49 Comments - H-W - Thursday, Sep 7, 23 @ 3:02 pm: === My children go to Chicago Public Schools. === Oops. - Honeybear - Thursday, Sep 7, 23 @ 3:06 pm: So now we need another law to put them under the ILRB? I think it’s appalling that the constitutional amendment passed isn’t law enough. Let the legislative staff form a union. I just don’t get why it’s so hard for folks supposedly all in favor of the Workers Rights Amendment. Just because management doesn’t like it Can’t be an excuse anymore Is the Speaker and Governor being perfidious? - Grandson of Man - Thursday, Sep 7, 23 @ 3:14 pm: “Democrat state lawmakers are more unified and committed to a leftist ideology” That means anything Republicans oppose. Other than that, “leftist ideology” is meaningless, just another manufactured buzz phrase to trigger the base. - Hannibal Lecter - Thursday, Sep 7, 23 @ 3:16 pm: === So now we need another law to put them under the ILRB? === The ILRB has taken the position that they do not have jurisdiction over groups excluded under the Illinois Labor Relations Act. A legislative change is necessary for them to have jurisdiction. === I just don’t get why it’s so hard for folks supposedly all in favor of the Workers Rights Amendment. === Because a lot of the messaging only stated that the Worker’s Rights Amendment would preserve existing law and prevent Illinois from becoming a right to work state. Apparently that is not all the Amendment did. Oops. - Ashland Adam - Thursday, Sep 7, 23 @ 3:18 pm: In response to “Gee, why not do something about it…”… Do you mean like testify at Senate and House education committees for equitable school funding, lobby at the federal, state, state board and CPS board level, slip bills and speak w policy makers, convene public meetings w stakeholders, give interviews in the media, partner w legislators to introduce bills, support candidates for office who support public education? - Livco - Thursday, Sep 7, 23 @ 3:19 pm: === My children go to Chicago Public Schools. === Children is plural. This story is about singular. Entirely possible one or more children are still in CPS schools. - Rudy’s teeth - Thursday, Sep 7, 23 @ 3:20 pm: How do the parents who send their children to the top performing high schools in Chicago—Payton College Prep (on Wells), Northside College Prep (on Kedzie), Jones College Prep (on South State), Whitney Young (on South Laflin), and Lane Tech (on Addison) manage to transport their students and accommodate their extra curricular activities? Should academics not be the first priority and sports/extracurricular a secondary concern? Very weak sauce offered by Ms. Davis-Gates. - wowzers - Thursday, Sep 7, 23 @ 3:21 pm: Public schools for me but not for SDG. - Ashland Adam - Thursday, Sep 7, 23 @ 3:23 pm: Unions don’t pass the budget. They may try to influence it, as do the Civic Federation, Chambers of Commerce, environmental groups, all sorts of public advocacy groups…but what could she have done about historic and inequitable school funding that she hasn’t done? - Excitable Boy - Thursday, Sep 7, 23 @ 3:23 pm: - Gee, if only she was in a position to do something about that - It’s time for CTU to back a property tax increase. As someone who’s paid property taxes in Sangamon, Dupage, and Cook County, there’s a clear outlier on the low end. - Steve M - Thursday, Sep 7, 23 @ 3:27 pm: The folks at Chalkbeat don’t seem to understand how the State Evidence Based Funding formula works differently than the old GSA formula. With GSA enrollment goes down funding goes down. With EBF the base funding minimum says you never get less than what you got last year. As CPS continues to hemorrhage students their funding from the State at worst stays flat in total, but grows on a per student basis - Sangamon Ty - Thursday, Sep 7, 23 @ 3:29 pm: “Leftist ideology”= majority of the country. USA is majority liberal. Democrats have a high rate of passing legislation because citizens have given them a supermajority to do so. It’s disingenuous to use this phrase, & GOP knows it - Rich Miller - Thursday, Sep 7, 23 @ 3:33 pm: ===but what could she have done === Scroll down one comment from yours. - Dysfunction Junction - Thursday, Sep 7, 23 @ 3:37 pm: ==How do the parents who send their children to the top performing high schools in Chicago== CTA. That’s the beauty of living in a big city. - Ashland Adam - Thursday, Sep 7, 23 @ 3:39 pm: The long term solution? Complete change in how state raises revenue and funds education. Isn’t the state supposed to supply the majority of funding for k -12? Yet they don’t. So local districts are left w little choice but to make up the difference w property taxes. And the inequity continues. If we want city of Chicago, high schools to look like new Trier, then they need to be funded. We also need to treat education and educators differently. So people remain in the profession. Make it a desirable sustainable career. - Ashland Adam - Thursday, Sep 7, 23 @ 3:41 pm: I think CTU has advocated for and been supportive of increased revenue. Certainly put their efforts into passing the fair tax. - Hannibal Lecter - Thursday, Sep 7, 23 @ 3:41 pm: === If we want city of Chicago, high schools to look like new Trier === CPS will never look like New Trier. - ANON - Thursday, Sep 7, 23 @ 3:43 pm: The value proposition for those choosing to serve on legislative staff is that you gain experience and the professional contacts necessary to advance your career either in further public service in an agency or in the private or non-profit advocacy sectors. Staff positions have rarely served as career positions, so do your time, pay it forward and succeed as many generations of former staffers have done. In addition, AFSCME has crippled the ability of state government to function. The legislature certainly doesn’t need to be hamstrung by byzantine labor protection rules or worse, a strike when it is only in session for several months a year. - Dysfunction Junction - Thursday, Sep 7, 23 @ 3:44 pm: ==CPS will never look like New Trier. == And Chicago doesn’t look like Winnetka. Not all of it, anyway. - Ashland Adam - Thursday, Sep 7, 23 @ 3:47 pm: The demographics of the students (And socioeconomic status of the parents) in CPS will not look like New Trier. But facilities, access to programming, course offerings could. - Hannibal Lecter - Thursday, Sep 7, 23 @ 3:52 pm: === But facilities, access to programming, course offerings could. === How much extra money would be needed to make that happen and where would it come from. No generalities. I’m looking for specifics. - Ashland Adam - Thursday, Sep 7, 23 @ 4:02 pm: Good question Hannibal. I don’t know. Lots of extra money. But given the discussion we’ve been having - that’s the point. Not interested in equalizing access for city kids (85% at/below poverty level) to the education opportunities available to privileged students? That’s fine, that’s the choice. But there’s no making up the difference with a new testing regimen, a new reading curriculum, or changing school name, or firing the teachers and hiring new ones, organizing schools along business lines. All of these have been tried. These are the ‘school reform’ efforts that got us to where we are today. All of these were offered as the Silver bullet for education. Do you remember common core State standards? They were going to revolutionize K 12. Ridiculous ridiculous. - Lucky Pierre - Thursday, Sep 7, 23 @ 4:04 pm: Illinois has only the 4th most radical Democratic legislators? Come on Man we need a recount - Hannibal Lecter - Thursday, Sep 7, 23 @ 4:11 pm: I think if we keep comparing CPS to the wealthiest districts as a starting point for reform, any efforts will fail. How about your average funded suburban school. That might be more of an apples to apples comparison. Many of those schools can’t compete with New Trier either, but perform better than most CPS high schools. - Rabid - Thursday, Sep 7, 23 @ 4:15 pm: Staff wants to ride out the speakers term into the sunset ? - Thomas Paine - Thursday, Sep 7, 23 @ 4:15 pm: === This is basically an admission that the city’s public schools are not up to par. Gee, if only she was in a position to do something about that === But she is not, at least not yet. We have a school board appointed by successive mayors that were hostile to the CTU. Prior to that, a CTU leadership that was allied with Mayor Daley and largely silent on school quality. Karen Lewis wasn’t elected CTU president until 2010, when CORE defeated the Daleyites. Moreover, the things Davis Gates complains about: class offerings, extra-curriculars, etc are decisions made by the central office and by principals, not by teachers. It’s not an unexpected hit piece, but I thought she responded well. I would add that yes it’s true that Davis-Gates earns a good paycheck. It’s also true that paycheck would probably allow her to relocate her family to the Northside where - thanks to abundant fundraising by school PTOs, the offerings are much better. Davis Gates doesn’t congratulate herself for her neighborhood loyalty, but I will. - Steve Polite - Thursday, Sep 7, 23 @ 4:22 pm: “AFSCME has crippled the ability of state government to function.” How? And provide specific examples to support your claim, because as an AFSCME member and state employee, I don’t agree. From my perspective, it’s legislation, administrative rules, or administration and management decisions that determines the function of Illinois government, not the AFSCME contract. - Frida's boss - Thursday, Sep 7, 23 @ 4:26 pm: Why hasn’t CTU advocated or pushed to put on the ballot a property tax increase? I get they don’t want to be seen as pushing for a tax increase but it would help immediately. They have pushed for increased nurses, social workers, administrative staff, housing homeless students, and free meals year round this all costs money. Go to referendum. Add .5% to property tax bills and put it to a vote. School districts, library districts, fire districts, park districts, etc. all over the collar counties regularly run property tax increase referendums. The school district threatens to cut band or football then say they need an increase. “It’ll only be the cost of a cup of coffee per day” or “On a house worth $250k it will only be $35/month” are