Canter School Makes The Nation

by | Apr 17, 2013 | Education

This week The Nation took the struggle to keep Canter Leadership Academy open nationwide. While it’s a great boost for the community fighting to keep it open, it also should heighten the debate about public education and corporate school reform. As I pointed out...

Busy week for education in the news….

by | Apr 16, 2013 | Education

At long last, it seems that education is making headline news across the country. Unfortunately, it’s not good news. Perhaps we can thank Rahm Emanuel for his insistence on closing a record 54 schools  while “turning around” 11 even though schools CEO Barbara Byrd...

Divesting in Neighborhoods IS Racist

by | Apr 10, 2013 | Education, Uncategorized

The first comment Rahm Emmanuel had about school closings was that he wasn’t going to get pulled into name-calling and “schoolyard taunts.” The intent of that was to further polarize the city by throwing it back to Chicago Teacher’s Union...

We Want Harold (again)

by | Nov 28, 2012 | Chicago News, Education, Politics, Uncategorized

These past few weeks as I’ve watched government operate at the local level, I can’t help but think that Harold Washington would be rolling in his grave. As we’ve been  commemorating Harold’s all-too-short realm of openness and fairness, so-called “open hearings” these...

Mr. President, Can We Talk about Education?

by | Nov 15, 2012 | Education

Dear President Obama, I am still so very glad to wake up every morning to find you are still president. I worked hard to help make that happen, especially because the Affordable Care Act made a difference to me as it did for millions of people. But I’d like to...

Red State/Blue State

by | Nov 6, 2012 | Politics

I’ve spent the last three days in Kenosha, Wisconsin for the final push in this long 2012 election year. We thought we’d be in Ohio but in the last few days, everyone from Illinois has been sent to Wisconsin. But we’re also working for Rob Zerban,...