I Now Have a Teenager. Pray for Me.

Today is my daughter's birthday. She is now 13. Officially a teenager. Although she has been of teenage mind for a while now. It's interesting to me to see my daughter as a teen. As someone who has taught teens for many years I have seen what the next few years may hold. Lots of issues for teenage girls, nowadays. There's always boys too.

I'm not to worried. She is a strong young woman. She has made it through a lot of trials and tribulations. She is compassionate and caring. She roots for the underdog. She is not shy and she has an infectious laugh. Through all of her showings of maturity though, I find those moments when she seems like a little kid again the best. Seeing her watch old episodes of Arthur for instance. Always one of our favorites.

I remember when she was little and she did something that frustrated me or made me mad. I would say to myself, "I can't wait for you to get older." Those days are now upon me. It's funny because now sometimes I catch myself saying, "I wish you were younger again." There's no going back now though. We have entered a next stage in life for my daughter and for me.

I look forward to it. High school is right around the corner and lots of other cool stuff that will one day be memories to look back at and laugh or cry about. So do pray for me. For Us. I don't think it would hurt. Anyway, Happy Birthday Mari. I love you.

Rob the Neighborhoods to Pay the Charters

A recent poll conducted by Hart Research Associates found that out of 1,000 parents surveyed, 61% are opposed to the closing of low-performing schools. The poll also found that over 3/4 of the respondents are against cutting resources for the classroom while increasing spending on charter schools. Further reading about the poll can be found here. 

All parents want quality schools in their neighborhoods. Their children should be able to walk to a quality school. They should be able to walk in and attend not have to test to get in. They should be able to attend the school and get a broad and rich curriculum without fear of being "counseled" out for lack of academic success.

This poll regarding money and charters comes on the heels of CPS closing over fifty neighborhood schools and slashing neighborhood school budgets by at least $68 million. The Sun-Times released this graphic the other day that compares charter school budget gains and neighborhood school budget losses. This is pretty clear.

Two new UNO charters get $4.9 and $4.5 million right off the bat. While long established neighborhood high schools Kelly and Curie lose $4 million each in the upcoming school year. CICS and Noble Street will each get an increase of over $3 million while Fenger, Phillips and Kelvyn Park, which have been continually starved over the years, all lose over $3 million.

In all, charters/contract schools received an increase of close to $78 million dollars according to Raise Your Hand Illinois. It seems CPS has pulled the old "rob Peter to pay Paul." This time however, they have robbed the neighborhoods to pay the charters.

Pensions and Denial

Today's Tribune has a story that has Mayor Emanuel blaming the CPS closings and the city's reduced bond rating once again on pensions. He says:

If anyone doubted the severity of the pension problems, the mayor said Sunday, last week's events should serve as something of a "wake-up call." 

"Denial," he said, "is not a long-term strategy."

Denial. An interesting word choice. Especially as he relates it to a long-term strategy. CPS denied payment to the pension fund for a long term. Between 1995 and 2005 CPS collected more than $2 billion in pension tax revenue but contributed nothing to the pension fund. Meanwhile, the Chicago Teachers Pension Fund (CTPF) members contributed 9% from every paycheck every two weeks. The problem does not rest with member's contributions or pensioner benefits.

The average CTPF retiree gets a pension of $42,000 per year. They are not eligible for social security. Pensions are a contract and a promise made to teachers. For most it will be their only means of living after they retire. To pull that from people that have dedicated their lives to teaching this city's children and to blame it on those same people is inhuman. 

The mayor and CPS have been given several suggestions about how to increase revenue. Changing TIF funding, closing corporate tax loopholes, ending toxic bank swaps, introducing a financial transaction tax and a progressive income tax system have been ignored by the mayor, CPS and the state. Even the Tribune and Sun-Times say they should at least be looked at.

Mayor Emanuel should consider these strategies and should be pushing for every source of revenue he can get for our schools and city. After all, "Denial is not a long-term strategy."

CPS Attacks Continue

Today, CPS is expected to layoff over 2,000 school based employees. According to CTU, 1,074 teachers, 451 paraprofessionals and 550 other employees will receive pink slips from CPS. This in spite of all the rhetoric from CPS and Mayor Rahm Emanuel that budget cuts will be as far away from the classroom as possible. Since most of them have never been in a classroom since they were themselves students, perhaps they forgot that teachers and paraprofessional are in the classroom. They also seem to forget that they just instituted a longer school year and now can't fund it or staff it.

