School: Young People Go to School and Some Make 'Mugs in the News' and Others Achieve

“I would rather a boy learnt in the roughest school the courage to hit a politician, or gained in the hardest school the learning to refute him – rather than that he should gain in the most enlightened school the cunning to copy him.” – G.K. Chesterton

Wouldn't that be something?   Schools are created by people who have something to offer to younger, or less knowlegeable people.  The best schools offer something of value that honors Truth, Nature and our Creator.

Schools are formed by people who share common values and skills that converge to bring people from one place in their lives to another, be it one of the 1st Tier Elite Prep Schools that shape future Secretaries of State and Members of Secret Societies, a co-educational Chicago Public School in Auburn Gresham, Roseland, Englewood, or Garfield Park that warehouse 9-12 year so that one out of score students score above a 20 on ACT exams and less than half graduate, or a Catholic all-Male college prep high school where 90% of African-American students who begin their schooling in its halls graduate and every graduate is welcomed to four-year college or university.

Our American public schools have become places that glare Halogen lighting on politicians.  Elected officials comprise the Board of Directors to Public Schools.  Elected politicians are the Carnegie Endowments of the 50 States without whom nothing remains done.

My assertions are arguable with regard to public schooling, but the fact that everything about public schools links directly to some career political grifter.

Marcus Aurelius endowed the first school at Athens in because he believed that a good person should lead a life honed by reason. Aurelius was a Stoic by temperament and outlook; yet, he created a School for each of the Dominant Philosophies Aristotelian, Platonic, Stoic and Epicurean.  He was no Ted Turner, or Bill Gates.
By the way, Emperor Marcus Aurelius persecuted Christians as brutally as Bill Maher of HBO would love to do.

Schools operated on endowments so that scholars ( people who showed up at school to teach or learn) develop themselves through immersion in the many disciplines that merged to a core belief, or philosophy.

When Romans allowed barbarians to protect them from barbarians, schools vanished.

From the 5th Century until John Dewey, schools were centered on God.  Paris, Oxford, Cambridge, Wittenburg and Escorial were Royally endowed.  John Scotus Erigena, Boethius, Augustine,  Cassidorius, Aquinas, William of Occam, Roger Bacon,  Anselm, Ignatius, Gonzaga Descrates, and Gregor Mendel managed to have great impact on human justice, human development and the humanities in spite of the fact that they were pious Christians.  Catholic schools remain, or should remain, in this tradition.

Public schools came about when Napoleon defeated the Prussians at Jena in 1806.

I could almost hear Mike Klonsky and Jesse Sharkey's noggins explode.  No, that was not a bomb planted by UICC Department of Education retiree, terrorist Emeritus and Obama sponsor Bill Ayers. That was the Battle that created a Godless school - Public Education.

The result has been Mugs in the New and a Chicago Homicide Rate that spikes each weekend - come rain or shine.

On my side of street, dominated by a four story fortress of Virtue designed by Joseph McCarthy who was Daniel Burnham's Catholic-go-to-guy when spending Cardinal Mundelein's money, a Catholic high school serves the exact same clientele as Simeon, Crane, and the former Calumet high schools - young men of African American heritage and mostly ( 80%) CPS elementary graduates.

All young men ( teenage Man Childs) are willful, proud, loud, playful, fidgety, distracted, horny as goats and in need of guidance, instruction and an occasional kind word.  Inner city black kids educated according to the secular Hegelian John Dewey constructs are exponentially more so.

Public school teachers told them "We don't do that!"  Catholic school teachers can tell, Pat Hickey to quit farting, explain is tardiness in 250 words double spaced and shape up or he will die on the gallows, IN THUNDER because Christ, His Mother, the Holy Spirit and God of Abraham expect more of him.

A Public school teacher says, ' We don't do that."  A Catholic school teacher explains why one's actions have consequences well beyond his immediate impulse to folly.

