April Fools: Rahm's Mag Mile and Forrest Claypool's CTA: Nobody to Help Stop Well-Accessoried Teens

"There was nobody to help. There was no time, really. We were surrounded it happened in one stop, and then they got off the next stop, at Lake,'' she said. 27 year old woman victimized on Forrest Claypool's CTA

Was it a 'melee' as the Sun Times reports?  An altercation over smoker's rights?  A 'wilding'? 'Flash Mob?  

No, this was behavior rooted in the sad, secular, systemic mess we call public education.  This was not a storming of the Bastille, or Bolivarista Peoples Revolution that is so much a part of 'elementary education expert' Bill Ayer's doctrine.

The kids were well-clothed, nutritionally robust, energetic, focused and more than moderately accoutered with the latest Apple or Microsoft entertainment and communication applications and devices that would make Jobs and Gates glow with appreciation.  Both techno Edisons are icons of public education.

More so, from most accounts, these kids who look like the cast of a Disney series availed themselves of public transportation - the CTA.

The Sun Times feature leads off with the word melee, an innocuous sounding term for 'beating the supreme shit' out of another human being for no earthly good reason.

At least the Chicago Tribune account presented the facts of the attack as provided by the victim.

Now, a melee is a combat between two willing opponents - it is a term that arose from Middle Ages when knights and other men-at-arms squared off according to the rules of combat - most Catholic school kids know that.

The attack of a woman on the west side L smacks not of a melee -

A 27-year-old woman said she was returning home with her mother Saturday night on the Red Line after a dim sum dinner when a group of girls got on the train at the Monroe station and appeared to want to pick a fight.
"This girl started blowing smoke in my face, and she flicked her cigarette ashes at me,'' said the woman, who asked not to be identified. "I said: 'You need to put that out,' and the next thing I know there's all these girls that jumped on top of us.''
They began punching her face and then went for her hair. She believes their attackers had knives or box cutters and padlocks possibly placed inside socks."I put my head down between my legs so they would stop beating me in the face, but they were trying to pull my face up and hit me more,'' she said. "They ripped out chunks of my hair, and I've got a black eye and bruises on my face, and all over my back and shoulder.''
The 11 teenagers arrested in that incident at the CTA's State/Lake station in the Loop about 6:35 p.m. were among a total of 28 people arrested downtown Saturday night for disturbances that ranged from bumping into passers-by on sidewalks to the attack on the CTA train, authorities said.

The attackers were teenage girls, who have been taught under an educational rubric of entitlement.  I believe that these confused kids act out because they believe that they are entitled act out - after all they were encouraged to cheer on Occupy  idiots, NATO bomb-makers and their teachers who abandoned them last summer.  These kids have been taught, not the etymology and application of a word like melee, that personal empowerment is entitlement - what are they supposed to do?

What are you supposed to do?  Move.  Move out of Chicago.  It is all about real estate, Neighbors.  Real estate to be developed for green spaces, cultural entertainment and dining venues, fitness centers, and certainly no homes, apartments, or dwellings beyond the planned Urban Center Chicago  Urban Center Chicago is not for Stash, Wanda, Tony, Maria, Nacho, Teresa, Paddy, Nora, Clifton and Carmesha and their damn kids. It is for Aprile, Dak, E. Morton and Misty Salt, Spencer and Seth.

When public safety has lost all meaning; when basic city services are denied, or diminished by executive fiat, when schools become training grounds for thugs, it might be time to move.

That is why public safety has been purchased at the hands of the G. Flint Taylors, Jon Loevys, Locke Bowmans and the GDS, Vice Lords, Four Corner Hustlers, Mikey Cobras, and Latin Kings, as well as a grant or two for Ceasefire, while any and all public confidence in Chicago Police has been eroded.

That is why more people are alright with Privatizing Sanitation with the Garbage Grid. Seth and Spencer want those over-paid snoring louts fired. Seth and Spencer would be perfectly happy if the Fire Department were hired out and those tubby Mc911 heroes would leave for Romeoville.

That is why an otherwise unemployable good like Forrest Claypool keeps popping up and handed the wheel and throttle of public transportation - he is about Bombardier purchases, Red Line contracts and Ventra Cards and not the safety of a young lady and her mother who foolishly believe that riding the L should be violence free.

Don't think for minute that Forrest Claypool* gives a fat rat's ass about CTA riders, otherwise the CTA would  have addressed thuggery on public transportation long ago. Smart guy like Forrest could do just about anything to reform anything, if he really wanted to; at least that is what the news media always says.

That is why Mayor Rahm Emanuel can sleep nights after putting the bite on President Obama for a loan of $100 million buckeens to gussy up the Riverwalk, rather than hire more cops, improve their working conditions and really do something about melees by the kids.

He might even really try to improve public schools by demanding Vouchers.

Nope.  It is easier to wait for the frustrated, the frightened and the families to move the hell away, while his cheerleaders in the media wring-hands.


