Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog:
Schooling in the Ownership Society
Schooling in the Ownership Society
Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk
Schooling in the Ownership Society
It's Gates' company Microsoft that needs a good "turnaround"
Bill Gates is fond of blaming the schools for failing to produce enough highly-skilled workers to grow the economy or enough properly-trained workers for his company. As if that is truly the purpose of PUBLIC education. Gates claims it's easier to find cures for malaria and other diseases than to “fix” American education.Now that the economy is growing and recovering from the global financial coll
JUL 12
Revolving door from Rahm's City Hall to hedge-funder's office keeps turning
Matt HynesI reported last month about Rahm's machine bagman Matt Hynes jumping ship to go spend "more time with his family." Remember Hynes, the son of former longtime Cook County Assessor, ward boss (19th) and big-time lobbyist Tom Hynes and brother of former state Comptroller Dan Hynes, was the guy who first put the great pension heist idea in Rahm's ear and got SEIU leaders to buy int
Greg Hinz has more sage advice for Karen Lewis. Really?
Harold Washington's 1987 victory speech at Navy Pier.Although I rarely agree with his take on Chicago politics, I have generally found Greg Hinz to be a knowledgeable, dispassionate and relatively sane pro-business commentator. That was, until he started writing about a possible Karen Lewis run for mayor. There's something about a Karen Lewis campaign for mayor that pushes Crain's main corporate
Water
In response to the unraveling situation in Detroit, the United Nations issued a statement out of Geneva last month that said, “Disconnection of water services because of failure to pay due to lack of means constitutes a violation of the human right to water and other international human rights.”Warring factions in Ukraine are using basic necessities of life, such as water, as weapons against the c
JUL 16
It was Duncan who launched Chicago schools on the trail of tiers
Rahm's closing of 50 schools, a stab in the heart for the city's black community, may be the very act that brings him down in 2015. Latest polls show that it's the mayor's (and Byrd-Bennett's) mishandled school closings, along with (related) pandemic gun violence, largely in those same communities, which account for his single-digit ratings among Chicago's African-American voters.But the mayor's d
JUL 15
A ray of hope
Donna Brazile“The very premise of ‘market-driven education reform’ rests on the fallacy that the public school system is in crisis, and that the only solution is to let the market pick winners and losers.” -- Donna BrazileWow! What an amazing couple of weeks.It started with the NEA, the nation's largest union, condemning current testing lunacy and calling for Arne Duncan to resign. The AFT delegat
JUL 14
More polls now indicate Rahm can be had
Emanuel's weakness has been known for months—he lost the left ages ago, and has lost Chicagoans more generally over basic competence issues. In the Sun-Times, his response to the poll is an anonymous insult, "laughable." But this same pollster nailed the 2011 race, which Emanuel entered late and won. -- Politicoh/t Brother FredThere should be no question now that even with his bloated wa
Weekend Quotables
Tells AFT delegates, "We will go forward together."Rev. Wm. Barber II, president of NC's NAACP chapter “If they’ve got to fight us this hard, we’ve got to be some bad somebodies,” Barber said eliciting a standing ovation from the crowd. -- Teacher union convention opens with fiery speechSalim MuwakkilChronic poverty is criminogenic; the links are thick and reinforced by rigorous scholars
JUL 13
Want to get your unqualified kid a teaching certificate? You know who to call...
If you're a powerful suburban billionaire like Bruce Rauner and you want to get your daughter into one of Chicago's elite selective-enrollment high schools like Walter Payton, you give a call to Arne Duncan or to his wife, Karen. They each carry clout lists and with a phone call or two, they can and usually will make it rain. Likewise, if you want to get your child into a good college internship p
JUL 12
Sen. Kirk has outdone himself
Our "moderate" Republican Senator Mark Kirk, who has called for the mass incarceration of 18,000 young black men as a crime-fighting strategy, has outdone himself this time. Kirk, who has to legitimize himself with his anti-immigrant base, is now demanding criminal background checks on all unaccompanied children that have crossed the U.S. border with Mexico looking for sanctuary.FREE WRI