Here is a better explanation.  Yesterday, I was delighted to shake hands, fist bump and hug a seventeen year old kid who was expelled two years ago.  This young gent has had a horrific life.  He was shuttled from one foster care home to another from the time he was six years old until he turned fourteen for a total of seven placements. A relative took him in and sent him to Leo High School as a freshman.  Troubles ensued - tardy, absent, disrespectful & etc. The kid is smart, tough as algebra and has an inner sweetness that belies his troubled young life.  He is among the brawny stalwarts hugging Francis Cardinal George in 2011 in the photo that accompanies this prose. In fact, Cardinal George counseled the young man on the quiet.

For two years, this talented and handsome young guy attended a neighboring public school and went  "All Street."  He caught a beef - a serious beef.  He was arrested and sent to Juvey and eventually lawyered his way out of the Juvenile Detention Center and is in the expungement process.  More so, this young man remembered why he was expelled from Leo High School and added up the consequences trailing his will to impulse in fall of 2011.

He is working community service hours. He was delighted that I still have his size twelve Stacy Adams black dress shoes on my office book shelf.  He left them with me upon expusion.  I asked him if he'd like to put the broggans back on and finish out at Leo.  He said, " If you'll have me back."

Hell, yes! Arne Duncan and Karen Lewis have had for too long.  This is a young man who might not punch a politcal clown in the nose, but he will dispute the secular nonsense pretending to schooling.

Young people is no stroll through Winnetka. . . .well, it is if you go to New Trier.

N.B.  By the way, two of the 100 Chicago Tribune Mugs in the News were known to my young friend.

Happy Easter, Christ Has Risen! Now, Let's Roll Back the Big Stone Keeping Schools in a Cave

Kids believe only what is taught to them.  Last night 28 kids, most under the age of 18, were arrested on Chicago's Mag Mile for intimidating people and another bunch were arrested following an assault on a woman who asked that the kids put out their cigarettes. I do not believe that the youngsters were engaged in civil disobedience demanding that CPS keep failing schools open, nor were they concerned with the plight of LGBTQ citizens.

From this same edition of the paper, the Opinion section of the Chicago Tribune was thick with opinions on both issues as being fundamental to life on our planet.  The school closings?  I see them them as part of the overall Rahm Plan to shrink the City of Chicago ( services) down to an Urban Center.  Likewise, the abhorrent incivility tolerated on Chicago Transportation systems by the Mayor and CTA Boss Forrest Claypool is a component in this plan.  Why else would a Mayor not do his utmost to light a fire under his appointee to interdict such behavior and provide the necessary police officers at his disposal to correct the situation?  Answer.  It is not part of the Plan.

The Plan includes a $ 100 million dollar loan to gussy up the River Walk, but not seek a loan to hire more cops.

Back to the schools. The closed schools, the largest school closing in American history, are  real estate.

Take a look at who is protesting the school closings ( CTU's Karen Lewis & Jesse Sharkey)  - they worked with Mayor Emanuel to engineer the closings.  Their Red-shirted Dragon Dance through the Loop last week provided Bill Ayers and opportunity to be described as an "elementary school expert' in the Chicago media, as well as swell venue for SEIU to play civil disobedience for cameras without the possibility of arrest.  Tickets were issued.

For the last thirty years Bill Ayers* and the well-camouflaged Mike Klonsky have trained a generation of radicals who now control Chicago Teachers Union through CORE.  Chicago Public Schools have nose-dived deeper into the tax-dollars from the moment the Annenberg Challenge was boarded and looted by Bolsheviks and took command of the Education Department at University of Illinois at Chicago.  Here's a challenge.  How many UICC disciples of Billy Ayers are CPS teachers?

The idea of schools has been entombed in a cave behind the boulder rolled by Ayers and Klonsky.

Schools should reflect the neighborhoods they serve.  Catholic schools most certainly do just that and graduates of Catholic schools, black, brown and white manage to avoid massive arrests on Mag Mile and intimidate passengers on the CTA.

Ayers and Klonsky made small schools (cadres) wholesome to lazy and not very bright editorial boards and columnists.   Schools fail, because they are supposed to do just that.

Chicago is a Catholic city.  No matter how much Eric Zorn, Mary Schmich, Neil Steinberg, Carol Marin, Clarence Page, Dawn Turner Trice, or WTTW try to obscure that fact, Catholics rub up against Baptists, Unitarians, AME, Lutheran, Jewish, Greek Orthodox, Dutch Reformed and atheist neighbors.  Schools should reflect that fact, but they are not allowed to do that.

