Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog:
Schooling in the Ownership Society
Schooling in the Ownership Society
Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk
Schooling in the Ownership Society
My memo to Sheldon Adelson
The wing-nut billionaire is in the market for a few good Republican pols. I guess his stable is running low on horses. He's got a few old nags but no winners in his gold-plated paddock. So when they read his want ads, GOPers sprinted as fast as their hooves would carry them, out to Vegas to kiss Adelson's ass ring.On the outside is Romney running neck and neck with Jeb Bush. Chris Christie is whee
MAR 27
Next frontier for the charter school hustlers, 'Inner Ring' Suburbs
For those of you who aren't fluent in post-racial-era reform/speak, inner-ring is code for black and Latino suburbs. As the inner cities become whitenized, with hundreds of thousands of African-Americans being pushed out because of lack of jobs, limited access to social services, and unaffordable housing costs, these suburban districts are growing rapidly and are now being targeted for takeover by
MAR 26
The sun continues to shine on Florida's charter school hustlers
Attention charter operators and ed profiteers. Florida is the place if you like warm weather and easy money in real estate. I got to see how the charter game is played in the Sunshine State during my days at USF when Jeb Bush was the guv. Now, under Rick Scott and his ed adviser Michelle Rhee (not to mention disgraced former ed commissioner Tony Bennett), the state has opened up even wider for cha
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
The kids are alright
Sam Spitz met Teddy Williams at a barber shop, and they documented their story in a film, "The Greens."I couldn't be prouder of my friend Sam Spitz, a budding young film maker with a good camera eye and a strong social conscience. With film-making activist parents like Jeff and Jennifer Amdur Spitz, neither is any surprise. Sam's first independent, no-budget film, The Greens, is starting
APR 02
Door cracks open to stripping Rahm of mayoral control of the schools
DID YOU HEAR THAT... The House opened the door ever so slightly Tuesday to stripping Mayor Rahm Emanuel and any of his successors of the sole authority to appoint the Chicago public school system's board of education. By a 108-5 margin, the House approved legislation sponsored by Rep. La Shawn Ford, D-Chicago, to create a task force to study whether the board should be appointed, elected or mixed
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The HideoutWe stopped by one of my favorite watering holes, The Hideout, last night to hear the great Ben Joravsky and Mick Dumpke do their political schtick. But ducked out when it looked like it was being turned into the Dick Mell Show. All the repartee with that smirking racist machine bastard was making me nauseous. When he started blaming last month's low-voter turnout on bloggers and tweete
Rahm's allies duck out on his pension raid
Fred Klonsky artThe word on Clout Street is that Rahm's own allies and machine pals are distancing themselves from the mayor's pension-busting plan. The latest to duck out of the pension raiding party seems to be Ald. Patrick O’Connor who is usually Rahm's ramrod in the City Council. O'Connor basically admitted yesterday, that Rahm's proposed pension cuts and property-tax increases won't produce t
A look at who's being left behind in the 'Race for Results'
An important new report from the Annie E. Casey Foundation highlights the widening gap in opportunity between white and children of color. The report, called "Race for Results," created a new index that uses 12 educational, health, and economic factors to rank how children from major racial and ethnic groups fare in every state.The report points out that last year, for the first time, mo
APR 01
From Stacey Gates at the CTU: We must protect our pensions
Dear Mike,In carefully examining the pension "deal" put forth recently by Mayor Rahm Emanuel, we have found that the plan does not, in any way, solve Chicago's pension problem. As we have said many times before, over and over and over again: This is a revenue problem.Our members are rightfully enraged, as the cuts that the mayor is proposing are just more of the same—more of the same bur
Byrd-Bennett on school closings: Ask me no questions, I'll tell you no lies
HERE'S A FOLLOW-UP on Friday's post: Mass school closings 'great success', declares Byrd-Bennett. Catalyst reporters Sarah Karp and Melissa Sanchez do a credible job showing that Byrd-Bennett's receiving-school success claims don't match her spin.In every area, students from closed schools lag way behind and have made less progress than other students throughout the city. The on-track rate for stu
MAR 31
Weekend Quotables
SAY JAY!...Travis concedes but the coalition that came close to electing her, meets and agrees to continue working together for honest and accountable elected leadership.Jay Travis"I could not be more proud of our campaign. I am writing to let you know that I am officially conceding... I look forward to continuing to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with you in our fight to grow the economy for eve
MAR 29
Rep. Grijalva, first to support NPE's call for congressional hearings on testing misuse
Rep. GrijalvaArizona Democrat-Rep. Raúl Grijalva became the first to support the Network for Public Education’s call for congressional hearings into the “misuse and abuse of standardized tests.” Grijalva, a member of the House Committee on Education and the Workforce, says:"The need for an impartial and transparent hearing on mandatory testing and privatization efforts directed at public edu