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

John McCain: Meeks Shall Inherit the Earth - Education as a Redistribution of Wealth Scam

Rev. Senator Meeks of Illinois plans to bus thousands of truant CPS students* to Winnetka's New Trier School District and enroll them in the affluent northern suburb.

Given the cost of gassing up the buses need to take his expected 'thousands of children,' Rev./Senator Meeks is going on the hip in a huge way to bring focus on what he believes to be a two-tiered funding inequity in how education dollars are spent.**

New Trier spends $ 17,000 per student and CPS spends $ 10,000 per student, according to a piece in Salon.

Meeks said he expects several thousand Chicago students to travel in a caravan of buses to New Trier Township High School in the leafy, North Shore suburb of Winnetka, where they will attempt to enroll.

State statistics indicate that the New Trier district spends around $17,000 annually on each of its students compared to the roughly $10,000 a year spent for each student in Chicago public schools.

"We, as a civilized people, can't do it this way," Meeks said. "We're doing irreparable harm to hundreds of thousands of kids."

A civilized solution, Rev./Senator Meeks, is school choice. You oppose School Choice.

School Choice would give your constituents and all Illinois families the choice of where to send their children.

It will save you thousands of needed dollars wasted gassing buses, feeding the children, providing chaperons, security to protect the children up there in Winnetka.

Keep it real, Rev./Senator! Get behind School Choice. End this social justice issue.

John McCain is all about School Choice.

Rev./Senator Meeks will not get behind School Choice. He and Senator Obama are behind a redistribution of wealth strategy for education - noted in the Salon article. The Annenberg Challenge's Billy Ayers is the true craftsman of this 'education reform' dodge. Senator Obama, Rev. Senator Meeks Senate colleague, was the first Chairman of the Chicago Challenge. Redistribution of wealth is at the core of this scam and itr has nothing to do with the safety of children or reforming education.

Overhauling how public schools are funded in Illinois has been hotly debated for years — but to little avail. Critics want the state to move away from a system where money for local schools derives largely from local property taxes, saying the status quo results in vastly better funding of schools in property-rich neighborhoods.

That is socialism, Rev./Senator, not social justice. Keeping it Real.

* Rev./Senator Meeks is calling on CPS students to skip school and go on his field trip.

** Who is springing for the trump to take the kids to Winnetka? Will they be ticketed as truant?