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.

Catholic School Closing Caveat from Christine Flowers

Core Values is what it is all about.

This past Saturday, it was my privilege to welcome five young men from St. Gabriel Parish in Canaryville to Leo High School - Tommy, Mitch, Brian, Joe and Kevin. Asked them about their grades at St. Gabe's or Graham Elementary and four gents sparked up -"As & Bs" The biggest of the quintet, a red-headed freckled Bowery Boy escapee, was quiet. I asked, "How about you,pal?"

" I made the D Honor Roll!" remarked the future Leo Hall Fame inductee.

These guys will do fine. We had a nice crowd of test-taking Lions-to-be, mostly African American guys from the immediate neighborhoods, and several more Mexican American lads from Marquette Park and Scottsdale.

Last week it was reported that the Chicago Archdiocese Office of Catholic Schools reported the best enrollment in over forty years. That is news to celebrate, but briefly.

Other Catholic cities are not doing as well. My friend, lawyer and journalist, Christine Flowers posted a sobering report on the closings of Catholic Schools in Philadelphia, PA.

But, just as the secular fabric loosened, and families became less cohesive, so did the greater Catholic community. Sure, the vast majority of Philadelphia faithful continued to send their money and their kids to the Archdiocese, partly because they wanted to and partly because they had no other option. Private schools were too expensive or too far away (and too snotty), while public schools in the city started to get pretty dicey. I mean, we can talk all we want about Central and Masterman, but given the choice between a thwack on the fingers by a nun and a knife at the throat from a classmate, the choice was easy for most Catholic (and even non-Catholic) parents.

But a growing number of people decided that they'd prefer to spend their money elsewhere, even that relatively modest amount that the Archdiocese was asking for in tuition. And then you had the people who decided that the church didn't deserve their money because, as we all know, it was a haven for pedophiles, women-haters and homophobes. And there were always those who didn't want their kids brainwashed by the "religious kooks" and preferred to send their parents' grandchildren to nice secular places where they distribute condoms in the vending machines.

I hear you saying that it's not all a culture-war problem. That's true. It's a lack of common sense, from both God and Caesar. In making a complete and tragic mess of the abuse scandal, the church not only lost the moral high ground but made sure that the lawyers would start coming out with their claws unsheathed, ready to file lawsuits at the drop of a miter. You can't convince me that some of the schools targeted for closure couldn't have been saved if a million-dollar settlement hadn't already been paid out to Altar Boy Doe.

And the secular governments that are so obsessed with that wall between church and state, the one made of imaginary constitutional brick, heed the cries of the secularists and make sure to block vouchers at every possible turn. When you realize what the Catholic-school system saved the city in resources, you understand that the only reason it could have opposed vouchers was a suicidal fear of religious indoctrination.

It feels like a tidal wave has flooded Philadelphia, sweeping away generations of good things and cherished memories: my mom's alma mater, West Catholic; St. Hubert's, rock of the Northeast; Prendie and Bonner, in my own back yard.

I don't have any answers. Just tears.

When virtue disappears from the public, politicians can do exactly what they want. It is virtuous to give our children an education rooted in core values. Core values are important -even the government says so - this is from the National Park Service

What are Core Values?

The core values of an organization are those values we hold which form the foundation on which we perform work and conduct ourselves. We have an entire universe of values, but some of them are so primary, so important to us that through out the changes in society, government, politics, and technology they are STILL the core values we will abide by. In an ever-changing world, core values are constant. Core values are not descriptions of the work we do or the strategies we employ to accomplish our mission. The values underlie our work, how interact with each other, and which strategies we employ to fulfill our mission. The core values are the basic elements of how we go about our work. They are the practices we use (or should be using) every day in everything we do. ( emphasis my own)

CORE VALUES: Govern personal relationships
Guide business processes
Clarify who we are
Articulate what we stand for
Help explain why we do business the way we do
Guide us on how to teach
Inform us on how to reward
Guide us in making decisions
Underpin the whole organization
Require no external justification
Essential tenets

CORE VALUES ARE NOT:
Operating practices
Business strategies
Cultural norms
Competencies
Changed in response to market/ administration changes
Used individually

http://www.nps.gov/training/uc/whcv.htm

Catholic Schools have been successful because they stuck to core values -

To Know, Love, and Serve Jesus Christ
Perhaps it may be said that an even more foundational core value of the Catholic Church is to assist every one in the world - including we ourselves - to know, love, and serve Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, both in this life and in the next.

Great warning to Catholics, Christine.
Read more: http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_are_the_core_values_of_Catholicism#ixzz1jjWXqAGa

Time for Valor; Time for Illinois School Vouchers

Catholic Baby Boomers will remember this Text- a full study of Valor. Something Illinois elected officials lack aplenty. It is time for Valor;time for vouchers!

Schools Apps First Year Performance at Illinois Public Universities and Colleges
Go to the related story »
By Diane Rado, Jodi S. Cohen and Joe Germuska
August 31, 2011 The newly-released High School-to-College Success Report shows how Illinois public school graduates fared when they became freshmen at the state’s universities and community colleges. The ACT company tracked more than 90,000 students who graduated from public high schools between 2006 and 2008, and then enrolled full-time at an Illinois university or community college that fall. The data do not include students who went to a private college or out-of-state. For each high school, families can look up average high school GPAs and grade point averages earned at each public university and community college that students attended.


Leo High School raised its ACT score by 4.5 points in under two years. It did so the old fashioned way, by teaching - that and the fact that retired CPS Math Teacher Denny Conway and Dr. Jack O'Keefe of Daley College (ret.) come in and coach ACT Prep -gratis.

According the Urban Myth -Catholic Schools have selective enrollment and admissions. Correction: Leo High School's enrollment is highly selective -Leo High School turns no student who wants to succeed away. If the student's family can not meet the costs of tuition, Leo Alumni and the Big Shoulders Fund provide the money.

Teachers work at Leo because they love the guys, not in the Sesame Street manner, but like Ditka loves football.

If a public school employee saw the 2011-2012 salary and benefit pay-out to the Leo Administration, Faculty and Staff they'd get the twizzles, the miseries, the conniptions and the vapors.

The pay-off for these teachers is the kids. No riots, no disrespect, no incidents.

Our guys are adolescent males, let's not kid ourselves. The trick is that the teachers here at Leo, like most Catholic school, are here because they want to be here. Doing what makes you happy can not be legislated in Springfield or Washington D.C..

The Parents of kids in Catholic schools are people carrying the burdens. The Teachers sacrifice to be sure, but the parents carry the load. They pay for public education and then get pounded with the ever increasing cost of Catholic Education. Catholic education delivers and public education always has reason for failure -'not enough tax-dollars'

Everyone got misty-eyed over the Superintendent who declined his $ 800,000 per year salary. Lovely gesture, that; but, how in the name of Ward Bond does anyone in education get to a salary of $ 800,000. I venture to say, that the generous gent socked a away more than few shillings and will re-coup any loss accrued on Speaker Circuit and television appearances.

The Superintendent of Chicago Catholic Schools, the energetic Sister Mary Paul McCaughey, is a Dominican nun with a vow poverty and her salary goes directly to the Order. Talk about a tax!

