* Subscribers have a different sort of context regarding Bruce Rauner’s e-mail five years ago about how half of Chicago’s school principals were allegedly “managerially incompetent” and half the city’s teachers were “virtually illiterate.” Here’s more from the Tribune…
Appearing at a panel discussion in September 2012 as teachers were on strike, Rauner outlined a long-term plan to try to split “good teachers” from organized labor’s grasp using the issues of evaluations and merit pay.
“The good teachers know they’ll do fine. They’ve got the confidence. I’ve talked to them. I know,” Rauner told an audience of business and political leaders at a seminar held jointly by the Dallas-based President George W. Bush Institute and the right-leaning Illinois Policy Institute. “It’s the weak teachers. It’s the lousy, ineffective, lazy teachers that — unfortunately there are a number of those — they’re the ones that the union is protecting and that’s where there’s a conflict of interest between the good teachers and the union bosses.”
A week earlier, Rauner penned an opinion piece for the Tribune saying the strike “provides us all with a clear opportunity to examine the grossly inadequate performances of many public school teachers and highlight and reward the great performances of other teachers.”
“I have sat in a CPS math class and watched division being taught incorrectly. I have seen the standardized test scores of CPS teachers that indicate many of them aren’t even capable of scoring 21 on the ACT, the absolute minimum score needed to be ready for college. How can we believe that these teachers can prepare our children for success?” Rauner wrote. […]
“My wife and I have spent more than $20 million trying to donate to teacher training, principal development, charter schools,” [Rauner] told an education conference in 2012. “And I would say probably 80 percent of the dollars that we donated have been wasted. Lost. No result.”
* More from the Sun-Times…
While Chicago teachers walked the picket lines for seven days, Rauner kept himself busy excoriating the union in scathing op-eds in the Chicago Tribune.
“While there are many excellent CPS teachers, the reality is a tragedy of epic proportions. Hundreds of thousands of children are being doomed to an unacceptably poor education and the diminished lives that come with it,” he wrote in one of those op-eds.
“It’s time we say ‘enough.’ Let’s recognize the CTU strike for what it is. Plain and simple, it is about the union’s drive to protect Chicago’s incompetent teachers at the expense of students and good teachers. We must not be fooled by the rhetoric that teachers are striking in the interests of students. Baloney. This strike is about protecting political power.” […]
“It will take a tremendous fight for us to take our schools back from the union bosses and their fellow bullies,” he wrote [after the strike was settled].
* Also…
Last month, Rauner provoked a mighty backlash from teachers, parents and local officials when he compared the city’s public schools to “crumbling prisons.”
* And check out this e-mail passage not mentioned in the Trib…
Rauner also advocated for “system structure, competition and incentives” as “key” to making sure that only “superstars” took jobs as network chiefs supervising the principals.
Well, now we know where his much-beloved “superstars” label comes from.
- Oswego Willy - Friday, Jul 22, 16 @ 9:35 am:
===“My wife and I have spent more than $20 million trying to donate to teacher training, principal development, charter schools,” [Rauner] told an education conference in 2012. “And I would say probably 80 percent of the dollars that we donated have been wasted. Lost. No result.”===
Let’s be very, very, very… clear.
Bruce Rauner feels…
If I donate millions, I’m immune to criticism and I have every right to hypocrisy…
… because “I donated millions”.
It’s the card played over and over and over… and over.
“I can destroy social services, I donated millions”
“I can clout my denied Winnetka lining daughter, I donated $250,000″
It goes on and on.
When Rauner is pivoting on his insider or dangerously destructive ways, read what follow…
“I donated millions”
Tell that to LSSI. Explain that to all the closed social services. Sit down and fell frustrated with students with no MAP funding…
… Rationalize that to Charleston and Macomb… when windows are borded up at Eastern, Western…
“I donated millions”
… It’s Rauner’s rationale to destro Illinois.
- Langhorne - Friday, Jul 22, 16 @ 9:42 am:
Again with the sweeping statements, and harsh conclusions stated as fact. Data? Analysis? All from a brief observation in one class?
I guess you don’t need evidence, when you know you are right.
- Consideration - Friday, Jul 22, 16 @ 9:45 am:
I would love to see Rauner teach division.
- CharlieKratos - Friday, Jul 22, 16 @ 9:49 am:
Rauner loves division. Divide Illinois into Chicago vs downstate, for instance.
- Anon221 - Friday, Jul 22, 16 @ 9:50 am:
Consideration- Rauner has been excellent at applied (social) division for years, but his costs per class are right up there with Trump University. /s
- Anonymous - Friday, Jul 22, 16 @ 9:50 am:
Consideration - Division is his specialty. Unity, though, he got an F on that.
- Jones - Friday, Jul 22, 16 @ 9:52 am:
rauner is passe.
