Closing Neighborhood Schools, Like Daley Closed Neighborhood Saloons, Is Part of the Small Global City Plan

19th Ward parents packed the Beverly Arts Center to help find a solution to CPS' problems.

Richard M. Daley closed more saloons than Billy Sunday, Frances Willard and Carie Nation combined.

Daley closed neighborhood bars and used 'public safety' as an excuse.  He gamed the ordinances that would permanently void a liquor license, citing residential complaints, noise and public urination. Fights happen in bars to be sure.  But they also happen anywhere. There are more brawls in Walmart than saloons and Chuck-e - Cheese is the place to go for a swell brawl. Daley closed taverns so people would no longer have a place talk sense over a pitcher, or two.

Rahm Emanuel is closing neighborhood schools to kill neighborhoods.  CPS has been ignoring 'residency' rules for decades.  Kids from Austin attend Morgan Park High School, no biggie.

Well when CPS closes neighborhood schools within cross-over Disciple/Gangster Disciple/ Stones/ Four Corner Hustler turf in Gresham, Brainerd, Chatham, Washington Heights, & etc., there are problems a plenty.  A grammar school aged kid living in an apartment in a two flat on 7900 S. Morgan may have to cross four gang turfs to one of the five ( Oglesby, Stagg, Wescott, Cuffee, or Gresham).

Now, there is a growing concern of parents in the 19th Ward about CPS closing and consolidating neighborhood schools that work the way schools are supposed to work.

Rahm Emanuel's City Hall and Forrest Claypool's CPS dictum is the same - if it works and not fixed break it.
 Parents and teachers say this -

Stop the closing of neighborhood schools. It may not be happening in your area now, but you never know when it's coming. We were blindsided by a proposal to close a high performing neighborhood school to relieve overcrowding at another. Let's make sure ALL students get the space they need, while not sacrificing our neighborhood schools! 19th Ward News

The 19th Ward is one of very places in this city where black and white neighbors get along very well and behave like neighbors to one another.  No rules, or ordinances; just civility and Christian charity.

Can't have that in a Global City!

Here's the thing - Mount Greenwood School has a capacity for 990 kids and it is at over 1,100 kids.

There is no undeveloped earth upon which to expand the campus. It is over-populated - way past filled up.

Alderman Matt O'Shea offers this solution in Howard Ludwig's solid report for DNAinfo Chicago:

O'Shea said there is no more room to build at Mount Greenwood Elementary, which can accommodate 990 students. That's why he's proposing the school take over the campus of the Keller Regional Gifted Center, which is just 3½ blocks away at 3020 W. 108th St.
Keller would be moved to 9241 S. Leavitt St., now the home of Kate S. Kellogg Elementary School. O'Shea has said that Kellogg and nearby Sutherland elementary school in Beverly have seen declining enrollment by neighborhood residents in recent years. So O'Shea wants to merge the two schools on Sutherland's campus at 10015 S. Leavitt St.

The merger would be phased in over roughly three years. O'Shea said he believes Sutherland, built to accommodate 504-756 students, can handle the merger, particularly as enrollment is projected to continue to decline.

I don't know where these projections come from but I can tell you that my daily polling of little guys, toddlers, infants and  moms large-with-child from my wide neighborhood perambulations, indicate that 19th Ward neighborhood schools will continue to swell like a thirsty tick for good decade or more.  School crowding should be a happy concern, but this is Rahm's Chicago, where neighborhood means racism and community means 'it's all good!'

The charge of racism is answer to every problem.  Because Kellogg is 83 % African American and suffers a declining enrollment, while its immediate neighbor Christ the King Catholic School is majority and doing nicely, racism must be at the core.  The Chicago Tribune launched into race-baiting immediately.

Ald. Matt O'Shea, whose plan to reconfigure schools within the 19th Ward has drawn criticism from some residents, took a different tack when explaining the controversial proposal Monday — presenting it as crucial to freeing up money to renovate crumbling Esmond Elementary, a nearly all-black, low-income school in Morgan Park that he called "the greatest need in our community."
He opened the evening's presentation of his plan to relocate or consolidate four elementary schools in his district by rolling out staff from Esmond, which is not part of the restructuring plan, to detail the substandard conditions at their building and plead for help. . . .Community members expressed alarm that the plan — which seeks to merge two high-performing majority black schools in Beverly to accommodate a predominantly white school in Mount Greenwood — had concerning racial overtones.

"I can tell you our community, yet diverse, is also very segregated," Shanya Gray, a Kellogg parent, said. "One of the things that it truly appears is that you are sacrificing black students because of the white students, which may not be the case, but I will tell you it appears that way."

Parents also argued that the racial and economic diversity of a merged school would suffer since, under O'Shea's plan, the Options for Knowledge program, which currently enables non-neighborhood kids from more impoverished areas to attend either Kellogg or Sutherland, would be discontinued.

Lindbloom was a neighborhood high school; it is now a 'selective enrollment' high school for the children of privilege.  Try getting your kid into Lindbloom and good luck.  CPS works for the Magnets and selective enrollment academies and lab schools.  Neighborhood schools can go pound sand, until they close.

