51 Comments - James the Intolerant - Monday, Aug 4, 08 @ 10:23 am: The protest should take place on Aug. 21, the first day of school for New Trier. That way the CPS studnets would not miss a day of school, negatively impacting CPS funding, and by the time the protest will take place New Trier will already have had classes for almost two weeks so even if any CPS children were able to enter New Trier they would be hopelessly behind in class. - montrose - Monday, Aug 4, 08 @ 10:23 am: I am not a person that thinks every problem is a call for public protest. It is a tool that is used far too often. That being said, it can be an effective tool used in the right context, and I think what Meeks is proposing, if done right, is the proper context. If it is one splashy high-profile event on one day with no follow-up, then it is a big waste of time, but if enough people participate that day, and there is infrastructure in place to keep up that urgent pressure through multiple channels, then it is a smart move. - Excessively rabid - Monday, Aug 4, 08 @ 10:33 am: I like the protest idea. But if CPS is run by the same caliber of people we see running state government today, it won’t matter how much money goes there - education is not going to improve under those conditions. That’s the main reason many voters from other areas won’t support funding reform - they think it will all go to waste, fraud, and abuse. Why would they think otherwise? - Down in Egypt - Monday, Aug 4, 08 @ 10:36 am: The Black Caucus supporting school choice? Wow! I knew Rep. Davis had finally gotten off of her high horse complaining about charter schools, but what next? Will they support real school choice and vouchers or just open enrollment. I support both and though while the latter is important it’s going to take the former to actually create enough choices for students. The Chicago Public School system is a disgrace as is a number of other districts throughout the state. Open enrollment within public schools is a start but it won’t be enough. Even downstate there are too many school districts like Mount Vernon and Carbondale grade school districts where a majority (yes, over 50 percent) of black kids are labeled special education and thus neither expected to perform, nor taught as well, as white children. Will the Black Caucus finally divorce themselves from their unholy alliance with the teachers unions who care nothing about the students but only about protecting their members? Will we see a statewide ban on strikes during the school year? How about the end of tenure — and to be fair, allowing recall of school board members? What about incentive pay for teachers. It worked in a test in Little Rock. Why not vouchers where the state funding follows the student? There are a number of real reforms out there that have never been tried in this state because Chicago lawmakers have cheated the children of their districts in order to take the funding from the unions. The Black Caucus as a whole have been among the worst at doing this. This little crack in their facade of union unity may just represent a seismic shift. - Sango Dem - Monday, Aug 4, 08 @ 10:47 am: They should take a bus to visit one of the better funded schools and come home with new books and toilet paper. Now that would make a statement! - Louis G. Atsaves - Monday, Aug 4, 08 @ 10:52 am: Sounds like he is arguing for school vouchers in a fashion. Then the child’s parent can use that voucher to enroll the child in any school in the state. But then how will a child get from the South or West Side of Chicago to say, New Trier Township High Schools? Who will pay for that? And the hardship of travel that the child will face? My parents moved to the suburbs because they didn’t want me and my brothers to attend a CPS High School. And I lived on the North Side where the high school I would have attended was considered a “safe” one. As a 1972 H.S. Grad, I still feel lucky my parents had the ability to do that back then. And what a shocker back then to suddenly discover that I was a complete idiot in Math and Science as compared to the suburban kids. As my first math teacher in the suburbs said after my second day in class, “Oh, so you’re a Chicago kid!” Not all kids are that lucky or fortunate. - The Welshman - Monday, Aug 4, 08 @ 10:52 am: I recently came across this peice, which offers some supplementary commentary on the subject. I’m not saying that I agree or disagree with it, just thought it might enrich the dialogue. The link: http://www.urqmedia.com/proft/contentview.asp?c=214456 - GOP - Monday, Aug 4, 08 @ 10:53 am: They should first look at education funding from the state. Chicago gets much more per pupil than any of the wealthy suburban districts they are targeting. I also agree it should happen on the first day of school in the suburbs…always before Labor Day so they miss a day of school. - Ghost - Monday, Aug 4, 08 @ 10:55 am: Meeks problem is he is foucing only on chicago. I agree that scholl funding in IL is out of whack and need massive reofmr. BTW someone might want to tie into this that the Lottorey provides a lot of money for school funding. If we lease the lottory, we would be steadily reducing this source of funds for education over time