Please sign this petition from the Milwaukee Teacher Education Association to end the practice of paying parents and community members to enroll or refer students to privately run charter schools in Wisconsin!

Paying parents to sign up for charter schools in Wisconsin

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Public Forum on Charter Expansion

CPS closed 50 district schools and cut district budgets by $100 million.
Now they want to open up 31 charters in just two years!
Is this right for the children and communities that CPS is supposed to serve? 

Shields Middle School
2611 W. 48th St.
Tuesday, Jan 14th 
6:30 to 8:30 PM 

All are welcome!

Panelists:
Federico Waitoller, UIC College of Education Faculty
Stephanie Farmer, Roosevelt University Faculty
Jean Pierce, League of Women Voters
Byron Sigcho, UIC Graduate Researcher & TSJ

Download flyer here

Co-sponsored by:
Albany Park Neighborhood Council
Blocks Together
Brighton Park Neighborhood Council
Parents for Teachers
Pilsen Alliance
Raise Your Hand
Rogers Park Neighbors for Better Schools
Teachers for Social Justice Read the Full Story

After joining UNO as Board's Chairman, Martin Cabrera Jr. resigns. During his short time, Gov. Pat Quinn restored the $98 million school-construction for UNO to complete construction of a new high school in the Southwest Side.

Read more at: http://www.suntimes.com/22550221-761/brought-in-for-reform-uno-chairman-resigns-after-3-months.html

Letter to Tribune's editorial team
"UNO: Corruption, profit, and public responsibility"

We are very disappointed by the Tribune’s June 6 editorial, “UNO scrambles to save itself” supporting Juan Rangel as UNO’s CEO, even though, as the Sun Times reported, many Latino community organizations and leaders are demanding that Rangel step down in order to have a transparent investigation of UNO and its real transformation.

 UNO is a publicly-funded institution and should be accountable to the public and taxpayers who support it. The crisis in UNO reinforces the need for ALL schools that receive public funding—including charter schools—to have elected Local School Councils. This is particularly so for UNO which has received more public funding than any other charter school operator. Only an elected LSC of parents and community members can restructure and hold accountable an organization that has misused public funds with the consent of the current UNO Board.

 What is the real reason Juan Rangel wants to remain the UNO CEO and Cabrera the new Board chair? Rangel admits that he failed as CEO, as he knowingly signed inappropriate millionaire contracts with "people he trusted." He put family members on the payroll, and made significant donations (through UNO staff) to political campaigns for candidates who are likely to protect UNO practices. This corruption and politicking secured UNO roughly $70 million in public bonds (that UNO Board President, Martin Cabrera and his financial firm helped sell to wealthy investors). If the Tribune were to investigate the economic interests at stake, it would find that investors can double their investments in charter schools in only seven years by using New Markets tax credits. But this depends on UNO continuing to grow and get money from CPS. Is UNO helping investors to profit from our children's educational funds?

 The Tribune’s claim that UNO runs “excellent schools” needs fact checking. The consequences of UNO’s financial schemes and its flawed education model are already felt at some UNO Schools, at least two of which- UNO Tamayo and UNO Las Casas—perform at the lowest level. We predict that it is just a matter of time before more taxpayer funds will go towards paying UNO’s investors, rather than addressing the educational needs of Latina(o) students. This is a disservice to our community and our children.

 Byron Sigcho,
Vice-President
Hispanic Literacy Council and Teachers for Social Justice

Pauline Lipman,
Professor Educational Policy Studies,
UIC and Teachers for Social Justice Read the Full Story

TSJ has created Popular Education Pieces that set forth a vision of what public schools should look like while connecting the dots of between many of the corporate style "reforms" that are in opposition to that vision. These 10 page booklets can be downloaded and printed for use at meetings, in classrooms and other gatherings where people are fighting for social justice in education. They can be used as full booklets, or as individual issue fact-sheets. Please distribute widely.

Download the English version here. (revised 9.11.13)

Download the Spanish version here.