*

Chicago Tribune Editorial Hypocrisy Avoids School Choice, Vouchers, to Plump More U. of Chicago Influence - School Choice is The Metric that Matters

Nepotism, political hiring, crony capitalism, and toe-nail fungal infections get full bleat from Chicago's lily-livered editorial boards.

That tradition continues with today's milk and water editorial on Chicago's permanently hobbled public schools.

School closings, due to complete failure, gets the Hurrumph of the day. The editorial board panda bears of the Medill Empire tout yet another fabulous University of Chicago ( home of John Dewey, the Prospero of our Caliban public schools) study as the silver-bullet cure.

Under the heading of saving poor kids trapped in failing schools, the editorial praises the factory that produced this mess from the get-go:

One in three Chicago students is stuck in an academically feeble school. Scores of public schools languish — some for more than a decade — on academic probation.

We strongly support the CPS effort to close the worst-performing schools and send those students to better-performing schools nearby. We back the CPS plan to send 10 schools next year into what's known as turnaround — an aggressive move in which teachers and administrators are fired, and specially trained replacements are brought in.

Critics say these moves don't work. The critics are wrong. These dramatic reforms pay off in significant student gains, according to a just-released report by the University of Chicago Consortium on Chicago School Research.

The consortium found that 22 lagging elementary schools made dramatic academic progress in four years under several reform strategies, compared with similar schools that didn't undergo reforms.

The highlights:

• Faltering elementary schools dramatically improved in reading and math. The schools cut the gap between their test scores and the CPS average by half in reading, and by two-thirds in math. That's astounding growth in four years.

And what of similar schools that didn't undergo reform? No change. Those schools continued to fail their students.

• Revamping struggling schools generally didn't mean pushing out lower-performing students. By and large, the students who enrolled after the CPS intervention had previously attended the school.

Yes, the schools still fell short of the average CPS school. But the metric that matters here is student growth. The trajectory is up.

Boy, Howdy! The metric that matters is student growth! Please, parse that one.

Here's the deal, Sweethearts - To wax automotively metaphorical, the engine is shot; call a tow; get a new one.

School Choice, Vouchers for all Illinois taxpayers with children would fix the problem, but you already know that.

Nowhere in the hand-wringing of this editorial word are the words -school choice, school reform, or vouchers.

Instead we get another, trumpet blow for Chicago's policy factory -University of Chicago - the same geniuses that gave us the CTA Reforms ( Frank " Too Smart" Krusei and Forrest Claypool, The Garbage Grid, Cook County Reform & etc.) and place for former Mayor Daley to train future policy peddlers.

We need a Shakman Decree or sorts to protect citizens from the tweedy geniuses.

Catholic schools outperform public schools. Catholic Schools, were they collectively placed in an iron lung, would outperform CPS on a snow day following a plague of locusts.

Catholic (Private School) -Still a Whoppingly Expensive Bargain; What Do Real People Do?

"Now is the time for a new covenant inscribed not on stone, but on the human heart"(Jeremiah 31.31)

Welcome to my world. In this world comprised of families, there are unbelievable pressures on the co-heads of households - mortgage and rent of the home, health care for children, safety, groceries, heat, water, electricity, gas, upkeep and home maintenance, schooling and transportation. That would no doubt be the priorities in order of essentials.

Quality of life does not equate to living a happy, loving and fulfilled life, but it sure does play Hell on doing so.

Where I live many co-heads of household work - husbands and wives take jobs. As mothering is essential to early childhood development many young wives stay home while the kids are growing up through early schooling. Moms often walk the Little guys to and from Pre-school, Kindergarten, and the early grades and tend to be home after school. Dads generally work full time jobs and in my neighborhood that includes a great deal of overtime. where I live there are many working as skilled tradesmen, police officers, firemen and government employees.

Many of my neighbors are getting laid off due to City, State and County cut-backs in service.

The vast majority of my neighbors, like me are Roman Catholic and send their children to parish grammar schools in order to ground their children in the Faith and give them a solid elementary education. Catholic schools out-perform public schools.

After grade school, there are no choices for secondary schools other than Catholic High Schools. Middle Class families of other races and Faiths, like their Catholic neighbors choose Catholic High Schools for their children as well. I know Muslim, AME, Baptist and Lutheran and Dutch Reformed kids who attended Kelloge, Clissold and Vanderpole CPS grammar schools now attending Marist, St. Ignatius, Brother Rice, St. Rita, Mount Carmel and my beloved Leo High School, because they and their parents want them prepared for college or the Skilled Trades.

Catholic High School tuition is brutal.

Here are the choices with a ten mile radius of Zipcodes 60620, 60643, 60655.

