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Meeks has an idea for Chicago schools.
Would an extra $50,000 persuade Chicago’s best teachers to work in the city’s worst public schools?State Sen. James Meeks (I-Chicago) thinks so, but he also wants such teachers to prove they’re worth the extra money by passing a test and presenting a track record of results with kids.
Just as he put pressure on Gov. Blagojevich to produce a school funding plan, Meeks will turn up the heat on Mayor Daley today to encourage the best teachers to work in the city’s neediest schools.
In an exclusive interview with the Sun-Times, Meeks said he hopes to take up to 300 men to City Hall at noon today to ask Daley how he will address new reports indicating Chicago public schools are disproportionately stocked with the state’s lowest-quality teachers. […]
Meeks has his own ideas on the issue. He says top-notch teachers should be offered a $25,000 signing bonus and $5,000 a year for five years to work in failing schools.
The governor’s hype apparently doesn’t match the reality.
Educators applauded a law signed Wednesday by Gov. Rod Blagojevich that sets aside $10 million for a pilot program aimed at reducing class sizes, but they said much more is needed to take a significant bite out of crowded classrooms.State officials hope to lower class sizes in some crowded schools to no more than 15 pupils in kindergarten through 3rd grade through the program, under which public schools can apply for funds that will be disbursed in $50,000 grants.
But at Wilson Elementary School in Cicero, where Blagojevich signed the law before a dozen 7 and 8 year olds, $50,000 would get the school one new teacher, said Supt. Clyde Senters of Cicero District 99.
And Jesse Jackson will lead a march on Springfield in September, when nobody will be at the Statehouse except reporters.
The Rainbow/PUSH Coalition plans to lead a march on Springfield this fall demanding state legislators act on education reform, president and founder Rev. Jesse Jackson Sr. said at the organization’s annual conference Thursday.Just as students are returning to school, Jackson plans to hold a weekday march on the state’s capital to demand changes to education funding in Illinois
But he doesn’t seem satisfied with Gov. Blagojevich’s proposal, which has no property tax relief component.
At the conference’s closing luncheon, Jackson said the organization will demand the state educate all of its children and end the policy of property tax-based funding.
posted by Rich Miller
Thursday, Jun 22, 06 @ 7:27 am
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OH GOD I see it now Meeks for mayor.
Comment by DOWNSTATE Thursday, Jun 22, 06 @ 7:39 am
I wonder when someone will actually stand up for the untold numbers of families are being taxed out of their homes to pay for the “education” to pay for the upkeep of schools so physically unsafe that they have to pay yet again to send their own children to public schools? Now, Meeks wants to take more of their money to entice their children’s teachers out of those schools and into the unsafe ones they’re paying for but can’t use? It never ends, does it?
Comment by Snidely Whiplash Thursday, Jun 22, 06 @ 8:17 am
Egads, I messed that up! Here’s what I was attempting to say:
I wonder when someone will actually stand up for the untold numbers of families who are being taxed out of their homes to pay for the “education†of other peoples’ children by paying for the upkeep of schools so physically unsafe that they have to pay yet again to send their own children to private schools? Now, Meeks wants to take more of their money to entice their children’s teachers out of those private schools and into the unsafe ones they’re paying for but can’t use? Does anybody seriously believe that it’s some kind of PRIVILEGE to have to pay for a private school, or that most of these people would do so if their kids could go to public school in their own neighborhood without being beaten, assualted, or threatened by thugs, gang members and dope peddlers? It never ends, does it?
Comment by Snidely Whiplash Thursday, Jun 22, 06 @ 8:22 am
Let’s hope Jackson moves that field trip to veto session.
Comment by Yellow Dog Democrat Thursday, Jun 22, 06 @ 8:36 am
I wonder when or how Rev/Senator Meeks is going to swing additional funding for the school owned and operated by he and Salem Baptist. Has no one thought of this potential conflict of interest for Meeks? It appears to me Rev Jackson is distancing himself from the ridiculous proposals of Meeks and Blago.
Comment by Big Al Thursday, Jun 22, 06 @ 8:38 am
Perhaps Arne Duncan and the mayor should come up with a ridiculous paln and tell Meeks that the city will sell the Parking Ticket Operations to a private firm for a lump sum payment. That’ll shut him up. He got Punk’d by da Guv’nah.
Comment by Wumpus Thursday, Jun 22, 06 @ 8:39 am
Sure, good teachers will jump at the chance to come to the neediest schools by simply raising the salary. Don’t need security, maintenance, or a quality program. Just keep spending more. It is the answer to all problems. Just borrow $100M.