Christ died on Friday, busted Hell's prisoners out on Saturday, and triumphed over death today, when he rolled back the big rock.

The big rock blocking real schools and the idea of a school is still wedged in pretty deep.   Kids are taught what to fear and given no means to conquer fear.  Behavior reflects what people are all about.


*"Elementary education expert and professor Bill Ayers — who has sparked controversy on the national political scene with his ties to President Obama — was in the crowd in support of teachers.
" 'The assault on public education and abandonment of these communities has to be resisted,' Ayers said." Chicago Sun Times

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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



Who let these two clowns near our children?

Bye, Ron!

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



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

Catalyst Leftist/Progress SEIU/We Got Jitu/How About You? - Tha Soviet Jugganot on Rev. Sen. Meeks by Coalitions Against School Reform!

Progress Illinois Illinois SEIU's Nepotism Workshop for Children of Radicals jumped on Rev./Sen. Meeks.

Senator James Meeks wants Chicago Public Schools to Reform - that means breaking up the power of soviets - LSCs - developed by 1960's radicals Billy Ayers, Linda Lenz, Marilyn Katz, and Mike Klonsky.

SEIU is lead by radical Marxists Andy Stern and Anna Burger. Here in Illinois, SEIU established Progress Illinois for radical Jaimie Kalven's son Josh. It is a clearing house/comic book for radical leftists and spoon feeds Rich Miller's Capital Fax Blog.

Catalyst was published and edited by Linda Lenz, but she took some heat during Obama Campaign for President due to his long association with Billy Ayers, whose career in education was padded by his Daddy Thomas Ayers who ran ComEd.

And you thought Old Timey Ward politics had Nepotism? Hold the phone Gertrude no one packs the job like a Commie!

Well, Catalyst, WBEZ and Progress Illinois are heaping the hate on Senator James Meeks and trotted ot Jitu Brown!

The Medill Radicals heaped praise on this fine gentleman-community activist-educational operative last year.

He was told he was a “giant among men.”

Jitu Brown takes that title very seriously.

“My understanding of it is that it’s the type of man I struggle to be,” he explained of his Swahili first name.

The 42-year-old education outreach coordinator for the Kenwood Oakland Community Organization in Chicago received that name over 10 years ago. He was being recognized at an assembly of social activists at Malcolm X College during Kwanzaa. He may have been Aaron before, but he has been Jitu ever since.

“Having a name and trying to be a community change agent, I’m always reflecting on how I carried out my business today,” he said. “I’m much better than I would have been.”

Jitu Brown, ‘giant’ in the community, emissary of change.

Influential Chicago rapper, Jitu tha Jugganot.

“It was hip-hop that was the bridge to bring me here,” he said from a table at the organization on East 43rd Street. “It was this place that helped me develop the perspective to see what music can do.”

What it does, he said, is “connect people that have historically been disconnected.” It gives a sense of place and purpose. It creates awareness.

“Most of all,” he said, “I want to see a wave of young people that really believe in controlling what they produce.”

Brown, an affable, goateed man of substantial stature, learned that at an early age. He and a high school buddy formed the rap group in their South Side neighborhood of Rosemoor that would later become known as Ten Tray. It was the 80s and a teenage Brown had been waffling about what direction he wanted to take his life. There was the Nation of Islam, he said. There was following Fred Hampton, Jr. There was the church.

And then there was rapping.

“We were getting politicized by this music that society expects to be just entertainment,” he said of his early influences, such as KRS-One and Public Enemy. “For me, I just wanted to do something.”

That something started out as rhyme battles in his high school cafeteria, then to competitions drawing larger crowds. In 1991 Ten Tray signed a deal with Smash Polygram Records, which Brown contends was one of the first major label deals coming out of Chicago.

For a short while, Ten Tray lived the dream. They had a video that was on a decent rotation on Yo! MTV Raps and BET, they sold nearly 90,000 units, and they established a solid fan base here in Chicago and on the West Coast.

Yet they barely made any money.