Marist High School
4200 W. 115th St.
Chicago, IL 60655-4397
3.7 mi

Mother McAuley Liberal Arts High School
3737 W. 99th St.
Chicago, IL 60655-3398
4.0 mi

Brother Rice High School
10001 S. Pulaski Rd.
Chicago, IL 60655-3356
4.2 mi

Leo High School
7901 S. Sangamon St.
Chicago, IL 60620-2531
5.1 mi

St. Rita of Cascia High School
7740 S. Western Ave.
Chicago, IL 60620-5820
5.4 mi

Seton Academy
16100 Seton Dr.
South Holland, IL 60473-1899
6.2 mi

My youngest daughter is a junior at Mother McAuley and attends with most of her classmates from St. Cajetan Grammar School - the other girls attend Marist, St. Ignatius, and two at Mount Assisi in Lemont. McAuley's tuition this year was paid in full in August at a whopping bargain at $ 8,950.00 with an additional $ 700.00 for books and fees. St. Ignatius is far more and Leo High School a bit less.

Let's say one of my neighbors worked as a driver ( Garbage Truck, Snowplow, & etc.) for the Dept. Streets and Sanitation and was bringing in about $ 70,000 a year and his wife was working part-time as a nurse at Advocate Christ, or Little Company of Mary Hospital - they have three boys at St. Rita and a daughter in college. Their mortgage on a three bedroom raised ranch is $ 1,036.00 with escrow and insurance per month. They are feeding three teenage boys, mind you. Clothing is less of a concern as they live in standard issue Bev Rat habiliments - SR Polos and chinos at school and baseball caps, cargo shorts and hoodies for formal occasions

Dad has worked the Ward for twenty years and change and some empowered dillies will now pick up the Virgin Mary Blue Recycling containers*. That must cause a chill in the otherwise steel spine of any man. but now let's talk about the gelding of Ward Organizations with Garbage Grid Gambit. If the "Bossism Reform GOOGOOs" are for it get ready for a pocket rape, Citizens! Are layoffs looming? You Betcha! Clout no longer exists. Shakman saved Illinois from corruption, Y'all! We got Garbage Grids a'coming!

Corruption and Crony Captialism remains unchecked to be sure but they benefit no one down on this level of the food chain. Ted the Helot's financial fanny flaps in the breeze and the "Ain't They Great" clowns always have a pay day. "Ain't They Greaters" are the idiots in Government whom the media and the Left Field advisers tag for Preferment. They are Reformers who lose elections and always get appointed to a swell paying bullet proof job in CPS, CTA, Lt. Governor, Congress, or the County Wastelands.

Ted the Helot gets a notice for unpaid days on the job, unpaid furloughs and finally the Layoff. That is what the Pie-Chart Gurus call Smart Sizing.

Catholic Schools offer a Tuition Covenant for Catholic Grammar Schools and secondary schools like Leo High School make sure that families can meet tuition costs. Big Shoulders Fund is a magnificent body of people who never seem to get any attention from the Chicago Media Icons. The Big Shoulders Fund raises millions of dollars specifically for inner city Chicago families who want a Catholic Education elementary and secondary.

Here at Leo High School fund-raising revenue is out-pacing tuition revenue, due to this lousy economy. Families are up against it. Dan McGrath, Leo President for Institutional Advancement, has collected $ 50,000 from new donors and $ 200,000 from an anonymous source since August to help move things along. Catholic Schools are tuition and fund-raising driven operations that outperform public schools.

Leo High School is working to bring Catholic Education to families with high school aged sons that are up-against-it. The Leo Advisory Board is helping craft and exciting tuition program that take some of the worry out of families facing lay-offs and other unforeseen financial burdens.

Government will not help. School Choice only happens in Indiana, folks. Until, things begin to make sense again, give Dan McGrath at Leo High School a call.

Leo High School - Male Only 9-12 College PreparatoryDan McGrath -President for Institutional Advancement
Leo High School
7901 S. Sangamon Street
Chicago, IL 60620

(773) 224-9600 7AM - 4PM.

Pat Hickey - Development Office
(773) 224-9600 ex. 208 5AM - 3PM


http://www.suntimes.com/news/cityhall/7016120-418/emanuel-to-switch-trash-pickup-to-grid-system-to-save-60-mil.* Oh, Yeah. It happened - $ 25M is some sweet garbage unless your life depends upon it. And the City will Save $60M with Garbage Grid? Dancer, Please! well, someone will save quite a bit - Chicago United Indsutries, n'cest pas?

As discussed in the Chicago Reader, Chicago’s recycling program has been both ineffective and expensive for a long time — and the city pays millions of dollars each year to maintain the program. Before he left office, former Mayor Richard M. Daley negotiated (but did not finalize) a new plan to privatize pickup of recycling in blue bins. (Like the current contract that gives the materials to Allied Waste, the blue bins would not cover multi-dwelling buildings, but would increase the number of households getting blue bins by about 200,000. The city would give up market value for the collected commodities, and continue to pay private contractors to haul and then sell the materials.)

It remains to be seen whether the Emanuel administration will adopt this plan; this week the city workers who currently collect the city’s recycling argued the proposal is counterproductive and too expensive.

Former Mayor Richard M. Daley’s plan to privatize household recycling would saddle Chicago homeowners with hidden costs, collection fees and late-night deliveries while depriving the city of millions of dollars in revenue from the sale of recyclables, union leaders contend.