Indiana now offers real school reform -Vouchers. It is working. Illinois is still controlled by Planned Parenthood, teacher PACS, SEIU and other political money 357 Magnums. Those Magnums helped elect State Governors, Senators and Representatives and remain pointed at the temples of the elected.

A few independents,like my former State Representative Kevin Joyce(D.), fought the PACs and managed to retain his seat with heart and honesty alone.

School reform will never happen until Vouchers become available to parents.

All you need for proof, is the violence, vandalism and vociferations tossed at Catholic Messmer Preparatory School in Milwaukee, WI. - that is a disgrace. The Teachers Unions, SEIU and their pals attacked the school.(click my post title and read more about this disgraceful event)

It is time for courage. It is time for School Vouchers in Illinois.

Education is About Vision, Authority and Concern - And Then There is the Department of Education.

On May 9th 1852 in Baltimore, the Pope appointed Apostolic Delegate Archbishop Kenrick who opened the First of Three American Plenary Councils that included six archbishops thirty five suffragan bishops, provincial heads of the religious orders and other prelates.

Twenty Five decrees were issued one of which - the establishment of Catholic schools in each parish to be overseen by the pastor.

Decree 13.Bishops are exhorted to have a Catholic school in every parish and the teachers should be paid from the parochial funds.

Subsequently,

Title ix, Of the Education of Youth.-(i) Of parish schools. Teachers belonging to religious congregations should be employed when possible in our schools. The latter should be erected in every parish. For children who attend the public schools, catechism classes should be instituted in the churches. (ii) Industrial schools or reformatories should be founded, especially in large cities. (iii) A desire is expressed to have a Catholic university in the United States.

And finally,

Title vi, Of the Education of Catholic Youth, treats of (i) Catholic schools, especially parochial, viz., of their absolute necessity and the obligation of pastors to establish them. Parents must send their children to such schools unless the bishop should judge the reason for sending them elsewhere to be sufficient. Ways and means are also considered for making the parochial schools more efficient. It is desirable that these schools be free. (ii) Every effort must be made to have suitable schools of higher education for Catholic youth.

Vision, Authority and Concern were the three legs of the Catholic model that has become the foundation for morphing of public schools - Charter Schools are Catholic Schools without God of course.

Education requires Vision - A view of a systematic approach to teaching the acquired mastery of shared knowledge and wisdom needed; Authority - the dissemination of thought, method and purpose should lie in the care of a master teacher who connects to a higher authority; Concern - an operational organization and oversight that recognizes the shared Vision and Authority.

Then we have the United States Department of Education - “powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively; or to the people.”



,

established in 1977, because . . . ?

Where there is no vision, the people perishProverbs 29:18 . . .however, that maxim, or aphorism, or dare I say it proverb is not allowed in public education.

Money is all that is needed by the Department of Education.

Catholic schools flourished in America, because of Vision, Authority, and Concern. The Authority thing is always a sticking point for the John Dewey - "Well, Who's to Say" crowd. "Who's to say that teaching X-Men is not more likely to stop bullying of 'questioning adolescents, than offering Henry V? Besides, Mr. Navel has never read Henry V, or anything by that misogynist Hemingway." The Baltimore Councils banned books that were 'considered' bad for Catholic school kids - bad because they lured innocent, ignorant and independent little minds away from the Vision. That takes Care, or Concern.

Secretary Duncan leads a Federal Department that seems to be lacking vision. Secretary Duncan demonstrates a solid lack of authority in the piece above and who Cares?

Education in American needs radical transformation - witness the recent nonsense at one of America's most prestigious schools -Northwestern. American essayist and retired Northwestern professor Joseph Epstein writes in The Weekly Standard

That so many of the faculty at Northwestern had no qualms about her proselytizing students is noteworthy. But then there is always faculty ready to back up the most egregious behavior of colleagues. In the case of J. Michael Bailey, the Chronicle of Higher Education chimed in with an article by an assistant professor of sociology at Middlebury College named Laurie Essig, who finds the Northwestern sex scandal, as we now say, a great learning moment. Professor Essig is of the view that shaking things up, attacking the status quo, is of the very essence of education, what the whole enterprise is really about.

“Clearly,” Essig writes, “this ‘live sex act’ triggered a national conversation about what we can and cannot look at.” She goes on to ask “what is it about the fact that there were people there on the stage that makes it different than a film with a sex scene or a book with a sex scene? . . . Why are we so damn uncomfortable with sex that is not mediated by film or text that ABC, CNN, and all the rest of the media outlets can’t stop talking about it?” Essig even wonders if “the live sex act had occurred between a straight, vanilla, normatively gendered and married couple, would we have cared as much?” She concludes: “These all seem like important questions and questions that can be asked because a professor allowed something to happen in his classroom and triggered a national debate about the dangers
of sex and education getting into bed together.”

Professor Essig joins Professor Bailey as one of the university’s shock troops. A student I talked with, who had earlier taken Bailey’s human sexuality course and who did not otherwise speak harshly of him, noted that he seemed more than normally pleased to shock his audience of students. Does Professor Bailey, one has to wonder, thrill to his own acts of épater les bourgeois? Does he, so to say, get off in his combined role as Pied Piper, Krafft-Ebing, and the Diaghilev of the kinky?

Where is the Vision? Where the Authority? Sex toys for a liberal education and grounding in the shared wisdom of ages;teachers of English who can not spell Chaucer, Shakespeare, or Emily Dickinson have become the common feature and money is the only answer. Concern? Who Cares?

Many do.

Like this skilled tradesman who responded to Illinois SEIU's Progress Illinois warning about School Choice 'bubbling up' again in Springfield, Illinois with a voucher legislation proposal,

Vouchers offer a way out of the expanding cost of education in the state of Illinois.

Give every kid a voucher for use at the choice of their parents. Public, private, it should make no difference.

If public school are superior they will overwhelm the private schools. If Private school are superior they will overwhelm the public schools.

Labor unions can organize and represent teachers at whatever school they labor at. Unions fear private school because they're afraid they can't organize them and they don't want to extend the effort to organizing.

Free choices should be available to the citizens of the state of Illinois.

Bob Kastigar
IBEW Local 1220

http://www.progressillinois.com/posts/content/2011/03/14/vouchers-bubble-again-springfield

Chicagoans - Don't "Sell Your Homes at a Loss," as CTU Threatens - Send the Kids To Catholic Schools - There's Help!

Marilyn Stewart is going out and Karen Lewis is coming in and CPS is broke, busted, Tap City, or as AM 590 Radio Legend and Renaissance Man Mike Houlihan would say "Tapioca!"

Mike Klonsky the Small Schools Initiative who along with Billy Ayers distinguished CPS with God Awful Failure and more Taxes is delighted that fiery Karen Lewis* the CTU She-Bull.

Why not? Mike is set for life with Annenberg Challenge Buckareenos, I would imagine.

Public School teachers, like my neighbors, do not know if they will have a job. They know that they will have many, more kids in class and that they must compete for placement with lazy, incompetent, no-show-but-payday protected losers. Good teachers have a tough rap.

One "Save the Children" teacher warned all of us yesterday that the CPS Board's decision to honor its contract with the swelled like a tick CTU tough guzzlers was not enough! Get this threat to the powers that is -"There are parents who are saying, 'I'm done working this hard when you're saying 35 kids,' " Katten said. "People are saying they'll sell their house at a loss. They are out of here.''