“Our attorney said it was a good deal for a first time artist,” he remembered. “Looking at it in retrospect, we were just a couple of young cats getting taken advantage of.”

Brown had become jaded by the industry but not the message. After Ten Tray’s first album came and went, he took some time off from music and decided to volunteer. A couple of chance encounters led him to the Kenwood Oakland Community Organization. He was with the outreach group for five years before signing on as an employee. Twelve years later, as the education organizer, he visits schools, meetings and events, teaching families to use their voices to have a say in how their children are educated.

His work has galvanized groups to prevent school closings, take control of underperforming curriculums and, as he puts it, beat the system.

“People who are trained to lose are saying, ‘we can do this,’” he said.

Music evolved into a vehicle for Brown to further his work. In the song “Stand Up” from his 2007 self-released album “Necessary Ingredients,” Brown blasts systemic problems in his community through his clever baritone bombast:

“Here’s a remedy /

Don’t run from the ‘hood /

Develop the institutions ‘til they doing some good.”

The difference is that Brown is not only saying, he’s doing.

“He’s really an inspiration to people in the neighborhood,” said Jay Travis, the executive director of the Kenwood Oakland Community Organization. “His message has always been one of empowerment and positivity.”

This is what Brown hopes the kids he encounters at work and through his youth music education program, Independents Day, understand – be different, be creative and own your craft.

“Since I met him, he was a positive brother,” said D.A. Smart, an emcee, friend and co-host of the Independents Day workshops. “He loves his people. He always wants to see them be better and do better.”

“He’s such a force in Chicago,” he added.

Brown, a force, a giant, a leader in the community, says he still struggles to live up to his name.

“I’m doing the right thing,” he said before settling into his office cubicle and gearing up for a day of work. “Plant the seeds, and they’ll sprout

Hokey Smokes! "Plant Seeds . . .Hmmmmmm . . . and they'll Sprout?" Now, that is some radical poetry! Honor Bright? They'll sprout. How about get rid of radical leftist nonsense and Schools will Reform with Vouchers and Real Choice? Jitu? Come on Big Guy! You know!

Well, Kids, Jitu don't like Rev. Meeks or his plan to kill LSCs. Next Jitu and WBEZ and Progress Illinois and Catalyst and WTTW will whip out the Uncle James Card! Click my post title Jaimie Kalven's boy Josh is really tuning up the Red Chorus!
They have JITU/Medill/WBEZ/WTTW/SEIU//Chicago Tribune Editorial Board/Sun Times Editorial Board and Every dim-bulb in Birkenstocks and Socks

And all we have are the facts that Chicago Public Schools stink on ice and suck millions of dollars out of the middle classes and kids do not learn and kids are dying by the score every couple of weeks!

Sun Times Attack Sen. Meeks, School Reform in Defense of Local Councils - local soviets wedging open the the doors of control.

A study by the Consortium on Chicago School Research found that the majority of LSCs appear to function well, noting that most do their work responsibly and draw in new resources for their schools.

Chicago Sun Times 02/12/10

Oh, by the way -

In 1991, (Mike) Klonsky co-founded the Small Schools Workshop in Chicago with Bill Ayers.

The Workshop was given at least $175,000 by Chicago’s Annenberg Challenge. This organisation was chaired by Barack Obama, who had been recruited for the job by a group which included Bill Ayers.

They wanted to build Public School soviets - you know grassroots*?

Uh Huh, it appears that the Sun Times is dead wrong again and consistently.

Supporters of this (LSCs) major reform argued that
creating Local School Councils (one of
several major changes brought about by
the Chicago School Reform Act) would
help catalyze substantial improvements in
the quality of Chicago public education

http://www.designsforchange.org/pdfs/LSC_rpt_final.pdfThat was in 1988. How'd that work out?

In 1995, the state legislature modified the
Reform Act to give Chicago’s mayor more
control over Chicago’s Central Board and
central administration as well as the power
to intervene in failing schools. National
publications like Newsweek have asserted
that Chicago’s mayor was given “near total
power over the schools” by the 1995
legislative changes.7 This assertion is
untrue. The basic powers of Chicago’s
Local School Councils have remained
intact to the present, and Chicago
remains the most decentralized big city
school system in the nation.