Laborers Union Local 1001, whose members stand to lose their jobs to a private contractor, is further arguing that the 14-year contract would shortchange minorities and women, who would get just 9 percent and 3 percent of the deal respectively. That is a far cry from the 25 and 5 percent set-asides tied to most other city contracts.

Local 1001 business manager Lou Phillips noted that the city’s own forecasts project $3 million from the sale of recyclables this year, nearly three times the take in 2010.

“Can we afford to give up such an expanding, long-term revenue stream that, in reality, is better than the now-famous parking meter deal?” Phillips said.

“In bad economic times, more people eat at home, stay at home [and] create more trash which, with the proper education, has begun to create more recyclables [and] more potential revenue. . . . Why would we give away $3 million a year or more?”

Under fire to deliver suburban-style curbside recycling to 359,000 Chicago households without it, Daley chose Waste Management in late March to provide the service in four of six designated zones.

Fiscal shortfalls have led large cities to drastically change their recycling programs before. The irony is that contracts with Waste Management have often been too costly for municipalities to bear. Chicago ended a previous contract to collect blue bags with the firm several years ago and switched over to Allied Waste before ending the blue bag program altogether. In 2002, New York City had a serious budget crisis — and a recycling contract with Waste Management that cost the city over $40 million each year. The city decided to eliminate glass and plastic curbside pickups.

Immediately, residents protested. Faced with a highly unpopular policy decision and an unaffordable contract, the city looked for alternatives. Within months they found one. New York City entered into a contract with a scrap materials dealer (Hugo Neu) who treated the collected materials as commodities to sell rather than wastes to remove. Today, Hugo Neu pays New York City a few million dollars per year from the revenues they make off collected metals on the open market. That revenue offsets the costs of collecting all recyclables, including glass and plastics. Changing contracts to recognize that recyclables are commodities to sell rather than wastes to be charged for provided New York’s residents with a functioning recycling program that didn’t exhaust the budget.

Roosevelt Professor Carl Zimring discussed New York City’s experience in the last chapter of his book Cash for Your Trash: Scrap Recycling in America. He also discussed it and Chicago’s continued problems in SUST 240 Waste this past spring and will cover any updates to Chicago’s program in SUST 210 The Sustainable Future (offered online this summer beginning May 31). For more information on this or any other of our courses, visit our Sustainability Studies website, call 1-877-277-5978 (1-877-APPLY RU) or email applyRU@roosevelt.edu.

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

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!

McCain: Obama Myth Rooted in Ayers/Annenberg Gangster Gore! Schools, Blood, Booze, and Ink!

The Anneneberg Challenge not only allowed an unrepentant domestic terrorist to launder his crimes and ooze his way into Progressive respectablility, but also provided Billy Ayers the cap and fuse to blow up American Education - one school at a time. The Annenberg Challenge is dynamite! Dynamite paid for by two old timey Jewish tough guys: Moses and Max Annenberg.

But, first some context! Progressives whine for context! Here's context. Law Professor Steve Diamond is on to Billy Ayers and his odious Old Lady Bernadine. Prof. Diamond is also raising questions about Senator Obama's debts and obligations to Ayers - Obama's Chinaman - or Rabbi - or Mentor.

As my readers are aware I have pointed to the joint participation of Senator Obama and Professor Bill Ayers in the Chicago Annenberg Challenge, an education reform project, as evidence of an older and deeper relationship between Ayers and Obama than the Senator has acknowledged. Because the political views, as well as the past criminal behavior, of Professor Ayers represent, in my view, an authoritarian approach to education and society as a whole, I believe that it is important for the public to have as complete an understanding of the Ayers-Obama relationship as possible

Law Prof. Diamond UCSJ - Click Post Title for Full Article.

This Professor of Law at University of California at San Jose is well up on Billy Ayers and the radical leftist academics who work very closely with him. Ayers has addressed Hugo Chavez's Revolutionary Educators in Caracas on a number of occasions - most recently 2006.Ayers states that education is the key to revolution.

Most troubling is the long and covert association between Senator Barack Obama and this dangerous louse Ayers. Ayers is a bomber and publicly stated enemy of America, but lives snuggly in the protection of its laws and morals. Senator Obama and the Chicago media brush off Ayers as 'a guy from my (Obama's) neighborhood.'

Click my post title for Professor Diamond's warning to all American voters concerning the Ayers Agenda that Senator Obama wants to pass off as support for schools and children.

Obama was hired by Billy Ayers when The Bomber directed the Annenberg Challenge in the 1990's. Billy Ayers Daddy, Thomas Ayers, CEO of ComEd and Pan-Philanthropy Big Shot, had bleached his terrorist lad's resume. Not only that, Billy Ayers plucked the plum from Annenberg's loot - Ayers was Chairman and Director.