as the lease provides a stagnant flat amount compared to the lottories income growth. That said, this is not black v white, it is straight up rich v poor. Meeks should remeber that the State of Illinois goes beyound cook county and the Chicago area. Many small counties and communites throughout the State suffer from decaying schools with no bugets. The state is filled with towns with very little money, almost entirely white populations, and lousy schools. We need to abandon the current property tax model, or pool all of the property tax money and distribute it equitably throughout the State. Yes there are many other problems including parents, but the funding disparity is a major chunk of a problem that can be eliminated. - Ted - Monday, Aug 4, 08 @ 11:00 am: The terrible condition of these schools would never happen if we would just elect Democrats to run the State and the City of Chicago. Put them in charge of the schools. In the meantime, we need to hold accountable those who are responsible for how these schools are run and how they have horribly failed our children! It would be great if Sen. Meeks leads the charge against those in charge. - Cassandra - Monday, Aug 4, 08 @ 11:01 am: I agree that students shouldn’t have to attend schools with no toilet paper and 20 year old books but how many Chicago schools fall into that category of decline and decay and why haven’t those principals be fired. In Washington DC, the young mayor apponted an even younger Korean-American woman to run the school system and gave her almost complete political support. She appears to have spent most of her first year or so trying to tame the education bureaucracy which has resisted mightily. We, like DC, have created an education bureaucracy monster and it’s going to take a bigger dragon than Meeks and his protesters to slay it. - Plutocrat03 - Monday, Aug 4, 08 @ 11:04 am: The anger is simply misplaced. A simple comparison is between The Chicago School district and Adlai Stevenson HS illustrates my point. (2006 data.) Chicago SD299 per pupil expenditure 16,664, local funding 7,348 Stevenson per pupil expenditure 21,611, local funding 18,585 That shows a 4,947.00 benefit to the suburban student. However if the local share were to be raised to provide the same number of local dollars from Chicago as the suburban schools get, the available per pupil revenue would be 27,901. The fact of the matter is that the leaders of Chicago are willing to starve the education system more than the suburban systems. Remember that the average annual property tax rates in the state are in the high 2% range, with a few venturing above 4%. Chicago is hovering in the low 1% range. If a demonstration is required for parity and equity, make that demonstration if front of City Hall. That is where your funding problem lies. Note: the Chicago data aggregated primary and secondary education costs. That will tend to skew the per pupil differences between a purely high school district. The actual dollars spent per high school pupil are closer than the above data indicates. - Wumpus - Monday, Aug 4, 08 @ 11:08 am: If you want to ensure a GOP majority, push this proposal. Schools, crime in schools and the problems of thses CPS students are a large reason why many left the city to move to the burbs. This is not about getting these kids a good education, most would support that. The city is a totally different world than some of the burbs, especially New Trier Schools. Not that burban kids are angels, but these teachers would not know what to do. I think Meeks is sincere and not grandstanding, but suburbia would not go for this until some of the social ills are cleaned up. Even minorities who left the city would not tolerate this proposal. People left for a reason. Kids could take the train to some areas, Chicago does have good transportation. Plus, the gov is giving up free rides, so why not this instead of payong for school bussing, Metra/Pace vouchers. - Fan of the Game - Monday, Aug 4, 08 @ 11:12 am: So Sen. Meeks wants to disrupt the education of students at New Trier to make a point? Does he want the parents of CPS students to pay the same property taxes as the folks in Winnetka? Does he realize that of New Trier’s revenues, only 2.9% comes from state funds, while Carver High School receives 35% of its funds from the state? I agree with Sen. Meeks that we need to change funding to make education as equitable as possible throughout the state. However, a “takeover” of one school district by the students of another is no way to achieve those ends. - Phineas J. Whoopee - Monday, Aug 4, 08 @ 11:14 am: I am sick of the Chicago Public School’s blaming school districts that don’t suck for why they do. What good is it to block up New Trier? There are so many issues involved in why CPS schools are the way they are and you could teach an entire curriculum on their problems. I do know the solution isn’t blaming people because they have money. Maybe Meeks and co. should look in the mirror and see where the problems are. Their not in Wilmette - Chanson - Monday, Aug 4, 08 @ 11:20 am: Until children stop having children and we address the socio-economic problems, nothing will change. - Walkenstik - Monday, Aug 4, 08 @ 11:25 am: Ghost - I was reading your 10:55 blog and it made me wonder - are you a product of the CPS? - Snidely Whiplash - Monday, Aug 4, 08 @ 11:33 am: Nobody throws more money into “education” than the Chicago Public Schools. Yes, they suck. Yes, they need better teachers. But, as a “product” of CPS, I can tell you point blank that much of what is wrong with CPS is the fault of the students/parents themselves. The line to the disciplinarian’s office is longer than the lunch line. The schools are full of kids whose parents don’t seem to care about their education, nor about their activities outside of school. How many of those kids would be gangbangers if their parents were doing their jobs? That said, it seems to me to be a fifty-fifty proposition: students and parents need to clean up their acts to where these kids want to go to school and actually go their to learn, and CPS needs to provide a better quality education. Neither one will work without the other. Does anyone honestly believe that if you switched the student populations between a poor CPS high school and a rich suburban one that suburban school would suddenly be inundated with disciplinary problems and plummeting test scores? I know it’s not politically correct, but, c’mon, already. You can’t address a problem without honestly assessing the problem, first. - Snidely Whiplash - Monday, Aug 4, 08 @ 11:36 am: Oops. That sentence should have read: “Does anyone honestly believe that if you switched the student populations between a poor CPS high school and a rich suburban one that suburban school would not be inundated with disciplinary problems and plummeting test scores? - Lolo - Monday, Aug 4, 08 @ 11:37 am: I commend Senator Meeks for highlighting an issue that is dear to us all. You don’t need to agree with his methods … only that we all (rich, middle class, poor) agree that all of our children’s education is important. I happen to believe that the IL Black Caucus is an excellent place to start the discussion. Until you have the discussion, you just have spouting and sometimes desperate measures call for desperate actions. And if not this group - who? I’ve seen good wrok come from this group and have a lot of respect for a majority of its members. I’m looking for end results - an educated group of individuals that will take our country to a higher level … not an uneducated group continuing in poverty, hatred and disengagement. Those of you that spouted hatred, get over yourselves and become part of the solution and get to work. - VanillaMan - Monday, Aug 4, 08 @ 11:42 am: This isn’t a new problem at all. For over 200 years, we have been publically funding schools and allowing their governance to be locally reflective. In Boston, public schools in 1850 were palaces, while in Houston they were segregated one room shacks filled with mosquitos. But regardless of whether your children attended Boston or Houston public schools, your children learned. Children were more literate in 1880, than today. Money has nothing to do with it. Instead we blame schools for bad parenting, teen pregnancy, laziness, obesity, inattention, disrespect, sagging jeans and acne. By emphasizing “individual rights”, what was invaluable became unappreciated. We lowered the bar so low, students and parents have absolutely no standards of behavior and demonstrate a level of selfishness that drives loving teachers from doing what they love. Security cameras have shown a level of chaos no human being would tolerate, regardless of pay. No more money. Each school is to find a way to meet the needs of their neighborhood children within the ample funding provided. Yes, some schools are hovels and shouldn’t be occupied. In cases such as these, we have the ability to find a balanced way of fixing these situations without resorting to blanket demands of ever increasing taxes. Desperate times demand desperate and creative solutions. These failing schools need to feel desperate and creative yet they do not, expecting others to pay for their laziness and failures. Instead of begging, let’s start seeing some progress, or at least some sincere attempts to make progress. Funding failure doesn’t end failure. - Ghost - Monday, Aug 4, 08 @ 11:56 am: VM a lot of kids did not attend school in the 1880’s, as they were required to work. Those that did often had either no books, o they used the same school books. Those bookes emphasized geogaphy, basic math and basic english. They did not leanr a lot of science, advanced, math, social studies, art, music. They did not learn trade type skills, no computers etc. A kid from the 1880’s could do name all the countries of the world, many of their leaders, and do basic math with maybe, some geometry. They could not discuss accounting pricncaplas, economics, market ecnomoies, advanced lagebra, biology, chemistry and so forth. Most kids who completed school could do basic math, but had no understanding of the basic economics of the time. We cover a lot more subjects as opur society become increasingly more complicated. The more “civilized” or advanced we become the more peices or elements there are, such as stick markets, junk bonds, contracts, operating computers, copiers, scanners, wireless technology, being able to do research