In honor of Dr. Seuss’ birthday, First Lady Michelle Obama read The Cat in the Hat aloud at the Library of Congress during the National Education Association’s Read Across America event yesterday.
Oswego District 308 approved $5.5 million in budget adjustments for fiscal year 2010-11 on Monday, but the reductions may not be nearly enough.
District officials warned that Illinois’ current fiscal woes could result in an additional 10 percent cut in state support and a reduction of as much as $11 million in an operating budget for the fiscal year that begins in July.
“There’s going to be more (cuts), we just don’t know how much,” said District 308 superintendent Daniel O’Donnell. “There is no reliable information (yet). It could be as much as a 10 percent reduction in state aid.”
District 308 has a $110 million operating budget for the current fiscal year and serves 16,182 students and has 1,600 full-time employees.
The board approved the reductions by a 6-1 vote. Cuts included elimination of approximately 80 positions — including 68 support staff — for savings of $3.8 million. A building trade’s teacher would be eliminated, but no other teaching positions would be cut.
Approximately $1.2 million would come from a combination of operations and program cuts while new revenues of $450,000 would result from increased student fees and higher building rental revenue.
Enrollment is projected to grow by as much as 3.5 percent in 2010-11 and the district plans to add only 12 new teachers instead of 32 as originally planned.
O’Donnell said district officials would prepare options for a second round of cuts and would announce plans by March 15.
–Jack McCarthy
High school students worked on “cleaving” a coriander seed Thursday in Terry Isbell’s chemistry lab at the National Center for Agricultural Utilization Research.
It wasn’t abstract or irrelevant busy work. Isbell explained the relevance of the work to America’s trade imbalance and the national farm economy.
That was an astounding and exciting correlation, and one that became infectious throughout the day as 16 students rotated among three labs to work alongside scientists on real-life problems.
Thursday was the third “Student Researcher Day” at the lab. Junior and senior
high school students throughout the Tri-County Area were invited to apply for a day of hands-on lab work, discussions with practicing scientists and lunch with staff at the center, including scientists who rank among the world’s best.
Student Researcher Day is part of the center’s effort to turn high school students on to the excitement of basic scientific research untethered by corporate sponsorship or grant money.
In brief remarks, Isbell explained how his lab is trying to cleave the coriander seed and split the fat molecule into oleic acid and lauric acid. Students grappled with the conundrum of trying to figure out how to use oxidation, but to stop the process in the first phase in order to extract the lauric acid.
Isbell explained that lauric acid is a detergent component in shampoo, and American manufacturers currently depend on imported lauric acid. Having a domestic source would help America’s trade imbalance.
The other component, oleic acid, is used in nylon, he said, “so out of one crop, two products can be used.”
He told students coriander, also called cilantro, can be grown in central Illinois and many regions of the United States as part of a crop rotation following winter wheat, thereby producing additional farm income.
During a lunch break, lab director Paul Sebesta told students that basic science means signing on for a “career of discovery.”
“This lab opened in 1940 with our first generation of scientists working here. We’re now on our third generation of scientists,” Sebesta said. “Students in high school today are our fourth generation. This program is our opportunity to entice you to seek careers in science. Today is your opportunity to work in a lab, not a classroom.”
Lily Liu, a junior at Dunlap High School, walked out of Nancy Alexander’s lab after photographing DNA and said, “Really cool. We get to do a lot more here. There is definitely a lot of exciting hands-on work in the labs here.”
Liu, 16, is thinking about pursuing a career in biochemical or biomedical engineering. She was the only girl in a class of 20 last year in her high school’s introduction to engineering class.
Blake Holzgrafe, a junior at Notre Dame High School, is considering a career in health sciences and found work in Alexander’s lab separating DNA “extremely exciting.”
“I signed up for the day because in my education so far I haven’t really experienced first-hand science. A lot of this is more advanced than I imagined,” he said.
“I want to get as much experience as I can with science before I start applying to medical schools. The work going on here is about using your brain to make leaps ahead in critical discoveries. We’ve got to solve problems by thinking outside the box. Obviously, we can’t keep doing things they way we have in the past.”
Alexander, a molecular biologist, told students, “I never do the same thing day after day. I’m not on an assembly line. Every day I’m challenging my brain.”
She is working on fungi and ways to keep the food supply safe.
“I highly encourage young people to go into science. There is still an incredible amount of work to be done. If we don’t keep up with science and technology, our society will go down hill,” she said.
“We need to figure out how to feed the world without fighting. If we are to keep the food supply safe, we need to be ahead of the game. We can’t be behind the fact and still stay ahead of bioterrorism.”
Alexander, who has been at the lab 30 years and is close to retirement, said when she applied to graduate school, an administrator tried to discourage her, saying that she would end up leaving her career to marry and have a family.
She has always tried to make positions in her lab available for students and tries to encourage female students.
Last week, Alexander stopped by Proctor First Care and was diagnosed with pneumonia. The female physician had been a student working in Alexander’s lab 25 years ago.
“She came here as a high school student and worked here for two more summers, then I lost touch with her,” Alexander said. “I don’t know how to change politicians or the bureaucracy, but we can take little steps here to help students. It feels good to be able to do that.”
Read the original article from Journal Star.
Distributed via Chicago Press Release Services
University of ChicagoChicago reviews
officials are answering questions about President Robert Zimmer’s romantic relationship with a faculty member, including whether he played a role in decisions about her employment.
Zimmer told trustees that he and his wife, Terese, a staff member at the university’s Urban Education Institute, separated in September. Campus media reports and sources linked Zimmer, 62, with classics professor Shadi Bartsch, 43.
Martha Roth, dean of humanities, said Friday that Zimmer met with Bartsch twice in 2008 as part of efforts to keep her on the faculty. After 10 years at U. of C., Bartsch left for Brown University in fall 2008. She returned in July 2009.
Roth said in a statement that she asked the president to meet with Bartsch “to add his voice to the many urging her to continue her career at Chicago.”