Annenberg Challenge rose out of the Annenberg Foundation amassed by Walter Annenberg's genius at taking magazines away from other people - TV Guide, Seventeen & etc. - and building a monstrous fortune. Walter learned from his Pop - Moses ( AKA -Moe) Annenberg and his uncle Max. Moe and Max were tough Jews who hung with the Harps - most notably Dean O'Banion who became the pioneering bootleg hoodlum of the Prohibition Era. The Irish/Jewish coalition of Annenberg/O'Bannion beat, shot, stabbed and bombed newsboys, newstand operators, reporters, and circulation managers for and against the Hearst News Group and The Chicago Tribune's Bertie McCormick - who hired Moe and Max away from William Randolph Hearst.

Moe and Max are respectable thugs. They worked hard to squeeze nickles out of the pools of blood from their victims. Unlike, Ayers and his odious wife Bernadine Dorhn, Max and Moe were capitalists and patriots. Ayers and his old lady set bombs and robberies in order to turn their country over to Communism.

Walter Annenberg was no cupcake, but a little more polished than Dad and Uncle Max. Here is Brendan McGarvey account of the founder of Bill Ayers's C-4 for American Schools: The Chicago Annenberg Challenge. This is the root of Barack Obama's myth.

Walter Annenberg is dead. Long live Walter Annenberg’s billions. One of the richest men in the United States, Walter Annenberg was a generous philanthropist who gave millions to universities, art museums, charities and PBS. He was a friend to kings and presidents. Annenberg was the U.S. Ambassador to the Court of Saint James, London, for Richard Nixon. A media magnate who once owned local institutions like the Philadelphia Inquirer, TV Guide, the Daily News and Channel 6, Annenberg split his time between his estate in Wynnewood and a second one in Palm Springs, Calif.

And, oh yeah, Walter Annenberg was indicted in one of the largest tax evasion cases in the history of the United States. Annenberg was indicted with his father, Moses Annenberg, and two other business associates in 1939.

They were charged with evading more than $2 million in taxes and another $3 million in penalties and interest.

On Aug. 18, 1939, Walter Annenberg, his father and two other business associates surrendered to the U.S. Marshal. They posted bond, and were released to await trial.

Later that same month, Moses Annenberg, Philadelphia nightclub owner Jack Lynch and two others were indicted for conspiring to bribe a Philadelphia detective. Lynch allegedly wanted to influence the detective if and when he was called before a grand jury investigating four corporations owned by Moses Annenberg.

In April 1940, Moses Annenberg agreed to plead guilty to one count -- "willfully" evading $1,217,296 -- and to pay almost $9 million in fines and penalties. In exchange for his plea the government agreed to drop all charges against his son, Walter Annenberg.

Moses was sentenced to three years in prison. He was sent to Lewisburg federal pen, but released early because of poor health, and he died a month later.

Walter parlayed the family fortune into billions and spent the rest of his life making people forget how Moses Annenberg had acquired this great American fortune in the first place.

The story of Walter Annenberg's father is a tale of a hardworking immigrant and financial genius who got his start working alongside violent Chicago gangsters while employed by newspaper titan William Randolph Hearst at the turn of the last century. It was a time when "circulation wars" literally meant gunmen and sluggers beating and killing rival news dealers to gain a monopoly for their newspaper.

Both Moses and his older brother, Max Annenberg, were involved in the brutal Chicago newspaper wars in the first decade of the 20th century in which 14 news dealers were murdered.

Max and Moses Annenberg were hired by William Randolph Hearst as circulation managers for his newspapers. Their job was to hire and dispatch gangs of plug-uglies to intimidate anyone selling The Chicago Tribune.

One member of the Annenberg crew was the exceptionally notorious and bloodthirsty Dion O'Banion. O'Banion captained his own gang of neighborhood toughs. A decade after working for the Annenbergs, O'Banion headed his own mob, but was rubbed out by gangland rival Al Capone in 1925.*

Bleeding -- literally -- people and money, the owner of the Tribune, Bertie McCormick, decided to hire Moses Annenberg away from Hearst. For a while, the Annenberg brothers were sending out thugs to battle each other. Fifteen years later, Max Annenberg was alleged to be an associate and friend of Chicago crime boss Al Capone.

In 1938, the Secretary of the Interior, Harold Ickes, traveled from Washington D.C. to give a speech in Philadelphia condemning Moses Annenberg, who, at that time, was backing the Republican candidate for governor of Pennsylvania.

Ickes charged it was Annenberg's violent tactics during the Chicago newspaper wars that inspired gangsters like Al Capone. Ickes said that "the hiring of Moses Annenberg by Hearst was the beginning of the subsequent flood of lawlessness that almost engulfed law enforcement in the United States."

But Moses Annenberg didn't just rely on gangsters to improve newspaper circulation. He also came up with the idea of giving away free silver teaspoons to each new subscriber and made so much money he branched out on his own, buying newspapers in Milwaukee and New York.

But it was Moses Annenberg's involvement in the shady world of illegal gambling that put him in touch, and in business, with mobsters all across the nation.