and so forth. I agree kids are passing out of scholl with way to little knoweldge, but what we cover in school now is not comporable to the tiny amounts of information they spent years studying in the 1880’s - Wumpus - Monday, Aug 4, 08 @ 12:04 pm: Snidely W., a couple school districts back in my homeland have tried open enrollment. They accepted kids from the “major” city. Their sports teams were in the playoffs, but other social issues arose. Within 5years or so, they ended that program. The sentiment was that a good sports team was not worth all the head ache. This is not some posh burb like Wilmette, but a very diverse town with a majority white, but with heavy Jewish, Indian, Blacks and other minorities represented. - Fan of the Game - Monday, Aug 4, 08 @ 12:08 pm: Money is not the sole answer, but it is part of it. Schools like New Trier, Deerfield-Highland Park, and Adlai Stevenson succeed partly because they are safe schools and pay very well. Having parents who value education is another part of the solution. Even in southern Illinois, too many parents do not see the value in education, mostly because that value is not immediately apparent. People in poverty often look for the immediate pleasure and payback. The value in education is dtoo far delayed for those in poverty. In the examples I used above, 96% of Carver’s students come from low-income houselholds compared to just 2% of New Trier students. Schools and their neighborhoods need to be safe for both students and staff. One cannot recruit the best teachers and get their best if they fear for their safety. One cannot get the best from students if their only goal is survival. Education, by the Illinois constitution, is a state responsibility. It is the state’s job to ensure that all its children receive an equitable education, and the current funding system does not allow for this. - Sweet Polly Purebred - Monday, Aug 4, 08 @ 12:15 pm: It is always the CPS. What about East St. Louis, Cairo etc? The same funding schedule that is affecting the CPS is affecting them also. Schools with no hot water, broken windows, trash piling up, no soap etc etc etc. Meeks needs to get off his pathetic “POOR CPS” attitude and get on board with the OVERHAUL THE FUNDING FOR THE ENTIRE STATE band wagon. Money is not the only problem in ANY school. If the parent(s) are not involved, if the parents are not held accountable - ie: mandatory parental involvement in school activities, field trips, quarterly evaluatory meetings with teachers, counselors etc then a child will never succeed. You cannot rely on the school system to raise your children. Someone in a parental role has to be there at night with a child. To feed them, make sure their homework is completed and see that they are in the house at a time reasonable to their age - how many kids have a book read to them at night? To many parents want to party, run around, etc and live their lives independent of their children and leave it to the schools and society to deal with the aftermath of years of neglect. This is not a racial or socio-economic thing. This is a situation born of ignorance, selfishness and irresponsibility. We need to quit making excuses for parental bad behaviour and encourage parents to step up and take responsibility. Instead of Meeks pulling this publicity stunt, why doesn’t he and other like minded individuals use their energy and money to create parenting classes that will help teach the parents how and why they need to become involved in their children’s scholastic lives. It does not matter if you spend 5 cents or 5 million dollars a year on a child’s education, if education is not considered an important goal in the child’s home the child will struggle to succeed. - Gregor - Monday, Aug 4, 08 @ 12:46 pm: I’m sure Meeks can get another promise for more education funding out of this governor. Based on all the previous promises the governor made to the reverend, I’m sure this can only work out well! Meeks, you had him on his knees when you threatened to run, now you have nothing, because you believed the man. - Snidely Whiplash - Monday, Aug 4, 08 @ 12:52 pm: If all students are allowed to attend the school of their choice, the Wilmette and similar schools will have to expand to look like a trailer park, and all the CPS schools would be mini ghost towns. Where is the logic in that threatened lawsuit? Meeks is another Jesse Sr. - RAI - Monday, Aug 4, 08 @ 12:58 pm: When Meeks goes to New Trier he will see that the reason these schools have all of the stuff they have is because parents come up with the FEE$$ I live in that area and school fees are in the thousands for the year; books, trips, after school classes etc are all extras paid for by the parents.Parents also give their time to save money on employees When the parents from Senator Meeks area will also put up the money-time, their schools will also be able to give the students the same kind of education. - Prairie Pasha - Monday, Aug 4, 08 @ 1:05 pm: The problem with Illinois school funding is systemic. It’s not just CPS or Cairo but also hundreds of poor rural districts that suffer the same sort of funding and leadership neglect that Senator Meeks sees in his district. - Captain America - Monday, Aug 