Like Daley with saloons, Rahm's destruction of neighborhoods cuts brush for  Chicago -A Global City.  Empty of middle class.

As things stand, Alderman O'Shea and parents of the schools want to see a fair and intelligent solution to overcrowded schools in Mount Greenwood and schools with declining enrollments a few miles to the east.  Bad schools, closed schools and no schools help destroy neighborhoods for the community.  The community of bankers, real restate players and race hustling creeps also want a Global City   The people of the 19th Ward neighborhoods want to do right by their children. But, this is Chicago and Rahm wants Chicago on the fast track to Small City Global Village on the Lake.  Real Estate, banking and race-baiting creeps will do all in their to help the little man get what he wants.

Catholic Schools - It Ain't Just About the Bucks

Catholic schools operate on tuition ( which is brutal to budget and, in this economy, for families to meet) and on fund-raising.  The cost of educating a student in a Catholic high school runs in the pricey neighborhood of $15,000.  Most Catholic schools set tuition for families in the still burdensome area of $ 8,500.  Many schools will have a tuition exceeding $ 10,000 per year including books, fees and the bells and whistles like transportation.

Most people who send their children to Catholic schools are church going, religious Catholics, or church going, religious non-Catholics.  They are accustomed, or rather acculturated, to obligations of time, talent and treasure beyond the immediate necessities and desires of their family.  They give from the pew and write checks to charities and the schools their children attend over and above the required tuition payments.  Not only that they, as citizens of Chicago, Cook County and Illinois, pay the highest taxes in the United States in support of the sad and expensive public schools.

Many of these same tax-payers work for the very government agencies that vacuum their checking and savings accounts as well as provide a modest salary.  Many of these people are being down-sized.  I know of scores of Dads in my neighborhood who have been forced out of work in the last eight years and more who expect to be let-go in the next few months.  The other day, I spoke to one of my daughter's classmates at Mother McAuley, whose father is now entering his first year as an apprentice tradesman, after being a five-figure accountant for Cook County from the time he had gotten out of college twenty-five years ago. His bride works at Jewel on 103rd Street and has done so since he was 'smart-sized.'

His daughter will graduate in June and go on to college after being educated in Catholic grammar and high school.  They are blessed.

Other families with children still attending Catholic grade school are not so fortunate.  How will a family of modest income and monstrous taxes afford a Catholic education for its children?

We work on it.  This Sunday, the Catholic New World, reported on two initiatives that have been on-going these last three years. One is the strategic plan developed by the Cardinal, Sister Mary Paul McCaughey and the School Board and the other is the Big Shoulders Assistance Initiative. The Strategic Plan is a common sense setting of viability parameters and expectations for best practices.  The Big Shoulders Commitment is much sexier, because it answers the demands of the strategic plan -

The March 6 announcement was precipitated by donors calling and asking about the future of Catholic schools in the lower income communities that the Big Shoulders Fund serves.
“In contrast to what is happening to innercity Catholic schools nationally, enrollment has grown in our schools for three consecutive years through concerted efforts focused on marketing and need-based scholarships, while fundraising has increased each year,” the statement said. “This growth is evidence of increasing interest in the success of our schools and students.”
The Big Shoulders Fund currently provides $12 to $14 million in annual support for 93 inner-city Catholic schools educating nearly 24,000 children in Chicago. This support includes renewable and emergency scholarships coupled with strategic investments in marketing and development, in academic programs and resources and in enrichment programs for students. This year, Big Shoulders Fund will provide $6 million in scholarships to more than 5,000 children in preschool through 12th grade.
The amount of money Big Shoulders Fund provides for schools has grown to its current level from $5 million to $6 million a year only seven or eight years ago, Hale said. The new commitment relies on a continued increase in its fundraising capacity.
“We’re already out there raising the money,” he said.
The statement said the Big Shoulders Fund will invest directly in several schools to help them become more viable.

As I mentioned most Catholic schools are attended by the children of Catholics who have had a tradition of paying tuition.  Leo High School is not most Catholic schools.  Most of our students come from families who had opted for Chicago Public Schools to educate their boys in CPS elementary schools.  Our families found CPS to be most disappointing and the entrance scores of in-coming Leo students who attended CPS schools reflect that opinion.

Leo High School. like other Catholic schools in the African American neighborhoods of Chicago, is refered to as a "Pay School."  That is the CPS anti-marketing meme, I believe. e.g. - "If Raheem does not attend CVS, or South Shore, Mrs. Smith, you'd need to send him to a Pay School!"

Mrs. Smith is more than willing pay for a Catholic School.

Read the articles on the two initiative by committed people and the means by which families trying to keep their noses above the mortgages, taxes, repairs, expenses and tuitions can get a Catholic education.

I will be telling you how Leo High School is going to offer a very sexy opportunity for a Leo Catholic Education over next couple of weeks.  We are going to show a bit more ankle than our pals Jim O'Connor, Tommy Zbierski and Josh Hale of the Big Shoulders.  As Leo President Dan McGrath says, "This is how we roll!"