Save your Mortgage down stroke to ReMax folks! Send the kids to Catholic Schools!

Catholic schools get the job done for much less money. There is never a back-to-school "we Might Not Show Up!" Threat by Catholic School teachers. Selling your home will cost much more to Chicago Homeowners than the cost of educating your child in a safe, core-values centered and small classroom - 19-1 student to teacher ration in most cases. There is help available for financial assistance to parents who submit tax-returns and fill out requests for aid from the schools and Big Shoulders.

Here's what CTU - Stewart or Lewis versions -will provide parents and tax payers until Billy Ayers loses that happening ear-ring ( I wonder if Billy also sports a lower back tattoo -nah, probably the Old Lady).

In an unusual display of solidarity, at one point both incoming Chicago Teachers Union President Karen Lewis and outgoing President Marilyn Stewart stood together at the podium as Stewart railed against the class size increase, calling it "educational malpractice.''

"I am ashamed of the Board of Education,'' Stewart said. Lewis hugged her afterward.

Lewis urged the board to first cut expensive curriculum created by outsiders, high-stakes testing and a long line of pricey vendors and consultants. "I would implore you to reconsider,'' Lewis said. "This is a nuclear option.''

Afterward, Burley School parent Wendy Katten, who helped organize a parent rally against class size increases and the state education-funding system, predicted that North Side parents who have raised huge amounts of money for their neighborhood schools will bail out if their children wind up in packed classrooms.

"There are parents who are saying, 'I'm done working this hard when you're saying 35 kids,' " Katten said. "People are saying they'll sell their house at a loss. They are out of here.''

Daley tried to shift the political blame to Springfield, saying, "It's the state of Illinois that basically is cutting [education] funding . . .

"The Board of Education is not the enemy,'' Daley said. ". . . They don't want big classes. No one wants any big classes.''

Stay in Chicago - the greatest City on Earth for all of its faults! Send the kids to Catholic Schools. Give Sr, Mary Paul McCaughey, our Superintendent, a jingle on the phone -

The Office of Catholic Schools is located at:

Archbishop Quigley Center
835 North Rush Street
Chicago, IL 60611-2030
Our Mailing Address is:

Post Office Box 1979
Chicago, IL 60690-1979
To reach the Office of Catholic Schools, please call:
Phone: 312-534-5200
Fax: 312-534-5295



* Congratulations to new Chicago Teachers Union president, Karen Lewis and the Caucus of Rank and File Educators (CORE) team for their remarkable landslide victory in yesterday's union election. CORE's victory represents much more than just a win over the United Progressive Caucus (UPC) and the six-year CTU president Marilyn Stewart. It is a sign that rank-and-file teachers are fed-up with the business-as-usual politics of traditional union leadership in the face of the current assault on public education, including school closings, teacher firings, mushrooming class size and loss of collective-bargaining rights. http://michaelklonsky.blogspot.com/
http://www.suntimes.com/news/education/2397688,CST-NWS-skul16.article

Chicago Catholic School Test Scores Soar - No Chicago Newspapers Carry the News?

Yesterday, on the way home from Leo High School at about 4:20 P.M. I heard Chicago Catholic School Superintendent Mary Paul McCaughey announce that Chicago Catholic Schools ( elementary and secondary) posted their best standardized test scores in years. That was on WIND. I like Michael Medved.

Sister Mary Paul credited good parents, good teachers and solid no-nonsense curriculum in a values-based setting as reason for the success.

I turned to the Chicago Newspapers on-line at 4:00 AM and found . . .Zip, Nada, and Zilch. Try and Google something. The editorial boards do not want their agenda (Progressive/Tax Funded Special Interests/LGBT/Secularist) countered in hard copy.

Every scrap of bad news and any rumor of possible allegations of imagined bad news about Catholic schools, Catholic priests, Catholic beliefs get front page howler monkey fanfare from Chicago's editorial boards and iconic self-promoting columnists.

A poor delusional woman who believed herself to be an ordained priest ( there are no ordained Catholic Women Priests) was denied Catholic burial and the Tribune is still running her death notice - or at least it was still running yesterday ("Ordained against all odds" - nope still there) -in the attempt to make the Catholic Church appear at fault, when in fact the poor woman had self-excommunicated. Manya Brachear, the loopy religion Blogger/Columnists who invites every shaman and witchdoctor to pontificate on matters contrary to Catholic Doctrine, will no doubt have a hugely dismissive piece on Catholics and their mean spirited Faith.

Chicago Tribune -Ordained against all odds The Poor woman* is not and was not ordained! What a bunch of smug, self-righteous dip-sticks comprise the Tribune Editorial Board!

Chicago News Media is the captive of Progressive Agenda.

Only weeks ago, the Chicago and Illinois teachers unions succeeded in making Republican State Legislators go as yellow as a duck's foot and vote down Senator James Meeks' legislation that would offer inner city parents vouchers to attend inner city private ( read Catholic) schools. School Reform is lip-service. Columnists and editorial boards are controlled by the special interests with only the Progressive Secularist Agenda's hand on the joy-stick.

Catholic Schools save Illinois taxpayers millions of dollars and succeed in providing the education that the news media shoots its collective mouth off about every time a CPS kid is gunned down by a savage, or every time CPS test scores cork-screw lower in the achievement loam.

The News Media is a captive of special political interests.

*The excommunicated woman who imagined herself to be an ordained priest had a partner. The obituary caused a bit of talk among lawyers ( I had occasion to speak with several in my neighborhood). They believe that the "Nancy Katz" listed in the column as the next of kin or whatever the hell they want to be is actually the lesbian activist judge appointed to the Circuit Court of Cook County. Why would gay activist, or an editorial seek to advance its agenda with smear at the Catholic Church? Practice.

http://www.glhalloffame.org/index.pl?todo=view_item&item=143

Sue ACLU? Racist on School Choice and Rev. James Meeks and Voucher

Ed Yohnka and ACLU needs to be sued for hundreds of millions of dollars in a class action brought by Reverend James Meeks, every Church that operates a school for the benefit of all Illinois Tax-payers, every parent of every child of every color and ethnic origin.

Ed Yohnka's ACLU is always anti-Catholic and now ( on the pages of SEIU's Progress Illinois by Angela Caputo) appears to be intrinsically racist in its powerful objection to Senator James Meeks legislation concerning School Choice Vouchers.

Mr. Yohnka offers this noose-like threat to poor black kids in Chicago on the pages of Progress Illinois!

Those schools would be free to use these funds to pay for religious indoctrination, including the construction of worship spaces, the purchase of religious books, and the hiring of religious instructors.

That is an insult to the Baptist, AME and Muslim children who attend Leo High School.

Is Ed Yohnka ( spelled YONKA by Angela Caputo at Progress Illinois) telling these black kids that they are brain-washed; ignorant; unable to think for themselves?

Mr. Yonka, I have not witnessed one conversion to Catholicism. Not One, Sir! 85% of Leo's 100% black young men are not Catholic, Mr. Yohnka. However, all 100% of our young men are impoverished. So, are the many hundreds of poor black young men who want to have a Choice in Education find themselves lynched by the ACLU! Again!

