Today's Board Meeting
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Thu Nov 15, 2007 at 12:51 PM
Today's Board Meeting
see thursday's clips for some of the basics -- cps backed off kicking the military recruiters out of the schools.
i'll ask around, but in the meantime does anyone else know more?
i'll ask around, but in the meantime does anyone else know more?
Thu Nov 15, 2007 at 2:19 PM
Today's Board Meeting
>>
see thursday's clips for some of the basics -- cps backed off kicking the military recruiters out of the schools.
>>
One of my favorite publications, In These Times, has been following military recruitment in schools for years now.
http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/2136/the_children_crusade/
http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/2325/witnesses_to_war/
http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/2609/just_say_no_to_uncle_sam/
http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/3271/illegal_immigrants_uncle_sam_wants_you/
http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/3134/gi_bill_fails_vets/
see thursday's clips for some of the basics -- cps backed off kicking the military recruiters out of the schools.
>>
One of my favorite publications, In These Times, has been following military recruitment in schools for years now.
http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/2136/the_children_crusade/
http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/2325/witnesses_to_war/
http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/2609/just_say_no_to_uncle_sam/
http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/3271/illegal_immigrants_uncle_sam_wants_you/
http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/3134/gi_bill_fails_vets/
Thu Nov 15, 2007 at 6:20 PM
Today's Board Meeting
Too bad you're no longer independent. This WAS a VERY informative blog. No more.
Fri Nov 16, 2007 at 12:19 AM
Today's Board Meeting
>>>
Too bad you're no longer independent. This WAS a VERY informative blog. No more.
>>>
If you don't like what's being posted here, start making some comments. As far as I know, there is no content filtering going on here. Diversity of opinions will only make things more interesting. Or start up your own blog, there are several free blogging services like http://wordpress.org/ that are easy to set up and maintain.
Too bad you're no longer independent. This WAS a VERY informative blog. No more.
>>>
If you don't like what's being posted here, start making some comments. As far as I know, there is no content filtering going on here. Diversity of opinions will only make things more interesting. Or start up your own blog, there are several free blogging services like http://wordpress.org/ that are easy to set up and maintain.
Fri Nov 16, 2007 at 12:38 AM
Today's Board Meeting
To Rod Estevan:
Look at old 299 site because I responded a long time ago to your post about SPED. For some reason when I write too much I get an error messgae about spam and profanity when I'm not doing either. I can post a couple lines but when I try to post more I get an error message. Alexander, please fix or go back to the other site.
Look at old 299 site because I responded a long time ago to your post about SPED. For some reason when I write too much I get an error messgae about spam and profanity when I'm not doing either. I can post a couple lines but when I try to post more I get an error message. Alexander, please fix or go back to the other site.
Fri Nov 16, 2007 at 4:49 AM
Today's Board Meeting
No blog is ever "independent." Polluting this blog with Catalyst has cost it most of the insiders at CPS who used to do more than lurk here. I doubt they'll be back, because nobody who knows how Chicago's organized nowadays trusts Catlyst to be anything but the official voice of corporate "school reform."
There will be and are other outlets for verifiable facts. Too bad this one died. But as I noted a year or more ago, it's usually best to blog in real time and behind a real name anyway. Yahoo's collaboration with the Chinese government against its own dissident bloggers is just one example of how quickly this medium can be turned against anyone who thinks she is "anonymous."
There have long been other ways to protect sources of real information when necessary, but the first step is integrity.
There will be and are other outlets for verifiable facts. Too bad this one died. But as I noted a year or more ago, it's usually best to blog in real time and behind a real name anyway. Yahoo's collaboration with the Chinese government against its own dissident bloggers is just one example of how quickly this medium can be turned against anyone who thinks she is "anonymous."
There have long been other ways to protect sources of real information when necessary, but the first step is integrity.
Fri Nov 16, 2007 at 7:37 AM
Today's Board Meeting
rod -- there was until a day or two ago a heavy-handed spam filter that was blocking you and other folks -- i had it taken out. sorry about that.
as for the site, it's still independent -- i'm the only one who controls it. it's just got a different URL.
as for the site, it's still independent -- i'm the only one who controls it. it's just got a different URL.
Fri Nov 16, 2007 at 11:16 AM
Today's Board Meeting
The father of Blair Holt, a Julian High School student who was killed in May on a CTA bus, spoke at the meeting about the ramifications of the CTA crisis for students.