Catholic schools keep God in play.  Catholic schools teach core values of family and citizenship without blush.  Catholic schools teach the consequences and rewards of behavior.    Our students behave in a manner that reflects credit on their families, their race and their religion -Catholic, Evangelical, Muslim, or Jewish.  

Catholic schools are not only about the costs, they are about the values.

The Big Shoulders Fund - The Real Deal: Catholic Schools for All

Today, Leo High School will welcome scores of volunteers shepherded by the staff of Chicago's Big Shoulders Fund.  The volunteers are law students from Chicago's Kent School of Law.  The boss shepherd will be Gordon Tech Alumnus and Big Shoulders director Tom Zbierski*.

CPS may very well begin the official school year with Teachers Strike.

Catholic schools, who continue to out perform public schools at every level, have been in session. Leo High School has been at it for the last two weeks.

The Big Shoulders Fund helps inner city families secure a Catholic Education. That education makes success an almost certainty - every graduate of Leo's Class of 2011 is in college.  Not every student wants or should go to college.  Catholic schools prepare young people for good paying careers in the skilled trades.  The skilled trades ( carpenters, electricians, pipe fitters, engineers) want to fill their apprenticeship slots with workers who know the stuff and show up for work.

Today, the volunteers will paint and help the Leo Family spruce up the old place.

The Big Shoulders Fund works 24/7.  Here is a splendid video of its mission and the young people it supports.



Get involved!

*For more than twenty three years, the Big Shoulders Fund has undertaken the responsibility of helping Chicago's inner-city children to achieve their dreams through access to a quality, values-based education.  However, we need your help to make this possible.  There are many ways to make a difference and we hope you will get involved.

• Donate. Make a gift individually, as a family or through your company.

• Participate. Attend our annual Lend a Shoulder Day where friends get a glimpse of what happens at the schools through visits, attending class and networking.

• Mentor. Work directly with students. Mentors are placed whenever possible in the school of their own choosing or, if the mentor is able, where the need is the greatest. If you are interested in learning more about the mentoring opportunities, please contact Tom Zbierski, Director of School Relations at 312-751-8365 / tzbierski@bigshouldersfund.org.

• Build. Join or create a Patron Advisory Board.  The Patrons Program is seeking bright, committed women and men to serve on Patron Advisory Boards.  Our schools are in need of professionals who are interested in contributing a small amount of their time and talent in the areas of marketing, accounting, fundraising, capital improvements, construction and technology. Individuals can be apart of these boards who are working to build a sustainable, vital future for Catholic schools in Chicago. If you are interested in learning more about joining a Patron Advisory Board, please contact John Moran, Director of the Patrons Program at 312-751-3897 / jmoran@bigshouldersfund.org.

• Fundraise. Help plan the annual Big Shoulders Fund Golf Classic which raises essential scholarship funds to enable inner-city children to attend inner-city Catholic schools. We are always seeking new members for the Golf Classic committee. Dedicated volunteers from the civic and business community plan the event and solicit sponsors, auction items, donations and foursomes. For more information, to golf or to join in the committee, please contact Amy Drozda, Associate Director for Events and Publications at 312-751-3850 / adrozda@bigshouldersfund.org.

• Join. Become a part of the Auxiliary Board which is designed to engage active and altruistic young professionals (20s through 40s). Members can be part of three committees: Fundraising, Outreach, and Schools.  Through these committees members are able to help plan fundraisers, volunteer with Big Shoulders schools and children, and work to increase the visibility of the Big Shoulders Fund and the Auxiliary Board, and recruit new members.  For more information or to join please contact Amy Drozda, Associate Director for Events and Publications at 312-751-3850 /adrozda@bigshouldersfund.org.

• Serve. One-Day Opportunities We know that many people who want to lend a hand are very busy between family and work committments.  We have a variety of one day service opportunities including our events and Give Back Days. Not only are these great ways for you to give back, but they are a perfect way to bring a group together.  We extend the opportunity for service days to alumni groups, sharing parishes, companies and other clubs. The Big Shoulders Fund and the Auxiliary Board host Saturday morning service days every other month.  These events are held from 9am till noon at different schools around the city of Chicago.  If you are interested in joining us please contact Amy Drozda at 312-751-3850 or adrozda@bigshouldersfund.org.

CPS May Very Well Strike; Leo High School Treats Kids Right!

Here is the Map of Success - 2011 Leo Grads are going to school all over America!

When asked by (WLS AM Bill)Cameron whether the conditions were ripe for a strike this year, she (Teachers Union President Karen Lewis)said: “I think it’s very high. Because people are very upset and people feel disrespected.”

Chicagoist 8/15/2011 ( parentheses my own)

Earlier in the piece we find this, "she (Lewis) did not predict that teachers will ultimately go on strike, only that the probability is high that members will call for a strike vote." What's the deal? Will teachers be going on strike any time soon?"