- Huh? - Friday, Jul 22, 16 @ 9:55 am:
“I have sat in a CPS math class and watched division being taught incorrectly.”
Well little bruce, we don’t teach readin’, writin’ and calculatin’ like we used to. Them’s the old ways that went out with buggy whips. See we got modern and moved into the now 21st century with the Common Core Standards. We have a whole new way of learnin’ that you just don’t understand.
- Sue - Friday, Jul 22, 16 @ 9:56 am:
Hey Oswego- remember the line from a Few Good Men- you just can’t stand the truth. How do you know the Gov, though lacking PC, isn’t right on his numbers
- Anonymous - Friday, Jul 22, 16 @ 9:59 am:
There’s a disturbing whiff of racism with Rauner’s comment about teachers. I sense it also in his previous comments about schools as “crumbling prisons”.
I’m not sure how to describe it — or if it’s just my own anger. But more and more Rauner seems totally unaware — totally unaware — that he’s speaking as a kind of privileged white elite.
It’s a kind of picture that’s emerging.
- Anonymous - Friday, Jul 22, 16 @ 10:07 am:
This coming from a highly successful, can-do governor who can’t seem to accomplish one single thing. Failure——-incompetent, F
- Ms. SHEESH - Friday, Jul 22, 16 @ 10:08 am:
The way he’s talkin’ I’d wreckin’ he’d might need to prove his point by takin’ the ACT test and publish his score.
- Joe M - Friday, Jul 22, 16 @ 10:10 am:
All teachers in Illinois should be outraged. They all go through the same certification process. And because of all of the extra courses and student teaching they must do, they often have to put in 5 years to get their BA. This was/is really a slap in the face to Illinois teachers. No wonder the number of students studying to be teachers in Illinois is way down - when the Governor has this kind of attitude towards them.
- Oswego Willy - Friday, Jul 22, 16 @ 10:16 am:
===you just can’t stand the truth. How do you know the Gov, though lacking PC, isn’t right on his numbers===
Which numbers, 80% in unmeasured wasted Rauner monies, or his blanket rationale without a single figure for backup.
If you - Sue - have the actual measuring, Rauner guesses, he says so… share with the Governor and us.
Thanks.
- The Fool On The Hill - Friday, Jul 22, 16 @ 10:22 am:
Some people won’t be happy until Rauner shuts down the state.
- Formerly Known as Frenchie M - Friday, Jul 22, 16 @ 10:30 am:
So apart from these ridiculous emails — what else has Rauner written?
I mean, has he written articles? Has he published any books? Has he *taught* anywhere?
- Augie - Friday, Jul 22, 16 @ 10:45 am:
Hmmm! It seems to me you could apply his comments about teachers and principles to himself and his administration today.
- Dr X - Friday, Jul 22, 16 @ 10:54 am:
To his point about good teachers. Will he step in and support good teachers who are fired after criticizing school policies? You can be a great teacher, but step out of line with admin and you’ll be gone.
- Anonymous - Friday, Jul 22, 16 @ 10:55 am:
I thought the line was, “you can’t handle the truth.” Very different meaning.
- Arthur Andersen - Friday, Jul 22, 16 @ 10:57 am:
After reading the emails and this story, there is one inescapable conclusion.
Bruce Rauner is Illinois Bob.
- illini - Friday, Jul 22, 16 @ 12:41 pm:
Arthur Andersen - Excellent.
- Demoralized - Friday, Jul 22, 16 @ 12:44 pm:
AA:
I thought the same thing.
- NotWhitman - Friday, Jul 22, 16 @ 1:04 pm:
Hey, the highest paid Illinois employee for several years was illiterate. Tim Beckman could barely read and he worked for our flagship university. Give the teachers a break!
- Anonymous - Friday, Jul 22, 16 @ 2:03 pm:
Is Rauner finally pivoting?
- Oswego Willy - Friday, Jul 22, 16 @ 2:15 pm:
===I thought the line was, “you can’t handle the truth.” Very different===
It is…
I just thought it was “fun” walking it around the barn incorrectly as a comment for me, lol
- Mama - Friday, Jul 22, 16 @ 2:51 pm:
- Oswego Willy - Friday, Jul 22, 16 @ 9:35 am: -
OW, you hit that ball right out of the ballpark. It is not about giving the children a better education, its all about money.
- Mama - Friday, Jul 22, 16 @ 2:53 pm:
If you have not walked at least 5 miles in a teachers shoes, you are no expert.
- Oswego Willy - Friday, Jul 22, 16 @ 3:40 pm:
(Tips cap to - Mama -)
- One day - Friday, Jul 22, 16 @ 4:38 pm:
Rauner wrote:
““My wife and I have spent more than $20 million trying to donate to teacher training, principal development, charter schools,” [Rauner] told an education conference in 2012. “And I would say probably 80 percent of the dollars that we donated have been wasted. Lost. No result.”.
What does trying to donate even mean?