School Choice Finally on the Agenda in Illinois

-By Warner Todd Huston

The move for school choice is not only growing in Illinois in general but in Chicago in particular as politicians and parents both see the downward spiral of the public education system picking up speed.

With the costs of public education soaring but neither the rates of graduation nor proficiency growing accordingly, parents are desperate to find a way for their children to gain a better education.

The state is pumping millions upon millions into the bottomless pit of education and taxes are edging higher every year to support the spending habit. As an example, Illinois school district U46 (west of Chicago in the Elgin area) has $600 million in bond debt and this is just one of the nearly 700 school districts in Illinois.

So, as the system founders, many experiments have blossomed. We all know that charter schools have grown rapidly in the Chicago area, but there are other schools such as Leo Catholic High School in Chicago’s Auburn Gresham neighborhood that are serving as perfect examples of school choice. Leo is a prime example of a private high school that is a wildly successful example of education at its finest.

The school is not fully supported financially by the city’s Catholic system but has since 1926 served students as an independent high school operating in what is now one of the city’s most depressed neighborhoods. The school started back when Auburn Gresham was a heavily Irish-Catholic part of the city but now serves an entirely African American student body. (Edit to note: The Archdiocese of Chicago does support Leo and has provided over $2M in direct, financial operating support for the school between 2009 and 2015, but doesn’t pay all the school’s expenses as it does the schools it has direct control over.)

The school has been such a success that for the last six years 100% of its students have been accepted into a college or university and 96 percent have gone on to pursue higher education.
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School Choice Finally on the Agenda in Illinois”


If Chicago Would Vote for Commie Karen Lewis, They Shouldn’t Be Allowed to Vote at All

-By Warner Todd Huston

A new poll of likely Chicago voters seems to find that Mayor Rahm Emanuel is in bad shape for his re-election coming up next year. The poll shows that two other candidates are far and away more popular than the incumbent mayor. One of those two is Chicago Teachers Union President Karen Lewis, a woman who is nearly an out and proud communist. But, if Chicagoans would vote for Lewis, they don’t deserve the vote at all.

This new Chicago Sun-Times poll shows Emanuel losing–and badly–to two other possible mayoral candidates in next year’s election. The biggest disparity is that between the mayor and Current Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle. She really slams Emanuel beating him 55 percent to 31 percent in the poll.

Preckwinkle has made no moves at all to run against Emanuel and insists she won’t. Still, rumors abound that she will throw her hat in the ring, anyway.

To be honest, it really is no surprise that Emanuel is finding low favorables in polling this far out from the election. Mayor Emanuel has failed in many respects as Chicago’s mayor. He has done nothing at all to address the mounting pension crisis, spending is still skyrocketing, he’s solved none of the mess that previous mayor Richie Daley left him, and worse of all violence in the city has soared to never before seen rates of blood shed.
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If Chicago Would Vote for Commie Karen Lewis, They Shouldn’t Be Allowed to Vote at All”


Chgo Teachers Union Chief Wants Math Corrupted With ‘Social Justice’ Propaganda

-By Warner Todd Huston

Did you think that math was a subject that is by its very nature free of political ideology? Did you think that math was just, well, math? Maybe it won’t surprise you that Chicago teachers union chief, Karen Lewis, disagrees with you and thinks that math isn’t just math but should also be a platform to push left-wing “social justice” propaganda on students.

The rotund Lewis made her pronouncements at an education conference called the Network for Public Education conference held on March 1, 2014 in Austin, Texas.

During her remarks Lewis praised the efforts of extremist left-winger Bob Peterson who is unfortunately in charge of the Milwaukee, Wisconsin teachers union. Peterson wrote a book that is used in the classroom to push left-wing ideology on kids and Lewis thinks everyone should emulate that.

“You want to talk about organizing? You want to talk about social justice?” Lewis bellowed.
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Chgo Teachers Union Chief Wants Math Corrupted With ‘Social Justice’ Propaganda”


Chicago Teachers Union: ‘This City Belongs to Black People’

-By Warner Todd Huston

The Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) is pretty much run by communists and racebaiters. This month we get yet another example of that with a CTU organizer claiming that the city “belongs” to African Americans and not white people.

This sort of hate is typical of the CTU. As seen in the video above, CTU President Karen Lewis is very well known for saying that white people and anyone with a few dollars in their pockets should have no right to tell teachers what to do. The above video is from June of this year and shows CTU chief Lewis essentially saying the same thing as the organizer in the latest story.

For that latest story we go to the Chicago Tribune which tells us that CTU organizer Brandon Johnson dutifully echoed his boss, Lewis.
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Chicago Teachers Union: ‘This City Belongs to Black People’”


Chicago Public School Teacher Attacks Capitalism, Says Violent Revolution Coming

-By Warner Todd Huston

The policy group called ALEC (the American Legislative Exchange Council) had its 40th anniversary meeting in Chicago on August 7, 8, and 9, but not everyone was celebrating. In front of the hotel at which the event was held, the unions gathered to attack and one Chicago school teacher took the occasion not only to say that capitalism has failed and that government should be for the redistribution of wealth, he also threatened “violent revolution” unless America acquiesces to union demands.

CPS Teacher Timothy Meegan, who teachers at Roosevelt High School in Chicago, had quite a bit of boilerplate to say about ALEC, but before long he edged toward some more startling rhetoric, the sort that makes one hope he isn’t teaching to Chicago’s school children.

At the end of his canned anti-ALEC speech he lapsed into the sort of rhetoric that would be at home in any speech from the worker’s paradise. In fact, it got downright red-lipped with talk of “violent revolution,” attacks on capitalism and the free market, as well as cries that government should “redistribute the wealth.”

And all this talk of violent revolution was Jesse Jackson approved. The very right reverend can be seen clapping Mr. Meegan on the back after his diatribe is over.
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Chicago Public School Teacher Attacks Capitalism, Says Violent Revolution Coming”