Posts Tagged ‘john ruberry’

Chicago Public Schools took COVID money and splurged, now that source of funds has dried up

Posted: October 23, 2024 by John Ruberry in education, News/opinion, opinion/news, politics
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By John Ruberry

William J. Bennett, when he was Education Secretary under Ronald Reagan, declared the Chicago Public Schools system was the worst in the nation.

Decades later, CPS still might be at the bottom, despite a recent influx of federal COVID-19 relief cash.

According to Illinois State Board of Education test results, nearly three-quarters of CPS students can’t read at grade level and over eighty-percent of them aren’t proficient in math.

Not shockingly, many Chicago parents are finding alternatives their children’s education, such charter and private schools, or moving out of Chicago altogether. 

The sad irony is that many CPS schools call themselves things like “school of excellence,” or “STEM academy,” or “college prep high school.” 

One-third of Chicago’s traditional public schools, Wirepoints reports, are under half of enrollment capacity. One high school, the somewhat modestly named Manley Career Academy, which was built for 1,000 pupils, has just 100 students enrolled there. “Journey to world class” is the school’s motto.

There’s state-enforced moratorium preventing school closings, but that expires next year. But the Chicago Teachers Union, the straw that stirs the drink in city politics, is vehemently opposed to that.

Fewer schools means fewer union jobs. 

The CTU and its allies say that Chicago schools are underfunded. However, they never say what the proper amount is. Just more, more, and more.

CPS-per-student funding has increased by 40-percent since 2019, when scores were higher, the district now spends nearly $30,000 student, while the statewide average is just $24,000.

As I reported here earlier this month, Chicago’s leftist mayor, Brandon Johnson, who prior to his election last year was a CTU organizer, saw his school board resign because, according to media reports, “Branjo” was pressuring them to fire the CEO of CPS. 

Johnson appointed that entire board.

CTU was the primary funder of Johnson’s campaign. That union is fond of Alinskyite tactics, particularly creating and demonizing an enemy. Usually that’s the mayor, but Johnson is on the CTU team.

Johnson and CTU–assuming there is a difference between the two–are pushing for high-interest loans to increase spending for schools on things like salaries and pension obligations, rather than for capital projects, which is what fiscally responsible school districts use loans for.

CPS has a junk credit rating. 

Johnson’s new appointees will be out of office soon. A new 21-member board–10 elected and 11 appointed by the mayor, will take over shortly after Election Day next month. Many of the electoral candidates for the new school board are endorsed by the CTU.

Things have gotten so bad that even the Washington Post has taken notice.

Chicago and CPS appear to be in a death spiral. How both got there goes back decades. As for the misdeeds of the last few years, the Chicago Teachers Union deserves much of the blame.

Getting out of this mess won’t be easy. While Governor J.B. Pritzker is also a Democrat, he and Branjo aren’t close. Pritzker is a liberal, but Johnson is a quasi-socialist. But a state takeover of CPS isn’t likely. Pritzker wants to run for president one day and if the state is in charge of Chicago’s schools, then CPS becomes his problem.

Even if Kamala Harris wins the presidency next month, a federal bailout of CPS is very unlikely, especially because the district squandered COVID funds.

And Chicagoans are stuck with Johnson until at least 2027.

John Ruberry regularly blogs at Marathon Pundit.

The Great Chicago Train Robbery offers more proof of the city’s decline and fall

Posted: October 13, 2024 by John Ruberry in crime, culture, News/opinion, opinion/news, politics
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By John Ruberry

The evidence of Chicago’s decline and fall keeps piling up.

On Friday evening, at least 30 thugs looted Union Pacific rail cars in Chicago’s Austin neighborhood on the West Side.

The city’s leftist mayor, Brandon Johnson, who lives in Austin, was in London in advance of Sunday’s Chicago Bears game against the Jacksonville Jaguars.

Although he later backed away, slightly, from his statement, in 2020 “Branjo” called defunding the police “a political goal.”

