Geometry - The Catholic Soul

That's why Geometry, Clyde.

I pick up twelve to thirteen Leo students every morning.  Sophomore Clyde "The Glide" Butler is a veteran passenger and my first stop in Englewood of Chicago.  Clyde is a school leader, by dint of his character developed from his family, and an excellent student with 3.8 GPA.  That freshman year cumulative average is currently being battered by Euclid and Archimedes: Geometry.

                                                             Clyde the Glide Leo 2018
The sophomores are having a genuine struggle, as did I in  the Fall of1967, getting a grip on Geometry the second step of the classical quadrivium ( Arithmetic, Geometry, Astrology and Music).  The 19th Century Germans and 20th Century American sociologist-philosophes murdered education by systematically undoing  1800 years of Classical Education in name of Kaiser and then John Dewey.  Now, there is Arne Duncan armed with Common Core and Video lessons from Howard Zinn and his comic book quality videomaster Kenneth Burns - just wait until you learn how FDR saved his career by making Henry Wallace his Veep.

Geometry survives in the curriculum, as does Counting and Ciphering wages amounting up to and including $ 15.00 per hour. Geometry, because we all need to learn the angles and Math because Mickey D's needs cashiers.

Geometry, if taught correctly, is murder in the early goings.  Dead Tan Guys invented Geometry. The same folks who gave us Democracy and the best cuisine of God's Blue Planet made sense of universe -geometry handled the shapes and Arithmetic the majesty and types of numbers. Geometry and Math were cult classics, because they were mysteries more than disciplines (like our Prussian John Dewey demands).

The Greeks realized that mathematics offered the young mind its first immediate encounter with Truth.  Early education taught basic reading and calculating skills, and developed a taste for beautiful and noble actions and ideas.  Through these efforts, the youth were made receptive to their culture.  But geometry, the study of shapes through measurement, and arithmetic, the study of fascinating kinds of numbers, contained truths that transcended any human society.  Right triangles and ellipses belong to no man; they are instances of a beautiful, ordered reality that is eternal and divine.  Students learned that such truth exists, and that their minds could see it. from Beyond the Test: Educating in The Truth

Geometry and Arithmetic built cathedrals, aqueducts, roads that all led to Rome, mosaics, sculpture, painting, military dicta and screwed fresh water up to a thirsty folks from the Nile.  That screwer of Lake Michigan Straight was none other than Archimedes who studied his Euclid and gave the Romans all kinds of hell during the eight years of siege on his town of Syracuse. Like I said, Old Dead Tan Guys mastered the shapes and numbers and allowed us to put them to practical purposes.

" Why do we gotta study Geometry? Its boring.  What do you do with it?" saith Clyde the Glide.

Euclid heard the same damn thing.  Euclid understood that we live in a 3-D world and only need the glasses to see it that way.  The glasses are reverence.  Geometry ( and I received a Gentleman's D) is awesome - in the proper definition.  It does, or should strike awe in all of us - more so than Mark Zuckerberg's PT Barnum nonsense.  Euclid stole no one Else's ideas - far as I know.

Numbers and shapes lead us to The Truth - we Catholics call that God.  That is Catholic soul, Clyde.

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

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

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

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

Subsequently,

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

And finally,

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

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

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

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



,

established in 1977, because . . . ?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Many do.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Bob Kastigar
IBEW Local 1220

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

Papuan/Irish Cousins See Through Ayers Small School Advocacy Scam: 'Sapotim John McCain!'

Saoirse and Colm Hat Ain-Hickey are Papuan/Irish headhunters attending Chicago Public Schools. The two boys are teased and bullied because they wear their traditional necklaces beaded with the shrunken skulls of enemies from the other side of the Owen Stanley Mountain Ranges in their native New Guinea. They wondered if an Advocay High Schools crafted by Billy Ayers and Barack Obama at the Chicago Anneberg Challenge, like the one proposed by CPS Chief Arne Duncan ( Bikpelka Tisa -in their native Papuan - Click my post title for help with their language)the Gay Inspired School for Social Justice Pride Campus. However, it seems that parents believe that this is a really stupid and segregationist idea.

Schools CEO Arne Duncan had hoped to open the school in the fall of 2010 to offer parents and students more choices and a feeling of safety. He has argued that gay and lesbian students have higher drop-out rates because they feel ostracized.

Duncan was emboldened by a national survey of 6,000 middle and high school students released by the Gay Lesbian and Straight Education Network. It showed that nearly 90 percent were harassed at school and that 61 percent felt unsafe.

Rick Garcia, political director of Equality Illinois, said Daley is “absolutely correct” on Social Justice High.