Indoctrination?
It is simply inappropriate to use state taxpayer dollars to fund religious indoctrination.

Indoctrination is the process of inculcating ideas, attitudes, cognitive strategies or a professional methodology (see doctrine).[1] It is often distinguished from education by the fact that the indoctrinated person is expected not to question or critically examine the doctrine they have learned.[2] As such it is used pejoratively, often in the context of political opinions, theology or religious dogma. Instruction in the basic principles of science, in particular, can not properly be called indoctrination, in the sense that the fundamental principles of science call for critical self-evaluation and skeptical scrutiny of one's own ideas. In practice, however, a certain level of non-rational indoctrination, usually seen as miseducative, is invariably present. The term is closely linked to socialization; in common discourse, indoctrination is often associated with negative connotations, while socialization refers to cultural or educational learning.

Good Old ACLU Catholic bashing aside - Ed Yonka accuses parochial schools of being miseducative and also says that black kids are easy prey for indoctrination.

Sue the ACLU! It is what they do! To everyone with Common Sense.

Dear Friend,

Since the founding of our country, Americans have believed that entanglement of church and state was a bad idea. Senate Bill 2494, which passed out of the Senate last week, would do just that.

Urge your State Representative to oppose SB 2494!

Sponsored by Senator James Meeks, this bill would allow payment of public taxpayer funds to private religious schools, by means of tuition vouchers to certain parents. Those schools would be free to use these funds to pay for religious indoctrination, including the construction of worship spaces, the purchase of religious books, and the hiring of religious instructors.

It is simply inappropriate to use state taxpayer dollars to fund religious indoctrination. Tell your State Representative that SB 2494 is a really bad idea.


Sincerely,


Edwin C. Yohnka
Director of Communications
and Public Policy

Public Schools are Closing for Underperformance -Hey, Buck Up! Big Shoulders Fund will Help! Send Your Kids To Catholic Schools

Chicago Teachers Union president Marilyn Stewart noted that two of the schools to undergo "turnaround" — Deneen Elementary and Gillespie Elementary — were just beginning a reform that linked teacher pay to student performance. Indeed, many have undergone past reforms. And the principal at Montefiore school, which is to receive students from the closing Las Casas Occupational High School, said she had not been told of any such transfers.

Today's Chicago Tribune:http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chicago/ct-met-0120-cps-school-closing-20100119,0,3559514.story



CTU's Marilyn Stewart 'has a smile that lights a room' - the Chicago Media used that fine thoughtful assessment on Under performing U.S. Senator Carol Mosely Braun. Remember? Well, all that "reform" exhausted millions of more tax-dollars and still the CPS school "under perform."

The Smile that Lights a Room Stewart pushed to unionize Ellison Charter School on the campus of Little Flower Catholic Church last year. Marilyn Stewart smiles and Chicago Public Education tanks deeper into the loam.

If you really care about your child's education, really, really, really care, send your child to Catholic Schools. It ain't free, but Catholic Schools do not "under perform" and save Illinois tax-payers billions of dollars.

Parents make a commitment for the education that they want for their children and many people will help them meet that commitment

Big Shoulders Fund has been helping Chicago inner city parents get their children a proper education.

The mission of the Big Shoulders Fund is to provide support to the Catholic schools in the neediest areas of inner-city Chicago. 100% of the funds raised by the Big Shoulders Fund are used to support children through scholarships, special education programs, instructional equipment, much needed school facility improvements, faculty support, and operating grants. The Big Shoulders Fund is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization.

Click my post title and learn more!

Your children will receive a Catholic Education - based on positive moral, ethical, civic and vocational values.

Catholic Schools Superintendent Sr. Mary Paul McCaughey welcomes Chicago's parents to choose Catholic Schools. Sr. Mary Paul tells Chicago parents to consider these facts:

VALUES, FAITH AND SERVICE
•The values and faith you teach your children at home are reinforced every day in our schools and in our co-curricular activities
•Through service for others, each student learns the value of being Christ to others and grows in gratitude for their many blessings
ACADEMICS
•With a comprehensive set of curriculum (Pre-Kindergarten – 12 th Grade) that meets all state regulations and guidelines, Catholic schools in Cook and Lake Counties compete with the best schools in the nation
•In 2007, seven of our schools were named No Child Left Behind–Blue Ribbon Schools representing the most from any school system in the nation
•Ninety-six percent of seniors who attend Catholic secondary schools graduate and 95% of those graduates go on to college
TECHNOLOGY
•Most of our schools are equipped with new computers, laptops, interactive white boards, and other cutting-edge technology
•Students are not just taught how to use the latest technology, but they are taught how to use technology as a tool for learning
•The Office of Professional Development in Educational Technology assists our teachers in integrating technology into their curriculum and instructional methods
A CARING, NURTURING, SAFE ENVIRONMENT
•The smaller size of our school communities ensures more personal attention to each student and that each student is known by name
•A disciplined atmosphere enables teachers to focus more time on teaching rather than maintaining order
A GOOD INVESTMENT
•The longer a student remains in an Archdiocese of Chicago Catholic School, the greater his or her achievement
•Our preschool and kindergarten classrooms are not just add-ons or separate programs. They are an integral part of the school community and considered an important part of the learning continuum
•The value of a Catholic education is well worth the cost. It is a life-long investment in your children’s future

Catholic Schools do not under perform.

Bob Herguth and Sister Mary Paul McCaughey Nail It - Catholic Schools Must Target Mexicans and Latinos.

The PC all-inclusive Hispanics is a dodge. The vast majority of Catholics swelling the population of Chicago are Mexicans. Mexicans have a family and work ethic that runs counter to contemporary American Poser outlooks - " I won't do that type of work; I'll stay unemployed and live with Mom and Dad until I get a reality show,"

Yesterday was the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, one of the signal cultural events in Mexico and with her children Del Norte.

Mexicans are as wildly jingoistic about their Motherland than any Pole, Lithuanian, Jew, or Mick.

Mexicans, as an American demographic, are as yet untoxified by the victimhood that required in the welfare culture - government operated which helped to destroy the African American Family and semiotic media developed Mom and Dad welfare provided to white "I wont do that type of work;I'll stay with Mom and Dad until I get a reality show."

The Si Se Puede Lefty Activists have yet to enthrall the Mexican families in America.
Mexicans cling to the Faith - Catholic or Evangelical Protestant; Mexicans , especially men, would rather string fliers together in an icy warehouse than take the dole or depend upon the charity of others; they abhor Abortion no matter how much perfume is squirted on that pig; they do not embrace Gay Marriage; they take care of their elderly with a grace and affection that should put all other Americans to shame and they love America. Mexicans are fearlessly courageous, loyal, generous and loving.

Mexican young people are attracted to gangs and are singularly violent practitioners of Gang Doctrine; however they do, it seems to me, exhibit the nihilistic and maniacally senseless violence that marks Black on Black Homicide and Assault and Battery.

Mexican Americans have cohesive community sensibility that was smothered out of the African American Family community through sixty years of government plantation servitude to the Welfare God.