As you’ll see, the looters are so casual in these videos as they unload the U.P. freight cars, it’s as if they calmly enjoying a visit to a suburban pick-your-own pumpkin patch. They’re not hiding their faces; they’re not covering up their licence plates. One enterprising criminal even brought a cargo truck to speed their 100-percent discounts along.

The mass thievery was so vast that commuter rail traffic on those rail lines was suspended for hours.

Society is rotting in Chicago–as well as suburban Cook County, because we have had a pro-criminal George Soros-funded so-called prosecutor, Democrat Kim Foxx, lackadaisically enforcing the law for that last eight years. Thankfully, she’ll be out of office in two months.

Criminals don’t fear getting caught in Chicago–and if they are–only those accused of the most heinous crimes are locked up to await trial. Since last year, courtesy of JB Pritzker’s SAFE-T Act, cash bail is banned in Illinois.

The Chicago establishment media, TV stations are an exception, are shameful. They minimize rampant criminality, calling it “a perception problem.”

On Facebook, an hour after the brazen looting, a Chicagoan on Facebook, a self-described “entrepreneur,” was advertising a back yard full of widescreen televisions for sale. As of this writing, 5:00pm EDT, those TVs are still for sale on the social network. Facebook doesn’t seem concerned. It’s a good thing this “entrepreneur” isn’t claiming that masks don’t work against COVID.

Then again, maybe it’s a coincidence that the “entrepreneur” is selling those televisions. But there are a lot of “coincidences” in America’s third-largest city.

So far only six people have been arrested for allegedly participating in the Great Chicago Train Robbery. Where were the Chicago Police on Friday? It took the cops over an hour to arrive to the West Side rail yard. ABC 7 News’ traffic chopper showed up much more quickly. Where was Union Pacific’s security detail? Just a thought, but U.P. may want to investigate their West Side employees. I suspect that this heist may have been aided by a tip from someone working in that freight yard.

There have been other thefts of U.P. trains in Chicago recently.

Finally, where are the decent Chicagoans?

There are some, right?

John Ruberry regularly blogs just north of Chicago at Marathon Pundit.

Nixon had his Saturday Night Massacre, Chicago’s mayor has his Friday Afternoon Massacre

Posted: October 6, 2024 by John Ruberry in education, News/opinion, politics
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Chicago’s mayor, Brandon Johnson

By John Ruberry

While he’s only 17 months in his first term in office, Chicago mayor Brandon Johnson is on pace to be remembered as one of America’s worst big city mayors. The competition to be inducted into that shameful club includes some real rascals and incompetents, such as New York’s Jimmy Walker, Detroit’s Coleman Young, Cleveland’s Dennis Kucinich, and Chicago’s Big Bill Thompson. 

The insufferably incompetent and complicit Chicago media, once among the America’s best, rarely mentions that “Branjo,” prior to his election as mayor, was a longtime paid organizer–that means agitator–for the far-left Chicago Teachers Union. The CTU was the largest donor to his mayoral campaign, and it supplied ground troops to get Johnson elected. Yes, I know, Johnson was also a Cook County commissioner. While in that job he authored no memorable legislation.

Johnson, in short, is in the pocket of the CTU. 

Why can’t you say so, Chicago media?

Chicago is essentially broke because of massive unfunded pension obligations, and so is Chicago Public Schools. 

On Friday afternoon, all seven members of the Chicago Board of Education resigned because they refuse to fire CPS CEO Pedro Martinez, who was appointed by Johnson’s predecessor, Lori Lightfoot. Johnson has called on Martinez to resign, the mayor supports the fiscally anemic CPS to take out what’s widely being called a “payday loan” to pay for pension obligations and big raises for CTU members. 

Martinez opposes that, and clearly, so do the former board members. Unlike Martinez, the board members who just quit aren’t Lightfoot holdovers. Johnson appointed all of them.

Richard Nixon, who Johnson has blamed for Chicago’s problems, had his Saturday night massacre. Johnson has his Friday Afternoon Massacre.

