Reality bites
Monday, May 13, 2013 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Back in March, before Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s school system ordered several school closings, the Chicago Tribune editorial board published a Joyce Foundation poll which showed that 55 percent of Chicagoans strongly or somewhat agreed that the city should close under-enrolled schools.
* But in May, after the closure plans became a reality, the numbers flipped, according to a Tribune poll…
Chicago voters hold a dim view of Rahm Emanuel’s stewardship of public education after a tumultuous year that featured a teachers strike and the mayor’s push to close many neighborhood elementary schools, a new Tribune/WGN-TV poll shows.
Disenchantment with Emanuel’s education policy is particularly acute among minority voters, and that’s helping drive up negative views of the mayor’s overall job performance as he reaches the middle of his first term this week.
Nearly 6 of 10 surveyed said they disapproved of Emanuel’s attempt to downsize elementary schools, while just a third approved. Those numbers closely mirror negative feelings about Emanuel’s approach to public education, which he has labeled a top priority. […]
Asked whom they sided with in the debate over public school improvement, 41 percent of those surveyed said the teachers union and just 19 percent said Emanuel. Another 36 percent said neither.
The more I think about that editorial board poll, the more worthless it looks.
* Related…
* Emanuel to seek second term
* Dump Emanuel in 2015? Spare us, CTU: The Chicago political establishment, the useless one that has spent so long building “Chicago-style politics” into a joke, is going to get a very rude awakening in February 2015. Mr. Emanuel is going to keep raising money and run a competent, effective campaign. And then he’s going to face clowns and run over them like a steamroller: Slowly, leisurely, and permanently.
* Emanuel School Closings Popular with Rich People?
* Emanuel gets split verdict on crime - But majority of voters approve of McCarthy’s performance as city’s top cop
* Emanuel’s approval slips, especially among black voters - though most respondents still consider him to be trustworthy
* Emanuel’s Chicagoness an issue to many - Most voters think mayor isn’t in touch with people like them
* Emanuel not getting the jobs done?
* Quinn will continue to halt UNO funding until ethical issues resolved; “Simple as that”
* UNO charter-school scandal has Wall Street worried
* Where UNO charter schools’ money comes from
- Robert the Bruce - Monday, May 13, 13 @ 10:02 am:
At first glance, given budget constraints, it would appear that Rahm needs to close some schools. But I wish he’d end the TIFs in areas that are doing well and give that money back to the schools.
And, for future funding, I wish he’d ask that new casino money go to the schools themselves, not to building new ones. (is it really the buildings themselves that are bad? or could it be that this is a way to send money to his charter school and construction buddies?)
- wordslinger - Monday, May 13, 13 @ 10:09 am:
Were the poor little lambs of Wall Street led astray on charter schools? Oh, the humanity.
What gall. Wall Street and the hedgies have been pushing charter schools all over the country as a way to tap directly into one of the biggest cash cows in the country — public education tax dollars.
- Downstater - Monday, May 13, 13 @ 10:21 am:
Maybe, Rahm needs to start sending dead fish wrapped in newspaper to critics!
- za - Monday, May 13, 13 @ 10:35 am:
Yes, close those schools. We can’t afford schools with low numbers. What, MY neighborhood school will close? NIMBY!
That arguement sound very familiar somehow.
- Plutocrat03 - Monday, May 13, 13 @ 10:41 am:
Yeah, how dare Wall Street try to tap into the same pool of money the teacher’s union is tapped in to.
Don’ they know the union has dibs?
- wordslinger - Monday, May 13, 13 @ 10:46 am:
LOL, Pluto, I see this fine spring day has brought out your natural joive de vivre.
- Pot calling kettle - Monday, May 13, 13 @ 10:57 am:
I wouldn’t be surprised to see the poll numbers flip when we go from the abstract idea of schools closing (which makes sense based on enrollment trends) to the concrete reality of specific schools on a list (which raises specific objections among impact parents, alumni, and teachers AND elicits sympathy when it plays out in the media).
- Wumpus - Monday, May 13, 13 @ 11:04 am:
How dare he close empty schools.
- FrankP - Monday, May 13, 13 @ 12:04 pm:
Operation Safe Passage:
A Fire Department Memo dated May 3, 2013:
On-Duty Chicago Firefighters will be required to walk CPS school students to and from schools (Act as security Escorts) .
- Wumpus - Monday, May 13, 13 @ 12:11 pm:
Does this mean that a white flag has gone up and the gangs have won? Maybe they could ask the gang leaders for passes for the children?
- CircularFiringsSquad - Monday, May 13, 13 @ 12:56 pm:
A. Kassamoron proves that he is a plump illerate mutt with his Rahm piece. Rather than ask some real questions and get some real answers he does his cute ERV imitation
B. The UNO/Wall Street is a real non story. Some ought get the Wall Streeters to release the full conference call transcript
- Loop Lady - Monday, May 13, 13 @ 1:10 pm:
These are not empty schools…they are under performing schools…Rahm grossly exaggerated the cost savings of closing the schools and then conveniently forgot to factor in the externalities of closing these community based institutions of learning (albeit some doing it poorly) that serve many other functions, as is the norm …who decided Mayors should run public school systems anyway? This is not in the realm of their expertise as far as I can tell by the results since Daley took over from Vallas, (who was running them well, and ran Paul out of town)…
Rahm deserves this sh*tstorm as far as I am concerned…with great power comes great responsibility…
- WestSider - Monday, May 13, 13 @ 1:51 pm:
Rahm has persued reform, in the manner of generations of reformers before him. He talks to other reformers. Talking to the people whose lives you would like to change. Way too messy, time consuming, and you can’t turn that into a bond or stock offering. This is a clasic case of:if the solution is simple; you don’t understand the problem.
- Just The Way It Is One - Monday, May 13, 13 @ 7:31 pm:
Most recent is what matters in politics, and most recently, Chicagoans don’t much like it, which actually may very well end up being somewhere more around slight majority didn’t like it by his next Election Day,or even a toss up, but unlikely to become THE decisive factor in whether he’s re-elected…