The one area where Mexicans and other Hispanic Catholics cleave to the Welfare State is its attraction to Public Education. I dare say that one might map any and all aberrant behavior and associations ( Gang Membership, Teen Pregnancy & etc.) in the Mexican Community to that choice in Education. Perhaps that choice by Mexicans for Public Education over Catholic Schools stems from the fact that government pays for the Church and education in Catholic Mexico is homogeneous. For whatever reason, Mexicans need to choose Catholic Education over Public Schools, because Public Schools encourage Teen Pregnancy, Abortion, and viewing the actions of one's life -" Forget to learn English ! Forget your Abuelos - Government has their backs! It's All Good! America is Racist and Imperialistic."

Likewise, the Catholic Church and especially Catholic Schools must attract greater participation and commitment from Mexican Families. Bob Herguth of Chicago Catholic News .Com provides a great story about this initiative and Sister Mary Paul McCaughey, Catholic Schools Superintendent, is just the person to clearly define the benefits of Catholic Education to Mexican Families. Click my post title for this great story

The evidence that Public schools are a danger are as clear as the headlines in every Chicago newspaper and on every radio and television broadcast.

Sen. Meeks No Longer an Isolationist on School Vouchers! Welcome to the War

Senator James Meeks has been the Joseph P. Kennedy* Ambassador to School Reform Isolationism and a powerful voice for tossing more tax dollars to the Chicago Teachers Union and hapless Public Schools.

Blocks from Calumet High School, now morphed into a hybrid Charter Academy/Warehouse, and few more from the 60 million dollar Simeon High School, Leo High School - a Catholic High School ( 100% African American Males)-commands the respect and direction of families seeking a path to success for their sons.

Leo High School is tuition driven and depends upon the giving of its largely white, Catholic and aging Alumni. White Alumni giving to Leo High School stands at 99.9%, though more Black Alums are giving in recent months.
Ninety Three percent of Leo's graduates go on to colleges and universities and the balance to the skilled trades unions and the military.

For decades Catholics and other private school families ( Jewish, Dutch Reformed, Lutheran, Muslim, and Independent) have called for School Reform through a universal voucher system. The Public School lobby has defeated any and all efforts. One of the Public School Lobby's most passionate and articulate voices - Rev./Senator James Meeks has pushed down efforts to bring about genuine Reform through Vouchers.

Like Ambassador Joe Kennedy in 1939-40, while Ambassador to Great Britain, Senator Meeks has called for Isolationism on Vouchers. Now, the Senator has witnessed the toll upon our society that this Isolationism has wrought. Like Joe Kennedy, Senator Meeks has had a Great Awakening!

the Chicago Teachers Union has figured out a way for teachers to not be evaluated on obvious criteria, such as how well they perform in the classroom.

Nobody wants to be held accountable, but the blood of every child is on our hands.

We must also decide whether Mayor Daley should continue to preside over the Chicago schools. Since he assumed control of the district in 1995, the Blackhawks have had nine coaches, the Bulls have had eight coaches, the Cubs have had five managers and the White Sox have had three managers.

For the first time in my personal and political career, I am exploring the idea of vouchers and charter schools to help facilitate choice and enhance academic performance. Why should we continue to make investments in a system that is bankrupt and weighed down with bureaucracy?

We must begin making decisions that are in the best interest of children, such as mandatory teacher evaluations. Since the will to change the system is nonexistent, we should allow students the flexibility to attend schools outside their district. What once worked before, such as the local school councils, may have run its course in today's competitive environment.

They say the definition of insanity is to do the same thing over and over again and expect different results. We can no longer afford to have the blood of every child on our hands.

Welcome to the War Senator! Already the Isolationists like Eric Zorn ( using free Market tropes) are attacking Senator Meeks and 'Blaming the Parents!'

My problem with voucher-based education is that it relies on a level of parental involvement that's manifestly missing and on a free-market system that is failing the inner-city already. Not that there is any easy answer, but these communities need jobs and affordable housing, far lower single-parent birth rates and, yes, calm, safe focused classrooms in which students can learn and teachers can teach.

Since the will to change the system is nonexistent, we should allow students the flexibility to attend schools outside their district.
Interesting idea, the logistics of which boggle the mind. Even if we could pull it off, though, and allow certain, motivated students to flee, the basic problem they are fleeing -- joblessness and its attendant poverty -- will remain.

If PNG Zorn is against you, Senator, you are on the right path!We can use your voice, spirit and energy. Let's make Genuine Reform Happen in Illinois! Let's Kick Open the Doors for Vouchers!


* Old Joe Kennedy thought Adolph Hitler would 'not be such a bad guy' and just another guy doing business and after all Old Joe said during the Battle of Britain, "Democracy is finished in England. It may be here, [in the US]."

Welcome to the Pew, Brother Meeks!

Real School Reform = Vouchers! Short of that, Charter Schools do the most to bring some accountabilty. All the rest is hot air -for want of stronger tea.

Public Schools need competition. Catholic Schools ( and other private schools as well) provide Competition and Genuine Accountability! Vouchers are the only real tool to reform.Click my Post Title!

We Catholics and our friends have been praying for School Choice through Vouchers and many non-Catholics/non-Christian/non-Believers have helped fill the pews.

Brother Meeks, welcome to Church. We have been passing the plate and now intend to make sure that Vouchers and Charters see that the plates go to the right hands -Illinois Families and not scam artists and hacks.

For the first time in my personal and political career, I am exploring the idea of vouchers and charter schools to help facilitate choice and enhance academic performance. Why should we continue to make investments in a system that is bankrupt and weighed down with bureaucracy?

We must begin making decisions that are in the best interest of children, such as mandatory teacher evaluations. Since the will to change the system is nonexistent, we should allow students the flexibility to attend schools outside their district. What once worked before, such as the local school councils, may have run its course in today's competitive environment.

They say the definition of insanity is to do the same thing over and over again and expect different results. We can no longer afford to have the blood of every child on our hands.

Democratic state Sen. James T. Meeks of Chicago is pastor of Salem Baptist Church.

Chicago Tribune - Op-Ed Page

Catholic Schools Work for the Kids Who Attend Them - School Choice Needs Town Halls

My youngest, Clare, begins her high school experience next week at Mother McAuley Liberal Arts High School - the largest all-girls school in America. Clare graduated from St. Cajetan Grammar School in our Morgan Park Neighborhood. Her girlfriends are going to Mother McAuley, Marist, St. Ignatius and St. Francis of Assisi. The boys are going to Mount Carmel, St. Rita, Marist and Brother Rice. White, Black and Hispanic - they are going to Catholic High Schools.

Mother McAuley costs about $ 8,000 and change with tuition and fees each year and most of the other schools round out about the same with St. Ignatius Prep topping the crowd with its menu. The path to success is expensive - very expensive, because Catholic schools encourage not just participation but full immersion in activities that strengthen the moral, civic and religious virtues. Kids like Clare become Catholic League Athletes - cheerleaders, football, basketball, baseball, volleyball, Lacrosse, Rugby players, wrestlers, as well as track and distance runners. They work on Dramatic, Choral, Polyphonic productions as musicians, singers, actors, stage hands, lighting technicians and even crowd control. Life skills and people skills are part of benefits pad for in time, treasure and talent.

Catholic Schools Superintendent Sister Mary Paul McCaughey works, from what I can tell to be, a fifteen to twenty hour day bringing people of talent and treasure together in order to squeeze out some time for Catholic Schools. James O'Connor, Josh Hale and Tom Zbierski of the Big Shoulders Fund are shepherding millions of dollars in gifts so that any family wishing to commit to Catholic Schools can afford to do just that. This genuine commitment is learned when people are young.