Faculty hiring is typically done by the department chair, dean and provost. Roth said she made every effort to keep Bartsch at U. of C., and that it often takes a “team effort” to recruit and retain top scholars.
Andrew Alper, chairman of the university’s board of trustees, said this week there is no conflict of interest in Zimmer’s relationship.
The university has taken steps to ensure that Zimmer will not be involved in decisions about her salary or promotions, spokesman Steve Kloehn said. If there are questions that typically would go to the president, they will instead go to Alper.
“President Zimmer has been forthcoming with me and the board regarding his family situation,” Alper said in a statement. “The president has gone out of his way to ensure that there is no conflict of interest, or appearance of a conflict, stemming from his personal life.”
Zimmer has moved out of the president’s house on South University Avenue, but his wife is still living there and campus functions are being held at the home, Kloehn said.
Zimmer, who spent more than two decades at U. of C. as a professor and administrator, returned to the campus in 2006 to serve as president. He was provost at Brown University from 2002 to 2006.
Bartsch teaches Roman literature and culture and has served as chair of the classics department, according to a resume on the university Web site. She has won teaching awards and a Guggenheim fellowship.
Zimmer and Bartsch did not return calls for comment. Kloehn said the president’s “personal relationship” is not prohibited by any university policy.
Sheldon Steinbach, a longtime higher education attorney, said a relationship between the president and faculty member is a situation that no trustee “wants to deal with.” But he said it won’t have long-lasting effects.
“Whatever prurient value it may have today will be gone by Monday morning with no lasting effect on the president or the good name of the University of Chicago,” Steinbach said. “It’s a one-day soap opera.”
WASHINGTON — A week before the launch of a national campaign against childhood obesity, first lady Michelle Obama met today at the White House with key allies in her fight.
She begins the battle next Tuesday with measures targeted at families, schools, businesses, non-profits and government at all levels, aides said.
Obama said her campaign would have four pillars: increasing the number as schools federally designated as “healthy schools,” raising kids’ physical activity level, improving the affordability and accessibility of foods in what she termed the nation’s “food deserts,” and empowering consumers to make better choices.
The first lady often has pointed out that nearly one-third of U.S. children now are overweight or obese. She met today with three members of the Cabinet and influential members of Congress to discuss the campaign.
Arne Duncan, the former ChicagoChicago reviews public schools superintendent who is now the education secretary; Kathleen Sebelius, the health and human services secretary; and Tom Vilsack, the agriculture secretary, represented the Cabinet.
Democratic and Republican lawmakers drawn from congressional committees with oversight over agriculture, health and education also were on hand.
–Katherine Skiba
A day after state Rep. Monique Davis, D-ChicagoChicago reviews, pledged to return a $25,000 statue owned by Chicago State University, “Defiance” had a new home on the 4th floor of the college’s library.
Two Chicago State employees with a hand truck carried the bronze statue out of Davis’ office Thursday night, hours after she held a news conference to explain how she obtained the piece of artwork, according to university spokeswoman Felicia Horton.
Davis said her boyfriend, who bought the statue with state money when he worked at a financial aid agency on campus, heard after the program was closed down that the statue had been warehoused. He took the statue to Davis’ office.
On Friday, the statue stood in a sun-lit reading area that many administrators, students and university guests pass through.
Students said they welcomed the statue, which portrays a life-size, shackled female slave, half disrobed so buyers could inspect the merchandise.
“I’m sure it’ll draw a lot of attention,” said Charles Jackson III, a 23-year-old junior majoring in African-American studies. “We don’t know too much about our past because a lot of it was lost. This makes me proud.”
“It shows how far we’ve come but it also shows how much further we have to go,” said Menisha Archie, a 30-year-old junior nursing student. “She was whipped and stripped down naked, and now there are women dancing voluntarily naked in videos. A lot of women should come and see this.”
Gabrielle Toth, a librarian and assistant professor, thought the statue looked “fantastic.”
“A library is a place for intellectual activity, not merely for silence,” she said. “She has a lot to say to us. We need to listen and discuss.”
Mayor Richard Daley on Thursday turned to a former buildings commissioner to follow Michael Scott as ChicagoChicago reviews Board of Education president, continuing his trend of dipping into a pool of trusted problem solvers to fill high-profile posts.
The mayor called the appointment of Mary Richardson-Lowry “bittersweet,” recalling his long friendship with Scott, who died in November of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
One of Richardson-Lowry’s first orders of business is to review school district spending.
Scott had been the subject of an internal investigation that included his use of his taxpayer-paid credit card for thousands of dollars in meals, travel and other expenses. The Tribune previously has disclosed that Scott improperly used his board credit card to pay for a trip last fall to Copenhagen to lobby for Daley’s failed bid for the 2016 Summer Olympics.
“I’d ask Mary to immediately get on top of this so all our taxpayers see that they are all protected,” Daley said at a City Hall news conference to introduce Richardson-Lowry.
A product of the Compton, Calif., public school system, Richardson-Lowry, 53, said she would call on her experience succeeding in that tough city to help guide her in dealing with the high rates of poverty and violence Chicago schoolchildren face.
“I grew up in an environment where I had to walk through gang territories to get to school. I know what that’s like,” Richardson-Lowry said.
“We have to work hard to provide the best possible classroom opportunities for children within the school system,” she added. “And when we do that and create, to the extent possible within our experience, some safe environment, everything is possible.”
Richardson-Lowry began her city career in 1987 as an assistant corporation counsel, then worked as a senior supervising attorney and an assistant to Daley before taking over the Buildings Department in 1998.
Her tenure was marked by a series of deadly building accidents. Glass from a cracked window at the CNA Tower killed a woman in 1999. Scaffolding broke at the John Hancock Building shortly before Richardson-Lowry left in 2002, killing three people in cars below.
Educators offered a mixed reaction Thursday.
“Schools are not McDonald’s, and children are not hamburgers. This is not a corporate enterprise designed to maximize profit,” said Rico Gutstein, a professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago’s College of Education. “What it should be is a system that is committed to the full human potential of educating its students.”