In 1924, Annenberg got involved with a racing news service in Chicago and Milwaukee. The service provided horse race information to gambling parlors -- also known in those days as "pool rooms." With that information, bookies could set odds and collect from gamblers or pay out winnings. It was called the General News Bureau and it was owned by Chicago's largest gambler/bookie, Mont Tennes. Tennes agreed to sell out to Annenberg after his house was firebombed.

Annenberg took on a partner named Jack Lynch. But Lynch sued Moses, alleging that more than a million dollars had vanished from their business.

Annenberg's lawyers argued that "the General News Bureau is aiding and abetting an illegal enterprise," and the Illinois Supreme Court agreed, ruling that it was an illegal business; therefore, the dispute between Lynch and Annenberg was outside the scope of the law.

Lynch turned to Al Capone's number-one guy, Frank Nitti, to back him against Annenberg. Moses reputedly enlisted the trigger-happy organizer for the Chicago Motion Picture Operators' Union, Ralph O'Hara, to watch his back. But when O'Hara's boss was murdered gangland-style, the Chicago mafia took control of the union.

Before the disagreement between Lynch and Annenberg was settled, George Downs, an Annenberg lieutenant operating in Miami, Fla., was found shot to death, execution-style, in the Everglades. At the time Downs was killed, Moses Annenberg was running newspapers in Florida, the Midwest, New York and Philadelphia.

Critics charged Annenberg was using his newspapers to back local politicians who would close down rival bookmaking services and allow his illegal racing wire to operate without competition. Within a few years Annenberg had a nationwide monopoly. Annenberg's Nationwide News Service and subsidiaries were servicing bookies in 223 cities, 39 states and three Canadian provinces.

Gamblers, bookies and underworld syndicates were Annenberg's customers.

Ironically, there were reports that those who didn't take the Annenberg race wire service were themselves the victims of beatings, fire bombings and, on occasion, murder. The crime syndicates had come to be dependent on Moses Annenberg. Without his service they couldn't operate their illegal gambling rackets.

Moses Annenberg made millions and millions of dollars until the federal government indicted him for not paying taxes on his illegal businesses. This underworld money was the source of the great Annenberg fortune and helped to finance Walter Annenberg's own generous philanthropy.

The more one asks, the more one gets to learn. The Chicago Media ain't asking. Obama's Myth and Ayers cocooned life is safe with the Chicago Tribune and Chicago Sun Times: Max and Moe would be proud!


* Historical note, Johnny Torio gave the order to 'rub-out' O'Banion, as Capone was merely a Lieutenant in Torrio's Booze Empire. According to Rose Keefe, O'Bannion had cheated Torrio and caused his arrest as a two-time loser to the Volstead Act.

See:http://www.rosekeefe.com/
http://ccsr.uchicago.edu/publications/p0b06.pdf

John McCain: School Choice, or More of This? CPS Anti-Violence Meeting Erupts in Violence

Public Schools have eliminated values ( religious or civic) forsake of a pale Political Correctness: when you stand for nothing, expect the consequences.

Catholic, Protestant, Jewish Muslim, Independent schools have stated core values in the mission statements.

The ACLU and the political bosses of the Public School Lobbies have killed the educational immune systems in Public Schools. Where Faith, Patriotism, Civic Values, Family Traditions are not welcome the synthetic gang sub-cultures flourish.

Witness the outburst of violence at a Chicago Anti-Violence Meeting at a Chicago Public high school yesterday.

An anti-violence rally at George Washington High School turned ugly Thursday when a series of fights broke out in a crowd of students being dismissed for the day.

Parents and students had gathered at 3 p.m. to protest what they said has been escalating violence between black and Latino students at the school, at 3535 E. 114th St. on the Far Southeast Side.

Tensions between the groups have persisted for years, parents and students said. But this week has been particularly violent, with several flare-ups that caused some parents to pull children out of school for their safety. Several parents said they would not allow their children to return to school until the violence was addressed.

The protest came on the heels of a larger rally Chicago Public Schools held earlier this week calling for an end to the shootings that have claimed 20 students this year.

John McCain is the only Presidential Candidate of any Party who leads on School Choice.

Click my post title for the latest example of what happens when schools stand for nothing.

John McCain: School Choice is the Answer to Righting the Political and Economic Disaster that is Our Public Schools

( Hat Tip to Illinois Review's Matt Gauntt - click my post title for more)

Leo Men like Mike Joyce (above) Volunteer to mentor and coach black young men into colleges and universities 93% go on to college. Jack O'Keefe and Denny Conway, two retired Educators do Math and English Prep every Saturday Free of Charge - No Marches. No Dollars.


Yesterday, Arne Duncan, who attended University High in Hyde Park a Blue Chip Independent School, threatened that 190 Million was the minimum CPS would accept from Illinois Taxpayers or the Chicago Taxpayers get it good and hard with a brand spanking new Property Tax. Had one last Fall, Arne, and the Irish Chapstick ( Preparation H) was just starting to take effect.

Politics, taxes, homicides, marches, pronouncements are all nice and everything, thanks very much, but I'll decline - just the same.