The kids in Catholic Schools learn stewardship and the value of a buck, as most of them also try to find part-time jobs to help the Old Man and the Old Lady, one or other, or both, to meet tuition and expenses costs.

Kids learn what it means to do without - tonier vacations for the family, Gold-Cable Packages, water-sport toys, and time in front of the Idiot Box (TV) or thumbing the controls of X-Box and Text-messaging appartii.

The investment in Catholic Schools is a community forming activity that is in fact an extension of the Parish Life - we are responsible for each other. The Best example of this reality is Chicago's Big Shoulder Fund that provides millions of dollars in aid to inner city families who can not afford the cost of Catholic Schools.

I work at Leo High School that is 99.9% funded by white Leo Alumni who are graduates of that school from the 1930's, '40's, 50's. 60's, 70's and 80's. Leo has been 100% African American since the 1990's; however, men like Frank Considine ( '39) Bill Koloseike ('45), Andy McKenna & Dick Landis ('47), Tom Owens ('54), Don Flynn ('56), Joe Powers ( '70) and Bob Schemel ('71) have contributed millions of dollars to Leo High School over the years. The real miracle beyond these gargantuan sums from the very succesful great guys named above are the endless drops of $50, $100,$500, $ 1,000 and above by hundreds of Leo Men, who also open the doors of the 1926 School at 5:30 a.m. and tutor the kids for A.C.T. and S.A.T. prep like Denny Conway and Jack O'Keefe, or fill the bleachers at every event like Bob Hylard, Frank McDermott, Bill and Jack Farnan, Jim Farrell, Rich and Jim Furlong, Gene Earner and all of his many sons, Dan Stecich, Larry Lynch, Tom Lynch and . . . you get the idea.

Catholic Schools make a better America and very good Americans. Catholic Schools are the Original Gangsters* (The OGs) of Faith Based Initiatives. Catholic Schools are unapologtically Catholic and teach without bowing to the 'Tyranny of Relativism,' to quote the Pope, which has had all Public Education in a Full Nelson Head-lock for decades. Catholc Schools teach from a position of Faith and that Faith is rooted in unshakeable truths - You don't steal, you don't kill, you don't lie, you don't sleep around like an HBO hero, you don't forget that you are obligated to other people. That's Commitment.

An interesting fact from a recent study noted that Catholics who attend Catholic schools tended to remain married to the same partners for life. Catholics don not find ease and comfort in the Faith but endurance and charity. Charity means hard work and developing a big set of shoulders.

The Big Shoulders Fund is rooted in the Courage and Commitment that was developed in and around Catholic Schools. The money available to inner-city families did not get there by Osmosis.

Real School Reform depends upon the vitality of Catholic Schools. Catholic Schools offer competition -if not accountability.

When politicians and hand-wringing activists and think-tank agendanistas get wise to themselves they will see that Catholic Schools are the hub of genuine Reform. Ask Paul Vallas, who succeeded in Chicago by following the Catholic School gradus and took those reform victories to Philly and New Orleans.


Americans need to demand Town halls on Real Reform in Education. If you think Health Care is a concern, hold the phone on Education Reform!

Click my post title and commit to Catholic Schools.

Here are some findings on Catholic Schools by the Rand Corporation that are being forgotten:

In a study published in 1990,. . .the Rand Corporation analyzed big-city high schools to determine how education for low income minority youth could be improved.2 It looked at 13 public, private, and Catholic high schools in New York City that attracted minority and disadvantaged youth. Of the Catholic school students in these schools, 75 to 90 percent were black or Hispanic. The study found that:


The Catholic high schools graduated 95 percent of their students each year, while the public schools graduated slightly more 50 percent of their senior class;


Over 66 percent of the Catholic school graduates received the New York State Regents diploma to signify completion of an academically demanding college preparatory curriculum, while only about 5 percent of the public school students received this distinction;


85 percent of the Catholic high school students took the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT), compared with just 33 percent of the public high school students;


The Catholic school students achieved an average combined SAT score of 803, while the public school students' average combined SAT score was 642; and


60 percent of the Catholic school black students scored above the national average for black students on the SAT, and over 70 percent of public school black students scored below the same national average.
More recent studies confirm these observations. As parents, politicians, and concerned observers become aware of the benefits of Catholic schooling, particularly for the poor, the rhetoric demanding action builds. Syndicated columnist William Raspberry, a self-described "Reluctant Convert to School Choice," wrote recently, "It seems as obvious for poor children as for rich ones that one-size-fits-all education doesn't make sense."3 Furthermore, according to a recent survey conducted by Terry Moe, senior fellow at the Hoover Institution, and John Chubb, founding partner and curriculum director for the Edison Project, a stunning 83 percent of public school parents and 82 percent of inner-city poor parents want parochial schools to be included in the choice of schools to which they can send their children.4

http://www.heritage.org/research/urbanissues/bg1128.cfm

That was in 1990, boys and girls and public schools have performed much worse, while Catholic Schools continue perform so much better.

http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/chicagotribune/access/17413589.html?dids=17413589:17413589&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:FT&type=current&date=Aug+08%2C+1996&author=&pub=Chicago+Tribune+(pre-1997+Fulltext)&desc=BORROWING+SUCCESS+IN+THE+SCHOOLS&pqatl=google

*OG - Urba Dictionary
An Original Gangsta or Original Gangster.
Yo, What up OG? What's good in tha hood? Catholic School, Tru Dat.

Trades Unions! Watch. When CTU Murders Charter Schools, Apprenticeship Programs Will Be Next. SEIU and Andy Stern Want it So!

SEIU wants to Kill School Reform and they have the money and muscle to do it. Killing School Reform, which actually means the advent and genuine success of Charter Schools in America, is a means of killing the Bureau of Apprenticeship Programs in Illinois and other States in favor of a State run Apprentice Program - run by a local politician like James Meeks, as Emil Jones will be at an undisclosed off-shore paradise.

Card check will be the key and Teachers Unions are already thugging it up.

appeasement on vouchers only whets unions appetites for eliminating all meaningful types of choice. With voucher programs facing termination in Washington, D.C., and heavy regulation in Milwaukee, the teachers unions have now set their sights on charter schools. Despite their proclamations about supporting charters, the actions of unions and their allies in state and national politics belie their rhetoric.

In New York, for example, the unions have backed a new budget that effectively cuts $51.5 million from charter-school funding, even as district-school spending can continue to increase thanks to local taxes and stimulus money that the charters lack. New York charters already receive less money per pupil than their district school counterparts; now they will receive even less.

Unions are also seeking to strangle charter schools with red tape. New York already has the "card check" unionization procedure for teachers that replaces secret ballots with public arm-twisting. And the teachers unions appear to have collected enough cards to unionize the teachers at two highly successful charter schools in New York City. If unions force charters to enter into collective bargaining, one can only imagine how those schools will be able to maintain the flexible work rules that allow them to succeed.

Good schools and solid Trades Programs are paths to success. Andy Stern can not and will not have that. SEIU sucks up unskilled and no skilled members, who are not and will not have an opportunity to train and study for a path into the American Middle Class. That was the Old Way - This is Change America, Sweetheart!