all catchphrases that everyone in the suburbs has heard over the past 25 years. - Ucci - Thursday, Sep 7, 23 @ 4:36 pm: So SDG would rather send her son to a private school over a public school with Latino kids? What are her priorities then? Sounds more nationalistic than in solidarity with public sector labor values. - Ashland Adam - Thursday, Sep 7, 23 @ 4:42 pm: Apples to apples comparison would involve districts w roughly similar socioeconomics of students and families, and districts where the central office was purposefully neglecting certain school facilities, and discriminating against minority educators. Why not make big plans? Think a Marshall plan for Illinois’ neglected and impoverished communities. Then CPS high schools would look like New Trier. Why not spend $3 Trillion (the amount the US spent in Iraq, per …https://www.hks.harvard.edu/publications/true-cost-iraq-war-3-trillion-and-beyond …spend this amount on education, healthcare, infrastructure repair and updating, economic development. Yes, it’d cost, but we could bring US tax brackets back to where they were under President Eisenhower, and invest in our own nation. We don’t have to do this, of course. And that seems to be the choice, but there’s a price to be paid: we can live in gated communities, have blighted communities (city, suburban, downstate), rely on security cameras, private security, and then not be surprised when young disenfranchised kids from these communities have nowhere to go and nothing productive to do. - Frida's boss - Thursday, Sep 7, 23 @ 4:44 pm: AFSCME contracts on who gets jobs have rules in place that require too much time to hire people for positions. In the past it had to go through a 90-day inside hire bid and then a 90-day outside bid. That’s 6 months to fill some positions. Not sure about the most recent contract? Maybe they bent a bit? Their contracts and political weight are what’s keeping prisons from consolidating that are antiquated or half full. Their union is preventing state facilities that have had nothing but problems, like Choate, from actually addressing employee issues and moving the facility to where there are more opportunities to get qualified people. AFSCME defended members all through the pandemic to not hold accountable or force their members, even the ones who worked in critical care facilities, to stay out of group settings when off work or get vaccines during the pandemic. 32 veterans died, and they didn’t get COVID-19 while isolated from friends and family. Wonder who could’ve brought it in? Shall I continue? - Shytown - Thursday, Sep 7, 23 @ 4:46 pm: I’m guessing SDG isn’t crazy about having the tables turned on her, but when you spend years throwing stones and bombs at others to advance your agenda and go on the record over and over again to turn up the rhetoric as high as possible, it’s a lesson in being careful about how that can boomerang on you. The bottom line is parents should be able to send their kids where they want based on their needs, but that is not an option for all parents. And we should have a school system that has options for kids, especially in high school, that meets them where they are and their needs. But that’s not the reality either. That’s why parents sometimes up and move to the suburbs or to another neighborhood or put them in a private school - but for most, they don’t have a choice at all. Parents should not be shamed for making a decision that’s in the best interest of their child, but that has been a tactic that the CTU has played over and over again. You reap what you sow. - Ashland Adam - Thursday, Sep 7, 23 @ 4:47 pm: CTU had advocated for increases in revenue, and additional sources of revenue: financial transaction tax, tax on properties worth over $1 million, closing federal and state loopholes. They’ve slipped these bills, supported these efforts. Canvassed and GOTV’d for Fair Tax. - Rich Miller - Thursday, Sep 7, 23 @ 4:51 pm: ===financial transaction tax=== lol - Ashland Adam - Thursday, Sep 7, 23 @ 4:58 pm: Rich, I get that the financial transaction tax is a heavy lift, mostly because the financial trading industry doesn’t support it. But why should it be off the table for discussion? That millionaires and billionaires don’t want to consider paying 1 cent/$1000 traded says something. That’s good context for average working people to understand. That we’re all paying a lot of money in taxes, many of them regressive, while one of the uber-wealthiest sectors of our economy doesn’t want to contribute. That’s useful context for middle and working families to understand. - 47th Ward - Thursday, Sep 7, 23 @ 5:04 pm: ===But why should it be off the table for discussion?=== Because all the trading firms will simply relocate their computer servers out of state before the tax would take effect. So if we don’t pass it, we’ll get zero new dollars. And if we do pass it, we’ll get zero new dollars. That’s why it’s off the table. It’s a total nonstarter. Simple solutions are usually neither, and this is a fine example. - Oswego Willy - Thursday, Sep 7, 23 @ 5:11 pm: ===I get that the financial transaction tax is a heavy lift, mostly because the financial trading industry doesn’t support it. But why should it be off the table for discussion?