Leo High School opens this week, but we have on-going registration. Leo High School is a Catholic college preparatory high school, often called a "pay school" by families more familiar with public education. There is tuition. Tuition is a covenant between the school and the family of the student. Picking up a financial obligation the family is assured that their student will have an opportunity to succeed in academics, participate in a glorious athletic program, be treated with attention to the student's needs. To help families meet their end of the covenant, there are thousands of Leo Alumni and the Big Shoulders Fund - a Catholic foundation dedicated solely to helping inner city families get a great Catholic education.

Leo High School had a great year last year.

1. 100% college placement

2. Leo graduates received hundreds of thousands of dollars in college scholarships

3. Leo families were helped by Leo Alumni, private and corporate foundations and generous individuals to the tune of $ 840,000

4. Leo tested and registered the largest incoming class of freshmen in twelve years, including white and Hispanic students

5. Leo 2011 graduate Eder Cruz was named a Gates Millenium Scholar

6. Leo's Track team won its sixth IHSA State Championship - Leo is the only non-public high school to win the IHSA Track Title in its 115 year history and Leo Captured Titles in both Class A and Class AA

The probability is high that Chicago Teachers Union will vote for a strike. Leo High School and all other Catholic schools will open this month an get down to the business of helping students.

Enroll, now. If you think that tuition is costly, imagine what a morale challenged public school faculty might cost your child. Leo High School has not been disrupted by violence in the school. The police officers of Gresham Sixth District only have come to the school to correct problems outside of the school that might impact on the safety of our Leo Men. The business of Leo High School is all about the student.

In fact, all summer long students have popped in to visit and ask for summer reading ideas from President Dan McGrath, chat with Principal Phil Mesina and learn some great study skills from Leo's Vice president and Gunny Mr. Frank Wilson, USMC, lift weights, shoot hoops, box in the Leo facility run by Mike Joyce, snitch candy from the Ms. Adams and Ms. Hemp in the office and pay Mrs. Townsend parcels of tuition, while Mom and Dad were at work.

Mike Holmes, Leo Director of Admissions and Leo Alumnus Mike Anderson have brought in many families seeking help for their sons who having a difficult time at other schools, or are concerned about meeting the costs of tuition.

Here is a transcript of a message left on my voice mail -" This is Pat Nolan, Class of '51. It was great seeing you guys at the Leo Golf outing. I'm sending my 21st Century (Spring Mailing) with my gift. I was little late in getting it in the mail. I hope all is well at Leo."

Pat Nolan and hundreds of other Leo Men have the kids who were here all summer, even though school was out, on their minds and in their hearts.

The teachers have been back since last week. The Maintenance( Ron Reynolds, James Crawford and Derrick De Berry) men have the place looking great. These gentlemen are solid gentlemen and great role models who do as much teaching throughout the day than many people calling themselves educators that I have encountered. They teach pride by example and respect for every task.

No Strike - Leo Treats Families Right. Take a look at the Leo High School Website

Call Mr. Mike Holmes here at Leo ( 773) 224-9600 and arrange a sit-down with any or all of us. Pop in for a visit even when school starts. Our students are our best reflection of the Leo Brand.

Leo High School
7901 S.Sangamon Street
Chicago, IL 60620

Open for business every year since 1926 - business is good!

Facta Non Verba! Deeds not Words!

Phyllis Lockett, CEO of the Renaissance Schools Fund Should Head Chicago Public Schools

Dr. Phyllis Lockett at the podium -Ron Huberman looks off for his next appointment and opportunity for a six, or seven figure salary and something to screw up.
So, Ron Huberman is hitting the silk as CEO of CPS. Mach Nichts. Forgedaboudid. A Hearty Joe Biden BFD! It was in all (both) of the newspapers.

Ron Huberman*, Chicago's Post-Shakman Clout King went from the cops,where he did what? -to the CTA, where he did less -to CPS where gunfire is the Chicago school bell.

Huberman came on after Arne Duncan, who speaks like a marble salesman with mouth full of samples. Duncan is the creature of Ariel Capital Management's John Rogers, who gave Arne his shove into the limelight created by Rogers-happy media with gloves padded with Buckeens, The Elusive Spondulix, The Long-Green Difference. This is a Green City.

Arne Duncan was foisted upon the only effective CPS Leader in the last thirty years - Paul Vallas who was driven into exile.

Well, Ron Huberman who is a PC ICON is bailing out. Ron Huberman is Black, Jewish, Young Handsome, Articulate ( really?) Media Tagged "Really Smart" ( always dead give-away that the guy is a clever dope), and as Gay as Christmas! What is not to love and admire? The question -rhetorical and jam-packed with nutritious and delicious irony!

CPS? It is to laugh, if were not so tragic.

Phyllis Lockett, CEO of the Renaissance Schools Fund would make a great CEO for Chicago Public Schools, but she will be opposed by Bill Ayers, Mike Klonsky, Karen Lewis, Marilynn Stewart, the Chicago Teachers Union, Chicago's daffy editorial boards, and every other person responsible for the destruction of education in Chicago.

Dr. Phyllis Lockett is the real deal and has earned the respect and attention of Chicago's most effective Business Leaders. Dr. Lockett is no Media Poser. She is tough, smart, energetic and responsible teacher, manager and fund-raiser. Dr. Lockett understands that competence,competition and accountability are the foundations of education.