“The next step is to allow our students a safe passage to and from school,” he says. “The issue here is the CTA bus cuts.” As bus routes are being cut, students are at risk of violence on the streets and without a means of getting to class there will be lower enrollment. “Most students have no other transportation,” he says. “Those students who do walk are at risk.”
In his neighborhood, he has worked with other parents to contact politicians about the dangers of bus cuts through write-athons and encourages other neighborhoods to do the same. He worries cutting bus routes will put students in dangerous situations like the one that took his son’s life.
“If Springfield does not come up with the money,” he says, “We have a powder keg that is waiting to explode. I do not want to live that tragedy again.”
“The next step is to allow our students a safe passage to and from school,” he says. “The issue here is the CTA bus cuts.” As bus routes are being cut, students are at risk of violence on the streets and without a means of getting to class there will be lower enrollment. “Most students have no other transportation,” he says. “Those students who do walk are at risk.”
In his neighborhood, he has worked with other parents to contact politicians about the dangers of bus cuts through write-athons and encourages other neighborhoods to do the same. He worries cutting bus routes will put students in dangerous situations like the one that took his son’s life.
“If Springfield does not come up with the money,” he says, “We have a powder keg that is waiting to explode. I do not want to live that tragedy again.”
Fri Nov 16, 2007 at 11:19 AM
Today's Board Meeting
CTU recording secretary Mary McGuire spoke about retired teachers pensions, city wide workers whose travel stipends are not being honored and continued payroll grievances.
She says retired members of the CTU should be drawing pensions from two different systems but their funds are not being delivered. Teachers were first told the payroll problem would be fixed in 30 days, then they were told it would be two weeks but the problem still persists.
“The board is not meeting its deadline and we respectfully ask if the board can’t get it right they’ll bring in someone who can,” she says.
Someone from Chicago Public Schools responded that when the district switched to PeopleSoft, “We had a 92% payroll rate. We’re up to 99% now.” He says the December payroll will have the salary increase.
Also, he says he is unaware of any city workers whose travel stipends are not being paid and if McGuire has the names then he will investigate.
Williams said he’s meeting with the director of CTU ??? on Monday morning to discuss the situation. “This is not a relationship of adversaries,” he says. “I hope your membership will appreciate the work we’re doing.”
She says retired members of the CTU should be drawing pensions from two different systems but their funds are not being delivered. Teachers were first told the payroll problem would be fixed in 30 days, then they were told it would be two weeks but the problem still persists.
“The board is not meeting its deadline and we respectfully ask if the board can’t get it right they’ll bring in someone who can,” she says.
Someone from Chicago Public Schools responded that when the district switched to PeopleSoft, “We had a 92% payroll rate. We’re up to 99% now.” He says the December payroll will have the salary increase.
Also, he says he is unaware of any city workers whose travel stipends are not being paid and if McGuire has the names then he will investigate.
Williams said he’s meeting with the director of CTU ??? on Monday morning to discuss the situation. “This is not a relationship of adversaries,” he says. “I hope your membership will appreciate the work we’re doing.”
Fri Nov 16, 2007 at 11:24 AM
Today's Board Meeting
george is working on a full post about this week's board meeting, but in the meantime he sent this email and picture:
"It centers on the proposed recruiting policy, which was tabled without discussion until December 19. What the photograph you have shows is a group of United States Marines along the walls of the Board chambers yesterday morning at approximately 11:00 a.m. A number of people asked me whether CPS had been "occupied" when they walked in, only half joking because that was a significant impression."
www.substancenews.net
"It centers on the proposed recruiting policy, which was tabled without discussion until December 19. What the photograph you have shows is a group of United States Marines along the walls of the Board chambers yesterday morning at approximately 11:00 a.m. A number of people asked me whether CPS had been "occupied" when they walked in, only half joking because that was a significant impression."
www.substancenews.net
Fri Nov 16, 2007 at 12:30 PM
Today's Board Meeting
I'd joke about a coup at CPS, but the military have so thoroughly permeated the schools, between recruiting, JROTC and the military high schools, the coup was accomplished a long time ago.
Sat Nov 17, 2007 at 3:30 PM
Today's Board Meeting
george has been kind enough to share three more of his pics from the board meeting. the descriptions are george's:
The first is Patricia McCann, who identified herself as an Iraq vet and said she had been deceived by recruiters while a 17-year-old high school student.
www.substancenews.net.
The second is Ald James Balcer, who spoke about how much his Marines service in Vietnam helped his life.
The third shows 11 or the Marines and Army people who were in uniform along the perimeter of the Board meeting when the Board meeting began Wednesday. The guy in desert combat fatigues is Army. The rest are Marines.