But with educators, such as Chief Education Officer Barbara Eason-Watkins, helping make the education decisions, others said it’s more important to have an effective manager running the board.
“She’s been a part of the administration in the past as a buildings commissioner, so she knows the inner workings of City Hall and the vision that the mayor has for the city,” said Juan Rangel, executive director of the United Neighborhood Organization, the city’s largest charter schools operator.
Richardson-Lowry’s multiple positions with the administration mirror the careers of many lieutenants Daley has called on repeatedly to fill top spots at City Hall.
Scott wore several hats for the mayor, serving as Chicago Park District president and on boards for the Regional Transportation Authority and Metropolitan Pier and Exposition Authority, as well as twice heading the school board.
Gery Chico was Daley’s chief of staff and school board president and now is park board president. And school district CEO Ron Huberman previously headed the CTA and the city Office of Emergency Management and Communications, in addition to serving as Daley’s chief of staff.
Tribune reporter Todd Lighty contributed to this report.
–John Byrne and Azam Ahmed
Plainfield Community Consolidated School District 202 board members will vote Thursday on a budget plan that could cut 222 jobs to help eliminate a projected $16 million deficit.
According to the school district’s Web site, the proposal from Superintendent John Harper was presented at a Monday night Board of Education meeting and will be voted on at a special meeting 7:30 p.m. Thursday in the auditorium at Plainfield Central High School, 24120 W. Ft. Beggs Dr.
“What we are looking at financially is something this board has never seen,” school board member Eric Gallt said describing the magnitude of the proposed cuts.
About 250 parents showed up at Monday’s meeting to hear about the cuts. Many parents objected to the proposed cuts, noting it would eliminate gifted programs and a program that helps 1st grade students struggling with reading. Others objected to the possibility of losing the 5th grade band program and other cuts to the fine arts program.
“When it comes time to cut, we can’t start with academics,” said parent Larry Hug.
Harper’s proposal includes eliminating 222 full-time positions to save $11 million and slicing another $9.1 million in expenses. The proposal also includes about $890,000 in new revenues. The changes would go into effect for the 2010-11 school year.
The district includes 30 schools from preschool to high school. It serves nearly 30,000 students in a 64-square-mile district that includes all or parts of Bolingbrook, Crest Hill, Joliet, Lockport, Naperville, Plainfield, and Romeoville along with portions of unincorporated Will and Kendall counties.
The job cuts would include seven administrative positions, about 132 certified positions (such as band instructors, deans and counselors), and about 82 non-certified positions (secretaries and campus monitors).
The budget cuts include restructuring some debt, 20 percent cuts in departmental and building budgets, and the elimination of summer school for kindergarten through 8th grade.
New revenues would come from increasing school and extracurricular fees. They would include a $50 a month increase in tuition for preschool at the Bonnie McBeth Learning Center, along with increasing activity fees from $39 to $50 for middle school students and from $61 to $120 for high school students.
The district said it expects a $16 million deficit in its operating fund at the end of the 2009-2010 school year and that it is required to file a plan with the state to eliminate that deficit by the end of the 2012-13 school year.
“This is a very difficult and sad time for District 202,” school board President Rod Westfall said in a press release. The district’s budget deficit is being caused by a drop in revenues and not by overspending, he asserted.
Parent Kristy Davey told board members she didn’t agree with everything they were considering but thanked them for their work in addressing the deficit.
School officials said the district’s explosive growth in recent years and the downturn in the economy and housing market have contributed to the district’s deficit. Westfall urged parents to lobby state lawmakers for changes in school funding.
– Alicia Fabbre and Staff report
Mayor Richard Daley today would not criticize his last two school board presidents for ringing up thousands of dollars in meals, travel, gifts and artwork on the public’s credit cards.
But Daley said he wanted to assure taxpayers that he cares about their money “at all times.”
Daley, asked about Tribune disclosures last week of wide and free spending by Rufus Williams and Michael Scott, said he was awaiting the results of two internal reports into the men’s spending habits.
“The report has not come out as yet, but we’ll be sitting down with that,” Daley said. “The independent inspector general is supposed to issue a report as well, and we’ll respond appropriately. Like anything else, you want to protect taxpayers’ money at all times.”
Williams, interviewed by investigators late last year, told the Tribune that his spending was proper and related to the schools and students.
Scott, a close friend of the mayor’s, died Nov. 16 of a self-inflicted gunshot wound before he could be interviewed by the inspector general. Sources said investigators were to interview him Nov. 20. Scott left no suicide note, and police have said they don’t know why he killed himself.
The ChicagoChicago reviews Teachers UnionThe Union reviews
on Friday criticized the board’s spending and also took aim at schools chief Ron Huberman’s use of two taxpayer-funded vehicles, including a new SUV with satellite radio and heated seats. Following Tribune disclosures about the two vehicles, Huberman returned the SUV to the leasing company, and the inspector general launched an investigation.
The union said the spending and the vehicles were worrisome because the district is cutting programs and laying off teachers and staff.
The Tribune reported that the board credit cards were used to make a $2,500 donation to Daley’s 2016 Summer Olympic bid committee; to buy $5,300 in artwork bought from Gallery Guichard; and to purchase meals at notable Chicago restaurants.
Schools Inspector General James Sullivan has been investigating the board’s spending habits. His report could be completed in the next month or two. The board also has hired a private lawyer at $295 an hour to conduct a separate review.
Monique Bond, the district’s spokesman, said Huberman has ordered a review of all credit card use by central office staff after the revelations involving Williams and Scott.
Huberman last week canceled all credit cards, numbering about 90, issued to departments. Each department will need to reapply to get its card back and explain why the card is critical to school operations.
Huberman’s orders do not affect cards given to principals and school engineers, Bond said.
Separately, she said, the school board is considering requiring approval for all grants, gifts or donations over $1,000 in reaction to Tribune disclosures about gifts to a charter school and to the Olympic bid committee.
Monique Bond, the district’s spokesman, said Huberman has ordered a review of all credit card use by central office staff in the wake of the revelations involving Williams and Scott.