Comment by zatoichi Thursday, Jun 22, 06 @ 8:40 am
Looks like Meeks has finally figured out he was screwed by this governor. Meeks is a little slow. He might do better with Daley.
y.
Comment by Big Red Thursday, Jun 22, 06 @ 8:53 am
You all aren’t nice today.
No one should go to Springfield when legislators are not there. That’s unproductive and shows Jackson is really slipping, or his handlers don’t know how to ask the question of the scheduler. YOu go to Springfield to show legislators you’re willing to make the trip - WHEN THEY ARE THERE. This is purely a publicity stunt with no teeth.
Comment by EducationAdvocate Thursday, Jun 22, 06 @ 9:31 am
Why should only Chicago schools get extra money for teachers when rural school students also get second rate educations because of rural poverty? Why aren’t we trying to ensure all kids get equal educational opportunities?
Paying teachers more for hazardous duty is justifiable, but the money might be better spent on creating a safe environment that doesn’t scare away good teachers. Strong and empowered principals are the key to running a quality school.
Using Illinois Virtual High School (www.ivhs.org) would also save money on building construction and maintenance that could go towards teacher salaries.
As a former HS teacher, it always amazed me PE and art teachers got paid the same as math and science teachers. Is it any wonder we have an excess of PE and art teachers and a shortage of quality math and science teachers?
Comment by Anonymous Thursday, Jun 22, 06 @ 9:45 am
Meeks out, but HB 750-supporter remains
Jim Broadway, Publisher
State School News Service
When the Rev. Sen. James Meeks dropped out of the governor’s race last month, accepting his newfound “vision” on education funding, the incumbent Gov. Rod Blagojevich may have had a moment of relief. He would not have a school funding advocate of House Bill 750, and the tax implications it contains, running on a third-party ticket, draining votes he desperately needs in his contest with Republican Judy Baar Topinka.
“Or,” as Homer Simpson says, “will he?”
We’ll find out soon enough. Green Party candidate Rich Whitney, a Carbondale lawyer with a sharp tongue and more than a little savvy, files his petitions of candidacy next week. If he has enough - it takes 25,000 - and can fend off the anticipated challenge by the Democrats, he’ll take Meeks’ place on the November 7 ballot.
Sharp tongue?
“The budgetary disaster that confronts Illinois is a bi-partisan failure … fiscal irresponsibility and special favoritism toward corporate interests that is shared by the current administration in Springfield, its Republican predecessor, and both corporate parties in the legislature.”
“I will fight to get House Bill 750 - or something like it - passed,” he declares. “I will do what is necessary to save and improve our schools, make higher education more affordable to students and parents of limited means, make sure that workers receive the pensions they were promised (and) give the people badly needed property tax relief.”
Whitney has more substance on his web site (www.whitneyforgov.org) - on public education and a host of other issues - than either of the two major party candidates. His campaign manager, Jennifer Rose, said the 25,000 signatures have been received, but they are still seeking more for insurance.
-end of article-
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Comment by It is easy being Green Thursday, Jun 22, 06 @ 9:58 am
I am a mentor for inner city boys. My 11 year old buddy is living in a shack on a dirt floor. I buy and wash his clothes. His mother is a heroin addict and he never sees her. His father is a drug dealer and deals out of the shack. His grandmother takes care of him and his 1 year old sister. He is one of ten children by his father, and one of five by his mother. He now has a one month old brother by his father’s 16 year old girlfriend. His one year old sister’s mother is 17. (Some people actually call this a “family”.) Last month, he got a mongrel puppy for Christmas who is so thin he was picked up by the humane society. Tomorrow we are going to a water park he lives near, but has never been to. I have taken him to places in the city he never knew existed.
My buddy struggles in school. He is bullied by the neighborhood kids because he does his homework and has a mentor. He can’t read or write, but then neither do the boys that bully him. His father told him to start fighting back and gave him a knife to take to school this year.
What Meeks and Jackson are witnessing is the implosion of black culture. Their struggles with the Governor is out of sheer desperation. They cannot go to their voters and tell them that the education problem is largely due to their parental neglect, so they are desperately seeking public school solutions. Without parental support, public schools are failing. Without parental support, the neighborhoods around our schools are dangerous. Without parental support, there are no taxes to support their needy neglected children.
Poverty is not due to a lack of money. Poor education is not due to a lack of funding. Our grandparents and great-grandparents didn’t even go to school after the 8th grade, yet they were prodigious writers, and could add faster than a calculator. Education didn’t die because it was served up in a clapboard one room school house. It dies out of sheer neglect.