(Note: The Spanish version is missing some of the cartoon images while we try to locate Spanish language versions.) Read the Full Story

News Coverage of the Education as a Human Right Rally at CPS Headquarters on Wednesday, Aug. 28th Chicago Tribune Voice of America Peoples World Today's Workplace Rally at CPS HQ, 125 S. Clark St 10 AM, Wed, Aug. 28th 50th anniversary of the March on Washington

This is the NEXT STEP in the campaign for an Elected Representative School Board. With the closing of 49 schools and massive budget cuts, parents, students, and community members and organizations around the city are joining a NATIONAL CALL and here in Chicago, are calling for a ONE-DAY boycott of CPS. Our program is: An Elected Representative School Board. A moratorium on all school closings, turnarounds, phase-outs and charter expansion. TIF Funds back to CPS and a financial transaction taxfor education.  The proposal for sustainable school transformation to replace corporate, top-down interventions for struggling schools!!  JOIN US THIS WEDNESDAY AT 10:00 at CPS HQ!!

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The Chicago Sun Times covered the budget hearing in Englewood where TSJ member Byron Sigcho called out CPS for de-humanizing students and doing absurd things such as shifting art and physical education to online classes: 

“When you yourself refer to our children as seats, it’s hard to believe that you think of our children more than seats and of our communities more than spreadsheets,” he said. Sigcho, a grad student at University of Illinois at Chicago, continued to vent. "You’re really proposing that our children take P.E. and art classes online? To me that’s a joke. That’s not investing in our youth. . . . Why does CPS keep funding corrupt charter networks?” he said, referring to the UNO Charter Schools." 

WBEZ reports that "A top school official at the North Side hearing said at the start of the meeting he didn’t just want to hear complaints about cuts. He wanted solutions for closing the district’s $643 million gap between revenue and expenses."

Parents at the budget hearing at Truman College on the city's north side "railed at CPS": "I'm angry that the mayor sold the idea of a longer school day and only funded it for a year," said Janet Meegan, a parent at Mitchell Elementary in the West Town neighborhood...Meegan said her school has lost a specialized reading teacher [one of the 500 positions Rahm promised as part of the longer day] and a librarian. Parents, she said, will be pitching in with increased student fees to help pay for art and music programs. This was not what we were promised," Meegan said at a hearing at Truman College in Uptown attended by about 200 people.

Progress Illinois reports that at the north side hearing CPS Chief Administrative Officer Tim Cawley (who lives in a north-shore suburb on a waiver of CPS's residency policy) "...really struck a nerve while discussing various investments the district is making for next year, including a $7.7 million expansion of its Safe Passage program. The program is being ramped up with 600 additional Safe Passage workers to cover routes for the 51 welcoming schools.


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4pm Rally/4:30pm Press Conference

City Hall 

LaSalle between Washington & Randolph Streets

CPS plans to close up to 100 schools in our neighborhoods while finding cash to open 60 more politically-connected charter schools. Our students deserve small class sizes, more arts, computer technology, and physical education. Join hundreds of parents, educators, and community activists as we tell the mayor to put our students before his political supporters!

For more information, please contact organizing@ctulocal1.com or call 312.329.6227.


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You're invited to come to the movies with TSJ! We'll be heading as a group to check out the new "Waiting for Superman" film in theaters

Oct 16, 2010
TIME HAS CHANGED!
The viewing is at 4pm
We'll be meeting at the theater at 3:30pm
Landmark Century Theater, 2828 N. Clark

Tickets cost $11, we recommend getting advance tickets.

After the film the plan is to gathering in the sitting area in the mall where the theater is - it's on the ground floor.

Feel free to Contact Rachel S. to RSVP, although not required. Rachel's email is rachel.serra@gmail.com and phone is 773-954-9508

For some critical pre-reading & reviews from teachers, check out
http://www.notwaitingforsuperman.org/

We are also having a general meeting Sunday to discuss the film 'Waiting for Superman' in more depth and also to plan for the Nov. 20 Teaching for Social Justice Curriculum Fair. Come on out! Bring a friend!

TSJ General Meeting
Sunday, Oct. 17
1-3pm
UIC-- College of Education, 3rd Floor
1040 W. Harrison St., Room 3233, Commons Room
Chicago, IL
(on facebook)
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Reposted from Rethinking Schools.

NOTWaitingforSuperman.org is live!

We've got news, articles, and resources, as well as discussion boards to keep the dialogue active. Please invite colleagues and friends to the site and join the fight.

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