In Change America, group think and group wage will be based upon what the Tax-levying bodies in each State ( soviet) dole out to the rank and file.

Andy Stern wants an end to all Trades Apprenticeship Programs - no longer will the Pipefitters, Carpenters, Electricians, Plumbers, Sprinkler-fitters, of Engineers set standards for application to Apprenticeship Programs, nor will they run training schools.

SEIU will determine who does and gets what through each State's James Meeks, or some other Purple Approved Legislator.

Play ball with Andy Stern and you will get a knife in kidneys for your troubles.

SEIU is ACORN with an Advanced Degree ( Social Work @ University of Pennsylvania usually) and they need millions more members to feed the PAC. There are many more spineless politicians to buffalo and millions more children that Andy Stern needs for future harvests of no skill and unskilled members. That harvest is threatened by School Choice - Catholic Schools, Private Schools and especially Charter Schools.

Progress Illinois Andy Stern's graphic novel ( comic book)of propaganda is going flat out to help the oafish Marilyn Stewart's Chicago Teachers Union geld Charter Schools.

The Wall Street journal offers this roadmap:

When charter schools unionize, they become identical to traditional public schools in performance. Unions may say they support charter schools, but they only support charters after they have stripped them of everything that makes charters different from district schools.

President Barack Obama and Secretary of Education Arne Duncan have given speeches promoting charter schools. Despite their talk, charter spending constituted less than one-quarter of 1% of education spending in the stimulus package. And the Obama administration has done union bidding by killing the D.C. voucher program. They did this in the face of solid evidence of academic progress for the voucher students, and despite their stated commitment to do "what works for kids" regardless of ideology.

Vouchers made the world safe for charters by drawing union fire. But now that the unions have the voucher threat under control, charters are in trouble. It's time for reformers to increase pressure on politicians bending to the will of the unions and close the new education gap -- the one between what Mr. Obama and Mr. Duncan say about education and what they do.

Killing School Reform through unionizing Charter Schools is a step to killing Trades Programs. Kill competency and grow fat on millions of locked-in, impoverished and no skill members is the goal of Andy Stern, SEIU, Card Check,and Chicago Teachers Union.

CTU Hellbent on Destroying School Reform - Progressives Help Them!

Progress Illinois is a comic book published by Andy Stern's SEIU -the folks who worked over-time with Rod Blagojevich to replace Barack Obama in the U.S. Senate after working hand in pocket with Rod Blagojevich for the good part of his two years in office.

SEIU had a starring role in the December 9th Criminal Complaint against Celebrity Survivor Ingenue the disgraced former Governor of Illinois. SEIU is Lefty PAC masquerading as a Labor Union. Members dues go to frightening spineless elected officials and papering the lampposts of Blagoshere with hit pieces on political enemies ( William Daley, Mayor Daley, Mike Madigan, John Shimkus, Mark Kirk, Tom Cross and Jim Durkin) with Progress Illinois staffed by the kids of Old Radicals and Leftists like Angela Caputo who takes another salary of Sun Times News Group - for now.

Progressive and the tax-salaried American Federation of Teachers and their Banana Republic branch -Chicago Teachers Union want to kill school Reform.

Vouchers and Charter Schools are the only hope for the already hopeless Chicago Public Schools.

Catholic Schools outperform Public Schools and save Illinois tax-payers millions of dollars.

Angela Caputo is tasked with doing hit pieces on Charter International and its Educational Management Organization (EMO) Civitas.

Read the 'All Hail the Working class' rhetoric in Ms. Caputo's giggle piece - funny like cancer.

Click my post title for the full nonsense.

Here is the most idiotic paragraph.

Because the staff (and public) is largely kept in the dark about the administration of charter schools, it's hard to know how CICS' books have changed in recent years. What's clear is that the instability at these particular schools had led to an increased rate of teacher turnover, a concern raised by Parents United for Responsible Education (PURE) in a report (PDF) last fall.

Shall we, Chicago taxpayers, demand an open accounting of Marilyn Stewart's Chicago Teachers Union?

The great Labor Force that spent the better part of a year firing and locking a Union Leader -Ted Dallas - out of the Headquarters?

Oh, Let's do !

Start here -

Cashing out sick days is a common practice at the Union, he says, but he says he is charged with doing it “without approval.” He says that because Stewart does not study Union policy and past practice, other staffers have been able to cash out sick days after discussions at meetings, and that the policy of going through the Executive Board has not been followed because Marilyn does not follow rules.


Those amounts contested for Dallas are peanuts, when compared to many of the expenditures by Stewart, Dallas noted. For example, he cited the $850,000 laid out at the May House meeting by John Feldman, American Federation of Teachers CPA, as spent by the Stewart administration in a policy which allowed the officers and staff to cash out “compensatory days” for extra work on weekends during 2006. Feldman said that this plan was to be revenue neutral, but that now the officers know it to have been a mistake.


Dallas says he is also charged with helping Presidential Aide Diana Sheffer cash out her sick days at $63,543.80 when it became evident that President Stewart was on a vendetta to fire all those who disagreed with her policies. Sheffer was fired in December 2007, with security walking her out of the Union offices.


The Dallas “trial” will be conducted by the Union Executive Board — dominated by Stewart loyalists — on June 12th at the Union offices at 4 p.m. Dallas’ supporters are encouraging Union members to attend.


The case against Treasurer Linda Porter is still in limbo. In December, 2007, President Stewart took away all of Porter’s fiduciary responsibilities as Treasurer and gave them to her new Chief of Staff, John Ostenburg. Ostenburg was formerly the editor of the union newspaper. He has never taught in Chicago’s public schools. He is the mayor of Park Forest and a former members of the House of Representatives in Springfield. Ostenburg was one of those Stewart did not fire in August 2004. The first page of the 112-page complaint against CTU vice president Ted Dallas. The complaint was brought to the union's executive board by two union members who should not have had access to all of the internal union financial data that they used against Dallas.

http://www.substancenews.net/articles.php?page=78

Illinois Catholics at the Capitol Today

I'm up early and saw that there was Bupkis on Catholics at the Capitol in the Illinois Media.

Here goes: Illinois Bishops* behind Chicago's Francis Cardinal George,O.M.I. and along with the Catholic Conference of Illinois will meet Illinois Legislators and Leaders to address seven issues vital to Illinois Catholics.

1. legislation to increase the Education Expense Tax Credit, utilized by Catholic school parents, from $500 to $1000 annually;
2. funding to community organizations and parishes to provide English classes to immigrants;
3. legislation mandating that a woman seeking an abortion be offered the opportunity to view a sonogram before the procedure;
4. opposition to legislation providing for same-sex marriage or similarly defined civil unions;
5. legislation to ensure federal and state reimbursements are provided to Catholic health care and hospitals on a timely basis;
6. legislation to finally abolish the death penalty;
7. legislation or budgetary action to provide a cost of doing business increase for Catholic Charities and other social service providers.

I know how my legislators will vote as they are Catholics and neighbors. Illinois Catholics should make a great case and we know Illinois Legislators will do the right thing - seven times.