4, 08 @ 1:10 pm: The Reverend Meeks’ concerns are legitimate. A little civil protest and diobedience seem in order to publicize the problem of inequitable funding and outright inadequate education many poor and disadvantaged children are receiving. It takes political will to improve the system - before meaningful change can and will occur you have to shake up the system. - Anon - Monday, Aug 4, 08 @ 1:14 pm: As others have noted, money is not the sole problem. But the solution to the money part of the problem is simple: tuition vouchers. Give the kids and their parents the right to go wherever they want and take their funding with them. Look at what the system of tuition vouchers has done for higher education in this country, starting with the post- WWII GI bill and proceeding up to student loans and other subsidies to the student, not the school directly. Our college system is the envy of the world, even though our secondary system is considered a joke. I distrust all simple solutions, but this is my one exception. - TaxMeMore - Monday, Aug 4, 08 @ 1:28 pm: Meeks should be protesting outside the teacher union offices and the offices of Emil Jones and Michael Madigan. New Trier is innocent, why is Meeks discriminating against them and wrongly accusing them? $250,000 per year pensions for life to school administrators and $125,000 per year pensions for life to driver’s ed teachers is a bigger problem than New Trier. Heck, Meeks should protest himself for voting to waste money outside the classroom. - Rich Miller - Monday, Aug 4, 08 @ 1:30 pm: LOL Just found out that today’s is Meeks’ birthday. - Enemy of the State - Monday, Aug 4, 08 @ 1:39 pm: Out source public school functions to India. Students get to travel and recieve a great education. - countryboy - Monday, Aug 4, 08 @ 2:47 pm: Neighborhood kids attending neighborhood schools is a valid concept. Vouchers to attend the school of your choice has the upside of adding competition and ultimately freezing out schools that refuse to deliver, but the downside is this… it won’t work. Higher ed is not a valid comparison - they’re resident communities. Before you get too puffed up over open enrollment, picture just how New Trier is going to handle the traffic flow. They’re rumored (East campus) to offer a valet service currently for their neighborhood student body… Beyond fuel costs and carbon footprints and lost time, there’s simply the fact that the structure can’t accomodate. The ability to get in and out should not be the determinant, but if you can’t get there, its not going to happen. Drive by your local elementary school on a rainy afternoon and notice all the Lincoln Navigators lined up to haul the walkers away one or two at a time, then multiply by X and picture the chaos of a voucher system. We need to fix what’s in place, not fund public browsing… - VanillaMan - Monday, Aug 4, 08 @ 2:51 pm: I normally enjoy Ghost’s postings, but his rebuttal on my posting is below his own personal par, begging for a comment… ==VM a lot of kids did not attend school in the 1880’s, as they were required to work.== You are assuming a great deal, because it seems you didn’t cover much history. Because mandatory school ended after 8th grade, doesn’t mean that schools didn’t recognize this, the children didn’t realize this, or that society didn’t realize this. That means for 8 years, schools were more condensed and work intensive than today. Expectations for 12 year olds were high, or higher than for today’s pre-pubescent citizens. You underestimated your family’s knowledge and over-estimated the importance of schools. You claim that they didn’t have books? Have you ever seen the number of printed materials published in 1880? More than enough, I assure you. Additionally, chautauquas, sermons, poetry, bands, orchestras, theatre, and public speaking were popular forms of entertainment. Children played instruments, because they didn’t have phonographs, radios or television. Children drew pictures, sewed, knitted, embroidered, and upholstered learning about science since they didn’t have cellphone cameras, videography or photocopiers or Abercrombie and Fitch. Children played games without the use of computers, Wii, or adult supervision, so they were creative team players. Your claim that children only learned basic math and science is only based on what? Do you believe that schools deliberately decided to keep children ignorant of algebra, geometry, biology, geology or astronomy and dummied down? ==A kid from the 1880’s could do name all the countries of the world, many of their leaders, and do basic math with maybe, some geometry. They could not discuss accounting pricncaplas, economics, market ecnomoies, advanced lagebra, biology, chemistry and so forth. Most kids who completed school could do basic math, but had no understanding of the basic economics of the time. We cover a lot more subjects as opur society become increasingly more complicated. The more “civilized” or advanced we become the more peices or elements there are, such as stick markets, junk bonds, contracts, operating computers, copiers, scanners, wireless technology, being able to do research and so forth.