No wonder Bill Ayers and Mike Klonsky scream nonsense at Dr. Lockett - like this drivel -

"The business
community has a responsibility, as we all do, to
support public education. But these partnerships can
be built without selling off large chunks of public space.
Small schools are not a panacea, and, while they create
wonderful possibilities, the language of small schools
can be twisted to become an excuse for inequity and
promotion of the ownership culture. Every wave of official
“school reform,” including small schools and Ren
10, must be met with skepticism, agnosticism, and doubt
by those of us who hope and struggle for a more democratic
future, a more just social order.
A school renaissance built on the ideals of the ownership
society, on privilege for a few, on creating winners
and losers among students and among neighborhoods
will never sustain itself. On the other hand, small
schools and classrooms built on equality and community,
on shared power, on the right to humane treatment,
on full participation, and on access can flourish
and nourish a community."



Who let these two clowns near our children?

Bye, Ron!

http://www.pdkmembers.org/members_online/publications/archive/pdf/k0602aye.pdf



*RON HUBERMAN
Work: Police Department, 1995-2004; Office of Emergency Management and Communications, 2004-05; mayoral chief of staff, 2005-07; CTA president, 2007-09; Chicago Public Schools CEO, 2009- present.
Personal: Born in Israel, grew up in Tennessee and Chicago's western suburbs. He and his partner have adopted a son.
Chicago Sun Times

Heather Steans and Chicago Teachers Union Toss More C.R.A.P. Than a Busted Kohler!

Chicago Residency Angers Progressives! C.R.A.P.!

You work on the public dime then live with the folks who pop for your dimes.

Why, Il. Sen. Heather Steans, no-less a Progressive Fixed Smiler than Heather Steans is championing our Chicago Teachers Union! Heather Steans smiles more than Joan Rivers. Why not? Happy to help! Now, Heather's bio tells that she was born in Lake Forest ( a metaphor of ethnic and racial diversity in itself!) and worked as a Chicago Public School teacher. That means that Heather Steans needed to move into Chicago. Heavens! Heather still lives in Chicago -can't be all that bad.

Catalyst reports that Marilyn Stewart's Chicago Teachers Union 'demands' a change in residency for Union Members.

Are you a Union? Yes. Are you a committed educator who will do anything for the children? Now, that's a gummy one!

Heather Steans, who had been on the board of the Steans Family Foundation, and continues is a Progressive go-to-girl for Gay Marriage Pushes, Planned Parenthood Baby Barbeques and SEIU boondoggles. Hence that frozen smile. Steans is one of those dopes that Progressives always seem to gush about -"Ain't She Great?" Really, great how? Her legislation that she is try to push past Honest John Cullerton reflects a diminished if not absent intellectual capacity altogether. Great capacity for slinging C.R.A.P.!

Steans is pushing to free the Teachers! What a ton of C.R.A.P. - the sole diet of the Progressive since John Dewey smoked corn silk. Cops, Streets and Sanitation Workers, Foremen, and white collar municipal workers - any one drawing pay from the City of Chicago -my neighbors - must live within the City Limits.

The swell Chicago Public Schools need the teachers close by and comfortable in proximity to their pay envelopes.

Residency requirements for Chicago teachers are back on the Springfield agenda, this time with an unlikely sponsor.

State Sen. Heather Steans says she was able to convince Sen. President John Cullerton to extend the deadline for SB 3522, a bill that would scrap the rule requiring teachers in traditional Chicago public schools to live within the city limits. Mayor Richard M. Daley has long defended the requirement, established in 1996, as a way to try and beef up the city housing market and keep teachers close to the communities they serve.

Should Steans successfully move the bill out of the Senate Executive Committee next week, she believes it could reach a vote on the Senate floor—the first time a residency bill has done so.

Charter school principals do not have the same residency restriction.

“Principals in regular schools shouldn’t be hamstrung,” contends Steans, suggesting the rules unfairly restrict the pool of teacher talent from which principals can hire. “I don’t think it is sound education policy.”

The Chicago Teachers Union says the residency requirement can put members in a tight financial bind, especially during the recession.


“What happens to a teacher if they have to move in with a relative in the suburbs [for financial reasons]?” asks CTU lobbyist Traci Cobb-Evans. She notes that only Chicago teachers would face termination of their employment in that situation.

Why, Traci Cobb-Evans ! You are a LuLu!!! Teacher can't move to the suburbs. Not allowed. They move in with Cousin in Merl in Peotone and they lose the Dough-Ray-Me!


1. Housing market will be fixed by Heather Steans once Teachers are no Long Required to live in the City? You mean all the blighted and vacant housing that would follow the absence of a Residency Rule?

2. Hard Times for CPS Teachers????? If I made their money,I'd throw mine away!

3. Teachers can't move to the suburbs! TS! Tell Steans.

Trust Teachers, Not Test Scores - The Pink 'I Had and Abortion' DNC Smart Wear 2008 - No Wonder the Convention is a Trainwreck!