Chicago
His Eminence Francis Cardinal George

Rockford
Most Reverend Thomas G. Doran

Springfield
Most Reverend George J. Lucas

Peoria
Most Reverend Daniel R. Jenky

Belleville
Most Reverend Edward K. Braxton

Joliet
Most Reverend J. Peter Sartain

Seven Cardinal Catholic Issues for Illinois Legislature

March 4th Catholic Illinois will have its voice heard in Springfield, Illinois. The Illinois Legislature will hear the demands of Illinois Catholics. Francis Cardinal George and Chicago Catholic Schools Chief Sister Mary Paul McCaughey will articulate Seven items of Catholic Concern for the Illinois Legislative Agenda:

1.legislation to increase the Education Expense Tax Credit, utilized by Catholic school parents, from $500 to $1000 annually;

2.funding to community organizations and parishes to provide English classes to immigrants;

3.legislation mandating that a woman seeking an abortion be offered the opportunity to view a sonogram before the procedure;

4.opposition to legislation providing for same-sex marriage or similarly defined civil unions;

5.legislation to ensure federal and state reimbursements are provided to Catholic health care and hospitals on a timely basis;

6.legislation to finally abolish the death penalty;

7.legislation or budgetary action to provide a cost of doing business increase for Catholic Charities and other social service providers;

We can call The Catholic Conference at 312-368-1066 for further information. We can also call our Illinois Legislators and our Catholic Illinois Governor.

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 v. Redistribution of Wealth Scam of School Funding Inequities

' I got it. I insist!' - words that warm the hearts of people everywhere following a great meal, an evening of music where the tickets are $ 75 a pop, or the price of an item in the checkout line when you find that you are on the shorts and a nice person waiting behind you springs for the difference. People are generous to a fault - for the most part.

People also tend to pay their own way in life - for the most part. If we can not afford something, we tend to save for it. However, Progressives tend to believe that taking money away from people who work and save and give that money to other people through Progressive initiatives is justice. Not really.

The people who live in wealthy suburbs worked and saved to live there and send their kids to schools there.

Some people live in a cycle of poverty and spiritless entitlement that is created by Progressive Programs that suck the soul out of people.

Some people get very, very wealthy by perpetuating this cycle of poverty and misery.

Allowing someone else to pay for something is a learned grace, for most us. It is part of the social gradus that our baby steps treat us to becoming full human beings. Often it is much more difficult to act graceful in allowing another to pay for something. Our pride often gets in the way.

There is no such grace, expected, or learned, in what passes for the Progressive entitlement industry. Government, to the Progressive, must generate as much capital to be wasted through bureaucracy and sinecure through 'social programs' as possible.

The Public Education Industry, which combines Teachers Unions, lawyers, lobbyists, academics, community activists, tin-horn politicians, school service industries ( food, busing, supplies, storage, security & etc.) and the monstrously obese school management system devours taxes like a celebrity off of Jenny Craig.

Rev./Senator James Meeks plans to bus 'thousands' of truant Chicago Public School children to wealthy north suburban Winneta and Northfield, IL in order to enroll students from Chicago and possibly the south suburbs to highlight what People for the American Way and other Progressive deep thinkers perceive to be a social justice issue - inequity in school funding. Meeks 'wants the world to compare New Trier's average 27.1 ACT score and 95 percent graduation rate with 70 percent graduating from college with a bachelor's degree with his Chicago district: a high school dropout rate averaging 63 percent and only six of 100 of those who go on to college graduating with a bachelor's degree.

"I am sure there are a lot of factors, but the main difference is funding," Meeks said. "New Trier received $17,000 per student, and a high school in my district received $10,000 per student. I believe that the state has an obligation in property-poor schools to make up the gap."

From this effort, Meeks said he hopes to team up with the North Shore communities to find solutions to the inequality problem in education.

"I think they would have want to help out us figure this out. Because I think people who live in Winnetka and Evanston, I think they would understand this issue. We want to team up and take a stand, to write letters, to call on the government, to fix the problems," Meeks said."

http://www.pioneerlocal.com/wilmette/news/1082032,wi-meeks-073108-s1.article

According to People for the American WayHowever, Illinois only pays about 36 percent of all school expenses, far below the national average of 50 percent. The state relies heavily on local property taxes, and on average, local property taxpayers fund about 53 percent of school expenses. The remaining 10 percent or so comes from federal aid.


In 1990, seventy of Illinois’ school districts sued the state, challenging the constitutionality of the school funding formula. The plaintiffs argued that the average tax base in the wealthiest 10 percent of elementary schools was more than 13 times the average of that in the 10 percent of the poorest schools. Such disparities severely impacted a school’s educational quality including teacher quality and academics.9 The case was heard by the state supreme court, which—while acknowledging that the present school funding scheme was unwise—felt that the issue should be handled by the state legislature and not the courts.10


http://www.pfaw.org/pfaw/general/default.aspx?oid=15549

Meeks two biggest contributors to his political life are layers and lobbyist followed closely by Public Sector Unions ( Teachers & SEIU). Taxes mean income to these folks.

http://www.followthemoney.org/database/StateGlance/candidate.phtml?si=200614&c=417339


New Trier: Taxpayers spend $17,000 per student to launch kids toward great achievements

CPS - Spends $10,000 + per student to do very little for them.

Now here's the payoff - for the difference between the two, which is much, much less than either by the way - Catholic schools spend a little less than $ 7,000 per student to do even better for much less:

Compared with their public-school counterparts, more than twice as many minority Catholic-school graduates from urban areas finish college: 27 percent of the Catholic-school graduates finish college, while only 11 percent of minority public-school graduates receive their degrees. And while 62 percent of minority students at urban public high schools graduate, 88 percent of students from the same background complete high school when enrolled in Catholic schools, according to the study.

The opportunity to attend Catholic schools could play an important role in overcoming poverty among urban minorities, Neal said. "In today's labor market, young adults who finish high school -- even if they do not finish college -- earn at least 15 percent more than high school dropouts. Those who finish college earn even more." Higher college completion rates suggest that urban Catholic-school students actually learn more than similar public-school students who complete the same amount of formal schooling, Neal said. "Urban minorities receive significant benefits from Catholic schooling because their public-school alternatives are substantially worse than those of whites or other minorities who live in non-urban areas."

White students also benefit from attending Catholic schools, but the difference in completion rates between white Catholic-school students and those of their public-school counterparts are less dramatic. While 87 percent of white students in urban areas graduate when enrolled in Catholic schools, 75 percent of the white public-school students receive their diplomas. Among white Catholic-school graduates, 42 percent of those who enter college receive a degree, while 31 percent of the white public-school graduates who enter college finish their studies.

Scholars at the University have studied Catholic schools for many years. The late James Coleman, Professor in Sociology, identified strong school communities as one reason for higher achievement in Catholic schools. Anthony Bryk, Professor in Education and the College, has found that a strong core curriculum gives Catholic schools an advantage.

Neal's study is among the first to look at college completion as a measure of the

http://chronicle.uchicago.edu/970306/catholic.shtml

Lord Have Mercy!!! The University of Chicago said that?

School Choice and School Vouchers are the only way to fix public schools - tax dollars just feed its gluttonous appetite for more.

Let's save 'I 'll get this one!' for our friends and family and let's have government do the right the thing. Cut the Bull$hit! Back School Choice!