of Ivy Leaguers, obsessed with data.'
Jiang XueqinQuotable Jiang XueqinIn December, China stunned the world when the most widely used international education assessment revealed that Shanghai’s schools now outperform those of any other country—not only in math and science but also in reading. Some education experts have attributed these results to recent reforms undertaken by the Chinese government. Jiang Xueqin has been active in Chi
APR 21
Let's do it again in 2015
WE DID IT...I love this post card that came in the mail today from the Guzzardi campaign. We sure did. Let's do it again.NOBODY'S BUYING Rahm's or McCarthy's claims about dwindling gun violence in Chicago. It all depends on whose neighborhood you're talking about. Even doctoring the data didn't help the Rahm brand. After this latest bloody Easter weekend -- at least 9 dead, 44 wounded -- the bes
Weekend Quotables
Jim HightowerThe grubby little secret of today's ivory tower is that it is being propped up by an ever-growing, exploited underclass of educators. "Adjunct professors," they're called, and the term itself is a measure of the disrespect they're shown. -- Hightower LowdownRas Baraka"Today, the ministers of Newark have joined me in calling for a moratorium on the destructive One Newark
Philly fires thousands of teachers, then hires a new 'director of recruitment'
Here's how things work in the Ownership Society.There's a revolving door between the private sector and what's left of the public. Take for example this week's hiring by the nearly-collapsed Philadelphia Public Schools, of TFA alum Kendra-Lee Rosati as director of recruitment -- whatever that it. Rosati will pull down $90K to start in this newly-created slot in the bureaucracy.Rosati's last job wa
APR 22
Ownership Society gathering at the Phoenician
Conference attendees at the PhoenicianThanks to Gary Stager for the heads-up on the upcoming GSV Education Innovation summit, which he describes as a corporate takeover of public education being plotted in the open, is held at The Phoenician Resort in Scottsdale.Stager writes:The Phoenician is a monument to its builder, Charles Keating, a criminal who helped destroy the United States economy durin
Follow up on the scrubbing of the Academica Charter story
Following up on the feds' investigation of Academica Charter Schools in Florida, and the scrubbing of the original Miami Herald story. Here's Bob Sikes' updated report in Scathing Purple Musings along with Kathleen McGrory's revised story in the Miami Herald.Sikes writes:Its hard to count the number of times that McGrory used “conflicts of interest” in her story. No word yet of whether or not the
APR 20
What happened to McGrory's Miami Herald story on Feds' charter investigation? I asked...
Fernando Zulueta, president of Academica, gets a drink at the bar in Cain at The Cove, an exclusive beach club in the Bahamas' Atlantis resort. Academica held a leadership retreat for principals of several charter schools there. MIAMI HERALD PHOTOLast month I wrote about Florida's great charter school profiteers, Rep. Erik Fresen, his sister Maggie, and brother-in-law, Fernando Zulueta who runs Ac
APR 17
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