Huberman last week canceled all credit cards, numbering around 90, issued to departments. Each department will need to reapply to get its card back and explain why the card is critical to school operations.
Huberman’s orders do not affect cards given to principals and school engineers, Bond said.
Separately, she said, the school board is considering requiring approval for all grants, gifts or donations over $1,000 in reaction to Tribune disclosures about a gifts to a charter school and to the Olympic bid committee
–Todd Lighty and Azam Ahmed
Fourteen ChicagoChicago reviews public schools will be either closed, consolidated or undergo extensive personnel overhaul this year, officials said today.
The latest moves are part of the system’s continuing efforts to shut down and consolidate failing and under-enrolled schools.
Four schools –Curtis, Guggenheim, Prescott and Las Casas Occupational High Schools — will be closed due to inadequate facilities and low enrollment.
Another four schools will be consolidated into nearby facilities. These are McCorkle Elementary, Paderewski Elementary, Marconi Elementary, Mollison Elementary.
One school, Schneider Elementary, will be phased out.
Five schools in the district will be the subject of turnaround operations. That means staff will be fired and a new operator will come in to run the school.
Two elementary schools, Gillespie and Bradwell, will be operated by the successful Academy of Urban School Leadership. A third, Deneen, will be run by the office of school turnarounds at Chicago Public Schools. Two chronically underperforming high schools will be turned around, Phillips High School by AUSL and Marshall High by the district office.
School closings have been immensely unpopular since the district began shutting down facilities several years ago when Arne Duncan, now U.S. secretary of education, led the system.
One of the state’s leading teachers unions is backing Democratic Dan Hynes and Republican Kirk Dillard in their respective governor primaries.
It marks the first time the political arm of the Illinois Education Association has issued separate endorsements in the governor’s race.
Read more on Clout Street at chicagotribune.com.
Charles Flowers, the beleaguered suburban regional school superintendent, brazenly used his taxpayer-funded credit cards for personal expenses and doled out cash advances to his sister and girlfriend, whom he placed on his payroll, State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez said Thursday.
Prosecutors alleged Flowers stole $376,000 in public money from the bankrupt Suburban Cook County Regional Office of Education. He was held in custody Thursday after he surrendered to authorities on charges of theft and official misconduct.
“Within months of taking office, this man engaged in a bold and brazen scheme to defraud. It is a repulsive example of public corruption,” Alvarez said. “In this case, we have an elected official who is supposed to be working for the taxpayers of Cook County, who apparently had the absurd notion that the taxpayers were working for him.”
Flowers, 51, began his term as regional superintendent in July 2007. The office is responsible for overseeing teacher certifications, local school grants, background checks and fingerprinting for public school teachers and employees in suburban Cook County.
According to prosecutors, Flowers made numerous cash advances and credit card purchases that were of a “purely personal nature.” They included using his office-issued credit card to buy nearly $800 in plane tickets for his children to travel to Mississippi, authorities said.
Flowers also charged thousands of dollars at expensive restaurants and for car rentals and limousine services, authorities said.
“If that was done, he personally paid that money back,” his lawyer, Tim Grace, said. “Dr. Flowers possibly made some bad decisions, but they are minor issues.”
Flowers also allegedly used office funds to unlawfully make cash advances to employees that were never fully repaid. Those advances included $9,000 to his girlfriend, whom he hired as a school compliance liaison, and $6,000 to his sister, whom he hired as his executive administrative assistant, authorities said.
Prosecutors said Flowers used restricted grant funds to pay two office employees more than $21,000 in consulting fees. Those fees were in addition to their annual salaries of more than $80,000 each, officials said. The investigation alleged that the consultant services were never performed.
Flowers did not try to conceal or hide his financial crimes, Alvarez said. “The disarray of records hampered us,” she said of the investigation that began in early 2009. “He was a bad record keeper.”
Flowers and the agency are fighting a civil suit brought in July by the state’s attorney’s office for failing to repay a $190,000 loan from the county. The suit says he defrauded the county because he knew the loan could never be repaid because of the agency’s shattered finances.
Last year, a state audit found that the agency was $1 million in debt.
“He inherited an office that was underfunded,” said Grace. “He was able to do the best he could.”
The Illinois State Board of Education filed a petition in July to revoke Flowers’ superintendent and teaching licenses.
Flowers will face additional charges of misapplication of funds Friday, when he is expected to appear at the Cook County courthouse in Maywood, authorities said.
Click HERE for a WGN-TV report on this story.
University of Illinois administrators and professors will be asked to take unpaid furlough days this winter because of a “grim and worsening” state budget picture, Interim President Stanley Ikenberry told staff in an e-mail today. Ikenberry also froze hiring and interim wage increases.
With the U. of I. system facing a $400 million shortfall, the cuts affect employees on all three Illinois campuses, in Urbana-Champaign, ChicagoChicago reviews and Springfield.
Ikenberry said in a news release the university faces a “cash crisis triggered by the state’s financial situation which is grim and worsening.”
He said that, at some point, the U. of I. would not be able to meet its payroll and finish the school year unless there are “significant payments from the state as promised.”
To preserve cash in the meantime, he asked university administrators, including chancellors and deans, to take 10 unpaid furlough days before June 15, and directed faculty and other academic professional staff to take four furlough days between February and May 15.
Given the uncertain financial picture for 2011, he suggested that university administrators consider notifying employee groups of termination — something required in advance by some contracts.
Since July 1, the university system has received only $51 million, or about 7 percent of the annual state appropriation of $743 million, he said.
“It is a step that we had tried to avoid for several months, but in fact with no improvement, no substantial or material improvement in our payment situation with the state, we felt we needed to take this step immediately with the beginning of the new year,” Ikenberry said during a phone conference with the media later in the day.
Gov. Pat Quinn said today all units of government must economize during this difficult budget time. But he said the state will issue $3.5 billion worth of pension obligation bonds in the next few days that will funnel “millions and millions” to state universities and other service providers in the next few weeks.