The Public School Lobby which has helped disinterested parents to destroy American Public Education while still screaming for more tax-payer dollars to waste, has a delegate black felt Cat In the Hat style hat for their loudmouths - TRUST TEACHERS, NOT TEST SCORES!

Every time I think that the bar has been raised on stupid, the Progressives who control the Democratic National Committee move it up a few more notches.

Here in Illinois there is another stick-up artist threatening to keep kids out of school on opening day - to Save the Children! Meeks gave the Kids a Get out of School Free Pass; now, what happens when the truant kids are hurt - or worse?

Get Rev./Senator Meeks needs one of them Hats! He is the Cat - Put on the Hat!

Check it out - white, black, red, yellow and pinkish Liberals!

DENVER -- It was pretty easy to figure out that Monica Stonier cares about education, that Johnnie Patton supports more energy conservation and that Ruth Rudy wants the party to unify behind presidential nominee Barack Obama.

You could see it in the hats they were sporting on the floor of the Democratic National Convention on Monday.

Stonier, a 32-year-old delegate from Vancouver, Wash., had covered a large Dr. Seuss hat with black felt and written in white, "Trust Teachers, Not Test Scores" on one side and "Teachers for Obama" on the other.

"I think this is a great place to get a little attention on what No Child Left Behind is doing to our kids and to our teachers," the instructional coach and former middle school teacher said. "We don't have the innovative thinking we need."

If these Tax addicted junkies would go into rehab for a few weeks ( Jonesing is Bitch!), or were in the least bit interested in Real School Reform - with Accountability for Teachers at the Top - they would get behind Real School Choice - Vouchers.

Nothing else will help.

Urban League Lawsuit - 'Eat The Rich! A Full Flavorful and Mouthwatering Civil Rights Issue!

In peace there's nothing so becomes a man
As modest stillness and humility:
But when the blast of war blows in our ears,
Then imitate the action of the tiger;
Stiffen the sinews, summon up the blood,
Disguise fair nature with hard-favour'd rage;
Then lend the eye a terrible aspect;
Let pry through the portage of the head
Like the brass cannon; let the brow o'erwhelm it
As fearfully as doth a galled rock
O'erhang and jutty his confounded base,
Swill'd with the wild and wasteful ocean.
Now set the teeth and stretch the nostril wide,
Hold hard the breath and bend up every spirit
To his full height.

Illinoi$ Rev./$enator James Meeks leads the forces of Victim hood - out of $chool and off to far Winnetka!

The Embedded Media trot along with the War Baggage - and well they should! There are hundreds of dollars in Chicago newspapers festooning the CPS teacher's lounges and Public $chool parking lots! Blown by the Winds of War - Redistribution of Wealth Warfare. You see, if you have more money than your neighbor - that is a glaring Injustice!

Morons in America demand that you give your money to someone else, whether you care to or not or you are a Racist or worse. Is there anything worse than a racist? How about a Racist Rapist IRS Agent with bloody flux and bad gums? Sorry. This is serious - to people solidly against school reform. The Public School Combine ( Apologies to J. Kass).

CEO Arne Duncan and President Rufus Williams encastled the beleaguered children in Soldier Field only last May to hear the War Cries of Jeff Tweedy ( Wilco) for an expensive demonstration of what is entirely wrong with Public Education in America - it will do anything but educate!

From This Blog last May ( openning gambit by the ever deft Arne et al.):

Now, here is the Chicago Tribune report on the very same event:

Organizers also used the rally, dubbed Shout Out for Schools, to pressure Gov. Rod Blagojevich and other state officials for more than the $119 million that has been earmarked for the district in the latest budget. The district needs an additional $90 million for programs, many of which would be used to help lessen violence, school officials have said.

But legislators late last month approved a $60 billion state budget that Blagojevich has not signed because it may be $2 billion over budget. School officials warned they may be forced to raise property taxes if Springfield doesn't come through.

"Year after year, we go to Springfield to ask for more money, we go to Springfield for tougher gun laws. . . . Year after year we are told, 'We'll do what we can,' " Board of Education President Rufus Williams said.

On Tuesday, students sat scattered throughout the stands listening to musicians rapping, playing bongos and strumming guitars. Some of the other performers included Jeff Tweedy of Wilco and RichKiddz. School officials said more than 30,000 tickets were issued to students and others to attend the two-hour rally, which cost about $10 per student for transportation that the district is looking to recoup from donors. It was not clear how many students attended the rally.


Jeff Tweedy???? He's gotta live in Hyde Park. Tweed is de rigeur!

Let's see May ER D and Super D got this Party started - "the largest civics class in history!"

http://hickeysite.blogspot.com/2008/06/arne-duncan-and-rich-daley-shout-out.html

Now we have the Urban League snaking its forces into the courts!

In Chicago, many of the students live in poor communities where property taxes are low. So the district gets less money, only $10,000 per student.

The Chicago Urban League called that discrimination.

"The state school system flat out violates the civil rights of minority children," said Chicago Urban League President Cheryle Jackson.