Uh Huh and that was 1995. How'd that work out? Reverend Meeks responded -

“If you want to go back to prior to 1995, then go back. I will never go back. This school system has changed and is getting better. I don’t care what anyone says.

One of the central changes made by the
1988 law was to establish an elected Local
School Council at each Chicago public

Our Local School Councils were the funded experiment by Bill "The Terrorsist" Ayers, Mike Klonsky and their confederates. Our President Barack Obama, then a young community actiovist lawyer seeking the Progressive imprimatur on his political aspirations served on the three 501(c)3 boards that funded the soviet/grassroots Local School Council Control apparatus that destroyed public schools in Chicago, backrupted Illinois taxpayers and pull thestrings on the Chicago Teachers Unions.


school (except for a few special schools).
Each LSC consists of:
1. Six parent representatives, elected by
parents and community residents.
2. Two community representatives, elected
by parents and community residents.
3. Two teachers, elected by the school staff.
4. The school’s principal.
5. A student elected by students (in the
high schools).
Unique among U.S. cities, Chicago’s LSCs
were given strong powers, including
powers in the following areas:

1. Principal Selection and Evaluation.
LSCs appoint the school’s principal
to a four-year contract and rehire or
replace the principal at the end of this
contract period. And they supervise and
evaluate the principal on an ongoing
basis.
2. School Improvement Planning.
LSCs set priorities for their school’s
improvement through helping develop
and approve an annual school improvement
plan. These plans must focus on
achieving student learning standards set
by the state.
3. School-Based Budget. LSCs help
develop and approve a school budget,
with major control over an average of
$500,000 per year in flexible funds from
the state.

Uh Huh, continuing and how'd that work out?

Here is where Local School Councils began:

The Community Renewal Society (CRS) describes itself as a “progressive, faith-based organization that works to eliminate race and class barriers.” Rev. Calvin S. Morris (left) is the executive director. CRS publishes both the Chicago Reporter and The Catalyst, in which the above announcement was run.

At the 48th Annual Eugene V. Debs – Norman Thomas – Michael Harrington Dinner, Morris was a Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) Chicago honoree (h/t Trevor Loudon):

Rev. Dr. Calvin Morris was the Executive Director of the Community Renewal Society, a civil rights organization with roots going back to the 19th Century in Chicago, and was a co-chair of Chicago Jobs with Justice, a Labor-Community organization active in supporting the organization of low-wage workers and in support of peace.

The Catalyst was founded by its current publisher, Linda Lenz.

According to her Alliance for Excellent Education profile:

Linda Lenz is the founder and publisher of Catalyst Chicago, a monthly news magazine that covers the progress, problems and politics of school reform in Chicago. She is also the publisher of the sister publication, Catalyst Cleveland. Catalyst is a publication of the Community Renewal Society, a nonprofit founded in 1882 that fights for racial and economic justice. …

Before launching Catalyst in 1990, Ms. Lenz was the education writer for the Chicago Sun-Times and before that an editorial writer for the Chicago Daily News. Following graduation from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, she was a political writer and columnist for the Pioneer Press, North Shore.

On August 30, 2008, former Chicago Sun-Times reporter Lenz dutifully penned an apologetic published in the Sun-Times on the Bill Ayers-Obama relationship. Lenz dismissed any connection between Ayers’ years with the Weather Underground and his more recent school reform enterprise, the Chicago Annenberg Challenge, and the shared relationship with Barack Obama, who was CAC’s first executive director. Lenz writes


In other words, Obama does, indeed, know Bill Ayers as more than just a guy from the neighborhood. So do a host of civic leaders in Chicago.

On his Small Talk blog, Mike Klonsky praised Lenz’s effort, commenting “Chicago Catalyst’s Linda Lenz … gives us the real story on Obama and Bill Ayers and the Chicago Annenberg Challenge.” It should also be noted Klonsky’s Small Schools Workshop is “named as a major Chicago Annenberg Challenge beneficiary,” as he and Bill Ayers “[picked] up a bundle — $175,000 –– for ’small school workshops.’”

