Archive for the ‘education’ Category

Chicago Teachers Union molding Soviet-style Young Pioneers

Posted: March 17, 2024 by John Ruberry in education, election 2024, elections, News/opinion, opinion/news, politics
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Mrs. Marathon Pundit, third from left, at Young Pioneers event in Sece, Latvia, in 1976.

By John Ruberry

On Friday, the far-left Chicago Teachers Union organized a rally for voting age Chicago Public School students, during school hours, the “Student Power Forum.” 

They might as well have called it the Young Pioneers march.

The event was co-sponsored by Bring Chicago Home, which is working to pass a referendum, also called Bring Chicago Home, that will increase Chicago’s real estate transaction tax on properties selling for more than $1 million.

Election day in Illinois is Tuesday.

Proponents call Bring Chicago Home a “mansion tax,” but many retail storefronts and apartment buildings, and probably all skyscrapers, are worth more than that. I call it a jobs killer and a rent raiser. Funds from the tax hike, if voters approve it, will aid the homeless. No specifics are given as to how the homeless will benefit from Bring Chicago Home.

Of course, Chicago’s leftist mayor, Brandon Johnson, enthusiastically supports Bring Chicago Home. Johnson, who prior to his election as mayor, had no executive experience, but he’s a former CPS teacher and a longtime Chicago Teachers Union organizer. 

The rally, argues the center-right Illinois Policy Institute, likely violates CPS ethics rules, and the group quickly filed an ethics complaint. CTU called that move “racist.”

Now that Johnson is mayor, it’s difficult to ascertain a difference between Chicago Public Schools and the Chicago Teachers Union. Johnson, besides being a former CTU employee, appointed six of the seven members of the Chicago Board of Education. Johnson is a mentor of CTU president Stacey Davis Gates–she has a son attending a Catholic high school–and she recently suggested, as collective bargaining between the two “separate” entities could end up costing taxpayers $50 billion. I hope she was joking.

CPS and CTU will be negotiating against itself. Let’s call them CPS/CTU.

Let’s return to the Young Pioneers. Regular readers here and my own blog know that Mrs. Marathon Pundit was born in Latvia when it was part of the Soviet Union. Enrollment in the Young Pioneers was mandatory after children turned nine. Nadezhda Krupskaya, Vladimir Lenin’s wife, was a driving force in the creation of the Young Pioneers. Similar groups were founded in most of the other communist states. 

Krupskaya recognized that young minds are malleable and vulnerable to manipulation. So does the Chicago Teachers Union. 

Some of the Young Pioneers activities were similar to what the Girl Scouts enjoy, Mrs. Marathon Pundit told me, but there was some communist indoctrination that she had to endure.

These are the four leftist education Rs: Reading, writing, arithmetic, and radicalism. 

CPS/CTU is heading in that direction in regard to kids.

As for the first three Rs, CPS/CTU is doing a wretched job in addressing them. In both reading and mathematics, only about 20 percent of CPS seniors perform at grade level.

There is some good news. Chicago conservatives–yes, they exist–found some surprising allies in opposing CPS/CTU pulling voting age students out of school to attend the Bring Chicago Home rally. Former Chicago alderman Dick Simpson, as well as journalists Eric Zorn and Laura Washington–all liberals–have decried the move.

As I mentioned earlier, there are no specifics on how Bring Chicago home revenue will be spent, assuming the referendum passes. But the Chicago Teachers Union has an idea. According to a leaked document obtained by the Illinois Policy Institute, CTU will be making a not-so-surpising demand as part of its focus on housing, which it says, “begins now with Bring Chicago Home on March 19.” At the top of the CTU list is this shakedown, “Financial assistance for CTU members to live & work in the city.”

Are there homeless CPS/CTU teachers?

Chicago’s high school “Young Pioneers” are what Lenin called “useful idiots.”

There could be five Rs in Chicago schools soon, rent assistance for teachers would be the fifth.

John Ruberry regularly blogs at Marathon Pundit.

A Preview of Coming Attractions in Minnesota Islam 1 LGBTQ 0

Posted: February 19, 2024 by datechguy in culture, education
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Right now the left has the Gays and the Transgenders and the Hollywood elites & media in which they are overrepresented and they figure that’s the best things to have, but in America Islam is a thing of the future.  In 20 years the children of Muslims now being raised on the tenets of Sharia law in America will be old enough to vote and Democrats going to make sure they get those votes when the time come, not now but 10-20 years from now.

