Revolt in Arne Duncan's hometown: Mass rally May 25, no 25% cuts to public ed

[Hannah Bell]

http://coreteachers.com/


Looks like the current Chicago ed czar is trying to force a 25% cut in public ed staffing, supposedly because of a $600 million shortfall.

While giving himself & his cronies raises, funding capital projects for charter schools, increasing funding for administrators' travel & other expenses, etc.

While refusing to make information about the amount of $$ in their reserve fund from the public.

They're looking at mass layoffs & 35 kids to a classroom.


Teachers got a ruling to make the financials on the reserve fund public, after some work:

"The letter was received by the Assistant Public Access Counselor who quickly notified CPS that they were in non-compliance of the FOIA law and must provide the documents that I, on behalf of CORE and GEM, requested on March 27th. Thanks to the efforts of this gathering, there may finally be a way to determine whether or not Huberman and his financial appointees are telling the public the truth or hiding a surplus to justify draconian teacher cuts in the fall."

Meanwhile, the Ed Czar just bought a new $900K house....His living room is bigger than some of the students' classrooms....

with his raise...lol...


"A couple weeks ago I wrote about how top administrators with the Chicago Public Schools, from CEO Ron Huberman on down, had budgeted themselves raises even as they threatened to lay off teachers, asked coaches to work for free, and cut sophomore sports to chip away at a deficit approaching nearly $1 billion...

I also reported that the district's chief spokeswoman, Monique Bond, said Huberman hadn't received a raise but wouldn't provide any documentation to back it up.

It's safe to say the CPS brass has read the story. Two days after it hit the streets, Bond called me. My story was wrong, she said—the district's top people didn't get raises.

OK, I said—if the salaries of the top brass went up, what's that called if not a raise?

She said she would be happy to explain—if I'd come to the central office at 125 S. Clark to talk about it in the presence of CPS budget officials...."

http://www.chicagoreader.com/chicago/chicago-public-schools-ron-huberman-raises-budget-crisis/Content?oid=1661493


Read it. The meeting was psychotic. If you've worked with lying bureaucrats, you've been there.

[amborin]

1. K&R

[madfloridian]

2. Good for them. They took Arne's plan national when it failed locally.

And all teachers will pay a price for it.

[undeterred]

3. Maybe we should stop wasting money on wars.