Since I started, the boys I have mentored have stayed in school, have stayed clean, and have tried to succeed. They didn’t need more public school funding to pull themselves up. They needed a man.
It makes my heart sick to see these boys suffer. Thanks to 40 years of Welfare, we have spawned a corrupted dead-end culture that eats it’s young. All the good intentions in those trillions of dollars has only worstened the situation. Meeks and Jackson were elected to do something. Like a drowning men, these pols are grasping at anything to save their neighborhoods and what is left of any intact families remaining in them.
We are expecting miracles from public education. We are expecting something they were never meant to provide. What today’s pupils so often lack cannot be provided by full time teachers, regardless of how well they are paid.
We all know this too! For the past thirty years, we have been seeing our schools fail. I went to a crap school and dealt with gangs, so this is not a new problem. What we are doing is running as fast and as far away from our cities as possible and building new schools. This is our solution - save our kids and feel sorry for the rest. This is understandable and even Darwin would understand our priorities.
But nothing is lonelier than sleeping on a stained mattress on a dirt floor with a one year old, while your so-called dad deals dope and parties around you and you have to face another school day sleep deprived, hungry and waiting for the bullies to mess with you for trying.
Comment by VanillaMan Thursday, Jun 22, 06 @ 10:53 am
VanillaMan, I don’t think anyone could say it better. My hat is off to you for making a difference in those boy’s lives and the assistance that you’ve given them.
Comment by BBishere2 Thursday, Jun 22, 06 @ 11:01 am
In today’s Suntimes Meeks speaks about taking 300 “men” to City hall to protest the Mayor’s education plan.
Question: Why only men, aren’t women and young women apart of the city’s education formula as well? Or do men make the louded uproars?
Will he intimidate the Mayor as he did the Governor?
There are other alternatives that I believe the state and the city should look into to help fund education in the State of Illinois and intimidation is not one of them.
Comment by One Man Can Make A Difference Thursday, Jun 22, 06 @ 11:27 am
VanillaMan -
Its great that you’ve taken time to become a mentor. You’re right, the biggest indicator of what level of education a child will achieve is what level of education his parents achieved. If you can be there everyday for that kid for the next seven years, and we can find 400,000 other guys like you who are willing and able to make the same commitment, we’d be much better off.
I will take exception to some of your other conclusions, though. It’s great that your grandparents were prodigious writers and could add like a calculator. But to compete in the international economy for the best jobs, you need to read, write and speak multiple languages and know your computer and all it’s applications like the back of your hand. These are things kids can only learn in classrooms from qualified teachers, and this is why the National Science Foundation has found that there are more foreign-born nationals working in high tech jobs in the U.S. than there are African Americans.
Sure, not everybody is going to end up with a job like that. But the fact remains that while in our grandparents time, you might’ve been able to raise a family with an 8th grade education, as my grandfather did, those times are long gone. If you want to live the American dream of a family, a home, a better life for your kids, and a happy retirement for yourself, you better either have a college degree or a union card, and thanks to the economic policies of George Bush and the Republican Party, there are alot fewer union jobs in the U.S. than there used to be. Despite all of your gifted rhetoric, these are the facts.
Recently, Rev. Jackson took a group of kids from Harper High out to Naperville, to see how the other half learns, and brought kids from Waubonsee to the city to take a hard look at life on the other side of the tracks. Do you know what the kids from Waubonsee said? “We could not learn here.”
P.S. Show me the parents willing to send their kids from Naperville, Wheaton, New Trier or Lake Forest to Chicago Public Schools and let a Chicago kid take their place, then you can tell me money doesn’t matter. It sure as hell matters to the folks in Naperville, Wheaton, New Trier and Lake Forest, otherwise they wouldn’t be spending $20,000 a child.
Comment by Yellow Dog Democrat Thursday, Jun 22, 06 @ 11:37 am
Oh man this was apart of Meeks’ sermon at church this past sunday. And this was on TV too. This plan is sound and I like the idea of offering an incentive to good teachers.
Comment by Levois Thursday, Jun 22, 06 @ 11:39 am
Vanilla Man-
I too applaud your efforts. Unfortunatley, just simply pouring more money into education funding is not the solution. There needs to be an overhaul of the education funding formula in Illinois.
And no matter how much a teacher is qualified - students in poor communities near additional assistance. In my experience working with second and third graders in low performing schools, ONE teacher can only do so much. There are not just disturbances by other students in the classrooms, some students are geninuely frustrated when they can’t keep up with the rest of the classroom and act out.
They need parents/role models/mentors to foster an environment in which students understand the importance of education and are supported not only financially, but emotionally.
