Movement and Congresswoman stops charter school expansion in part of Chicago's northeast side... Noble is out, but Intrinsic is still trying...
By the time 47th Ward Alderman Pewar spoke against the Noble Street charter school on Irving Park Road, the Board members had taken the Board Report off the agenda. Above, Pewar is shown speaking to the Board on May 27, 2015. Substance photo by George N. Schmidt.The challenge to the placement of the latest "campus" of the so-called "Noble Network of Charter Schools" on Chicago's northeast side was organized and begun long before Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky joined it, but the video of Shakowsky's speech is worth watching. Two reminders, though: First, despite all of its frauds, Noble continues to get massive support from the ruling class, including Mayor Rahm Emanuel; Second, there is another charter school trying to move into the same part of town. Intrinsic, which was spawned and seeded within the CPS bureaucracy, is trying to move into Bowmanville, which is closer to Amundsen and Mather high schools than the proposed Noble charter was.
The organizing against the Noble expansion was going on a long time, and peaked at one point at the May meeting of the Chicago Board of Education, as we reported at substancenews.net. Alderman Amaya Pewar did the job of explaining why the entire community was united against the plan. All four aldermen from the wards impacted came out formally against the expansion, a far cry from other Noble expansion, which featured aldermen praising Noble and trashing the local public schools. The most grotesque of those was the praise from Alderman Emma Mitts for the placement of the Noble Street charter a block from Prosser High School. Mitts, who at the time proclaimed that God had brought Rahm Emanuel to Chicago, had once been on the Local School Council at Prosser.
In her remarks after the victory against Noble, Schakowsky clearly notes that the fight was won by a coalition that brought together everyone. The video link is through a posting we received: http://www.tbfurman.us/2015/06/jan-schakowsky-on-charter-schools-in.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Tbfurman+%28TBFURMAN%29
So... One cheer for the Congresslady. Here is a reprint of a more effusive version of this Chicago reality, obviously from someone not as close to Chicago reality:
Jan Schakowsky On Charter Schools In Chicago, Posted: 10 Jun 2015 08:28 PM PDT
Here's the great Jan Schakowsky at Monday's (June 8, 2015) forum in Rogers Park. It was an amazing event: school leaders, elected officials, researchers, community members. I don't know if a new movement is starting in Rogers Park or not---but I get the feeling the earth has shifted.
Watch the whole thing here.
Jan delivers a blistering critique here. And you know what? If Democrats would embrace public education the way they used to -- this way, they'd win every election. This middle-of-the-road, trying-to-please-everyone path they've been walking down, it's the road to ruin both for schools and for the Democratic Party in Illinois. And it's been terrible for communities in our city.
Hedge-funders, money-corrupted politicians--- they have an interest in keeping communities fighting over scarce school resources. It's a distraction; it's a diversion for the masses while the new patronage is doled out. Mostly it's about keeping people at each other's throats while the public sector is handed over to private capital.
Seriously go watch the whole thing.