These cuts, along with close to 850 positions lost to the school closings/consolidations/turnarounds, will adversely affect our students in Chicago. A loss of teachers will definitely lead to higher class sizes. I predict, at the high school level, that principals will be asking teachers if they will teach a sixth class to help keep class size down. Guilt will be used as a tactic to get teachers to do this. Teachers would of course get paid for the sixth class because it is after all cheaper to pay for an extra class than an extra teacher. Teaching six classes is tough, though. Many teachers can do it but at some point it does wear on the teacher. Is that good for students? Planning time is also affected which is also a negative for students.

A couple of things really bother me about these budget cuts and school based personnel layoffs. With all of these teacher layoffs coming, CPS at last months board meeting gave Teach for America (TFA) an increase in the amount spent on hiring TFA teachers. This amount increased from $600,000 in 2012-13 to $1,587,500 for 2013-14. You can read about that here. 

If CPS knew the layoffs were coming, and they've known for awhile that they were, why would they increase the amount of money for hiring TFA? Because CPS and the mayor want a cheaper disposable workforce for the future. They want TFA personnel who will stay for two years and then move on and then CPS will hire more 2 year wonders and so on and so on. I don't know what is more insulting. That CPS and the mayor think the students of Chicago deserve a "peace corps" style teaching force or that CPS sees teachers in Chicago as a "peace corps" of sorts.

I also think it is shameful that CPS continues to blame their budget deficit, not that I believe they really have one, on teacher pensions. If CPS has anything wrong it's that they have a revenue problem. TIFs, toxic swaps with banks and corporate tax loopholes deprive our students and schools of billions of dollars every year. I and every teacher I know has never missed a pension payment. It comes straight out of our paychecks. CPS chose to take several pension holidays and now it has caught up with them. Don't cut resources, close schools, layoff staff and try to destroy our pensions for your mistakes. It's typical CPS though. They make a huge mess and then it's those of us in the schools that get stuck cleaning it up.

House bill H.R. 5, the re-authorization of the No Child Left Behind Act

The U.S. House of Representatives could possibly vote on the re-authorization of the No Child Left Behind Act, House bill H.R. 5 this week. The bill is being called the Student Success Act. Call your U.S. Representative and ask them to keep working on the bill.

The new bill does make some positive changes. It would:

• end the Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) accountability system.
• do away with a specified, restricted list of school interventions.
• prohibit the U.S. Department of Education from requiring states to implement certain programs in order to receive funding.

 It doesn't go far enough though. The pieces below are still an issue and need to removed and/or re-tooled:

• provides for less funding overall and more "local flexibility" in how funds are used; we've seen how well that works in Chicago right now.
• continues annual high-stakes testing in grades 3-8.
• requires the use of student test scores in teacher evaluations.
• emphasizes "parent choice" and expanding funding for charter schools as opposed to improving and maintaining neighborhood schools.
• removes the requirement that teachers be "highly qualified" which again favors charter schools that aren't required to have highly qualified teachers.
• reduces funding for class size reduction.

Contact your U.S. Representative today and tell them that H.R. 5 needs to be improved. Tell them you want equitable funding for neighborhood schools. You want class size reduction funding. No more high-stakes testing for our children and no test scores tied to teacher evaluations. 

Click here to find contact information for your U.S. Representative.

CPS Closing Lawsuits and School Budgets

Two stories caught my attention today. First, two lawsuits are being heard in federal court regarding CPS closings. One suit contends that the closings disproportionately affect African-American students. Nine out of ten students affected by this years school closings are African-American. The second suit argues that CPS is violating the Americans With Disabilities Act by not having an orderly plan for transitioning students with special needs.

At least 5000 special needs students will be affected by school closings. That's 5000 Individualized Education Plans (IEP). How is CPS going to insure that all those students individual needs are going to be met at their new schools? Throwing an iPad at every student isn't going to cut it either. The key word in IEP is individual. Every IEP needs to be reviewed to guarantee that each student's individual needs are met. How is CPS going to do that between now and August 26, the first day of classes? That's 42 days. All of us who are special education teachers know that it is impossible. We always have trouble getting summer assessments done and that's for students who aren't even transitioning. 

