My Blog

Blog

  • IL High Schools Failing the College Bound

    Eight of 10 public high school juniors in Illinois weren’t considered ready for college classes in all subjects based on ACT testing last spring — and many students missed the mark even at posh suburban Chicago schools that graduate some of the state’s brightest kids.

    At Lake Forest, Deerfield, Northbrook and Hinsdale high schools, more than 40 percent of students didn’t meet all four “college readiness benchmarks” — ACT scores indicating they could do at least average in key freshman classes.

    In Lincolnshire and Naperville, more than half of juniors scored too low to reach the targets in English, reading, science and math, though several hundred met three of four benchmarks, usually missing in science.

    (Full story here.)

    This is just proof of the epic failure of the State’s educational system.  Even the best schools are not fully preparing our students for the future.  Students at the poorest schools don’t have any chance.

    Surely not every student needs to go to college.  There is nothing wrong with walking right over the union hall and signing up to become an electrician, plumber, crane operator, etc.  But the mission of high school should be to give all student the chance.  It is the opportunity being denied to generations of Illinois students.

    It’s time to say that we’ve had enough.

  • From you the voter

    I was reading this story here at the Sun-Times about how Chicago compares to other cities (we rock by the way.)  And in the comments I found this observation by someone posting as nomoretears:

    Chicago is fine, and Chicago needs to worry about being Chicago. We just need new local and state leadership across the board. It would be nice to keep our swankiness but much of old Chicago’s unique charm is slowly slipping away.

    The best way to market Chicago is through it’s residents. If the residents love living here, then others will want to spend time here. However, most Chicagoans have been miserable over the past decade because we’ve been getting raped and mistreated by the Daley Administration. If we can get better leadership, leadership that isn’t constantly digging into our pockets, it would certainly improve quality of life here in Chicago. And the Parking meter fiasco must be removed or Chicago will no longer have ANY business.

    Mark my word on that one!

    Thank you nomoretears.   I think you summed that up nicely.

  • CPS is Broke, State not Helping

    Two months into the school year, Chicago Board of Education officials Tuesday were already estimating next school year’s deficit at $700 million.

    …

    Chicago Board of Education officials Tuesday were already estimating next school year’s deficit at $700 million.

    During the meeting, officials revealed the state still owes CPS $164 million from last school year and has been late on an additional $206 million so far this school year.

    (Full story here.)

    CPS is not only broke, but broken.  It’s time to look at all of the options available to fix, not just the politically expedient ones.

    We should be looking at what I call the “Clean Sheet of Paper” solution.  If you put 25 educators in a room what kind of system would they build.  We should also be looking at the “Grey Paper” solution, how can we take what we have and make it better.  These are not mutually exclusive; they can be done in a parallel path.

  • Rahm Talks Trash

    An interesting bit, shows that Rahm’s not just another pretty face:

    (1) Establish a “benchmark” price per ton after comparing the cost of collecting Chicago’s 1 million tons of annual garbage to costs in 10 major cities.

    (2) Give the city’s 1,142-strong, $173.7 million-a-year refuse-collection army a chance to generate the savings necessary to meet those benchmarks.

    (3) Switch from a ward-by-ward to a grid or zone system of collecting garbage if Phase Two doesn’t work.

    (4) And, if all else fails, implement a “managed competition” between city employees and private companies to achieve savings.

    (Full story here.)

    My complaint?  It’s a fine plan, but it’s also politics as usual.

    Let’s face the facts, how long does it really take to establish a baseline price?  If it’s more than a 20 minute phone call to Waste Management or Onyx then it’s taking too long.

    But we all know how this is really going to go.  The Union will high-ball the number and preach all kinds of doom-and-gloom about snow plowing.  The city will counter, and back-and-forth and round-and-round it will go and then magically, over steaks at Gibson’s a deal will be struck.

    I say we accept 1 through 3 and inevitable and get right on to Number 4.  Find out what a private contractor will bid for the job and let the union compete.  Whole process should take a few weeks and immediately save the taxpayers millions.

  • Strong-arm Robbery

    At 12:30 a.m., a female Roosevelt University student was robbed of her iPhone in the 600 block of South Michigan Avenue, according to Central District police.

    (Full story here.)

    This is the kind of event that troubles me.  No camera is going to stop this.  And let’s be honest, it’s just not practicable to say that “no one should ever walk alone.”  The only solution is more police on the street and locking up the criminals.