The president of the Chicago Teachers Union is Stacy Davis Gates. She’s an ill-tempered leftist who is possibly crazier than US Rep. Rashida Tlaib. Gates, it’s important to know, sends her son to a private school. Of course she is against school choice for everyone else, as is Johnson.

Besides its money problems, Chicago Public Schools do a horrible job educating students. Even though CPS spending continues to soar, student test scores continue to be quite low. Roughly three-quarters of CPS students are unable to read at grade level—and math scores are even worse. 

Can this story get any worse? 

In Chicago, getting worse is the normal.

As part of a transition to a fully elected Board of Education, ten seats for a new board are up for election this fall–voting has already begun. Johnson will appoint the remaining 11 seats. 

The new members that Johnson will appoint will be out of office in a few months. Branjo will task them to fire Martinez, approve the “payday loan” for those pension obligations, and approve a big raise for Chicago’s unionized teachers. 

Good government types in Chicago—amazingly, they really exist–condemned Johnson’s pro-Chicago Teachers Union power play. Surprisingly a large majority–over eighty percent–of the Chicago City Council, including aldermen who are members progressive caucus and two of the six socialists, have expressed opposition to Branjo’s move.

Johnson has been particularly cozy to some of city’s socialist aldermen. They were among his staunchest protecters after Branjo cancelled the city’s gunfire protection contract with ShotSpotter.

As Barack Obama famously said, elections have consequences. Chicago voters choose poorly.

Crime, despite laughable denials from Crain’s Chicago Business, also known as Crain’s Chicago Anti-Business, is a serious problem Chicago. The office and retail vacancy rate downtown are over 25 percent. For 2025, Chicago faces a $1 billion deficit.

Sadly, there is not recall mechanism in place for Chicago mayors.

Meanwhile, Johnson has other priorities. Today’s he’s campaigning for Kamala Harris in Las Vegas. Next week, ostensibly to bring business and tourism to Chicago, the mayor will be in London for the Bears game against the Jacksonville Jaguars.

John Ruberry regularly blogs at Marathon Pundit.

A memorable, for all the wrong reasons, 2024 Chicago White Sox season

Posted: September 29, 2024 by John Ruberry in baseball, Sports
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By John Ruberry

“The Mets have shown me more ways to lose than I even knew existed.” Casey Stengel, New York Mets manager in 1962. 

“I didn’t know there were this many ways to lose a ballgame.” John Schriffen, Chicago White Sox play-by-play announcer in 2024.

“It was a year that none of us anticipated,” Steve Stone, White Sox color analyst, during the last game of the season.

Last Friday night the Chicago White Sox made history in Detroit when they lost their MLB record 121st game. To add salt to the wounds, in the home broadcast booth, Chicago area native Jason Benetti, who was the South Siders’ play-by-play announcer from 2019 thru 2023, called the game for the Tigers. According to media reports, White Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf, who has been, deservedly so, cast as the villain on the South Side, didn’t like the serendipitous and a bit quirky broadcasting style of Benetti, who is now the television voice of the Tigers.

When your team sucks, Jerry, an announcer like Benetti is just what is needed. Besides, I thought Jason was great. 

While I didn’t make it out to Guaranteed Rate Field for a Sox home game—lots of stuff came up–I viewed many games on television.

And it was bizarre watching.

After I’d miss a few games, I’d tune in and see an unfamiliar player at bat or on the pitchers’ mound. A lot. 

By the end of July, it was as if the team plane for the White Sox had crashed, killing the entire roster.  Of course that’s exaggeration, but there was an incredible amount of turnover this season as general manager Chris Getz and team manager Pedro Grifol, tried to patch holes on the sinking ship.

Who is that guy? Where did he come from? Those are questions I asked a lot when tuning in to White Sox baseball.

Grifol didn’t survive August. Few managers do after losing 21 straight games—and that tied an American League record, set by the Baltimore Orioles in 1988.

Here’s an interesting fact. Larry Sheets, an outfielder for those awful O’s, is the father of Gavin Sheets, an outfielder and first baseman for the Sox.