“There’s no doubt there’s violence and bullying of gay kids and something has to be done, but segregating them is not the answer,” said Garcia. “It doesn’t stop bullying at other schools. And if a kid is different and the object of scorn or bullying, instead of addressing it, the teacher might say, ‘Send him to homo high.’

“Instead of a school for gay kids, maybe we need a school for the bullies. Gay kids are not the problem. Bullies and teachers and administrators who don’t stop the bullying are the problem,” he said.

Chicago Sun Times - Oct. 25,2008.


'Samting bikpela man i go long lusim larim wokim skul' - Mayor Daley was quoted as saying and repeated to me by the boys's father Turloch.

While acknowledging the Mayor's understanding that CPS would not be able to sneak the opening of the school dedicated to homosexual culture and values - School for Social Justice Pride Campus, my cousin's two boys from Port Moresby, New Guinea are nevertheless encouraged by Arne Duncan's Progressive number crunching:

6,000 middle and high school students released by the Gay Lesbian and Straight Education Network. It showed that nearly 90 percent were harassed at school and that 61 percent felt unsafe. Arne really knows his Ayers Education!

WOW! 90% of 6,000 students in the United States Student Population of 49.5 million in the last Census were bullied. The numbers are compelling . . .to two high school age scapegraces from the Coral Sea! They too had been systematically bullied by students teachers and administrators who objected to their Cultural Differences - while the boys are Christians of the Church of the Nazarene they cling to their Pacific Islander traditions of proudly wearing the shrunken heads of the enemies from the other side of the Owen Stanley Mountains back home in New Guinea. The effect is chilling!

From yesterday's post:

During WWII, one of the Hickeys serving over seas fell in love, as young men will do, far from Miner Dunn Hamburgers and girls who look like Eleanor Powell. One of the Hickeys had two sons out of wedlock in New Guinea. Hickeys breed like ACORN Voters. These boys had sons by indigenous native wives and so on and so on, until Turloch Hat ain -Hickey decided to come to Chicago and meet the family. What a Hooley that was!

Turloch Hat Ain-Hickey decided to stay and his two sons Saoirse Hat Ain-Hickey and
Colm Hat Ain-Hickey were enrolled in Chicago Public Schools on the south side. They converted to Nazarene Church though 27 % of New Guinea citizens are Roman Catholic.
Devout Nazarenes, the Hat Ain-Hickey's cling to the old ways and though no longer practicing Head-hunters, Turloch and the boys still wear the shrunken heads of their enemies from the other side of Owen Stanley Mountains, back home.

They are ridiculed and made sport of on a daily basis. Fifteen year old Colm comes home and cries to his Dad, 'Bikpela tisa man pret min skul !' Too bloody, Right, Colm, Old Son! We must have school dedicated soley to the celebration of Papuan/Irish Pacific Islander Head-hunters.

AS I posted yesterday, if CPS, reformed by the work of Domestic terrorist/Distinguished Professor of Education Bill Ayers and Barack Obama, in their seminal work for the Chicago Annenberg Challenge, can study the impact of bullying and the imperative for Advocacy Politics, in support of a school solely dedicated to Gay/Lesbian/Bi-Sexual Issues and Values, there is hope for a Public School dedicated to Papuan/Irish Nazarene Headhunters.*




However, if this school only matters in terms of equity and equal outcomes for a trendy few ( Gay/Lesbian is Hot! - Watch Ellen! See the View!), one should look elsewhere. The boys' father Turloch feels that his sons should become Americans and maybe take off the necklaces of shrunken skulls as nod to gutpela gavman as Mayor Daley would say. Turloch no longer wears his necklace of skulls in his work at Sidley and Austin as an Urban Translator of Pacific Islander Issues.

In fact, Turloch dismisses the whole concept of Advocacy Politics in most things. He recently told me, 'Sapotim John McCain!'

That's a good start Turloch!

*A Simple Justice: The Challenge of Small Schools (William Ayers, Michael Klonsky, Gabrielle Lyon) and Other People's Children: Cultural Conflict in the Classroom (Lisa Delpit)—"These address the issues of equity and equal outcomes, not just equal access."

Obama No School Reform Pal -Vallas v. Obama Myth Outlined by Steve Rhodes on Division Street: Must Read

Steve Rhodes who publishes Beachwood Reporter, my favorite Chicago Media Watchdog and Chicago Jackanapes File, offers a smart and insightful precis of Paul Vallas's recent truthtelling on Camp Obama - Obama, while in the employ of Billy Ayers did next to nothing to help improve Chicago Schools.

