The arc of Justice? A look back at a mere four years at the Chicago Board of Education and in Chicago's public schools
The Chicago municipal elections are Feb 24, 2015. Don't we all hope that the "arc of educational justice" is bending away from corporate rule toward democracy? Don't we hope Rahm Emanuel has to face a runoff with the top candidate -- and loses in the runoff? Don't we hope that after tomorrow the referendum for an elected board of education in Chicago will be a top issue for all elected officials both here and in Springfield (where as we know, the question has to be decided)?
Juan Rangal, then head of UNO, spoke at the January 26, 2011 meeting of the Chicago Board of Education while numerous pro-charter school protesters line up outside the Board. The protesters included a guy dressed up as "Superman," a nod to the charter school propaganda movie "Waiting for Superman." Substance photo by David Vance. I've been reviewing some of the photographs we've taken at Board of Education meetings since CORE first won power in the Chicago Teachers Union in 2010. A large number of them show the arrogant offensive by the city's charter schools at Board of Education meetings. Let's remind everyone that four years ago the privatization movement was in full bloom, "Waiting for Superman" was being shown to anyone willing to go to one of the free screenings, and the President of the United States was hosting the "Waiting for Superman" kids at the White House .
Much of all that was based in Chicago. Outside the CPS Board meeting January 26, 2011, just four years ago, was UNO (then) CEO Juan Rangel and hundreds of charter school supporters. The charter school supporters came in buses; marched on the sidewalk, held a press conference and spoke to the Board of Education.
Four years ago, the CEO was corporate executive Terry Mazany. Mazany had replaced Ron Huberman, who had quickly left the Board after Richard M. Daley announced he was not going to run for election in 2011.
The CPS Board President was Mary Richardson-Lowry. Lowry had replaced Michael Scott, who had been found dead in the Chicago River a few months after Chicago lost its bid for the Olympics and Scott's sponsors told him he wasn't as big a player as he had thought.
During the months before Rahm Emanuel was inaugurated mayor (May 2011), the members of the Chicago Board of Education continued promoting the massive privatization program that had been pushed by Emanuel's predecessor, Richard M. Daley. The Board members (for example, banker Norman Bobins) sometimes napped while people spoke in defense of the city's real public schools, while the Board President, Mary Richardson Lowry (right above) snarled at anyone who raised challenges agains the Board's privatization and charterization juggernauts. Contrary to some recent revisionist historiographers, the reign of Rahm Emanuel has simply been a continuation of the same policies, although Rahm was more obnoxious in his implementation of the program that has dominated corporate "school reform" from the White House to Chicago's City Hall since the beginning of the 21st Century. Substance photo by David Vance at the January 26, 2011 meeting of the Chicago Board of Education. Substance readers need remember that when Rahm Emanuel won the election (February 2011) and was inaugurated (May 2011), he also took control of CPS because of the current law (the "Amendatory Act"), which has been in place since 1995.
Like Richard M. Daley, Rahm Emanuel would consolidate his one-man power over 600 schools and 400,000 children. Rahm replaced all seven members of the Board who had been appointed by Daley. He hired a new CEO to run the schools, from Rochester -- JC Brizard. Rahm then replaced Brizard one year later with Barbara Byrd Bennett, who had been head of the Cleveland, then Detroit, public schools. Brizard was awarded for his year of service in Chicago with a job at the College Board, which oversees many of the standardized testing programs that are still the bane of teachers, children, and schools. Byrd Bennett has filled the higher ranks of the CPS bureaucracy with people she knew back in Ohio.
And, now since his election Feb. 2011, Rahm Emanuel has shown us his record of public school dismantling is even greater than the one created by Richard M. Daley in some regards. It�s not about the children but privatizers looking for money, as many people have noted. It�s about scamming the parents with false promises of good schools while expelling students who need help. It�s not about the children but �new schools� with no Local School Council power where parents have a voice in how the schools are run. Lastly, the public has seen the Rahm Emanuel educational program is not about the quality of education -- but keeping in every charter school a non-union low wage workforce. Despite aggressive organizing by the union, most Chicago charter teachers are still not union, and Chicago charter teachers are forbidden by law from organizing themselves into the Chicago Teachers Union.
What can we learn and why was the charter school propaganda important?
A major lesson is to continue the pressure... Juan Rangal and the charter leaders and owners looked very powerful in January 2011, but Rangal is now gone, and the charters are facing ever greater scrutiny. Privatization continues (Aaramark is a current example of how bad that can be), but there more and more scams are being exposed.
Before the Board meeting of January 26, 2011 was the charter school press conference. Speaking was the most prominent representative of the charter school scam; UNO Chief Executive Officer and friend of Rahm Emanuel, Juan Rangel. At that time, Rangal was serving as co-chair of Rahm's campaign committee.
In January 2011, the election for a new mayor was less than one month away. Rahm Emanuel would win with more than 50 percent of the vote. It was a beautiful time for Rahm Emanuel supporters. He overcame a residency challenge, a lawsuit claiming that his (then rented out) house was really really his residence, when he had been living in Washington D.C. for four years.
At the January press conference four years ago was a character dressed as Superman. The attack on public schools and teachers was made in a professional movie, �Waiting for Superman.� "Parents demand choice" was the propaganda message repeated by the media. Public schools were "failing" and charter schools were better. Bad teachers don�t need to be protected but fired. Blaming teachers and public schools was in the media and in corporate "school reform" narratives from the White House to Chicago's City Hall.
And, while it seemed that charter schools was the main propaganda media effort by the CPS officials, Rahm once elected had bigger surprises for the public. Rahm's Board would begin by claiming that Chicago's schools had the nation's shortest school day, forcing a longer school day with no additional resources on the city. But in September 2012, the Chicago Teachers Union led a strike, the first in 25 years. The following year, Rahm's Board of Education (after he had ousted Jean Claude Brizard and brought in Barbara Byrd Bennett) would continue the attack by putting hundreds of public schools on the "closing list." In June of 2013, 49 schools were closed.
This is the Rahm Emanuel educational plan. I hope the voters will shut Rahm Emanuel down. We want quality schools for all children. And, this is not propaganda.
The arc of justice is bending.
