Editorial: 'Because I said to, that's why!'... Chicago school closing realities, 2008
While the groundwork for the attacks had been laid for more than a decade — since 1995, when Chicago’s public schools were taken over by Mayor Richard M. Daley — the final blows came down in a very brief period, a classic example of what writer Naomi Klein has called “The Shock Doctrine.” In December 2007, Chicago was introduced by Chicago Schools CEO Arne Duncan to a new civic problem: “Underutilization” of public school buildings. According to Duncan’s a building was “underutilized” if he said so. Basically, Duncan’s staff, led by “demographer” Jimm Dispensa, cooked the books to show that, in Chicago at least, every school had to have 30 children in every classroom, and that no school could use classrooms in a creative way to, say, reduce class sizes and thereby improve education.
Arne Duncan introduced the Board of Education's "Turnaround" team to the media at a January 24, 2008, press conference (above). At the time Duncan proclaimed the "turnaround" strategy, there was no validated success for any of the claims about it. Substance photo by George N. Schmidt.
There were, of course, other variations on that theme. In one part of town (the northwest side), it was “overcrowding” that was the evil to be fought. Provided that the “overcrowding” could be defined by Arne Duncan, Mayor Daley’s mouthpiece.
The new jargon of privatization and teacher bashing union busting is an Orwellian dream. Duncan talked about “underserved” communities — and then proposed closing schools that had been serving everyone in a community and opening new magnet schools that would only serve an elite. It turned out the “underserved” meant that CPS considers any community without a charter school or two to be “underserved” no matter how satisfied the community had been with its public schools. The opening of the first CICS charter school in the Old Irving Park community was the beginning of the assault on public education in the northwest and southwest sides. Another Orwellian scam is the concept of “underutilization.” Duncan gets to decide what “underutilization” means based on the need to target certain schools and communities. The under-qualified “demographers” in that department simply cook the books the prove “underutilization” in any place where Duncan demands that the books be cooked. Contrary evidence provided by the communities is ignored by both Duncan and the Board. Also, while the schools are being held to a vicious version of “accountability,” the dozen errors in the demographics profiles of the schools targeted in February resulted in no sanctions against Duncan’s demographers. Only teachers and school staffs are targeted.
Finally, there is the concept of “underperformance.” If Chicago has 600 schools, then 599 are “underperforming” at any point in history in relation to the most successful school.
By subtly changing the vocabulary of privatization every year and then dictating the new narrative of reality through the major corporate media in Chicago, CPS now stands, thanks to the failure of Marilyn Stewart to negotiate a contract that protects the schools from privatization, to be able to shut down as many schools as the mayor wishes between now and 2012.
