All the efforts spent by parents and teachers and students trying to protect their public schools from the billionaire reformers is summed up by Rahm Emanuel in a word: "noise."
I would imagine that is pretty much how Arne Duncan feels also. All the heartfelt efforts to communicate with the powers that be are probably thought of as an annoying "noise." There is no one keeping check on what Arne is doing to public education.
There doesn't seem to be anyone listening to teachers, parents, or students from the public schools. The only ones being heard are the astroturf groups formed by corporations or education reformers who want public schools to be things of profit.
Rahm Emanuel: Protests over school closings ‘noise associated with change’Mayor Rahm Emanuel said Thursday he’s sensitive to the “noise associated with change” caused by the decision to close or turn around 17 underperforming schools, but he said he’s more concerned about the deafening “silence of failure.”
The Rev. Jesse Jackson Sr. and Chicago Teachers Union President Karen Lewis denounced the school board’s actions as “educational apartheid,” noting that the overwhelming majority of students impacted are black and brown.
Jackson declared that closings disproportionately impacting black neighborhoods and teachers amounted to educational “apartheid” and said he was exploring a civil rights lawsuit and a push for an elected school board that would strip Emanuel of his appointment power. He was among a long line of critics who complained that targeted schools had been starved of materials and resources, reading and math specialists and libraries, contributing to their demise.
AUSL (Academy for Urban School Leadership) has been the beneficiary of much of the resources that public schools should indeed have.
CPS Turnarounds, School Closings Approved Amid Public Criticism (VIDEO)They are called in to "turn around" a school that is considered to be "failing." They are a turnaround company. This has to be the first time in our country's history that such a company had reason to exist. Like charter school companies, they profit from the failure of schools that have had their resources taken away.
Others who spoke at the event, like Marquette Elementary teacher Marcy Hardaloupas, said CPS officials have restricted resources - money, programs, and teachers - from their schools in order to make way for Academy for Urban School Leadership, or AUSL, schools.
“I call on the city and state attorneys, Lisa Madigan and Anita Alvarez, to investigate a conflict of interest involving CPS’s decision making. I ask them to investigate how public, taxpayer dollars have been taken away from public schools and given to millionaire businessmen who run AUSL and charter schools,” Hardaloupas said.
Noise? All the protests and all the speaking out that has been organized by teachers, parents, students is "noise"?
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