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Illinois

* Wow…

For at least a decade, the Chicago Board of Education has maintained secret files on some of the criminals who have slipped into the school district’s teaching ranks. […]

The documents reveal that drug-dealing, prostitution, attempted murder, criminal sexual assault, embezzlement, theft, reckless homicide and stalking are among the crimes committed by those hired to educate children.

The state’s largest school district routinely failed to warn state education officials or other school districts of problem teachers.

For example, the school district conducted an internal investigation that revealed that a Chicago high school teacher twice had had sexual encounters with a 15-year-old girl, a CPS inspector general report said. The teacher was not charged with a crime but did resign from the Chicago school district after an internal investigation. According to the CPS documents, the unidentified teacher remains certified to teach in Illinois and is now teaching in Rockford Public Schools.

No one within Chicago Public Schools warned their counterparts in Rockford. […]

Upon being informed by a reporter on Oct. 30 of information in the secret files, Steve Katz, general counsel for Rockford School District 205, had this to say:

“This is absolutely sinful. Rockford School District would never knowingly hire a teacher who had sex with a 15-year-old. What kind of reference did Chicago give this person? It couldn’t have been a bad one or we wouldn’t have hired him. If one of our principals knew this about someone’s background and hired him anyway, that principal would be fired. Legally, Chicago didn’t have to warn us, but it certainly is immoral for them not to have.”

* More…

- Illinois ranks 49th in the nation in the rate at which it suspends or revokes teaching certificates.

- In 2004, Illinois became the 46th state to require FBI background checks for those entering the teaching profession. But the law exempted all teachers hired before 2004 from background checks. […]

Rep. Careen Gordon, D-Morris, introduced legislation to fingerprint all teachers but said lobbyists for the two teachers’ unions objected saying that it “picked on teachers.” Her bill was amended to fingerprint just those entering the profession or moving from one school district to another.

* And more…

A national database of teacher misconduct constructed by Small Newspaper Group found that Georgia educators were 25 times more likely to have their teaching license suspended or revoked than their counterparts in Illinois.

A Small Newspaper Group analysis of data obtained from licensure regulatory agencies for Illinois physicians, attorneys and teachers found:

-Illinois lawyers were 25 times more likely to lose their professional licenses than Illinois teachers.

-Physicians in Illinois are 43 times more likely to lose their license than teachers are to lose their teaching certificate, the newspaper group found.

Discuss.

posted by Rich Miller
Tuesday, Dec 4, 07 @ 9:36 am

Comments

Why would they not prosecute?

Maybe fear of parents lawsuits? What else?

Comment by Pat collins Tuesday, Dec 4, 07 @ 9:47 am
As a retired school teacher, these statistics are not surprising to me. I hope today is not going to be another “bite me” day.

Comment by Patriot Tuesday, Dec 4, 07 @ 9:49 am
It might be, Patriot. I was hanging out at the prison yards last night, and all they were talking about was the Fax’s bias against sex criminals.

Comment by Greg Tuesday, Dec 4, 07 @ 9:53 am
Everyone will note the political and campaign contribution power of teachers’ unions in this highly corrupt Democratic Blue state, but that may be only part of the problem. Where were the parents, the local school councils and school boards on the issue of background checks, which surely must have come up over the years. Not present, I guess.

Having said this, I would be surprised if there were a high percentage of convicted criminals in the the ranks of licensed Illinois teachers.

A more widespread problem is the legions of mediocre and poor teachers who continue to teach, with no accountability or oversight. Illinois school districts rarely fire their teachers for any reason, as other exposes have shown. They rarely put pressure on them to improve. And we are seeing the results. Even many formerly highly-rated public suburban schools are performing poorly, meaning that the middle class now has fewer options for educating its children other than bankrupting itself and trying to obtain placements in well-rated private schools or competing for slots in a few, very few high-quality magnet schools. A good secondary school education, except for the very talented or the wealthy, is increasingly out of reach for the middle class, despite the billions of public monies spent.

Watch what politicians and the wealthy do when they get the power and the wealth. They put their kids in private school. When something really important, like their kids’ futures are at stake,
watch what they do, not what they say.

Comment by Cassandra Tuesday, Dec 4, 07 @ 9:54 am
Well said, Cassandra. The parents of the students I taught had abdicated their parental responsibilities and expected the school system to raise their children for them.

Comment by Patriot Tuesday, Dec 4, 07 @ 10:01 am
Blago once said “Rockford has be forlorn and forsaken, but will not be forgotten”
Another example of a this broken promise.