Photograph copyright 2007 Substance, Inc. All rights reserved. For permission to reprint this photograph please contact Substance, 773-725-7502 or Csubstance @ aol.com. Additional information also available at
www.substancenews.net.
Photograph copyright 2007 Substance, Inc. All rights reserved. For permission to reprint this photograph please contact Substance, 773-725-7502 or Csubstance @ aol.com. Additional information also available at
Sun Nov 18, 2007 at 7:19 AM
Today's Board Meeting
I've been working this story for four days now, and it keeps getting bigger.
In the third photograph (above) you can see and count 11 military personnel in uniform deployed along the walls of the Board Chambers at the time the November 14 school board meeting began. There were a total of more than two dozens active duty and reserve people, in and out of uniform, present in the Board chambers at that moment. How they got there and why they left are still major questions that have not been answered, officially or otherwise.
This story is still developing, although the main news event is now over.
I waited until yesterday to confirm that CPS would edit this and other shots of these men -- all standing, as if they were on perimeter duty -- into the official video. They didn't allow these scenes to appear in the cable TV broadcast, so that you had to be in the Board chambers to know what it looked like at that moment. Only two of the uniformed people appear anywhere in the video.
I'll be trying next week to find out who ordered those men (there were not women military at the Board meeting except Patricia McCann; Kim Harrell, a regular, was not present to my knowledge) to the Chicago Board of Education meeting.
It also must be answered who ordered them to deploy in that array, and who ordered their retreat (re, "redeployment"?) during the time Patricia McCann was speaking. Were they redeployed so that none of them would be around to be asked media questions while McCann was interviewed in the hall behind the chambers afterwards. Also, is that array something they train for for use in certain types of current combat operations?
These are important questions and should be asked by many more people than the staff of Substance.
That was a damned school board meeting, one of the most basic forms of democracy in this country! Of course they had the "right" to be there. The questions are, though, on whose time and dime? By the way: there are forms of school boards at the hundreds of public schools operated within the U.S. military bases around the world. One of the cutest is inside Tyndall AFB between Mexico Beach and Panama City Florida right on U.S. 98. It looks just like any other public school in the USA, except that its behind the fence of the military base from which the government tested the MOAB a few weeks before the invasion of Iraq in 2003. Of course, you'd expect men looking like this at a school board meeting at Tyndall AFT. That's not the question about Chicago this week.
As many people here know, active duty (and Reserve and National Guard) military people who appear in uniform at events critical of Bush administration policy have been threatened with court martial. I haven't followed it as closely as I once did (although I recommend "Sir No Sir!", especially the sections on Susan Schall, for more detail on this), but I'd bet there are men and women who are either doing jail time or working with dishonorable discharges right now for having appeared at Anti-War activities dressed like those guys.
In this case, we had active duty (or Reserve and National Guard) people deployed to a school board meeting to make a show of force against the proposed regulation that the military recruiting command did not like. That's my conclusion.
Long ago, I studied military law and helped people who did what then was called "Military Counseling" (legal assistance for soldiers and others in the armed forces during the Vietnam War). At the time, DePaul College of Law offered a course in Military Law, and I took it while I was a law student there. (Got the highest grade ever in the class, by the way). For seven years I did a lot of military law and counseling.
During those years, most of those of us who were organizing with people in the military against the Vietnam War studied military law and were critical of military law. The old quip "Military Justice is to justice what Military Music is to music" summed up some of the biases that were prevalent then. The organizing was not only against the Vietnam War, but also against other aspects of U.S. imperialism, from the occupation of Okinawa and the leased bases in the Philippines to the deployment of a large part of the U.S. fleet off the coast of Chile from September 6, 1973, through late September 1973 just in case Agusto Pinochet needed direct U.S. help on that first September 11 -- September 11, 1973.
Over time, and because my family was proud of its service in the U.S. military during the wars against fascism and Japanese imperialism, I thought through why military law (as embodied in the Uniform Code of Military Justice) had to be the separate system it was within our legal system. Military laws are one of the oldest bodies of law in the world, and exist in virtually every major society and civilization. They shouldn't be denigrated because of policy disagreements at any particular time in history.
The best and clearest answer for the uniqueness of military law is that in time of battle (land, air, sea, other -- let's assume space might someday be more than fictional "Star Wars"), the military has to be a strict command structure. Decisions must followed and "accountability" clearly established for following orders. (Bad decisions have a way of being corrected much more quickly, by the way, in the military in time of war than, say, in Chicago since 1995).