DatechGuy 2016

Always look on the bright side of Life

Eric Idle

The various anti-Semitic marches and events tearing through the country in general and campus’ in particular have rightly gotten plenty of press. To a large degree this is made possible by the steady increase of Islam in the country whose effect some Jewish liberals are finally grasping after ignoring warning from folks like Pam Geller, Robert Spencer and occasionally me.

But being of an optimistic nature one likes to look and the bright side of this change and one of those bright sides is getting almost no press:

A Minneapolis area school district says it will let families opt out of LGBT curriculum materials after several Muslim families threatened to sue.

St. Louis Park Public School District just west of Minneapolis said it will allow families to opt their kids out of reading books with LGBT themes.

Somali Muslim families had threatened to sue the district, alleging that not allowing families to opt out potentially violates the Constitution and state law.

Now remember Minnesota is as blue as they come, they’ve actually passed laws encouraging the trans madness to a point where they’ve created a shortage of doctors available to castrate children from other states who rush there to be cut up.

But on this issue, they’ve caved pretty fast, no big publicity campaign, no MSM trying to shame the parents, no grandstanding by Hollywood or academia or clever “don’t say gay” tag for the school system in question. Just a quick retreat. As Robert Spencer put it when writing about the case:

Of course, school district officials in Minneapolis, which has a significant Somali Muslim population, may not have wanted to appear so “Islamophobic” as to fight Muslim families in court. This was especially true because the families based their case on Islam: “on November 2, the families’ attorneys sent the district a letter explaining Islamic teachings around gender and sexuality and outlining the timeline of parents’ complaints about the LGBT books.”

He also notes a great mistake being made by Christians there.

The real pity here is that Christian parents and those from other faith groups didn’t join the legal case as well. The Muslim families acted after “some of the families’ elementary school children had been exposed to LGBT characters in picture books, which caused ‘significant confusion and distress,’” according to the letter the families sent to the school district. Christian and other parents have also experienced “significant confusion and distress” over this propaganda being forced onto their children, and they should have protested.

You’re going to see a lot more of this and it’s going to eventually force the left to make a choice and my guess is they will choose Islam, at least if they know how to count.

Closing thought. How fast would the school board have laughed the parents out of the place if they had been Catholic and not Muslim?

Leftist group of Chicago municipal staffers cheers on students cutting class to attend Gaza ceasefire rally

Posted: January 28, 2024 by John Ruberry in crime, education, Israel vs Hamas, News/opinion, opinion/news, politics
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By John Ruberry

On Friday afternoon, just blocks from Chicago’s City Hall, two students–Robert Boston and Monterio Williams–were shot to death on a crowded street outside Innovation High School. It was like a scene from the old Untouchables television show.

Yesterday on X, Chicago Progressive Staffers, which describes itself as a “coalition of progressive staffers from the Mayors [sic] Office and [the] City Council, posted this troubling message. “WOW! Thousands of @ChiPubSchools students are organizing a walk out on Tuesday in support of @AldermanLaSpata & @RossanaFor33’s Ceasefire resolution that’s being voted on Wednesday Jan 31. The youth will always lead us.”

Yes, “The youth will always lead us.” That’s the messaging that was drilled into Mrs. Marathon Pundit when she was a Young Pioneer in the Soviet Union.

Like Washington DC, Chicago is built on onetime swamp land. Think of the Chicago Progressive Staffers as part of the city’s Deep State. As for the two alderpersons mentioned in that X post–Daniel LaSpata and Rossana Rodriguez-Sanchez–the sponsors of the Gaza ceasefire resolution, both are members of the Democratic Socialists of America.

Leftists nationwide, nearly to a person, are calling for a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war because Hamas, which attacked the Jewish state on October 7, is losing.

Back in Chicago, so far this weekend—as of 3:00pm CST on Sunday–two people have been shot to death and at least 12 others have been wounded. 

And Gaza ceasefire resolution–or no ceasefire resolution–however Chicago’s City Council votes won’t make a difference. Just as the countless resolutions approved by the City Council condemning communism in Eastern Europe had no effect on America winning the Cold War. 

Tuesday of course is a school day in Chicago, so essentially, Chicago Progressive Staffers, this anonymous group of city hall leftists, is cheering on students cutting class.  

On the flipside, it’s easy to say that Chicago Public Schools students who play hooky on Tuesday won’t miss much. Not even one-quarter of them are proficient in reading or math at grade level. And nearly half of CPS students missed 18 days of class during the 2021-22 school year. 