“Every unit of government, including our universities, are under a lot of fiscal stress and what we have to do is get through it,” Quinn said.
– Jodi S. Cohen
ChicagoChicago reviews Public Schools is revamping its career programs to better prepare students to get jobs in an emerging workforce that will be replete with “middle-skill” occupations, Mayor Richard Daley announced today.
Under the restructuring, career and technological programs will be consolidated into fewer high schools, where the levels of training will be ramped up. Students also will be able to apply to take part in career programs of their choice, even if they are not offered in their own neighborhoods, Daley said.
“In today’s economy, it is essential that we graduate students with the skills they need to go directly into a good job and a long-term career,” Daley said, speaking to students at Harlan Community Academy on the South SideSouth Side reviews.
He cited a recent study by the National Skills Alliance that concluded 45 percent of jobs by 2014 will be in so-called middle-skill occupations.
CPS currently offers 250 career and technical programs at 250 schools. During the next five years or so, they will be consolidated to 80 programs at 35 “college and career academies,” said Ron Huberman, the system’s chief executive officer.
“What you have is a much greater focus, both on the training of the teachers, the industry certification so that students leave with certificates that allow them to apply for competitive jobs,” Huberman said.
Students in the programs will still have to comply with core-curriculum standards.
“One of the most important tools that a student can have, in addition to attaining academic excellence, is the ability to apply those academics to make them both college and career ready.”
Daley said the announcement was one of several CPS initiatives to be announced in the coming weeks.
“Today, and over the next few days and weeks, we will announce new steps we plan to take to improve our schools at the next level, with Ron Huberman and (Chief Education Officer) Barbara Eason-Watkins,” Daley said. “We will talk about greater accountability, improved classroom learning, improving the quality of teachers and, importantly, how we plan to further reduce the horrible violence that unfortunately is needlessly killing our children.”
The first 30 academies will open in 11 schools this fall, Huberman said, and applications are now being accepted, with a Jan. 20 deadline. Information is at www.chooseyourfuture.org.
The Sun-Times reports: State Rep. Monique Davis (D-ChicagoChicago reviews) has been occupying a rent-free Chicago
Board of Education building for seven years and owes more than $500,000 in rent,
leaseholder taxes and penalties on it, a new report by the schools inspector
general indicates. And CPS has filed a legal claim for it.
Get the full story: suntimes.com
New York Times environment reporter Andrew C. Revkin had a post yesterday that was primarily about an open letter from Judith Curry.
Revkin describes her as "a seasoned climate scientist at Georgia Tech …. (who) has no skepticism about a growing human influence on climate." Revkin writes that "Dr. Curry has written a fresh essay that’s essentially a message to young scientists potentially disheartened in various ways by recent events."
Here are some of the key paragraphs from Curry’s letter that touch on that matter:
Based upon feedback that I’ve received from graduate students at Georgia Tech, I suspect that you are confused, troubled, or worried by what you have been reading about ClimateGate.
What has been noticeably absent so far in the ClimateGate discussion is a public reaffirmation by climate researchers of our basic research values: the rigors of the scientific method (including reproducibility), research integrity and ethics, open minds, and critical thinking. Under no circumstances should we ever sacrifice any of these values; the CRU emails, however, appear to violate them.
…. (one student wrote to me that) "The content of some of the emails literally made me stop and wonder if I should continue with my PhD applications for fall 2010, in this science. I was so troubled by how our fellow scientists within the climate community have been dealing with opposing voices (on both sides)."
…. So with this reaffirmation of core climate research values, I encourage you to discuss the ideas and issues raised here with your fellow students and professors. Your professors may disagree with me; there are likely to be many perspectives on this.
…. A better understanding of the enormous policy implications of our field should imbue in all of us a greater responsibility for upholding the highest standards of research ethics. Hone your communications skills; we all need to communicate more effectively. Publish your data as supplementary material or post on a public website. And keep your mind open and sharpen your critical thinking skills. My very best wishes to you in your studies, research, and professional development. I look forward to engaging with you in a dialogue on this topic.
Curry’s correspondence is nice, but peripheral to the core problems Climategate exposes.
What’s notably lacking in Revkin’s report, Curry’s letter, and many other Climategate-related establishment media reports is any willingness to entertain the notion that the scandal completely undermines the scientific basis for the argument that AGW (anthropogenic global warming) is occurring.
It seems that no one will dare say that the pathetic state of the data described in the leaked e-mails and the demonstrated willingness of those who control it to massage it hollows out the entire core of the AGW argument. As I understand it there is no other comparable data set.
Short of creating a fresh batch of comprehensive, transparent, auditable, and totally traceable data supporting the existence of AGW, at this point it is currently barely more than a hypothesis — marginally no better or worse than one which might theorize that the earth is cooling and humans are causing that.
Separately, my hypothesis is that troubled science students, rather than focusing on how to deal with outsiders, are primarily shaken up by the conduct of scientific insiders, and the relatively nonchalant reaction to it. That would lead students entering scientific pursuits to logically fear that:
Given that those caught red-handed cooking the books and playing hide-and-seek with the data have yet to see any meaningful sanctions or discipline for what they have done, students would logically fear that if they fight for scientific values when they are compromised by political factors, they will be fighting alone and ostracized by their peers.
Though their number is unfortunately shrinking, there are still other fields of life endeavor that don’t have this kind of potential ugly baggage.
Thus, I believe that Ms. Curry’s letter barely scratches the surface in attempting to articulate students’ sadly valid concerns.
Cross-posted at BizzyBlog.com.
Sphere: Related ContentWhen your rights and responsibilities as a parent come in conflict with the liberal education establishment, who wins? Parents in Ames, Iowa just found out, and it’s not them.
Over the weekend, the Ames Library Board voted 6 -1 to allow the continued display and distribution of the magazine Sex, Etc. in the teen section of the public library. Sex Etc. is a free periodical written “by teens, for teens,” and published by Answer, a sex education advocacy group based at Rutgers University.
