RAHMWATCH: 'Chicago Mayor kisses babies, shows love of Bronzeville!' could be the headline... Rahm doubles down over the weekend with two publicity stunts on South Side and the usual photo ops with African American children ... But no 'media availability'!Chicago's mayor, Rahm Emanuel, must have studied propaganda by reading some of the masterpieces of the last century. He has virtually stopped talking to most reporters while having his taxpayer-paid City Hall press handlers ("The . . . | Article | |  |
The Diane Ravitch Contradiction: Educators Should Rebel, but Be Nice When Addressing Oppressive Union Leaderships[Editor's Note: The following commentary on the contradictions in recent Diane Ravitch blog postings went up at midnight and we thought should be shared before this afternoon's CORE meeting in Chicago. Those who wish to . . . | Article | |  |
Chicagoans prepare to take back their city: A view from the West Side... Community meetings pushing organizing agenda forward towards upcoming elections“Imagine what a community would look like that you and your children deserve -- and what are you willing to do to bring that to fruition?” Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) activist Tara Stamps said. CTU . . . | Article | |  |
BOARDWATCH: Of course a career that includes working for Kaplan Higher Education and other corporations prepares a guy to become the new CPS 'Chief Communications Officer'The Board of Education was explaining at its July 23, 2014 meeting how it didn't have the dollars to pay for teachers in the city's real public schools, while parents, teachers, and others who actually . . . | Article | |  |
BOARDWATCH: Alderman Fioretti questions why the Board is starving Monetfiore of students[The following is the statement read today by Second Ward Alderman Bob Fioretti at the July 23, 2014 meeting of the Chicago Board of Education. The statement and the letter from the Progressive Caucus of . . . | Article | |  |
Do CPS 'College Readiness' bureaucrats get a paid day off for Bastille Day?... Chicago Public Schools can't even find the phone number for its vocational and 'career' programs, let alone provide a list of schools' offerings to a callerIn the last month, the Tribune Business Section had at least two articles by two different writers describing the thousands of jobs for workers in skilled areas as drafting, machinery, electronics, and others. In its . . . | Article | |  |
RAHMWATCH: Taxpayers are paying for every iteration of 'Rahm's Rainbow' as faux news stories pour out of the Mayor's Press Office. They come complete with photographs of Rahm Emanuel surrounded by (usually) smiling African American women and childrenChicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel is sparing now expense to show the world that every day he is engaged in uplifting Chicago with worthy projects, and that he is surrounded by African American people -- usually . . . | Article | |  |
BUDGET LIES AND LIARS -- That three quarters of a billion dollars that Rahm's people 'cut' from the CPS 'administrative' budget? David Vitale could tell you that it never existed -- if he checked his notes from 2006. Reminder -- If you're going to tell a lie, tell a whopper and repeat endlessly...Eight years ago, as the first graphic with this article shows, the Chief Executive Officer of Chicago's public schools (Arne Duncan), the Chief Administrative Officer (at that time, David Vitale), and the Chief Financial Officer . . . | Article | |  |
Kennedy King budget hearing July 16, 2014 show growing public resistance to CPS budget tales... Chicago in 2014 -- when one of the speakers asked kids at one elementary school what they wanted to be when they grew up, half of them answered 'Alive'From approximately 6:00 PM to 8:00 PM on Wednesday, July 16, 2014, 31 speakers in an audience of approximately 100 signed up to mostly comment toward but also question Chicago Board of Education (BOE) Fiscal . . . | Article | |  |
Malcolm X budget hearing on July 16, 2014 shows the arrogance of CPS executives in the face of real problems articulated despite the two-minute time limit by taxpayers and the communityIt was obvious that people were angry at the same old same old reports given by the Board of Education and Tim Cwaley, who anchored the administrators' table in the front of the room during . . . | Article | |  |
Brown v. Board Of Education at 60: Will we ever achieve compliance?“The night the 1954 Brown decision to desegregate schools was announced, the NAACP Legal Defense Fund threw a party. Future Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, who had worked on the case was reported to have . . . | Article | |
A Teacher’s Lifeline: The AFT Common Core Horoscope...RESOLVED, that the American Federation of Teachers will continue to support the promise of CCSS. . . --AFT delegates, Los Angeles July 2014 ... "[W]e will continue to support the promise and potential of these . . . | Article | |  |
Wright College, July 16, 2014... Chicago Public Schools budget hearings continue on the path of mendacity first paved by Rahm Emanuel in 2011... use of security staff to stifle debate and enhance Rahm's police state atmosphere expands on scheduleOn July 16, 2014, the nation's third largest public school system held its annual budget hearings, and once again, the public was insulted. A new group of (mostly young) bureaucrats smiled, thanked every critical speaker . . . | Article | |  |
AFT CONVENTION NEWS AND ANALYSIS: Do AFT locals need an anti-bullying contract clause when facing national leaders? Randi's 'You're more beautiful when you're angry' smiles fall flat when dozens of her 'thugs' push, shove and manipulate the physical spaces in both Common Core debates44-25. RESPECTFUL WORKING ENVIRONMENT. The following behaviors are inconsistent with a respectful working environment and are impressible: (a) verbal abuse, which includes, but is not limited ot, obseene, threatening, humiliating or intimidating language; and (b) . . . | Article | |  |
AFT convention approves special order of business in support of British Columbia teachersAmong the more than half dozen special orders of business passed by the American Federation of Teachers convention in Los Angeles was one supporting the British Columbia Teachers, who are facing a reactionary attack from . . . | Article | |  |
AFT 2014 CONVENTION REPORT: Common Core debate is heated, but the vote is a foregone conclusionAFT14 Report - Common Core Debate - Epic Battle Between Chicago/CORE and UFT/Unity. PHOTO: The great Sarah Chambers nails them to the wall opposing Common Core ..... Watch it live: bit.ly/1wbeSZG... Gloria in visitor's . . . | Article | |  |
AFT CONVENTION REPORT... Norm's Notes... EdNotes for Saturday July 12, 2014 AFT convention. AFT is going to debate a resolution of 'no confidence' in Arne Duncan while Chicago continues to battle the Unity tsunami over the Common Core... and other things[Editor's Note, by George N. Schmidt. Substance will be updating our convention reports from the American Federation of Teachers convention here in Los Angeles with reporting from several of our regular reporters, and when time . . . | Article | |  |
AFT CONVENTION UPDATE: Randi told the press she'd 'let the members decide' on whether to vote to dump Arne Duncan...As the word spread through the AFT convention that delegates were going to demand that the convention vote on a resolution calling on Arne Duncan to resigns -- as the NEA had earlier in the . . . | Article | |
American Federation of Teachers prepares to vote to continue support for Common CoreThe 1.6-million-member American Federation of Teachers (AFT), which is meeting at its convention in Los Angeles this weekend, set the stage for a vote in favor of the Common Core during committee meetings on July . . . | Article | |  |
In Chicago, the John Galt fan clubs learn there is such a thing as a free lunch... Billionaires' Babies' Breakfasts -- and lunches -- are now free thanks to Barbara Byrd Bennett's BullshitSince one of the plutocrats let another cat out of the bag when he compared the current wave of anger and criticism at the privileges of the plutocracy to Nazism, some of us in Chicago . . . | Article | |  |
