President Obama is pushing charter schools... 'Overall, Congress has spent $3,352,841,281 to create and expand charter schools...' Who is watching their 'performance'...

While most attention to the federal government's education plans has focused on the renewal of the Elementary Secondary Education Act (ESEA) and the reduction, according to some, of the penalties of "No Child Left Behind," . . .

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Chicagoans Arne Duncan (above left) has now become the longest serving U.S. Secretary of Education in history, having begun his term in January 2009 at the time his former Chicago neighbor, Barack Obeama, was sworn in as President of the United States. Duncan and Obama are both

Legislation in Illinois to abolish Charter School Commission passes House Education Committee, HB3754 goes to full House

On March 6, 2014, the Illinois House Education Committee approved legislation to abolish the state's so-called "Charter Schools Commission." The Commission, which was established six years ago based on legislation proposed by ALEC, was given . . .

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Greg Richmond, like many of the most prominent privatization promoters, began his career in Chicago Public Schools.

'Noah Webster Academy ... nothing but a clever scheme to get public money for children who are already being educated by their parents -- at home...'Al Shanker broke with the so-called 'Charter School Movement' by 1994 after learning the early examples of charter school corruption

During the early years of America's so-called "Charter School Movement," one of the movements most important supporters was Albert Shanker, President of the American Federation of Teachers. Shanker, who had taken some of the criticisms . . .

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United Federation of Teachers President Albert Shanker (left) with civil rights leaders Bayard Rustin (right) crossing the Brooklyn Bridge during one of the UFT's actions for public education in New York.

Billionaire James Crown gives $10 million to University of Chicago to expand charter school 'model,' other 'Urban Education' thrusts

Chicago billionaire James Crown and his wife Paula announced on October 15, 2013 that they were donating $10 million to the University of Chicago's Center for Urban Education, according to a university press release. One . . .

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James and Paula Crown. Photo included with the University of Chicago press release on the $10 million grant.

One teacher aide paid $94,000 because of family ties, while most are paid $30,000... New Jersey profiteering as privatization sweeps through schools for children with disabilities

[Editor's Note: The following article from Diane Ravitch's must-read blog exposes another sad example of why Chicago is such a dismal place for news. The Newark Star-Ledger has completed a major investigation showing how much . . .

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New Jersey governor Chris Christie.

Charter backer Whitney Tilson, however, is 'shorting' K12 stock as troubles mount... Thanks to Diane Ravitch for this hoot of a story... Idaho 'virtual' charter school has outsourced its essay scoring to India

With the Chicago Board of Education poised to run sloppily through another round of charter school expansion at the cost of the city's real public schools (this year it's because we need -- only charters . . .

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The shrine of Shiv Mandir in Bangalore India.

MEDIA WATCH: Special ed children pushed out of New York's clout heavy charter school... New York Daily News exposes 'Harlem Success Academy'... 'has for years used a 'zero tolerance' disciplinary policy to suspend, push out, discharge or demote...' kids who would lower scores

It seems that the formula for a supersuccessful charter school in New York, as in Chicago, is to dump the kids who might lower the school's scores before the next test, then ignore the violations . . .

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Eli Broad, the billionaire who funds many of the attacks on the nation's public schools, has visited Harlem Success Academy (above) to push its version of

Chris Whittle's latest scam aimed at the richest strivers in Manhattan... Instead of a Pump-And-Dump like EDSN, the founder of Edison Schools, Inc. and 'Channel One' is going where the really big bucks are: Parents too rich and too dumb to know what money can't buy -- and who hate public schools...

There is was, a quarter century after the first Chris Whittle hype. Another story in The New York Times about another scheme from a guy who has pioneered the scams and schemes of the education . . .

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Edupreneur Chris Whittle moves from market to market with his various scams, and always seems to find some new group to pitch his wares to. First is was

UNO whistle blower's lawsuit to go to a jury trial in federal court... UNO fired a teacher after he reported a locker room sexual assault, then reinstated the student assailants

A federal judge has ruled that a Civil Rights lawsuit filed by a former UNO charter school teacher should go to a jury trial following more than three years of litigation on the matter. According . . .

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Bears player again promotes privatization and union busting via robo-calling for Saturday's 'New Schools Expo'

Once again this year, every parent of a CPS student is getting a robo-call from CPS featuring a pitch by Israel Idonoje of the Chicago Bears that we go to the "New Schools Expo" promoting . . .

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Chicago Bears player Isreal Idonije (above) is once again doing robo-calls promoting the

CLOSING FAILING CHARTERS MIGHT BE A BEGINNING: How to help the CPS 'budget crisis'... By all means, Chicago should close 'failing' schools — starting with half the charters. And get full 'market' rent (finally) for all of them!

This part is going to be fun. Every ruling class lie we've protested from Substance the past decade and through CORE the past five years (and some of us have dealt with the past dozen . . .

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UNO's Juan Rangal to be at City Club of Chicago August 29. Pickets planned?