The Urban League spells out its reasons in a lawsuit against the State of Illinois and the state Board of Education. Lawyers say the system is unfair because Chicago has a history of housing discrimination that forced minorities in poor communities, so basing the funding on property taxes automatically limits funding.

http://cbs2chicago.com/local/illinois.school.funding.2.799514.html
This Lawsuit makes me hunger for my own Civil Rights Issue - I am tired of separate and unequal restaurants - Segregated Menus Lacking in all Diversity! Mexican Only; Thai Only; Chinese Only; Ethiopian Only; Polish Only; Greek Only; Italian Only; Indian Only and Korean Only, if I am very lucky!

Why should my Right to Happiness be infringed upon? I would be Happy only if I can be served what I want, where I want it, when I want it at what I want to pay!

My people had only SPUDS! Then the Spuds were killed in an act of Genocide! Then My people flooded here! To eat Diverse Menus!

Remember - this is about the THREE Radical Prongs - used by the Lawsuit Lotto Lawyers attacking Law Enforcement and the Catholic Church

1. Undermine any and all credibility of any system through a barrage of media invented Civil Rights Issue Daily Feeds - if there is no Jim Crow; ( Segregated Housing? That went out of Law Decades Ago! Unless we parse up a storm! Which News Knot-heads will do.) make one up to fit the need( 'Lawyers say the system is unfair because Chicago has a history of housing discrimination that forced minorities in poor communities, so basing the funding on property taxes automatically limits funding' Uh-huh, Mary Mitchell finds this compelling, but then again . . .) My issue, like each contemporary civil rights issue, is all about me! In order for a Civil Rights Issue to be compelling it must matter most to the very fewest persons. Most people pay taxes - but those who do not work, do not pay taxes and believe themselves to be the most put-upon!

They got nothing on me! I am the King Kong of Self Interest! I am Civil Rights! Separate but Unequal! - I go to an Italian Restaurant and am outraged that they refuse to serve me Tandoori Chicken! The waiter said, 'What can I get you?' I said, 'Tandoori Chicken and he refused to serve me! How Loooong???

2. Take it to Court - no luck. Judge said, 'Hickey, Go to an Indian Restaurant.' Ain't no Indian restaurant in Morgan Park judge. My lawyer said that it is 'An Indian Restaurant Desert!' I have an Urbane Translator, Judge! He knows the difference between Hot Food and haut cuisine ! Think of my Children, Judge! I got Andy Shaw waiting outside the courtroom for Action 7 and Andy is Outraged a Plenty! Channel 11 Friday Night! Watch Out, Now!

3. Take it back to the Legislature get them Law Makers to enact this Much Need Civil Rights Legislation for Me! - Every Restaurant should serve Me exactly what I want, when I want it @ what I want to pay for it!

This is a cultural, nutritional and Civil Rights Issue. Let's Get to Marching! Tandoori, Right Now! Not Some Half-Cooked Cow! Tandoori, Right Now! Not Some Half-Cooked Cow!


School Choice, Dummies! Quit Cooking the Same Tired Nonsense! It is Done! Now, you garnish it with more lawyer arugula!

John McCain: School Choice to "Open up the white school. We want to get in the white school. We want to go where the books are or computers are,"

Illinois Rev./Senator James Meeks wants to "Open up the white school. We want to get in the white school. We want to go where the books are or computers are,"

Click my post title for Rev./Senator Meeks redistribution of wealth scam scheduled for the start of school. For those interested, Meeks and his Media parrots at Chicago Sun Times call for CPS students to ditch school on the opening day and join him for a field trip to Winnetka to protest Illinois Education Funding inequities.

Illinois pays a percentage of the cost of educating a child and property taxes pay out the balance. Thus, if you pay higher property taxes based upon the cost of your home, chances are that your local public school will spend more per pupil.

I drive a Chevy, because my income, mortgage, Catholic school tuition payments, and personal debt precludes my driving a Bentley. My wardrobe reflects that economic snap-shot as well. I can not see me parking myself in front of a Barrington Jaguar dealership bemoaning such a lifestyle inequity - not yet anyway.

Now, if someone were to lavish me and mine with six zeroes behind a set of Arabic numerals into my bank accounts . . . I'd probably still opt for the Chevy. I am a cheap, stingy bastard.
Well, Rev. Senator, School Choice will do just that! However, you and other Public School Industry shills will need to get religion on School Choice.

Taking a thousand or so truant Chicago Public School children on an expensive rhetorical event will get you some press coverage, but tax-payers see through the rhetoric to the heart of this redistribution of wealth dodge.

Using the legislature as a pry bar to other peoples wealth is a radical tactic, but one that is proving little more than a stick-up device on gutless politicians and 40 Watt intellects in the Media. Ask a pipefitter, an electrician, a masonry contractor, carpenter, or nurse how they feel about paying more taxes for failed public schools. No one in the media bothers to ask them.

You'll have press conferences aplenty. No change though.

If you are serious about change - I do not believe for a nano-second that you are though( but that's just me) - you will advocate School Choice, Vouchers, for all Illinois families. There will be no 'white this' and 'black that,' only Choice for all.