I also have to question Rev. Jackson and his motive to march in September. I’ve seen him march at the state capital in the past. But I can’t recall that he has been down to march since Blago was elected.
If it is just to raise the issue of education funding in Illinois before the election - perhaps something can be set up in the Chicago area.
Comment by Marta Elena Thursday, Jun 22, 06 @ 12:00 pm
One Man Can Make A Difference - Thursday, Jun 22, 06 @ 11:27 am: - in the black community, women have been pullin gmore than their fair share of the weight, more men need to step in. That is why it is only men, I assume.
VMan, you are the coolest.
Salry for these teachers is not the only issue. For years, teachers have taken lower salaries at parochail schools for safer conditions and kids who actually are encouraged to learn by their parents.
Comment by Wumpus Thursday, Jun 22, 06 @ 12:14 pm
Perhaps we should be asking what incentives and penalties would encourage responsible fathers? Would hiring fathers to be fathers help?
How about offering the option of community service working with kids after extensive residential training and counseling to reformable minor offenders, as an alternative to jail/fines?
Is addressing class and cultural issues of responsibility the key?
Meanwhile, it appears society needs to act as fathers for the fatherless.
Any other ideas?
Comment by Anonymous Thursday, Jun 22, 06 @ 3:26 pm
In a past employment position, I visited IDOC juvenile facilities. It was always sobering to realize that for many youth, it was the best life of their experience. A warm, dry place to sleep, three meals a day - every day, and someone who cared if they were in school every day and behaved.
Solving all of the education problems is certainly beyond my capabilities, but involved parents is an essential part of raising a child who can function successfully in society.
Comment by Ethel Thursday, Jun 22, 06 @ 5:29 pm
Regarding throwing more money into education - “You can lead a horse to water but you can’t make him drink”. The point is that no matter how much money is put into education - more money for teacher salaries, buildings maintenace etc, if there are problems at home, if the kid just doesn’t want to be in school, has learning disabilities - there is no way the kid is going to learn. Fix the home, encourage kids that learning is a means to an end, help the kids the learning disabilities - then maybe the kid will learn.
Comment by Socially Promoted to the Next Grade Thursday, Jun 22, 06 @ 5:49 pm
- Anonymous - Thursday, Jun 22, 06 @ 3:26 pm:
Perhaps we should be asking what incentives and penalties would encourage responsible fathers? Would hiring fathers to be fathers help?
How about raising your children, that is my incentive. A lot as been done in the ara of wage garnishment, but alot of these deadbeats don’t hold jobs. Why a woman would be attracted to a lifetime unemployed guy is telling why many are in the situation they are in.
How about offering the option of community service working with kids after extensive residential training and counseling to reformable minor offenders, as an alternative to jail/fines?
I am all for if not decriminalizing marijuana, make it only a misdemeanor punishable by fine/community service.
Is addressing class and cultural issues of responsibility the key?
It has nothing to do with class if you are talking about income level. Ever since the great society, Uncle SAm has replaced dad. The only cultural issue is the lack of personal responsibility.
Meanwhile, it appears society needs to act as fathers for the fatherless.
And we see where that has gotten us, things have gotten worse.
Any other ideas?
Perhaps jail time for deadbeats, forced sterilization at birth and get a license to procreate when you have proven that you are finaancially/mentally ready to have children and be a parent
Comment by Wumpus Thursday, Jun 22, 06 @ 7:24 pm
Wumpus - your tounge-in-checck is not appropriate for what seems to be a fair discussion regarding education.
The real issue for the burbs is property tax relief especially when not enough of the Sales, Excise fees, Income taxes comes back to the suburbs for education - most burbs get only a couple hundred per student in the areas of DesPlaines, Nortbrook and others. In 750 there are no guarantees that property taxes will reamain frozen. Fix that and you may have something.
Consolidation is a must. Skokie get with it. If one added up all the administrators in all three or four elementary districts in that city they would save a bundle. Not only that but bulk purchasing for insurance, supplies, books, the whole business side of education would benefit and more than likely all students would continue to learn as they do today.
Most of Illinois thinks consolidation is a south of 80 problem - heck no. D211, D214, Crystal Lake High School District, etc. The feeders are all over the map. The prolem there, high school educators salaries are out of line with elementary educators and the two shall never merge unless forced to do so — and that’s everywhere.
South of 80, it’s country schools that have miles between them to consolodate. A much more difficult issue. Everyone’s talked about consolodation - let’s really do something ISBE.
Leadership is needed here. Better ideas.
Comment by EducationAdvocate Friday, Jun 23, 06 @ 7:50 am