== Algebra was taught in 6th, 7th and 8th grades. Chemistry was taught, as was biology. Societies have always been more complicated than what a school could teach. Implying that back in the 1880s people could just slough off and had it easy somehow is nonsense. We make things as complicated or as simple as we wish. The 1880s were as complicated as you wish them to be. They didn’t understand economics? In 1872, the Viennese Stock Market crashed and the Long Depression set in until 1896. By 1880 they understood the real world impact of recession, depression, currency and bi-metallism, and could read and write quite understandably. ==I agree kids are passing out of scholl with way to little knoweldge, but what we cover in school now is not comporable to the tiny amounts of information they spent years studying in the 1880’s== Tiny amounts of information? Ridiculous! How did we ever get to be such a great society with such ignorant ancestors as you describe? Gee, how did we ever function at the level of ignorance you are claiming we suffered under? You don’t appreciate your ancestor’s level of education, and probably see them as rubes, racists, and morons. Well, speak for yourself! If we took an average 1880 student and asked them to write a posting similar to the one you posted today, you’d obviously be amazed by their spelling, grammar, and typing skills. And you aren’t the only one. It isn’t your fault that you have a discriminatory disapproval towards earlier generations of Americans. We have been led to believe that we are the epitome of enlightment, fairness, and the flower of biological perfection. We have been led to believe that our ancestors were stupid, ignorant, sexist, racist, close-minded, religious, overly dressed, kill-joys that ever walked the Earth. It is no wonder why anything traditional or proven in our society is knocked as backwards. Our understanding of history is appalling, but worse is our bigotry against history. Perhaps this is one of the side effects in a society that believes that progress is a constant, but it is a definate negative side effect. There is little new under the sun, including demands that tax payers cough up more of their wages to cover up a broken public education system. Those in power always demand more money to prove that their solutions aren’t failing. - Notasocialist - Monday, Aug 4, 08 @ 2:52 pm: OK…so here’s my question. Point blank. Why should I go to college, work hard, skimp and save to buy a house in a school district populated by the similarly-minded if not in order to insure a superior education for my children. CPS in a product of an entire geographical region failing to put the education of the children first. Exactly how much of my income should be taken from the education of my children and given to CPS. All residents of Illinois have the same freedom to move to a better school district or (less easily) vote to increase local taxes and improve the one they have. I haven’t seen any push by residents to increase the taxes they are paying for the education of their children even though they already pay less than most. I say, suck it up. If you want a better education for your kids pay for it. I already do. - Loop Lady - Monday, Aug 4, 08 @ 3:31 pm: Meeks is a savvy man who actually gives a damn… the system of school funding in this state is unfair and needs to be addressed at con con I hope the citizens realize this and vote yes Meeks will not be bought off by Blago again… the meats a cookin’ - Wumpus - Monday, Aug 4, 08 @ 4:19 pm: Loop Lady, Meeks is not that savvy if he was the only person who believed Blago. Notasocialist, I agree with you. That is why I moved where I moved and bought less of a home was in part the schools, in part the saftery and proximity to work. - Fearless Leader - Monday, Aug 4, 08 @ 4:39 pm: Only one mentioned vouchers to make the system responsive! We have to look at the incentives built into the system (of public education). First and formost it is a taxation plan, not an eduction system. This creates pools of money in every “community”, and that sort of thing really draws flies. Second, the current arrangement, being funded by taxes, makes us as parents and students the enemy; because we want to take money out of the process. In the private sector, we would be the heroes, no matter how stupid and unpleasant, since we supply the revenue. Anything worth having is something people will pay to have. Sadly, education doesn’t have value for many in Illinois. Is education really expenseive, as in New Trier Township, or do expenses simply rise to absorb the extra revenue the tax levy can collect there? When the schools have to run like any other worthwhile enterprise, they become efficient to make the best use of the (limited) funds they have. Oddly enough, this leads to innovation and all sorts of breakthroughs!! Businessmen don’t buy computers to be geeks. They have to to keep with the competition. What about electronic textbooks, labtops instead of bookbags and who knows what? As you contemplate your tax bill look at the school building, locked up tight at 4 PM or so. The managerial system is in place to rent those rooms to teachers, who might teach me a thing or two in the evening. When you think about it, the whole “school system” could be self-supporting