Why were the Sox so bad in 2024? Bad luck? Perhaps. Injuries? A bit. But in a 162-game season, even the best teams hit an unlucky patch or two. All teams in all sports have injuries. 

The short answer is that the White Sox farm system has been bereft of talent for years, save for “white flag” mid-season trades of established players with expensive contracts in exchange for prospects. The last number one Sox draft pick who has justifiably been called an MLB standout was shortstop Tim Anderson, the 2019 American League batting champion and a two-time all-star. Anderson was drafted eleven years ago. He’s out of baseball now. The following year the Sox drafted Carlos Rodón in the first round, he now hurls for the New York Yankees. Rodón is a two-time all-star who pitched a no-hitter in 2021. He comes close to stardom, but again, Rodón was drafted ten years ago.

In this afternoon’s game against the Tigers, there was a typical White Sox boneheaded error. Stone remarked that “communication issues” have been a problem all year for Chicago. A Detroit pinch hitter, Andy Ibáñez, hit a routine foul pop-up that soared near the visitors’ dugout. Sox first baseman, Andrew Vaughn, yelled “I got it” repeatedly. But Pale Hose catcher Korey Lee ran towards the pop-up too. Neither caught the ball, it landed between them.

Of the White Sox players with enough at-bats to qualify for a batting average crown, Vaughn ended up with the highest average at .246. That made him the 88th best batter in MLB in 2024

I hate to single out Vaughn, but he played a big role in one of the most bizarre endings of an MLB game ever. He was called for interference on an infield fly rule play, concluding a game against the Orioles with a double play.

Take a look.

Schriffen pointed to this defeat when making that comment about his naiveté on the many ways to lose a baseball game.

There is some good news for the South Siders. If you are a “there is a no such thing as bad publicity” type, for the first time since the White Sox won the World Series in 2005, they’re no longer playing in the shadow of the more popular Chicago Cubs. They’re getting national attention.

Secondly, the Sox, who lost 101 games last year, didn’t finish last in the AL Central in 2023. The Kansas City Royals lost 106 games a year ago–and they made the playoffs this season. That being said, if you believe that the White Sox will play in the post season in 2025, which by the way will be their 125th annual effort, I have some Enron stock to sell you. Getz has already said that the Sox won’t be a big factor in the off-season free agency market.

Thirdly, unless the Pale Hose break the record again next season, its “worst ever” record might be broken soon by someone else. In the 21st century, there have been several teams, most notoriously the 2003 Detroit Tigers who lost 119 games, who have challenged the Mets’ 1962 woeful performance. The 2018 Orioles tanked 115 times. The Tigers had another very rough year in 2019, losing 114 times.

The Orioles and Tigers will be joining the Royals in this year’s playoffs.

Lastly, the White Sox finished the 2024 season winning five of its last six games, including today’s game in Detroit. Interim manager Grady Sizemore might have made a difference–and he could return next year.

UPDATE 8:30pm EDT:

During the White Sox-Tigers game, Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf issued a long statement where he admitted that the South Siders “on-field performance this season was a failure.”

From that statement:

While embracing new ideas and outside perspectives, we will do everything we can to fix this for 2025 and the future. This will include further development of players on our current roster, development within our system, evaluating the trade and free agent markets to improve our ballclub and new leadership for our analytics department, allowing us to elevate and improve every process within our organization with a focus for competing for championships. In fact, change has already been happening in our baseball operations group throughout this past year. When named general manager in 2023, Chris Getz and his staff immediately began conducting a top-to-bottom evaluation of our existing operations. Chris is rebuilding the foundation of our baseball operations department, with key personnel changes already happening in player development, international scouting, professional scouting and analytics. Some of these changes will be apparent quickly while others will need time to produce the results we all want to see at the major-league level.

Great words, these are.

But Getz’ “top-to-bottom evaluation of our existing operations” that he began over a year ago has seen the White Sox, a bad team then, get much worse.

John Ruberry regularly blogs at Marathon Pundit.

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