School Choice. That's what I want.

With School choice, Public Schools will become accountable through serious competition with University High, Leo, Mount Carmel, Luthers South, North and East, Latin School & etc.

Families will choose where they wish to send their sons and daughters and not be limited by economics - race and class if you will.

After work today, I will drive a bundle of study Guides over to Denny Conway's House so he can prep for the Voluntary Coaching he and Jack O'Keefe ( two retired educators and Leo Alumni) do for Leo High School Seniors. These guys and many other Leo guys step up and help kids boost their ACT Scores and it costs - not Nickel One!

These two retired Leo Men arrive here on Saturday mornings and conduct intense coaching for college bound Leo Men. No March. No Tax Dollars. Just genuine concern for kids.

Bill and Melinda Gates conducted a study linked below that points to the appalling graduation rates in American High Schools - Public Schools. Sadly, no where in the conclusion do I see any consideration for School Choice. Chicago Public Schools graduated about 5 in 10 kids. Might as well teach children very early in life to buy all the Lotto Tickets they can lay hands upon! Here's the Conclusion of the Gates Study:

EPE Research Center
April 2008 Cities in Crisis | 14
Conclusion
When they are not being labeled “obsolete,” America’s high schools have often been described as existing in a state of crisis. As this report has demonstrated, that observation is particularly apt for the school systems serving the nation’s very largest cities. A significant share of recent public debate in education-policy circles has revolved around the challenges we face as a nation ensuring that all students graduate from high school, diploma in-hand and well-equipped to face the world and excel in their adult lives. This is an aspiration that would apply whether an individual student’s path from high school leads to further education, occupational training, or immediately into the world of work.
If three out of every 10 students in the nation failing to graduate is reason for concern, then the fact that just half of those educated in America’s largest cities are finishing high school truly raises cause for alarm. And the much higher rates of high school completion among their suburban counterparts – who may literally live and attend school right around the corner – place in a particularly harsh and unflattering light the deep undercurrents of inequity that plague American public education.
It is often remarked that knowledge is power. The good news is that a movement is afoot to better arm educators, policymakers, and the public with the information they need to more accurately assess the nature and severity of the graduation crisis in their communities and around the country. Innovative efforts to turn around low-performing high schools are also underway. The bad news, however, is that the challenges we face may be more grave than many had suspected or that some are still willing to acknowledge. And when it comes to providing every student with a high-quality education, we have not come as far or moved as fast as most of us would like.
In forging a way ahead, it will be essential that we not lose sight of the disparities highlighted in this report, which portray two very different worlds that exist within the nation’s public education system. As efforts to understand and combat the graduation crisis advance, this movement must proceed hand-in-hand with a fundamental commitment to creating a public education system in which earning a high school diploma is the norm for all students in every community, and where dropping out is a rare exception.

( Emphasis My own) Rare indeed - as Rare as a 'Round on the House' at Bennigan's - invisible.


John McCain is the only Presidential Candidate for School Choice . I caught Senator Obama on Milky Matthews' Hardball Campus Tour, last night. When the issue of inner city schools came up Senator Obama cited Public School Lobby Dogma Chapter and Verse: More Programs ( Federal) More Tax Dollars.

We can not keep putting chips on Public School Roulette Square BLACK/RED 36 - It ain't on the Table.

http://www.americaspromise.org/uploadedFiles/AmericasPromiseAlliance/Dropout_Crisis/SWANSONCitiesInCrisis040108.pdf

McCain: Daley states, 'That's Right! You Know What Time It Is!' - He's 'Bout To Bust a Property Tax Cap, YO!

Only Hours after bringing Chicago Public School Homicides to its knees with a dramatic and well-publicized March around Thompson Center, shots were fired near Morgan Park High School in my neighborhood.

With his usual aplomb, Daley went Old Testament on the City Tax-payers. Daley and Arne Duncan, both proud products of private education, promised to bust a cap- Property Tax Cap - the one that was raised last Fall, if Gov. Blago does not come up with the trump for Arne's National Laugh, in the ear of Chicago Tax Payers.

That's me. I take the weather personally.

Public Schools are tragedy and Chicago Public Schools are Blood Tragedy ( Marlowe, Jonson, Ford)- the shockingly violent sister of the genre. CPS kids die from homicide. People kill those kids. The guns do not go off by themselves. People kill other people because they feel comfortable doing so - we live in a Thug Comfort Zone.


We live in a Thug Comfort Zone, because thugs are fearless - they suffer no consequences. The sorry state of public education in Chicago contributes to the Thug Comfort Zone, as do the more moronic members of the media, lawsuit addicted radical lawyers, radical 501(c)3 University Think Tanks and gutless politicians.

School Choice will help end the violence, by forcing Arne Duncan to make his school's accountable through competition.

John McCain is a Federalist who will lead for School Choice. The Federal Government will encourage States to act on School Choice.

Here's Insane Arne D on what you need to know:

Chicago Schools CEO Arne Duncan said $180 million in new state money is the "bare minimum" to allow the district to expand kindergarten, evening classes and foreign-language instruction, among other programs.