This context is why I'm confident that both the deployment and the redeployment (I'm being tempted to say "retreat") of the soldiers and Marines (I didn't see any airmen or Navy) who were present in (again, tempted to say occupied) the Chicago Board chambers last Wednesday were ordered by someone up chain of command. Those people are in a military chain of command. They can take invidual initiative (in fact, in places like the recruiting commmand, it's encouraged in times of crisis like this), but never without command sanction.
To put this in context, think back to October 27, when about 10,000 people marched against the Iraq War in Chicago.
Imagine if those same couple of dozen (that's about the total number of military people, in uniform and out of it, I observed or identified at the November 14 Chicago Board of Education meeting) had marched, deployed as a unit, either in the anti-war march or in opposition to it. That would have been major news, too, and the first reasonable question would have been who ordered or organized that activity?
And had those men marched with the anti-war marchers on October 27, we should probably assume that they would be facing courts martial by now. Yet on November 14, 2007, they were deployed to the Chicago Board of Education to support those who opposed a -- Board Report!
For the historical record, the document in question was Board Report 07-1114-PO1 ("Adopt a New Policy on Recruiter Access") submitted by Arne Duncan (CEO) and approved as to legal form by Patrick J. Rock (General Counsel). It's three pages long, not too much to take up space here if people want me to forward it to Alexander.
As of Friday, the official word (from Communications, CPS) was that the Board Report was tabled until the next Board meeting, which will be held on December 19, 2007, at CPS headquarters.
In the third photograph (above) you can see and count 11 military personnel in uniform deployed along the walls of the Board Chambers at the time the November 14 school board meeting began. There were a total of more than two dozens active duty and reserve people, in and out of uniform, present in the Board chambers at that moment. How they got there and why they left are still major questions that have not been answered, officially or otherwise.
This story is still developing, although the main news event is now over.
I waited until yesterday to confirm that CPS would edit this and other shots of these men -- all standing, as if they were on perimeter duty -- into the official video. They didn't allow these scenes to appear in the cable TV broadcast, so that you had to be in the Board chambers to know what it looked like at that moment. Only two of the uniformed people appear anywhere in the video.
I'll be trying next week to find out who ordered those men (there were not women military at the Board meeting except Patricia McCann; Kim Harrell, a regular, was not present to my knowledge) to the Chicago Board of Education meeting.
It also must be answered who ordered them to deploy in that array, and who ordered their retreat (re, "redeployment"?) during the time Patricia McCann was speaking. Were they redeployed so that none of them would be around to be asked media questions while McCann was interviewed in the hall behind the chambers afterwards. Also, is that array something they train for for use in certain types of current combat operations?
These are important questions and should be asked by many more people than the staff of Substance.
That was a damned school board meeting, one of the most basic forms of democracy in this country! Of course they had the "right" to be there. The questions are, though, on whose time and dime? By the way: there are forms of school boards at the hundreds of public schools operated within the U.S. military bases around the world. One of the cutest is inside Tyndall AFB between Mexico Beach and Panama City Florida right on U.S. 98. It looks just like any other public school in the USA, except that its behind the fence of the military base from which the government tested the MOAB a few weeks before the invasion of Iraq in 2003. Of course, you'd expect men looking like this at a school board meeting at Tyndall AFT. That's not the question about Chicago this week.
As many people here know, active duty (and Reserve and National Guard) military people who appear in uniform at events critical of Bush administration policy have been threatened with court martial. I haven't followed it as closely as I once did (although I recommend "Sir No Sir!", especially the sections on Susan Schall, for more detail on this), but I'd bet there are men and women who are either doing jail time or working with dishonorable discharges right now for having appeared at Anti-War activities dressed like those guys.
In this case, we had active duty (or Reserve and National Guard) people deployed to a school board meeting to make a show of force against the proposed regulation that the military recruiting command did not like. That's my conclusion.
Long ago, I studied military law and helped people who did what then was called "Military Counseling" (legal assistance for soldiers and others in the armed forces during the Vietnam War). At the time, DePaul College of Law offered a course in Military Law, and I took it while I was a law student there. (Got the highest grade ever in the class, by the way). For seven years I did a lot of military law and counseling.
During those years, most of those of us who were organizing with people in the military against the Vietnam War studied military law and were critical of military law. The old quip "Military Justice is to justice what Military Music is to music" summed up some of the biases that were prevalent then. The organizing was not only against the Vietnam War, but also against other aspects of U.S. imperialism, from the occupation of Okinawa and the leased bases in the Philippines to the deployment of a large part of the U.S. fleet off the coast of Chile from September 6, 1973, through late September 1973 just in case Agusto Pinochet needed direct U.S. help on that first September 11 -- September 11, 1973.