with a tad of innovative thinking — even PROFITABLE. So, school board memembers, take us off the tax rolls, give us a share of stock, pay the teachers per student, give them stock options and send us a dividend check! (Think I’m kidding? Take a look at how much each school district takes out of your community, high school and grade school to use the old expressions.) - Keyser Soze - Monday, Aug 4, 08 @ 4:43 pm: Is it possible for a good teacher, using only a chalk board and 20-year old books, to teach normal young students to read, write, and perform basic mathematics? The answer, of course, is yes. Could the same teacher, when armed with more advanced tools, achieve even greater success. The answer, again, is yes. Now, recognizing that funding may not permit all to have the advanced tools, shouldn’t a good teacher still be able to teach the fundamentals. Yet, it isn’t happening. Hence the problem with many of the schools in Illinois, not just in Chicago. So, independent of money (which is currently unavailable), how do we get better performance out of out public schools? A modest proposal is to first get better parents (this is up Rev. Meeks’ alley), and secondly, to get better teachers. Whoops, or get rid of bad teachers? How do you do that? The unholy alliance that exists between our politicians and the teachers unions makes this all but impossible and thus virtually guarantees continued failure. And, even with the best teachers, and unlimited resources, some elements of society don’t embrace education, they simply pass along illiteracy from one generation to the next. So, how do we combat invincible ignorance? How do you teach those who have no interest in learning? I sometimes think that it is going to take something akin to the Marshall Plan to conquer the public education problems in this country. More money may be the least of our needs in the public schools. - Loop Lady - Monday, Aug 4, 08 @ 4:47 pm: Wumpus: huh? nice spelling too… - zatoichi - Monday, Aug 4, 08 @ 4:59 pm: After reading of Meeks efforts, I looked at our local school district which is a central Illinois rural area. We are at $8,950 per student K-12. That is about $1,500 below the Chicago rates. Well over half of our recent grads have gone to some type of college. Local employers are screaming for better education because most kids do not return to the area once they leave college, they get jobs elswhere. It is getting harder to find local, good employees. Is Meeks going to stay focused on CPS or will he be willing to make this a statewide issue? - Fearless Leader - Monday, Aug 4, 08 @ 5:02 pm: The schools don’t need money, they need a desire to teach. Who is the customer of our “public school” system? Who writes the check that attracts the superintendent’s attention? Hint, it’s not you. The schools need less money and more of a desire to teach. That’s not going to happen as long as money flows in no matter how the organization preforms. Read Thomas Sowell’s books and columns on this subject. The army has a system. After basic training, everyone can march: tall people, short people, black people, white people — that’s a system. If students are getting a better education on the North Shore, simply because the houses are more expensive, parents on the South Shore should start asking questions. By the way, whatever happened to those great, nationally recognized public schools in South Shore from the 1920’s? - Rich Miller - Monday, Aug 4, 08 @ 5:17 pm: ===We are at $8,950 per student K-12. That is about $1,500 below the Chicago rates.=== Yeah, but your cost of living is way below Chicago’s. Way. It’s an apples to oranges comparison. - Phineas J. Whoopee - Monday, Aug 4, 08 @ 6:18 pm: If Meeks and co. are going to the North Shore to protest on the 1st day, I think North Shore kids should stay home too. Fair is fair and just cause your rich doesn’t mean you don’t want a day off. Maybe 6-Flags could open that day. - Truth - Monday, Aug 4, 08 @ 7:05 pm: Dear Rev Meeks, Please call off your protest of education funding. It might embarrass me. I will not raise taxes on people. But, shhhhh, I have a plan that will save education. I’m planning to take $1 billion out of the state’s checkbook and bet it on the Cubs to win the World Series. By the end of October we should be set. I know that Lottery thing didn’t work out but this time I mean it. As usual, I know I can count on your support. Rod Blagojevich PS: Thank you for not running for Governor. I owe you one. - Gregor - Monday, Aug 4, 08 @ 10:20 pm: We can make a movie out of this: Ferris Blagojevich’s Day Off” - steve schnorf - Monday, Aug 4, 08 @ 10:32 pm: My experience is that Meeks is a class guy, and very serious about the education funding issue. Those who think otherwise may not know him well. - reformer - Monday, Aug 4, 08 @ 11:12 pm: Meeks has an effective attention-getting device. His goal is to enact SB2288, which Emil promised to call for a vote during veto session. - Anon - Monday, Aug 4, 08 @ 11:28 pm: Funding is not the problem. PARENTS need to actually care about student attendance, discipline and achievement. When parents take responsibility and ownership of their schools, things will change. Sorry, comments for this post are now closed.