The threat comes after Daley raised property taxes last fall. Additionally, the City Council increased the real estate transfer tax as part of a CTA bailout that also included a quarter-cent sales tax increase that took effect Tuesday. Come July 1, the Cook County Board's 1 percent sales tax increase will hit taxpayers.

Get to Marching' Arne!

The rest of us, let's get to John McCain's leadership on School Choice.

You know what time it is!

Click my post title. for the story on Daley's Threat

John McCain: Arne Duncan, Phd. Piled High and Deep! School Choice Arne, Is the Only Way to Help Yourself and the Chicago Public Schools

Leading Cancer Specialist Dr. Krop E. PayCheque informed the disappointed children of the 101st Airborne Division's Precision Bicycle Marching Team that raccoons often have their way with tired carburetors and there is absolutely nothing that serious members of the League of Baseball Hotties could do - or improve upon - at this time.

And for more clarity on the crisis facing tax-payers and the deplorable state of Chicago Public Schools we have CPS CEO Arne Duncan:

From Today's Tribune

Clarke's slaying, like every other student killing this year, left Chicago Public Schools chief Arne Duncan speaking about the need to get rid of guns and hold manufacturers accountable. Last year in CPS a record 34 students were killed during the school year.

Tuesday's rally will put more heat on lawmakers, Duncan said.

"This is a public health epidemic. We are struggling to find the cure for AIDS, we are struggling to find the cure for cancer; we know the cure for this public health epidemic -- getting rid of guns," said Duncan. "We need political courage."

You need a much looser collar size. You need air to the brain-pan, Arne!

We all need School Choice.That's Arne up there in the photo of his classmates who did not attend Chicago Public Schools either - see how he pays attention!


Photo: Arne Duncan Top Row Extreme Right - His Left - Tall Guy.

John McCain: School Choice and Not Marches, or More Studies, or More Homicides Will Improve American Education

Over the weekend, another Chicago Public School student was murdered and the Chicago Public School's respond with a March on Thompson Center for stricter gun laws - Chicago has the strictest Gun Laws in America - but 'now we really mean it!'

Hundreds of Chicago Public School students are expected to converge on the James R. Thompson Center Tuesday morning, urging state legislators to enact stiffer gun laws after a student was killed in the parking lot of the Simeon Career Academy on Saturday.

More than 400 Simeon students will be bused by the district to attend the protest outside the Thompson Center, which houses Illinois state offices. Students from other schools such as Jones College Prepatory (sic) High School are also expected, officials said.
The protest comes in the wake of Saturday's slaying of Chavez Clarke, 18. On Monday two Dunbar Vocational Career Academy students who also had been taking Saturday classes at Simeon—Samuel Hill, 17, and Ronald Little, 19—were charged with Clarke's killing.

Chicago Tribune Today.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-simeon-shooting-webapr01,1,4255642.story

The Chicago Public Schools will bus 400 students and their chaperons ( I hope) to Thompson Center. It is to be presumed that Chicago Police Department will be called upon to increase their presence at Thompson Center. The kids will be hungry after the march - lunch must be provided. Teachers need to eat. Gas? It's on your dime, Taxpayer.

No instruction at Simeon today! This will be a 'learning, sharing and wonderful experience for the children.'

Leo High School is only a few blocks from Simeon. Teaching is going on full boil. Parents sacrifice to pay tuition costs and Leo Alumni pour tons of dollars to help.
As a result, 93% of all Leo graduates goo on to colleges and universities. It ain't brain-surgery - it is teaching, discipline, commitment.

There is no other choice, but Leo High School. Calumet High School. Simeon. Harper. Of, that's right Harper is closing. Arne's happy the kids are marching to demand stricter gun laws. Three Card Monte, Kids! Pick a card! Too fast - Lousy Schools means we need stricter gun laws.

This March Demands! This March Costs! This March is another in long string of cop-outs. Parent Failure; More Gun Laws; More Time; More Bureaucracy; More Arne Duncan Boondoggles; More Rufus Williams Social Events in Stella Foster Columns!

The fact that Chicago Public School students are the top homicide demographic tells me that the problem appears to lie with the sorry state of Chicago Public Schools. Arne Duncan's March today will be another band-aid on cancer.

A National report details the atrocious failure of Public Schools. Chicago's failure is not in this AP Report. That will come out after - Chicago Public Schools reap more millions from my pocket, your pocket, your neighbors pocket and get to hear more Arne Duncan nonsense about this being 'Our Problem!' Click my Post Title for the AP Report on our crumby Public Schools. Arne thinks busing kids down to the State Offices at Thompson Center will let out the waste and the ineptitude on his shrinking coat.

You wear this jacket Arne. It is a snug fit.

Until, and only until States - like Illinois, adopt real and genuine School Choice for all Citizens. Get ready for more homicides and get ready for more waste of time Marches!

Only One Candidate for President Supports School Choice - John McCain.