Catholic schools, the largest system of alternative education options, do the job that public schools wish that they could do for half the cost of educating a child in an Illinois Public School. More competition from Muslim, Dutch Reformed, Lutheran, Jewish and Independant Schools will force public school sinkholes to operate within their means.

New Trier spends $17,000 per student

CPS throws $ 10,500 + at failure

Catholic Schools spend between $5,000 and $8,000 to move kids to success and also save Illinois tax-payers millions of dollars.

If it is all about Race, then that is pretty sad - understandable and easily performed to be sure but sad.

It is about Change, then you are barking up the wrong tree.

John McCain is for School Choice and against Abortion.

John McCain: School Choice Fights Nonsense About 'More Money for Failing Public Schools

As sure as the dog days of summer, announce sweaty arm pits and double-session football for high school kids, a Private Study harbingers a cry for tossing more tax dollars to the Public School Sinkhole. Illinois ranks 43rd in America for lousy graduation rates with a reported 37% of black male students graduating. The Schott Foundation's John Jackson report that 'In the city that year, only 37 percent of the 102,185 black male students graduated, compared with 62 percent of their white male counterparts, a 24 percent gap, according to the report released at a news conference at the UNITY '08 Convention for Journalists of Color at McCormick Place.'

Overall the State of Illinois flounders like an alewife on Rainbow Beach. Them alewives are getting fewer and fewer.

Chicago Public Schools are a train wreck. Senator Obama, while a young activist, was the first Chairman of the Chicago Annenberg Challenge that turned CPS into a Balkan State of Local School Councils, Two-tiered leadership ( Arne Duncan CEO & Rufus Williams President), a Rube Goldberg Chicago Teachers Union dedicated to looting the rank and file, a catalogue of CPS homicides with weekly updates and a strategy of poisoning the well for funding opportunities to Catholic Schools that continue to do the job for tax-payers, parents and most of all students.

School Choice is Bad JuJu to Public Schools and the Machinery of Failure that leeches off of the tax-payers.

Until Competition - real competition with Jewish, Lutheran, Muslim, Dutch Reformed, Independent, Home School families and demographically important Catholic School through Real School Choice - Public Schools will continue to flop on the beach and baked to a very smelly but golden brown.

Get this nonsense from Schott Foundation and Arne the Shout Out Spender!

Using 2005-06 figures, the report said Illinois' and Chicago's graduation rate for black male students was below the national average of 47 percent. Illinois, Wisconsin, Indiana and four other states had among the largest differences in graduation rates for black and white male students.

Jackson said the report signifies the need not only for increased leadership on all levels but on philanthropic communities to help fund programs he and others believe would improve graduation rates. Officials said there should be more funding for early childhood programs, increased teacher and educational funding and more single-sex schools, among other possibilities. ( Emphasis my own)

North Dakota, Arizona and New Jersey, which have more equitable funding for black and white students, have higher than average black male graduation rates, Jackson said.

"These males represent the future fathers and husbands in a community where 70 percent of children are born out of wedlock. They also represent the future teachers, pastors, professors and even presidents," Jackson said.

Let me do that again!

report signifies the need not only for increased leadership on all levels but on philanthropic communities to help fund programs he and others believe would improve graduation rates. Officials said there should be more funding for early childhood programs, increased teacher and educational funding and more single-sex schools, among other possibilities. ( Emphasis my own)

This is the strategic well-poisoning of the competitive ( Catholic et al. schools). Not only are tax-dollars wasted on principals having a nooner with the help, mega-mad lunches by School Leaders, boxes of unopened textbooks, computers, software, and supplies, landscaping scams, as well as not teaching kids, Public Schools are pushing more private foundations to 're-think giving priorities' and cut-out private school support in favor 'systemic' approaches to reform - read waste more money.

John McCain is for School Choice. The Full Monty! States make education dollars available to the taxpayers and allow them to choose the schools that are doing the job of educating American kids. Too simple by half-'We must fight for the ability of all students to have access to any school of demonstrated excellence. We must place parents and children at the center of the education process, empowering parents by greatly expanding the ability of parents to choose among schools for their children.' (McCain: "Bold Solutions for Economic Prosperity" Feb 3, 2008)


http://www.ontheissues.org/2008/John_McCain_Education.htm

Obama stands as strongly for the continued failure of American Education as he does for Abortion. (Protecting a Women's Right to Choose: Obama will make safeguarding women's rights under Roe v. Wade a priority. He opposes any constitutional amendment to overturn that decision.
He has said so repeatedly.)

Senator Obama can no more disown Failure in Education than he can a woman's choice to kill her unborn child - though it makes him shudder.His campaign quickly issued a statement that said, "Senator Obama has always been a critic of vouchers," and Mr. Obama echoed that sentiment yesterday, saying that while he supports charter schools, he opposes private school vouchers.

"We need to focus on fixing and improving our public schools; not throwing our hands up and walking away from them," he said.

http://www.nysun.com/new-york/obama-tells-teachers-union-he-opposes-vouchers/81801/

Senator Obama says that Surge in Iraq did not work, but went to Baghdad without Kevlar. He also says that School Choice is surrender.

The Choice is real clear.