=== I don’t think it’d get close to 60/30, as far a lift goes - It's always Sunny in Illinois - Thursday, Sep 7, 23 @ 5:13 pm: Why hasn’t CTU advocated or pushed to put on the ballot a property tax increase? I get they don’t want to be seen as pushing for a tax increase but it would help immediately. They have pushed for increased nurses, social workers, administrative staff, housing homeless students, and free meals year round this all costs money. Go to referendum. Add .5% to property tax bills and put it to a vote. $8.5 BILLION…with enrollment continuing to drop, which Ms Gates is contributing too…..we need more $$$$$ ….seriously….this is a cycle of doom. Starting with the head of the union. - Forest v trees - Thursday, Sep 7, 23 @ 5:17 pm: You can always find one more tax or revenue that “CTU should have advocated for.” But really isn’t the big picture that CTU constantly argues for more CPS funding through lots of different means? I don’t think that’s disputable. If you believe the head of CTU must send their kids to public school, defend that position. But don’t argue that what she’s doing would be fine if she did more advocacy for CPS funding or that it’s bad because she opposes Invest In Kids which gives public dollars to private schools. - Ashland Adam - Thursday, Sep 7, 23 @ 5:32 pm: Yeah 47th, I keep hearing that the trading firms will move out of state. I get your point about not spending too much energy on a simple solution that isn’t going anywhere. My point is more that we have low - information voters, and seem to be suffering from poor civic engagement (38% participation in last chicago municipal?). Let average low participation voters know why this potential source of revenue is sacrosanct and off limits. - Ashland Adam - Thursday, Sep 7, 23 @ 5:38 pm: Wow Sunny. Cycle of doom. Kinda dramatic. And not agreeing w you - why numbers drop. Look at the US census over the last 25 years. Causes of drop in CPS: Chicago lost 250,000 Black residents since 2000; families having fewer children, changing city demographics. Similar losses in other big NE and Midwest cities. - Ashland Adam - Thursday, Sep 7, 23 @ 5:41 pm: https://chicago.chalkbeat.org/2022/9/28/23377565/chicago-school-enrollment-miami-dade-third-largest?_amp=true - Sine Nomine - Thursday, Sep 7, 23 @ 5:45 pm: The union is is a debate, but people forget so much how much has improved since the old regime. Comp time is no longer decided based on whether Mapes likes you or not. You do not have to worry about one man putting all your failings or his perceived failings of you in his Microsoft Contact files so he can remember them down the road. Yes, improvement is still needed but, progress is being made. - wowzie - Thursday, Sep 7, 23 @ 6:07 pm: @ Shytown Incredibly well-stated. +1 - Ashland Adam - Thursday, Sep 7, 23 @ 6:40 pm: So, follow privatization of public education to its logical conclusion. What will we see? Continued siphoning of public funds from state coffers to private schools, including religious schools which discriminate against LGBTQ teachers and students; continued diminishment of academic and extracurricular programming in traditional schools, continued lack of transparency in how privatized schools operate and spend tax dollars. Why not work towards creating a system in which parents don’t have to scramble, jumping thorough hoops to get into selective enrollment schools? Build these schools, open to all, in every neighborhood. Parents are and should be free to choose a religious or private school. But public dollars are better spent to benefit the most students possible, not just one student. More bang for public bucks. - Oswego Willy - Thursday, Sep 7, 23 @ 6:45 pm: ===So, follow privatization of public education to its logical conclusion.=== The problem isn’t the premise. It’s not even logic. The problem is there are folks who want to end public education, and really don’t care what the aftermath or fallout is. That’s the problem. Their goal is to end public education. It’s other people’s problem what is going to replace it… but make sure there’s a way these anti-public school folks can profit from the collapse. - Steve - Thursday, Sep 7, 23 @ 8:56 pm: -the financial transaction tax is a heavy lift- 1) Congress must approve ( good luck with the GOP going along with it when they control the House) 2) The state of Illinois legislature must approve it ( are the votes there?) 3) Chicago’s City Council must approve it. 4) The CME must agree to stay in Chicago (their share holders will demand they leave Illinois). The CME is an internet business now. Best of luck with your dream. - Ashland Adam - Thursday, Sep 7, 23 @ 9:50 pm: Steve You haven’t read my comments - Eire17 - Friday, Sep 8, 23 @ 5:40 am: Urban Prep is on the south side. Great track record of students going on to college and she supports getting it shut down. But then says no schools good enough for her kids in the area so she has to go private. Wow Sorry, comments for this post are now closed.