Local parent Joyce Bannantine noticed the magazine display, which encourages teens to take a free copy, in the teen section of the library. After flipping through it, Bannantine started a petition to have the library remove the display and to treat Sex, Etc. like any other periodical. Library Director Art Weeks, and ultimately the Library Board, disagreed.
So what had Bannantine and more than 100 petition signers so upset? After all, Sex, Etc. is a journal published under the auspices of a respected university, with sex education as its subject. "I thought it was too graphic for the age," Bannantine told local TV news KCCI. "Most of the kids that use the teen section are 12, 13 and maybe 14."
A look around the magazine’s Web site proves that Bannantine is just a busybody prude. Why shouldn’t your pubescent son benefit from vast wisdom accumulated by the 17-year-old who penned “Telling Your Parents … ‘I’m Transgender’”? Why shouldn’t your 12-year-old daughter enjoy “I Am Horny,” a comic strip called about a frustrated bisexual girl? Only the most up-tight, kill-joy puritan could seriously be concerned over kids taking quizzes on orgasms or oral sex, or playing “The Condom Game.”
The Sex, Etc. site also includes a blog and forums, so that after baseball practice, little Billy can read threads about herpes, or masturbation or what qualifies a girl to be a slut.
As disturbing as the actual content of the magazine might be, the most troubling aspect of Sex, Etc. and Answer is their aggressive advocacy. Answer’s mission is “to provide and promote comprehensive sexuality education to young people and the adults who teach them.” According to its Web site, the organization believes knowledge is “helpful, not harmful,” and that “teens are responsible decision makers.” (Right. That’s why the ultimate analogy for tempting fate is “… like giving whiskey and car keys to teenage boys.”)
In the “Sex in the States” section, teens can find out all about laws regarding sex in each state. For example, by clicking on Pennsylvania, they learn that they can go to a “Title X” clinic for confidential birth control. They learn that in California, girls under 18 don’t need parental consent for an abortion. Nor is there a waiting period. “GLBTQ” (Gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and questioning) students in Massachusetts can be comforted to know their state has a “Safe Schools Law” to protect them from harassment.
Sex, Etc.’s site has a section called “Your Voice Your Rights!” It tells kids, “You have the right to know all the facts when it comes to topics, like your body and birth control. You deserve a comprehensive sexual health education that gives you honest, factual information so that you can make choices that are right for you!” Teens can share their stories and the truly motivated can “become a Sex, Etc. Teen Ambassador.” Which will no doubt look great on a resume.
Answer and Sex, Etc. are clever. They frame their advocacy for sex education – and, in effect, for sexualizing children and (added bonus!) normalizing all manner of sexual proclivity – in language of “rights.” But they’re not just exercising the liberal talent for finding hitherto-unsuspected “rights,” they are playing to the average self-absorbed adolescent’s fantasies of repression.
Answer and Sex, Etc. are bypassing parents to directly target teens and the more ideologically accommodating adults in education and libraries. In Ames, Art Weeks said his mission as a librarian is to “provide information on a variety of topics, especially ones that are most important to people’s lives,” your bourgeois niceties be hanged. He, an enlightened educator, seems to see the Sex, Etc. flap as one of those “teachable moments” of which the left is so fond.
“It’s a window of opportunity to have important discussions with both my son and daughter,” Weeks said to KCCI. When a door closes, a window opens. Too bad the door closed on the parents of Ames.
Sphere: Related ContentA public memorial to ChicagoChicago reviews Public Schools President Michael Scott today gave a platform for prominent figures to share memories, but the event also allowed West SideWest Side reviews residents to say goodbye to one of their own.
A Video tribute to Chicago Board Of Education President Michael Scott during a public memorial service for Scott at the UIC Forum today. A private funeral was held at Holy Family Church in Chicago Saturday. (Tribune / Scott Strazzante)
Longtime resident Calvin Muhammad never met Scott, a native of the North Lawndale neighborhood and the popular confidant to Mayor Richard Daley whose death has been ruled a suicide but is under investigation by police. But he felt compelled to attend Scott’s Sunday farewell at the UIC Forum, 725 W. Roosevelt Rd.
“He’s from the West Side, I’m from the West Side and that’s one thing about the West Side, we have a very strong bond,” Muhammad said. “Though we may not have personally shook hands, that’s the kind of bond we have on the West Side. We respect one another. There’s a lot of respect on the West Side.”
Muhammad was one of the more than 1,000 people to attend the memorial that brought out prominent figures such as Gov. Pat Quinn, U.S. Rep Jesse Jackson Jr., D-Chicago, and CPS chief executive officer Ron Huberman.
Numerous speakers paid homage to Scott’s sturdy ties to the West Side that began with him as a community organizer decades ago and continued as a someone who fought for its inclusion for advancement.
“He was one of us. He was the best of us,” West Side Ald. Sharon Dixon, 24th, told the audience.
U.S. Rep Danny Davis, D-Chicago, himself a fixture on the city’s West Side, said that as a younger man, Scott showed the qualities that made him successful.
“We saw that Michael had talent and Michael continued to emerge,” Davis said.
The roughly two-hour memorial often took on the feeling of a Baptist church, with stirring gospel solos dedicated to Scott and speakers often quoting Scripture to console members of his family. One of Scott’s nieces read a letter of condolence from President Barack Obama.
Toward the end of the memorial, Scott’s adult children thanked those in attendance and asked for their continued support as they dealt with the tragedy. Their mother, Scott’s former wife, Millicent, died in May.
Click HERE for a CLTV report on the service.
A Video tribute to ChicagoChicago reviews Board Of Education President Michael Scott during a public memorial service for Scott at the UIC Forum today. A private funeral was held at Holy Family Church in Chicago Saturday. (Tribune / Scott Strazzante)
Two ChicagoChicago reviews
-area residents and a University of Chicago grad are among the 32 winners of this year’s Rhodes scholarships.
The prestigious scholarships provide tuition and a living stipend for two to three years study in any field at the University of Oxford in England.
The winners include Russell A. Perkins of Evanston, Daniel D. Shih of Aurora and Stephanie A. Bell, a University of Chicago graduate.