Paul lived down the block from me when he was putting in nearly 20 hour days exposing waste and mismanagement at CPS. Because Paul was so effective in getting Corporate and Private Foundations to support 'systemic reform' - which took millions of dollars out of the reach of Catholic Schools - I used to call my neighbor and pal 'The Prince of Darkness.'

Like any effective public servant, Paul Vallas was viewed as a threat to Mayor Daley and the rest as we say is history. Daley don't like no smart guys too close: or, to wax 18th Century: "Should such a man ( Daley), too fond to rule alone, Bear, like the Turk, no brother near the throne", Alexander Pope, Prologue to the Satires, line 197."

Here's a taste of what Steve Rhodes offers:
“Only after the fig leaf was in place did Obama come out publicly in support of local school councils, making a brief speech on the Senate floor to codify the final agreement preserving local councils’ authority,” Russo writes.

“In being so late to the debate, however, Obama didn’t really have to stand up to anyone - not the groups he was affiliated with, not Vallas, not Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley. He was just approving the final result. He remained loyal to his roots, but only when it was easy to do so. To some critics, this is exactly the problem.”

Obama does have a champion in the Chicago education community, however: schools superintendent Arne Duncan, who was in charge of the city’s magnet schools under Vallas, and then replaced him in 2001. Obama and Duncan are hold Hyde Park friends and basketball buddies (Duncan was co-captain of Harvard’s basketball team and played professionally in Australia).

It would be Duncan, then, not Vallas, on the short list for Education Secretary of an Obama administration.

Now, there is cause for concern! Duncan? Yeah let's take all the kids in America to hear Wilco at Soldier Field - that'll get them hitting the books!

Well done, brother Rhodes!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


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

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

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

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

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

The Chicago Urban League called that discrimination.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Let me do that again!

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

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

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


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

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

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

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

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

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

The Choice is real clear.

John McCain: Gov. Blagojevich School Choice Could Be Good For You

Every day that the Walking Pharmaceutical in Armani Suits* jabbers away to Paddy Fitz, the collar around Governor Rod Blagojevich** must feel like Ed Schultz's busting at the stain of fleshy waves like Cuchulain in Yeats' poem battling the sea -

'Stared on the horses of the sea, and heard
The cars of battle and his own name cried;
And fought with the invulnerable tide.'

Pressure. Grace under fire as calamity washes with greater fury, requires the weapon to check insurmountable foe -Fate.

I mean, Jeez, even Pat Quinn is coming on like an uncaged pit-bull from Vick's Doggie Day Care.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-quinn-recallapr07,1,3433388.story

Hey, Milorod,here's a Boss Idea! It's Keen! It's Hip and Happenin'!

Do the Maverick! It is the Dance craze sweeping the Nation and John McCain is the Maverick Mambo King!

Break with the public school lobby on School Choice. Give the taxpayers something. Anything.

You have nothing to lose on this one. No need to worry about tossing Jan Schakowsky Obama's seat ( She would be a Lousy Choice and Illinois has had enough Losers in the National Spotlight); no need to worry about Lisa Madigan's, Alexi Giannoulias', orDanny Hynes' growing popularity and good sense; no more worry about Tony Rezko - well maybe a little bit.

You'd be the good guy for a change. Get to dancing, Guv! Do the Maverick Mambo! Be Like McCain!

Take a look at the fine Heritage Foundation Study of Illinois School Choice Initiatives linked above with my post title. Look at all the boondoggles that allows Arne Duncan to cry-out that 190 Million Dollars is not enough for his Tax-Dollar Dry Vac - 'CPS students are now being murdered with bats; only last week they were gunned down! Think of the Children!'

School Choice - Vouchers is the only real change that will improve our miserable public schools and Vouchers will relieve Illinois Tax-payers of an ever-mounting burden.

Do the Maverick Mambo, Guv! Get all John McCain on us in Illinois. Hey, it can't hurt you. You may even lose some of that tightness around the collar.

* Stuart Levine - the professional Board Appointee in the Tony Rezko Trial who has testified to ingesting - Coke- Meth -Uppers & Downers and just about everything but Testor's Glue - well, the trial just started. Hey Jan Schakowsky love Stuart and She want to be our U.S. Senator, well, after all her hubby is an ex-Con:
From Today's Tribune Jan on Stu: "Mazel Tov to you, Stuart, on this special occasion," wrote Democratic U.S. Rep. Jan Schakowsky in another letter included in the program. "Your strong philanthropic efforts and outstanding leadership have contributed greatly to the Chicago area and beyond."

** Got that great Rod Frown that was originally posted at Steve Rhodes Great ( even though he thinks I'm a cave-dwelling troglodyte) Beachwood Reporter . Read it at this link:

http://www.beachwoodreporter.com/
Thanks Steve.

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.