Comment by Anon Tuesday, Dec 4, 07 @ 10:10 am
What a mess. I’d say at the very least it’s another example that CPS isn’t exactly attracting the best and brightest teachers. For it to be at the point where they’re employing and protecting criminals (or people who have committed criminal acts) is absolutely shameful.

Not to insult all the good teachers and administrators working in CPS, but to me this is an indication that CPS is scraping the bottom of the barell when it comes to it’s employees. I know many won’t agree with me, but in some ways this is yet another symptom of a horribly underfunded system operating for so many years.

When a car is broken, you don’t say, “Why would I pay money to fix this, it’s a broken car.” Everyone knows that the car won’t get fixed until after you invest the money.

Too bad all our mechanics are crooked though. They want to fix everything from schools to public transit through property taxes and casinos.

Again, even with the funding situation it’s no excuse for the Chicago Board of Education to have done what it did. It’s a sick, sick, sick system on so many levels.

Comment by Sacks Romana Tuesday, Dec 4, 07 @ 10:20 am
This just confirms that we need out school board and licensure laws overhauled. We need to get rid of tenure for teachers. The concept serves no benefit other then to make sure all teachers work at the minimium level.

We need real investigation and enforcement in regards to licensure. Right now the law and collective bargaining agreement make it extemely difficutl to discipline a teahcer, much less suspend their license. Doctors and Lawyers have no Union or guaranteed employment contracts. They are held to higher accountability then the people we rely upon to secure the future of all of us, our childrens education.

Pay teachers more, cann the excessive education officials on the payroll, and get rid of tenure.

Comment by Ghost Tuesday, Dec 4, 07 @ 10:23 am
Yes, most teachers start out with the right motives, but powerful teacher unions and large state teacher associations (with lots of money for campaign contributions) eventually lead to the type of problems Chicago faces - protect union members at all costs. This “protection racket” tends to reduce education quality and teacher performance to the lowest-common denominator. Can Chicago voters recall CPS?

Comment by Sir Reel Tuesday, Dec 4, 07 @ 11:12 am
I researched one CPS teacher who is also an elected official. Multiple sources had said this teacher had a fondness for having sex with his female student-athletes.

The rumor was that this teacher had beat the charges by paying off the families and in one case marrying to the girl in question.

CPS IG said that there were no substantiated allegations against this teacher. I definitely got the impression CPS and the CPS IG were more interested in protecting CPS legally and from a PR perspective than they were in doing the right thing by the students and families.

It appears that CPS reached a deal where said teacher could continue to teach in CPS, but not coach adolescent girls.

So, this individual now teaches in CPS and coaches for Proviso Township High Schools (District 209).

Comment by Carl Nyberg Tuesday, Dec 4, 07 @ 1:03 pm
If any intrepid journalists want to do a story on “coach” I’ll be happy to give his name and details.

Comment by Carl Nyberg Tuesday, Dec 4, 07 @ 1:05 pm
Is this proof that the teacher’s unions have a bit more pull to protect their teachers than parents have to protect their children from these teachers who have criminal histories.

Comment by Levois Tuesday, Dec 4, 07 @ 1:41 pm
This should come as no surprise to political insiders, that the unions are ensuring that all legislation that they want introduced goes thru Rep Monique Davis. The Unions don’t care about our kids, they only care about so called “teachers rights”. Why is that as a Licensed Realtor I have to get continuing education, but a teacher does not? Why do the teachers unions think that there members don’t have to be held accountable. We need to have a Parents Union so that they can represent our views, agendas and most importantly our KIDS…..What would happen if we stopped paying taxes until the Teachers produced a product, that we the taxpayers, were content with.

Talk about taxation without representation. Parents unite now before it is to late…please make sure you make your voice heard in February and vote out all incumbents that have been a sleep at the wheel and do not have our childrens best interset at heart….

Comment by Monique Has Got To Go...... Tuesday, Dec 4, 07 @ 2:22 pm
Interesting story. Now substitute “Archdiocese of Chicago” for CPS. I would bet it would THEN become a major, major news story.

Or am I being too cynical here?

Comment by The Curmudgeon Tuesday, Dec 4, 07 @ 4:33 pm
===Or am I being too cynical here?===

Perhaps. More likely, if the story had been broken by a “major” like the Trib, Sun-Times, etc., then it would be more widely covered.

Comment by Rich Miller Tuesday, Dec 4, 07 @ 4:38 pm