Perkins graduated from Wesleyan University in Middletown, Conn., in May. He founded the Center for Prison Education, which offers Wesleyan courses in prison, and he himself teaches a small class in philosophy at a Connecticut prison. He’ll use the scholarship to study philosophy.
Daniel D. Shih of Aurora is a senior political science major at Stanford University. A field director for the Obama campaign in Albuquerque, he also founded a campaign to raise working conditions in factories producing Stanford apparel. He plans to study international relations at Oxford.
Stephanie A. Bell of West Des Moines, Iowa, just graduated from the University of Chicago with majors in anthropology and gender studies. She plans to pursue developmental studies at Oxford. This the 44th Rhodes scholarship awarded to a University of Chicago student or grad. In the last five years alone, the university has produced seven Rhodes scholars.
ChicagoChicago reviews Board of Education President Michael Scott was remembered today at Holy Family Church as a civic giant who remained calm amid adversity, but also as a doting father and faithful friend to Mayor Richard Daley.
While Scott’s death remains a shock to those struggling to understand its violent, self-inflicted circumstances, many mourners left the funeral service with smiles on their faces as they described a positive message celebrating his life.
“I have been to a lot of funerals, and this was the most uplifting,” said Michael Horne of New York, who said he has been friends with Scott for 40 years. He was among about 900 people in attendance.
Pallbearers carry the casket of Michael Scott after private funeral services at Holy Family Church in Chicago. (Tribune / Zbigniew Bzdak)
Scott, 60, was found dead of a gunshot wound to the head Monday, the apparent result of a suicide, according to the Cook County Medical Examiner’s office. Chicago police are continuing to review evidence in the case.
Earlier this week, Police Supt. Jody Weis Jody Weis said robbery has been ruled out, but he is still awaiting ballistics tests to determine if the recovered gun was the weapon that killed Scott. Police also must review videotape that might show whether Scott was alone in the hours before his death, he said.
Politicians and civic leaders filled the church at today’s private ceremony, with a public memorial service set for Sunday.
“It is tragic,” said Ald. Sharon Dixon (24th). “It has rocked the City of Chicago. Michael Scott was like no other.”
After a rash of Craigslist customers were robbed on the South SideSouth Side reviews, ChicagoChicago reviews police scoured the popular Web site’s ads for similar posts and posed as buyers.
When the purported seller of plasma TVs at bargain-basement prices lured undercover detectives to gangways and then brandished weapons, the officers pulled out their guns and made arrests.
Two brothers and a third suspect – described by police as associates – were arrested in separate stings earlier this week, police announced Friday.
“This was where a thug meets a white-collar education,” Detective Joseph McGuire said. “It’s robbery by appointment.”
The bandits started off by claiming to be selling smaller electronics such as $100 Xboxes and then graduating to higher-priced TVs for $500.
Dwayne Williams, 20, was charged with robbing a dozen victims on eight occasions. Most of his crimes took place within a three-block range of the 8700 block of South Parnell Avenue, a block away from his grandmother’s house, police said.
Police said Williams learned the scheme from Jalmar Smalling, 19,and his brother, Jamelle, 18, who each were charged with five counts of armed robbery and one count of attempted robbery.
To add legitimacy to their ads, the three always asked for “serious buyers only” and requested that buyers contact them by phone, not e-mail, police said. But that proved to be their downfall.
“Those were the two phrases we were looking for,” Lt. John McMurray said. “We had an idea, based on the language in the ad, that this was our individual.”
Detectives built the case over a month, scouring the Web site every day for ads and subpoenaing Craigslist for information on previous posts.
Bail was set at $500,000 each for Jalmar Smalling and Williams and at $450,000 for Jamelle Smalling.
Tribune reporter Carlos Sadovi contributed to this report.
On today’s CNN Newsroom, anchor Kyra Phillips went after the kids who supposedly bully a 10-year-old boy who refuses to say the Pledge of Allegiance because homosexual marriage isn’t widely accepted. Some of his classmates allegedly call him names. Phillips’s weapon of choice was name calling:
And a message to you boys who are bullying Will, shame on you. It’s obvious you are jealous that Will is smarter and more well spoken than you are. Hopefully one day you will grow up and realize that you were being the wads, dork wads.
Phillips didn’t say how she knows that Will is smarter and more well spoken than his purported tormentors. On Monday, she reported that Will is "a terrific kid." So what makes him so smart and terrific?
That was answered earlier Monday in an interview with anchor John Roberts on CNN’s American Morning:
ROBERTS: A 10-year-old boy from Arkansas is taking a stand by sitting down. Will Philips is refusing to pledge allegiance to the flag in his fifth grade classroom until there really is, as the pledge says, liberty and justice for all. He says until gays and lesbians have equal rights.
Joining us now in an exclusive interview are Will Phillips and his father, Jay. They’re in West Fork, Arkansas this morning. Will and Jay, good to see you this morning. Thanks very much for being with us. And Will, let me ask you first of all, when did you decide that you weren’t going to stand up and recite the pledge?
WILL PHILLIPS, WONT SAY PLEDGE UNTIL GAYS HAVE EQUAL RIGHTS: I decided that I was going to do that the weekend before when I did it. I was analyzing the meanings of it because I want to be a lawyer.
ROBERTS: All right. So what did you decide in analyzing the meanings of it that caused you not to stand up and recite the pledge?
WILL PHILLIPS: Well, I looked at the end and it said "with liberty and justice for all." And there really isn’t liberty and justice for all. There’s — gays and lesbians can’t marry. There’s still a lot of racism and sexism in the world, yes.
ROBERTS: All right. So you think that the country isn’t living up to the ideals of the pledge and you took it upon yourself to sit down and not recite the pledge of allegiance until the country comes in line to embody the ideals that are embodied in the pledge?
WILL PHILLIPS: Yes.
ROBERTS: All right. So, your teacher, who is a substitute teacher at the time, was giving you grief about not standing up. This went on for a few days. What did you eventually say to that teacher?
