Chance Supports Chicago Public Schools, CTU Strike

The Honorable Elijah E Cummings' Last Act: To Bring Us ALL To Church -- Pastor Walter Scott Thomas

"Elijah came to church every week because he knew how easy it is to forget where you come from...sometimes we have to make sure our nation does not forget the very things that have been planted in our spirit. Elijah brought you to church today so that that moral compass can be reset, so your grounding can get back, so that we can remember we hold these truths to be self evident ... He brought us to church to be regrounded... "

Barack Obama Speaks At Elijah Cummings Funeral -- "The Seed On Good Soil"

LIVE: MEMORIAL SERVICE FOR THE HONORABLE ELIJAH CUMMINGS

LIVE ON FACEBOOK: THE FUNERAL OF ELIJAH CUMMINGS

I've been tearing up so much I almost forgot to post it here.

https://www.facebook.com/Vox/videos/2479658905650133/?notif_id=1572014841099303¬if_t=live_video

Congressional Leadership From Democratic Freshmen -- Lawrence O'Donnell

One of the best interviews I've seen on Lawrence in a while.

Nothing near our freshmen impressiveness comes from Republicans. Republicans got DUI Gaetz types, instead.

Americans should know about Republican use of social media to disinform them.

"What we've decided to do ... is send followup questions to him and Facebook ... broadcasters are held to a much higher standard ... of fact checking.

Democracy Now On the Chicago Teachers' Strike

The CTU's contract proposal has sat on the mayor's desk since MAY.

This mayor forced this strike by refusing to negotiate all summer.

A 16% pay raise does nothing to help what the schools really need. Those school needs are what teachers strike for.

Class size until the BOARD decides to spend more money on teaching staff in Dist 299, and LESS money on a city hall patronage army, 120+ earning six figure salaries. This mayor chooses to keep that patronage army paid.

The public should demand to know why.

Every 6-figure bureaucrat's salary can pay for at least three new teachers. At LEAST.

CHOP THE TOP, MAYOR LIGHTFOOT.

Keep your campaign promise: Dissolve the current school board, hold elections to create an elected school board, like other cities have across the nation.

Keep your campaign promise to be the "Transparency Mayor." Release the unabridged school budget that Chicagoans have never seen. Conduct an Independent Inspector General audit of the complete school budget, contracts, services and central office impact on schools.

Mayor Lightfoot and Chicago School Board Do Not Negotiate In Good Faith

1.
This video is made by a Chicago teacher.

30,000 people marched for the schools downtown on October 23.


2.
Most people, Chicagoans included, don't know the context of Chicago's wealth.

Mayor Lightfoot parrots what the city's Business Round Table expects her to say.

She's playing Chicago residents and the nation.

Lightfoot constantly refers to Chicago Board debt. DEBT?? PFFFT DON'T MAKE CHICAGOANS LAUGH. THAT'S REPUBLICAN TALK. Chicago is a city is of the rich, by the rich and for the rich.

(Sidebar: Republican owners of the Chicago Cubs, the Ricketts family, just held a major fundraiser for Trump at Trump tower. The Republicans keep trying to move in on blue state Illinois. )

CHICAGO IS A TAX HAVEN CITY -- just not for its middle and working class residents.

3.
Facts:

"... Chicago was listed as an alpha global city by the Globalization and World Cities Research Network,[14] and it ranked seventh in the entire world in the 2017 Global Cities Index.[15]

The Chicago area has one of the highest gross domestic products (GDP) in the world, generating $680 billion in 2017.[16]
In addition, the city has one of the world's most diversified and balanced economies, with no single industry employing more than 14% of the workforce.[17]

Chicago is home to several Fortune 500 companies, including Allstate, Boeing, Exelon, Kraft Heinz, McDonald's, Mondelez International, Sears, United Airlines Holdings, and Walgreens.

Chicago's 58 million domestic and international visitors in 2018 made it the second most visited city in the nation, not far behind New York City's 65 million visitors in 2018.[18][19]

The city was ranked first in the 2018 Time Out City Life Index, a global quality of life survey of 15,000 people in 32 cities.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicago


Chicago, 3rd largest city, has the country's third largest school system, which is also Chicago's second largest employer.

As a retired Chicago high school teacher, I've watched, marched, struck with AFT's Local #1, as schools have been tossed starvation rations by one of the highest GDP cities on the planet -- for three generations.

4.
After all the fanfare about this "transparency" mayor, the nation needs to be reminded not of what she SAYS, but what she DOES.

"I also really value collaboration, and I look forward to the possibility of assembling a really great team of experts and also people who really love the city and recognize, if I win, it’s a mandate for change in a fairly profound way that gives us an opportunity to really do big bold things.”

Lori Lightfoot, mayor of Chicago, March, 2019

If this mayor is serious about being bold, Chicagoans must...

1. Demand that this "Transparency Mayor" turn over the unabridged Budget of the CPS Board of Education -- that Chicago has NEVER seen, except in Barr-style "summary" form. Demand that this "Transparency Mayor" conduct an Inspector General level, independent full audit of the CPS budget. It's not that "bold." Just honest.

2. Demand that the mayor fire the school board and hold elections for an elected school board. This was her campaign promise. Now's the time to boldly fulfill it.

3. Demand that the mayor boldly fire all the 300+ patronage army and 150+ six figure bureaucrats at CPS central office; demand that she buy more nurses and social workers for schools with that money. Lose CPS' central office bureaucracy, and Chicago schools will not feel a ripple.

4. Demand that the mayor's negotiating team lower class size permanently, and not just for the upcoming year. That class size be lowered without cost by having every high school administrator teach one class daily through each school year as part of their job description.
Two to three "overflow" classes taught by administrators can help return class size to the old 28:1 pupil-teacher ratio. This is not a bold move for the mayor, just the LEAST she can do to relieve overcrowded high school classes, so that she can pay to lower elementary class sizes.

Across this country teachers' working conditions ARE students' learning conditions.

Elizabeth Warren's Speech to CTU and SEIU Strikers in Chicago

She was at Oscar DePriest Elementary on the West Side this morning.

AFT President Randi Weingarten was there, too.

Elizabeth Warren's Speech to CTU Strikers in Chicago

She was at Oscar DePriest Elementary on the West Side this morning.

AFT President Randi Weingarten was there, too.