As CPS prepares to close a record number of schools, the fate of students and communities is in question.
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In the News: Rahm adviser blasts teachers' union
By: Cassandra West / September 19, 2012
Businessman Bruce Rauner, a close behind-the-scenes adviser to Mayor Rahm Emanuel, delivered a blistering critique of the union Tuesday in Chicago and outlined a long-term plan to try to split "good teachers" from organized labor's grasp, according to Tribune.Relieved parents cheer students' return to classroom.
Delegates for the Chicago Teachers Union voted Tuesday to call off their seven-day strike. And though the union did not achieve all it initially sought, CTU President Karen Lewis claimed several victories. She argued that the union had successfully rejected Mayor Rahm Emanuel's attempts to institute merit pay, fought off more stringent requirements in a new teacher evaluation system and secured a recall policy for top-performing teachers who are laid off because of school closings. (Tribune)
Chicago parents deliver 1,000 postcards to CPS leaders. (AP/Washington Post)
How social media and the teachers strike stung a local restaurant owner. (Tribune)
IN THE STATE
Classes will resume today at Lake Forest High School after the school board and striking teachers reached a tentative agreement on a four-year contract, officials from both sides said this morning. (Tribune)
A guidance counselor and former girls basketball coach at south suburban Rich Central High School has been fired after writing a racy, graphic book about women and relationships. (Tribune)
The Rockford School District will soon have another way to collect money, but it won’t be used for salaries, building expansions or renovations. This time, it’ll come in the form of donations to the Rockford Public Schools Foundation, a charitable organization run on donations, fundraising and grant money. (Rockford Register Star)
IN THE NATION
According to the Institute of Education Sciences' Turning Around Low-Performing Schools project, it's not just particular programs or practices but the interplay of school implementation with district policies and support that can make a low-performing school turn around and build momentum over time. (Education Week)
idiot
I love people like Rauner that have that unique combination of ignorance and arrogance. He "knows" all about good teachers!?!? Too bad he knows very little about unions and the democratic process. Union "bosses" are teachers, elected to represent all other teachers. Perhaps he watched one too many showings of "On the Waterfront". Here is a corporate idiot who made billions from creating nothing and only knows top-down management. What is so scary is that Rahmbo listens to jerks like Rauner.
Rauner already looking like Mr Burns
Homer Simpson's boss Mr Burns always thinks of ways to thwart and subjugate those seeking fairness and truth. Seems Rauner took a note from Burnsey's notebook. Just a other angry money man who didn't get his way! What he and the mayor need to do is leave the teachers alone and go after ways to mend families. Parents are the weakest links when they raise bad butt children who slow the role of the teacher.
All employeed of CPS must take Mr. Rauner seriously
Calling him Mr. Burns is funny, but he is no cartoon. This is serious folks.
Non-profit charter schools do make money for investors
in several ways. Of course, like regular public schools, they sign contracts for services and products that are worth hundreds of millions (if not billions) at this point. They can award these contracts with much less scrutiny than can school boards these days--though I am not going to defend the public schools' record on awarding contracts.
Inflated salaries and other benefits can be paid to charter school organization executives, such as UNO's Juan Rangel's $266,000 salary. And there are consultants who can feed too.
But all of that is petty stuff compared to the real estate and bond opportunities for profiting from charters.
There are currently $5.5 Billion of tax-free municipal bonds issued by Charter Schools. That number will multiply within a few years. The opportunities for profiting from the bonds are numerous and complex, and that may be why so many hedge-fund managers are suddenly interested in school reform.
Most Charter School financing is also accessible primarily to insiders. So it is reasonable for a wealthy investor to spend, say, $10 million on radio ads, lobbying, and so forth in Chicago and have a solid expectation that a particular deal will come his way. If, for example, Bruce Rauner is able to realize his ostensibly civic-minded plan to buy 100 empty school buildings from CPS and lease or sell them cheaply to Charter Schools, he could conceivably realize $100s of millions in profit through a variety of financing instruments, tax depreciation, and other advantages. It is very well worth his while to put a few millions into campaign contributions and anything that will give politicians cover for helping him do this deal.
Amid the strike, Bloomberg put out an article worth looking at, detailing the gigantic market in Charter School Financing:
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-09-06/charter-schools-increase-new-bo...
I got a call recently from a reporter from a major national newspaper who is researching an article on the charter school money trail. I suspect that Chicago's charter school dealings will come in for a bruising.
U r so right!
Anon, u r correct. Even though strike is done we must remain watchful. I feel that just as these guys plan to dismantle our unity, we must keep them and their tactics in the spotlight. Broad is very visible in the pot having placed Brizard and Byrd-Bennett in our midst. I understand Barbara messes up Detroit and Cleveland.
Rauner's mission?
"You’re 55 and have been at GTCR about 30 years, making enough money to endow several university chairs and build a dorm and a library at Dartmouth, your alma mater. What’s next?
Rauner's response:
I’ve been giving back with my money. I want to give back with my time. Rahm Emanuel is a close personal friend. We’re bouncing ideas around. I’m passionate about two things: public education and economic growth. I’m in transition mode."
This article appears in the June 2011 issue of Chicago Magazine.
Trouble
One battle doesn't make a war.
thanks for the link to the Bloomberg News report
Thanks to Anonymous for the link to the report on charter network bonds. It was extremely interesting and unfortunately it did not explain in to much detail the issues relating to the defaults. Those would be worth investigating because I have my fears about the same thing happening here.
Rod Estvan
CTU Schools Do Make Money for Investors
If were calling charter bond holders "investors", then that term applies to CPS schools and bond holders too.
There are no non-profit "investors", as the term is commonly used.
Don is correct
Yes Don you are correct that school district Muni-bonds do make money for investors just like charter bonds do. In fact I personally made money on what were called SFA bonds that were floated in the early 1980s to bail out CPS, the Chicago Teachers Pension Fund also made money on these as I recall. But I think the important issue is examining the default problems for these charter bonds, I would like to know a lot more about how that happened in each of the cases discussed in the Bloomberg article.
Rod Estvan
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