    We need more police, a real State’s Attorney who will take crime seriously, and judges who give out long sentences.

  • Why Gutierrez Isn’t Running for Mayor

    From the Sun-Times:

    Convicted political fixer Tony Rezko gave U.S. Rep. Luis Gutierrez free upgrades on a riverfront town house after the congressman asked for them, Gutierrez told the FBI, the Chicago Sun-Times has learned.

    Gutierrez’s comments to federal agents in a previously undisclosed 2008 interview contradict what the congressman told the Sun-Times in 2006 about the purchase.

    (Full story here.)

    Ladies and gentlemen, it is up to us to say that we’ve had enough.

  • More Crime Nonsense

    Let’s start with the premise:

    Chicago police officials reported today that October crime statistics continued a drop in violent and property crime for the 22nd consecutive month.Total crime dropped by 3.7 percent compared to the same time last year while property crime dropped by 2 percent and violent crimes dropped by 9.8 percent, police said.

    The only reported increase was in motor vehicle thefts, which were up by 22.7 percent compared to last year’s figures.

    (Full story here.)

    Daley Watches Crime Stats
    Daley Watches Crime Stats

    Why this is udder nonsense:

    So I’m at the recent Beat 1211 CAPS meeting and the very nice CAPS officer is telling us about the recent success of the extra “hot-spot” protection we’ve been getting over on the West Side.

    The officer tells us about 17 calls to 911 within a two square-block area in the month of October dealing with everything from “kids being loud” to a “man with a gun” and one call for “shots fired.”  However the kicker is that these 17 calls resulted in ZERO reports.

    Seventeen calls to 911, zero reports.  So you know how the Mayor looks at it?  No reports, no crime.

    Perhaps if CPD was not understaffed response time would be reasonable so that when people call 911, you know, an officer shows up in 5 or 10 minutes.  Then maybe the person who called would still be around to, you know, file the report.

    Incredible.  Simply incredible.

  • Subpoenas Deny Hendon

    Ooops.

    State Sen. Rickey Hendon today took himself out of the race for Chicago mayor, a week after revelations that a federal grand jury has issued subpoenas for records on dozens of state grants, some of which he sponsored.

    (Full story here.)

    Well another one bites-the-dust.

    My guess is that if Lisa Madigan had been doing her job we would have an even narrower field.  Maybe an honest businessman would have had a chance instead of the hoi polloi of political insiders left standing.

  • CPS Changing For the Worst

    Under the headline “Changes may ease admissions to elite CPS schools” we’re told that CPS is now going to reward student who attended failing schools by letting them go to the best high schools in the city.

    Using U.S. Census data, the district began evaluating all 874 census tracts in the city on five indicators: median income, adult education, percentages of single-family homes and homeowners and the percentage of children living in non-English speaking households. For the 2011-12 school a sixth criteria will be added: school performance.

    CPS ranks the census tracts based on the indicators and divides them into four tiers. Last year, 40 percent of openings in selective schools went to students with top academic scores overall and the other 60 percent were divided among top-scoring students in each of the four socioeconomic groups.

    This year, only 30 percent of the openings will be reserved for students with top scores overall.

    (Full story here.)

    This is the kind of decision that is made by bureaucrats, not educators.  What educators know, and how schools function from kindergarten on,  is that excellent students need other excellent students around them to keep them challenged.  Brilliant or gifted students are bored when placed in classrooms with remedial students; remedial students feel overwhelmed and inferior when placed in a classroom with gifted students.  As such, neither student is served by being forced to study with the other.

    This is the problem with CPS.  Too many bureaucrats and not enough educators.  That needs to change if we’re going to have a world class primary and secondary educational system.

  • The Chicago Way

    With the election now behind us I’d like to pause on a great little story in the Trib. today.

    Cook County voters Tuesday narrowly retained four Circuit Court judges who had been deemed unqualified to continue on the bench by several legal groups.

    Jim Ryan and Susan McDunn each garnered about 63 percent of the vote, just above the required 60 percent to be retained; Dorothy Jones pulled in 64 percent; and William O’Neal recorded 66 percent.

    (Full story here.)

    This is nothing short of embarrassing.  We must do whatever it takes to change the crooked system that keeps unqualified people in office.  Apathy is not an excuse, let alone a reason, for poor judges to be retained.

    All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.

    — Edmund Burke

    That about sums it up.