Over time, and because my family was proud of its service in the U.S. military during the wars against fascism and Japanese imperialism, I thought through why military law (as embodied in the Uniform Code of Military Justice) had to be the separate system it was within our legal system. Military laws are one of the oldest bodies of law in the world, and exist in virtually every major society and civilization. They shouldn't be denigrated because of policy disagreements at any particular time in history.
The best and clearest answer for the uniqueness of military law is that in time of battle (land, air, sea, other -- let's assume space might someday be more than fictional "Star Wars"), the military has to be a strict command structure. Decisions must followed and "accountability" clearly established for following orders. (Bad decisions have a way of being corrected much more quickly, by the way, in the military in time of war than, say, in Chicago since 1995).
This context is why I'm confident that both the deployment and the redeployment (I'm being tempted to say "retreat") of the soldiers and Marines (I didn't see any airmen or Navy) who were present in (again, tempted to say occupied) the Chicago Board chambers last Wednesday were ordered by someone up chain of command. Those people are in a military chain of command. They can take invidual initiative (in fact, in places like the recruiting commmand, it's encouraged in times of crisis like this), but never without command sanction.
To put this in context, think back to October 27, when about 10,000 people marched against the Iraq War in Chicago.
Imagine if those same couple of dozen (that's about the total number of military people, in uniform and out of it, I observed or identified at the November 14 Chicago Board of Education meeting) had marched, deployed as a unit, either in the anti-war march or in opposition to it. That would have been major news, too, and the first reasonable question would have been who ordered or organized that activity?
And had those men marched with the anti-war marchers on October 27, we should probably assume that they would be facing courts martial by now. Yet on November 14, 2007, they were deployed to the Chicago Board of Education to support those who opposed a -- Board Report!
For the historical record, the document in question was Board Report 07-1114-PO1 ("Adopt a New Policy on Recruiter Access") submitted by Arne Duncan (CEO) and approved as to legal form by Patrick J. Rock (General Counsel). It's three pages long, not too much to take up space here if people want me to forward it to Alexander.
As of Friday, the official word (from Communications, CPS) was that the Board Report was tabled until the next Board meeting, which will be held on December 19, 2007, at CPS headquarters.
Mon Nov 19, 2007 at 8:17 AM
Today's Board Meeting
I'm going to go out on a limb and say that they were there because the school board was discussing whether or not to limit recruiters' access to schools and that the things that were discussed would have a direct impact on how they do their job.
We live in a free society with an all-volunteer military force. Unless you're willing to bring back the draft, then the military needs to be able to recruit young men and women to serve in uniform.
I am a former Marine (89-93) and I teach at Farragut. The recruiters are here all the time but one of the best counter-recruiting efforts we have are myself and the other veterans who dissuade young men and women from enlisting.
The way you describe the events you'd think they showed up with loaded weapons with fixed bayonets. You comment that there were no women but the Marines usually have very few women recruiters. I highly doubt it was some sinister plot on the part of the big bad Marines to influence the board meeting. Had they been allowed to speak, I bet they would have mentioned about the importance of maintaining and all-volunteer force and the necessity of allowing military recruiters into our schools.
I find it very interesting that prior to 9/11, very few people cared about military recruiting. Now that there's an unpopular war on, everyone wants to bash the military. Well, at least you won't have high heating bills this winter, you have your sanctimony and outrage to keep you warm while others stand watch to protect your freedom to write about whatever you want.
We live in a free society with an all-volunteer military force. Unless you're willing to bring back the draft, then the military needs to be able to recruit young men and women to serve in uniform.
I am a former Marine (89-93) and I teach at Farragut. The recruiters are here all the time but one of the best counter-recruiting efforts we have are myself and the other veterans who dissuade young men and women from enlisting.
The way you describe the events you'd think they showed up with loaded weapons with fixed bayonets. You comment that there were no women but the Marines usually have very few women recruiters. I highly doubt it was some sinister plot on the part of the big bad Marines to influence the board meeting. Had they been allowed to speak, I bet they would have mentioned about the importance of maintaining and all-volunteer force and the necessity of allowing military recruiters into our schools.
I find it very interesting that prior to 9/11, very few people cared about military recruiting. Now that there's an unpopular war on, everyone wants to bash the military. Well, at least you won't have high heating bills this winter, you have your sanctimony and outrage to keep you warm while others stand watch to protect your freedom to write about whatever you want.