The second story was an article in the Sun-Times today. It seems that some schools have been granted additional money to their school budgets. You can read the story here. Bell Elementary School was one of the schools. The local school council approved the budget but voted to reject an additional $100,000 that was released to them. One Bell LSC member said they rejected the new money because it would make it appear that they "rolled over" after originally rejecting the budget. The chair of the Audobon LSC, which also received an additional $100,000, questioned CPS' reasoning. He asks if it is hush money because they are a middle class community.

It does sound fishy. Schools that raised concerns about their school budget shortfalls all of a sudden receive more funding. That these schools are middle class and mostly white also adds to the speculation. It sounds like more CPS divide and conquer tactics. The rejection of this extra money and the speaking out about it is a good thing though. Solidarity among parents and school communities is happening in Chicago. Everyone is seeing that we are all in this together. All of Chicago's schools are our schools.

Why I'm Blogging

I started blogging yesterday. It's been on my to do list for a long time. Then yesterday, I just jumped right in and didn't do an intro to why I am blogging. 

My first post was about the George Zimmerman not guilty verdict. I  attended the Free Minds Free People Conference that was held in Chicago this weekend. I really enjoyed it. Great workshops and plenaries. Met lots of cools educators, activists and organizers.The best moment though was a one-on-one conversation I had with a woman named Jo Ann Mundy, an anti-bias/anti-racist educator. She does professional development and training for schools and organizations. Our conversation was about institutional and unconscious racism.

We talked about what it looks like in schools among and between staffs and students. I particularly liked the part of the discussion about roles we play in trying to tackle racism. Jo Ann talked about how as a black woman she will often be seen as the "crazy" or "complainer" if she speaks up at a place where racism is institutionalized or unconscious. We talked about how as a white male, if I speak about it, I more than likely won't be seen in that same way. People might actually ask if there is an issue for real.

So after this conversation, I said that I was going to make sure I am that person that addresses race issues at work and other places in my life. I am going to use my standing as a tool to start these conversations and hopefully get some honest and healthy dialogue about race. I want to step up and be a leader in this dialogue.

Saturday night rolls around and I get a news alert that George Zimmerman has been found not guilty. I always knew it could happen but I was still shocked. I went on Facebook to see what was being posted. Two friends have comments that I couldn't believe. One from a male friend was, "Not Guilty. Yes!" The other comment from a woman, "Zimmerman found not guilty. He never should have been tried for just defending himself anyway." My reaction? I curse them out and un-friend them. So much for being a leader and a vehicle for change.

I was mad all night about the verdict and about those two responses. Mad because two people I know chose to celebrate a not guilty verdict over recognizing injustice done to a child. It bugs me too because both of them are public service workers (not teachers though) in Chicago. Bugged me that I ever called them friends. But did I try to have that conversation with them? No. Like I said I cursed them out and un-friended them. Yea Jim. That's going to change their thinking.

Sunday morning I was reflecting on what happened the night before. I decided I knew what I wanted to do and that I wanted to say it out loud. So I started my blog. Again, something that I have wanted to do for awhile but never got around to. Thanks for all the views and positive responses. I hope to post something everyday so please look out for it.

I am not Trayvon Martin!

I'm not saying that in a disrespectful manner. I am not Trayvon Martin and Trayvon Martin is not me. That was made very clear last night by a Florida jury in finding George Zimmerman not guilty.

If I was Trayvon Martin there would have been a conviction last night. Maybe not a murder conviction but at least a manslaughter one. There would have been because I am a white male adult not a black male teenager. This isn't my white guilt kicking in. It is my acknowledgement of my white privilege and how f'ed up that is.

Until we, and when I say we I mean white people, acknowledge that racism still exists in this country there will continue to be more injustices like Trayvon Martin. If anyone really wants racism and injustice to stop then we (white people) need to start having that conversation. We (white people) need to start leading those conversations. It needs to be had in schools, workplaces, churches and social clubs. It needs to be led by us so that the conversation isn't written off as the "complaining" of the black person at work or school. We need to put our white privilege to use so that we can make positive change not just reap the rewards of it.

It isn't going to be easy. It needs to be done though. Freedom and justice need to be for everyone. We need to live up to the values this country has always claimed it was built on. We have waited too long for it to happen. I would love to say I am Trayvon Martin. I am not though. I am going to push this conversation though. I am going to take risks and make people uncomfortable. I want to be Trayvon Martin and I want Trayvon Martin to be me.