By the way, Lenz is also a low dollar donor for Obama’s presidential campaign, contributing only $1000 in 2008.

More Obama/Ayers/Klonsky connections

Following Lenz’s August 2008 article, RBO wrote in a since-deleted article that the Obama/Ayers/Klonsky connections continue:

Chicago Catalyst’s largest funder is The Joyce Foundation, upon whose board Obama served for eight years, beginning in 1994, during which time, in 1995, Anne Hallett of the Cross City Campaign for Urban School Reform, William Ayers of the University of Illinois at Chicago, and Warren Chapman of the Joyce Foundation proposed the Chicago Annenberg Challenge.


Mike Klonsky is a former member of Lenz’s Catalyst Chicago editorial board, as is John Ayers, Bill Ayers’ brother.

Thomas G. Ayers (more here), Bill Ayers’ father, was a contributor to the Community Renewal Society, as are: Bettylu Saltzman, whom we learned recently, has been an Obama supporter since at least his run for the Illinois legislature; Obama bundler John Rogers (and an Exelon director), through his Ariel Mutual Fund (more here); Sidley Austin, the law firm which employed both Barack and Michelle Obama and Bill Ayers’ wife, Bernadine Dohrn; Mike and Susan Klonsky; and Trinity United Church of Christ, Obama’s church until recently tossed under the Obama bus. In fact, funders for the 2005-2006 cycle reads like a who’s who list of Obama campaign funders dating from his earliest fund-raising days.
In that same article, RBO included the following video from May 2006 in which Lenz acts as moderator at the National Louis University forum on No Child Left Behind, in which Bill Ayers participated.

The geniuses at the Sun Times site the 1997 finding of the University of Chicago data padding study, yet argue that LSCs must remain. They go further demanding that the Illinois Legislature SPEND MORE to support LSCs of a Trainwreck of a Public School System. Catalyst is the mouthpiece of the radical leftists who dreamed up the school soviets- like Progress Illinois is the SEIU organ. They collectively and cordially hated Paul Vallas who attempted to bring real reform. He knew a soviet operation when he saw one. Kay Lenz and her surrogates hounded Paul Vallas, or rather Mayor Daley, who is not a huge reader it seems to me. These Radicals hate Charter Schools. They hate Vouchers and now they are building up the hate for Sen./Rev. James Meeks. They hate cordially and enthusiastically - nothing personal.

The Legislature should dismiss this bill and focus on efforts that might actually improve the Chicago Public Schools.

The Legislature should and will support this bill and focus on Vouchers and will help Chicago Public Schools.

As long as the Media and the Chicago Sun Times in particular gets its sole nurishment from radical leftists and lawsuit addicted lawyers, it will continue its path to irrelvance.

Supporting Local School Councils and fighting Vouchers? Not so hot, but the Chicago Sun Times is Okay with it. Radical. Radically stupid.


*

Originally, the soviets were a grassroots effort to practice direct democracy. Russian Marxists made them a medium for organizing against the state, and between the February and October Revolutions, the Petrograd Soviet was a powerful force. The slogan "All power to the soviets!" (Vsya vlast sovyetam!; Вся власть советам!) was used by the Bolsheviks to oppose the Provisional Government led by Kerensky.

Based on the Bolshevik's view of the state, the word soviet extended its meaning to any supreme body that obtained the authority of a group of soviets. In this sense, soviets turned into a hierarchical structure - Communist government bodies at local level and republic level[note 1] were called "soviets", and at the top of the hierarchy, the Congress of Soviets was the nominal core of the Union government of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), officially formed in December 1922. However, the Communist Party officially played the "leading role" in society by that time; the soviets were in practice subordinate to it.

Later, in the USSR, local governmental bodies were named "soviet" (sovet: "council") with the adjective indicating of the administrative level, customarily abbreviated : gorsovet (gorodskoy sovet: city council), raysovet/raisovet (rayonny sovet: raion council), selsovet: rural council, possovet (poselkovy sovet: settlement council).

The term also came to be used outside the Soviet Union by some Marxist-Leninist movements, for example, the Communist Party of China's efforts in the "Chinese Soviet Republic" immediately prior to the Long March.