So, what’s one more day away from school, right?

Chicago might be a better place if the Chicago City Council plays hooky–indefinitely. Last month, Edward Burke, who was a Chicago alderperson for a record 54 years, was convicted on corruption charges. In the last five decades, 38 members of the Chicago City Council have been found guilty of federal crimes, which averages to one aldercritter heading to the House of Many Doors every 16 months.

Perhaps Hamas might reply, “Thanks, but no thanks” if the Chicago City Council’s Gaza ceasefire resolution passes. Hamas deservedly already has a very bad reputation.

But as bad as the Chicago Public Schools system is, its students belong in school on Tuesday. And the Chicago City Council needs work on improving life in the city.

Such as aiding law enforcement so it can adequately protect Chicagoans. Or bringing back school choice to Chicago.

John Ruberry regularly blogs at Marathon Pundit.

Damning OIG report leads to an obvious conclusion: Chicago Public Schools system has too much money

Posted: January 14, 2024 by John Ruberry in crime, education, News/opinion, opinion/news, politics
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By John Ruberry

When I was in sixth grade at Palos East Elementary School near Chicago, for two semesters the school principal withheld my report card–pretty good ones by the way–because the shrewish school librarian said I failed to return a book. I told her that I did, but that wasn’t good enough for her. 

Eventually, the missing book turned up. It was a school library employee, possibly “the Shrew” herself, who misplaced that book. 

Which brings me to a story out of Chicago that is not getting nearly enough coverage The disappearance from mid-2022 to mid-2023 of electronic devices–laptops, iPads, and more–over 77,000 devices, according to a report from the Chicago Public Schools’ Office of the Inspector General. 

Sure, the local media reported on the OIG report for a couple of days. But they of course lean left, and the sympathetic media has moved on to other stories, such as criticizing Texas governor Greg Abbott for sending buses with illegal migrants to the Chicago area. Of course, our “betters” in the media rarely condemn the politician who is at fault for the migrant crisis–Joe Biden.

Back to CPS: The OIG says there have been no repercussions for the students who failed to return them. Their parents weren’t sent a bill–and yes, the kids certainly received their report cards. The value of those lost and stolen devices is massive, over $23 million. In 2021-2022, CPS spend $123 million on technology devices. “You can’t pin this on COVID,” CPS Inspector General Will Fletcher told CBS Chicago. “You can pin this on students who are just taking devices and not returning them.”

CPS, with COVID-related funding drying up next year, faces a huge deficit. But when reading the OIG report, one can conclude Chicago Public Schools has too much money. It’s time for CPS to go on a diet, or be put into some kind receivership, possibly under federal control–but only with a Republican in the White House.

Too much money? Yeppo. If $23 million in equipment goes “missing” and it only becomes public knowledge because of an OIG report, then there is not a lack of money issue for Chicago schools.

Let’s not place all of the blame on the students for the thievery. The report also notes that at three dozen CPS schools, every tech device was marked lost or stolen. All of them. An inside job? That’s likely, in my opinion.

Here’s some more waste: Could these devices have been tracked. Yes. OIG Fletcher also told CBS Chicago, “The district spends about two and a half million dollars on software that’s meant to track and locate devices, but the district just wasn’t using that software.”

The Office of the Inspector General previously discovered over a dozen CPS employees, some in leadership roles and collecting six-figure annual sinecure salaries, allegedly fraudulently obtained PPP loans. And one elementary school assistant principal has allegedly stole over $270,000 from her school.

Even worse than theft and incompetence is sexual assault. During the same time period covering the thefts, the OIG discovered eight substantiated adult-against-child incidents of sexual abuse.

Last year Chicagoans made the horrible mistake of electing leftist Brandon Johnson mayor. He’s a former CPS teacher and Chicago Teachers Union instructor. Johnson apparently is too busy criticizing Greg Abbott–a Google News search retrieved no comments from Johnson, the CTU pick for mayor, about the OIG report.

Chicagoans voted for more failure.

Are the students learning anything at CPS schools? Not really, over three-quarters of them test below grade level. 

Now back to report cards: Here is my grade for Chicago Public Schools, the Chicago Teachers Union, and Brandon Johnson.

It’s an F minus. 

And I will happily hand out those report cards.

John Ruberry, who attended a CPS school as a kindergartener, regularly blogs at Marathon Pundit.

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