The City Clubs of Chicago has announced that Juan Rangel, CEO of United Neighborhood Organization (UNO) will be at the City Club public policy luncheon on Wednesday August 29, 2012 for the noon luncheon. The . . .

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Some day, when Chicago professors stop their slavish work for the Plutocracy and the

CTU research debunks charter school claims about low financing, challenges charter mendacity, opacity and overhead

[Editor's introduction. The Chicago Teachers Union presented research testimony against the claims by Chicago's charter schools that the charters are "underfunded" and should be receiving even more money from CPS. The following is the May . . .

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Chicago Teachers Union researcher Sarah Hainds (left) showing solidarity with striking security guards at 161 W. Kinzie building on September 1, 2011. Substance photo by George N. Schmidt.

Anti-union, privatization groups pushed the fifth annual 'New Schools Expo' January 28 at Soldier Field

After months of Robo calls and public service announcements and a week of preliminary “news” reports announcing the event, Chicago Public Schools finally held its “New Schools Expo” at Soldier Field’s United Airlines room on . . .

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Phyllis Lockett, President and CEO of

How to waste another $2 million... Despite protests, at its December 14, 2011 meeting, the Chicago Board of Education approved wasting another $2 million on 'virtual' schools even after two months of investigative exposes, including a major story on the front page of The New York Times

When all was said and done after the protests that postponed the business of the Chicago Board of Education at its December 14, 2011 meeting, the Board voted to waste several million dollars of the . . .

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DECEMBER 14, 2011. Above, the members of the Chicago Board of Education and executives pack their papers for what many are now calling

MEDIA WATCH: Chicago Mayor to host charter school publicity stunt at Noble Street charter 'Pritzker Campus,' a school which routinely dumps dozens of kids from its rolls in January, while keeping the dollars it has been allocated in October

Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel plans to stage another publicity stunt in a school on the morning of December 16, 2011. Following a vote by his hand-picked Board of Education to continue expanding the city's charter . . .

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Seated behind Chicago Board of Education Attorney Patrick Rocks, billionaire Penny Pritzker watched the beginning of the famous

Two, three many Penn States in Chicago's charter schools 'portfolio'?... As CPS moves again to expand unregulated charter schools, it's time to take another long look at Josef Nurek, the sex criminal who was principal of Chicago International Charter School's 'Belden Campus'

One of the reasons why public schools have to remain strictly regulated is that public school teachers and other workers are in control of children of all ages, and in an enormous position of trust . . .

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Penn State's Jerry Sandusky following a court appearance on November 10, 2011, in Pennsylvania.

This Thursday, another CPS scam straight out of the Duncan Days... Charter schools' 'forums' at CPS October 6, 2011 are not 'hearings' and will not listen to public criticism... Three more charter schools rushed ahead by CPS administration

The Chicago Board of Education, almost in secret, has scheduled hearings on three new charter schools to be established by next school year. The hearings, which were noted on the CPS website (www.cps.edu) mark the . . .

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Chicago Board of Education member Penny Pritzker (above, at the Board's June 15, 2011 meeting) has been a vicious supporter of the privitization of public schools through charter schools for nearly a decade. Although the Pritzker family once provided support to real public schools (the Pritzker Elementary School in Wicker Park predates the current generation, which more closely follows the pseudo-philosophy of Ayn Rand than the New Deal versions of economic and political reality that helped create the family's fortunes more than 70 years ago), Pritzker activities lately have been to provide vast amounts of money to privatization, such as the Noble Network of Charter Schools. After Rahm Emanuel appointed billionaire Penny Pritzker to the seven-member Chicago Board of Education in May 2011, her first vote was to affirm the fraudulent claims made by incoming Chief Executive Officer Jean-Claude Brizard that the Board was facing an

MEDIA WATCH: 'They put me in a closet...' Bloomberg Business Week exposes hypocrisy of Oprah charter school... Special needs kids excluded in investigation that shows broader pattern of charter schools' disrimination

Once again, Bloomberg Business Week is providing some of the most interesting reporting in the USA, with the following story (posted September 23, 2011 on line). According to the story, the New Orleans charter school . . .

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Oprah Winfrey's fierce anti-union and pro-privatization biases have hurt children from South Africa to New Orleans and beyond. Above, in 2007, Oprah embraced deregulation in South Africa and founded a private school for girls that was later found to have hired staff who abused the children — sexually and physically. Oprah never connected the dots between her Ayn Randist political and economic philosophy and the oppression of the children she claims she wants to help. New Orleans is just the latest example of her hypocrisy, and there will be more examples to come as she continues her teacher bashing, union busting, and pro-privatization drive.

Pennsylvania charter schools under investigation for cheating... Two of Pa's largest charters part of test score probe

[Editor's Note: The following article first ran on July 21, 2011, in the Notebook (Philadelphia) as 'Two of Pa.'s largest charters part of test score probe.' (Jul 21 2011, by Benjamin Herold, for the Notebook/NewsWorks) . . .

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