WILL PHILLIPS: I eventually very solemnly with a little bit of malice in my voice said, "Ma’am, with all due respect, you can go jump off a bridge."
And later:
ROBERTS: Got you. All right. Let’s bring in Will here again. Will, why is this issue so important to you that you would commit as your dad said this atypical act of juvenile delinquency?
WILL PHILLIPS: Because I have many — I’ve grown up with a lot of people and good friends with a lot of people that are gay and I really — I think they should have the rights all people should. And I’m not going to swear that they do.
ROBERTS: So what’s the reaction been from your fellow students at school to you not standing up for the pledge and the views that you hold about this issue?
WILL PHILLIPS: Not very good. They’ve taken from what I said an assumption that I’m gay and the halls and the cafeteria, I’ve been repeatedly called a gay wad.
ROBERTS: A gay wad. What’s a gay wad?
WILL PHILLIPS: I really don’t know. It’s a discriminatory name for homosexuals.
Roberts spoke again with the child’s father briefly and then:
ROBERTS: He does seem to have very strong opinions we should say and obviously they are very reasoned out. We should say that he’s an extraordinarily bright child. He skipped the fourth grade, went right from the third grade to the fifth grade.
But Will, as we prepare to leave you here, what will it take for you to stand up and say the Pledge of Allegiance? And I ask this question based on what we saw in the off year election just a couple of weeks ago. Same-sex marriage initiative was put to the test, put to the voters in the state of Maine. And every state across the nation where it has been put through the voters, it has gone down to defeat.
So, the Democratic process is taking place here, it seems to be something that voters at large do not support. So what will it take for you to return to saying the pledge?
WILL PHILLIPS: For there could truly be liberty and justice for all.
ROBERTS: And what does that entail?
WILL PHILLIPS: That entails everyone being able to marry.
ROBERTS: All right. Will Phillips, Jay Phillips, great to see you this morning. Thanks so much for joining us. We’ll keep watching the story. It’s certainly an interesting one.
ROBERTS: Wow. He’s got his arguments down.
Yes, he certainly has his arguments down. But isn’t a 10-year-old who asserts he’s "grown up with a lot of people and good friends with a lot of people that are gay" worth a journalistic follow-up?
Not at CNN obviously. There it’s just a matter of him being smarter, and terrific, and having his arguments down. And if other children disapprove, then they’re nothing but wads, dork wads. Back in the day, Kyra Phillips must have been one tough cookie down by the schoolyard.
Now that former CNN host Lou Dobbs has been freed of his duties with his former network, he has been making the rounds on other networks – Fox News "The O’Reilly Factor," Comedy Central’s "The Daily Show" and now with his long-time rival’s show CNBC’s "The Kudlow Report."
One of the issues debated among a panel consisting of Dobbs, host Larry Kudlow, former Clinton Secretary of Labor Robert Reich and CNBC CME Group reporter Rick Santelli on Nov. 19 was the issue of wage stagnation – which Dobbs blamed on outsourcing, immigration policy and technological advancement.
"I believe that the issue of unemployment in this country and job creation fundamentally will have to be taken on as a matter of government policy," Dobbs said. "It will also have to be taken on as a matter of business leadership. As to the idea that wages have been stagnant in this country for 35 year, point of fact, we have to understand what the causes are."
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"And we have to look at what the – the contributing factors are," Dobbs continued. "I believe those contributing factors are in part increased technological advancements, which has led to productivity. I think it’s also without question trade policies which have led to, frankly, an immigration policy that has permitted the competition between our middle class and the cheapest labor in the world. And until we deal with the issue of outsourcing, we are going to be in significant trouble."
Reich contended the answer to the problem was dumping more taxpayer money into the American education system.
"I think raising outsourcing and talking about what we ought to do about outsourcing is a very, very complicated dilemma, but you know as well as I do that a lot of Americans are being – are losing their jobs, not to outsourcing, but to software, to labor-saving machinery, to numerically-controlled machine tools," Reich said. "We’ve got to upgrade the quality of our workforce and provide better education. Our schools are falling apart, Lou."
Kudlow disagreed with Dobbs’ and Reich’s arguments that wages have stagnated, lending to the notion that the standard of living in the United States has remained the same. But Santelli poked holes in their arguments and said there is empirical evidence Americans are better off based on the technological advancements alone.
"Listen, I look all of my neighbors that are middle class," Santelli said. "Larry, they have Plasma TVs, They have at least two cars, maybe three. They all live in houses that have indoor plumbing. I think anybody on this panel who can’t look around and see that the standard of living, the way an average middle class family has lived has improved over the last several generations has got blinders on."
And Kudlow cited The Wall Street Journal’s Daniel Henninger, who noted that Thomas Piketty and Emmanuel Saez, French economists described by Henninger as "rock stars of the intellectual left," have complied data that shows real median incomes have increased.
"It was two French socialists, Piketty and Saez, who created the data which has become the Democratic Party mantra," Kudlow said. "You know, 24 percent increase just in the last 10 years on real median income. That number just came out, I know there are lags. And by the way, some of these numbers show the bottom quintiles have risen the most. We still can climb the ladder of opportunity in this country, Lou."
Sphere: Related ContentFacing their own financial crises amid the state’s budget crunch, most of California’s largest school districts are increasing class sizes in kindergarten through third grade, eroding the most expensive education reform in the state’s history.
Sphere: Related ContentParishioners at St. Mark Catholic Church on the West SideWest Side reviews gathered Tuesday night in support of their former pastor, Rev. Edward Maloney, who’s accused of sexually abusing two boys.
One parishioner who doesn’t believe the allegations said Maloney had presided over religious education classes at St. Mark and that he’s called “Grandpa” by her children.
The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of ChicagoChicago reviews has found credible evidence that Maloney sexually abused the boys, according to a letter from Auxiliary Bishop John Manz to parishioners.
Barbara Blaine, president of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, said Cardinal Francis George should meet with St. Mark parishioners and explain why Maloney was removed from ministry.
Click HERE for a WGN-TV report.
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