Friday, January 27, 2012
The Reefer / Politics / Clout City Wake up, everybody: Linda Lutton tells it like it is about CPS
Posted by Ben Joravsky on 01.27.12 at 02:56 PM
- David K. Staub/Wikimedia Commons
- CPS Headquarters
That's the one where he saves the libraries by destroying them.
So I've let some of the other writers in town do the heavy lifting on the school protester thing. Which means it's time for a few shout-outs ...
Starting with George Schmidt from Substance, who may be the only writer in town even older than I am.
And moving on to Sarah Karp at Catalyst, who was telling it like it is about those charters long before it was fashionable.
And, of course, the great Linda Lutton over at WBEZ.
A lot of people might now know this, but many years ago Linda was a proofreader at the Reader. In fact, that buzzing sound you were hearing back in the 1990s was her putting my copy through the shredder.
I don't hold it against you, Linda.
Her recent story on the rent-a-protesters is a classic and I urge everyone to check it out, if only to hear one of the protesters call her "darlin'."
Which is a lot nicer than "fuck you, Lewis," which is what Mayor Emanuel said to Chicago Teacher Union president Karen Lewis.
And is probably a whole lot nicer than what I imagine Karen said to Rahm in response ...
"You pint-size, needle-neck, mutha-fu...."
Oh, to have been a fly on the wall when those titans went at it.
Back to the rent-a-protester thing...
I feel one of my explanations is in order for all you readers who've been too busy to follow it, or are new to town and might not know all that much about our public school system.
Like Mayor Emanuel's police chief, who comes from New York. And his school's CEO, who also comes from New York. And his library commissioner, who comes from San Francisco. And, in fact, Mayor Emanuel himself, who comes from Wilmette by way of Washington.
Or maybe it's the other way around.
Anyway, the Chicago Public Schools is that big thing that runs the public schools—you know, those big, redbrick buildings you see around town.
It's overseen by a board of mayoral appointees who are carefully vetted to make sure they rarely have anything resembling an independent thought and wouldn't dare to express it even if, by chance, they got one.
From time to time, the board gets together and decides which schools to close and which schools to turn over to cronies of the mayor who will get paid to "turn them around."
Which generally means firing all the teachers and replacing them with androids who begin each day by putting their hands over their hearts and saying in unison: "I pledge allegiance to Mayor Rahm ..."
Oh, wait—those are the charters.
Before they officially close or turn around schools, the board holds public hearings where all the little people of Chicago get to speak their minds.
Generally, most of these little people passionately plead for the board to keep their schools open. After which the board generally closes them—because what fun is it to have little people if you can't make them cry?
But this time around there were busloads of little people saying things like: "CPS knows!"
An immediate clue to most reporters that something fishy's going on, 'cause nobody from Chicago would ever say "CPS knows."
Except, of course, the people who sit on the school board.
The protesters also waved signs that read: "Wake up Everybody, it's time to teach a new way."
That's a line from "Wake Up Everybody" by Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes, one of the greatest songs of all time.
I will now sing a line or two, while doing a dance in my pajamas and slippers....
"The world won't get any better, if we just let it be...."
Sorry, always get carried away when I hear Teddy Pendergrass sing that song.
Back to our story ...
After a little digging, the reporters discovered that many of these protesters didn't even know the issue they were protesting about. They'd merely come along 'cause they'd been paid.
So crucial decisions that would affect the lives of hundreds of children were being shaped in part by the testimony of people who were just doing what they were told in order to make a buck.
Which, when you think about it, is sort of how most decisions get made in this town.
Actually, the more I think about it, the more I realize it's hard to find locals to join the mayor's educational crusade even if you pay them.
I mean, the mayor had to go to Rochester, New York, to find Jean-Claude Brizard, the chief executive officer.
And he had to go to Denver, Colorado, to find Noemi Donoso, the chief education officer.
And he had to go to Winnetka to find Tim Cawley, the chief operating officer.
As a matter of fact, Cawley still lives in Winnetka, which, as you may or may not know, is next to Wilmette.
Hey, here's an idea—the mayor should talk to Cawley about the libraries. 'Cause one thing we know about Wilmette—they sure know how to run a library!
Comments (6)
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Rahm only had to go to the south side to find a guy that would fill the buses to protest for him, Reverend Watkins.
Who is Rev.Watkins, the guy who organized the “rent a protestors”. A quick 20 minutes goggling helps. First you can easily find a picture of Rev Watkins sitting next to Rahm at a prayer breakfast held at Sox Pk. supporting the longer school day. Next we find a story about Rev. Watkins packing the buses Jan. 6 to go to a meeting supporting Rahm’s longer school day with individuals paid up to $50. The good Rev. stated that the cash wasn’t for attending the meeting but a small stipend to help pay for their training by a group called HOPE whose home is the Bethlehem Star MB CHURCH 9231 S Cottage Grove Ave, Chicago, IL 60619 (773) 487-8441, Rev Watkins store front church.
Seems that the HOPE group is a registered vendor with the Chicago Board of Education, vendor number 85062. A further search and you’ll find a contract where the REV. received up to 1.2 million from the CPS to do good deeds of course. HOPE reportedly paid the Rev. $175,000.
Further goggling reveals that Rev. Watkins has another nonprofit working out of his church called PASTORS UNITED FOR CHANGE, that has supported Rahm but I’ll let the next guy find out what they do and where they get their funds, a good bet is that the city taxpayer helps.
At any rate it’s good to know that it’s not only big corporations benefiting from Rahms outsourcing, anyone with a dilapidated store front and reverend in front of his name can become an entrepreneur. Maybe that’s why liquor stores and store front churches are everywhere, they make money.
Maybe the libraries and mental health facilities should organize themselves as store front churches and Rahm would pay more attention to them.
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Also deserving of journalistic accolades are Tribune's Noreen S. Ahmed-Ullah, Kristen Mack and Jeff Coen for writing on schools and following the money trail:
"In July [2011], Watkins' group was among 10 community organizations that collectively received a one-year, $6.3 million Safe Passage contract to watch over children going to and from school and to defuse potential conflict, according to public records."
This whole idea of some 100 pastors "uniting" for Rahm's longer school day is curious. These pastors in the troubled gang-ridden and poverty-stricken neighborhoods have much more pressing concerns than protesting against short school days, failing schools and so on. You would think if they were to protest anything, they would protest against the city's failure to control the gun violence, the gang warfare, the food deserts, the lack of city resources in these neighborhoods as their primary concerns. Instead, they pick the mayor's agenda? The longer school day?
On top of it all, where did they find the resources--if not funded by CPS and the Mayor themselves--to bus three busloads of protesters and pay them up to $50 bucks cash each? No check, cash. They are THAT concerned about the longer school day and the Mayor's agenda all of a sudden? Those schools have been achieving at those levels for a long time, why protest now, and why only this particular issue?
The Lutton story reported says Pastor Brown said of Pastor Watkins: "He says on this side of the room—when we get people that get up and make a speech that’s opposite from our ideas—on this side, on the right hand side—I want you to boo. (Boooo!) And then when we get up and make a speech—one of our speakers—on the left hand side I want you to cheer. (Hooray, hooray!) I was on the left hand side, and that was my cheer, was supposed to be a 'hooray.'" This type of "community orgainzing" paid for by CPS and the Mayor, but it is more closely described as rabble rousing.
So, if you can tie the fact that these south-side Pastors are suddenly moved to action on the Mayor's behalf with the incentive of millions of dollars paid for by the Mayor and CPS, you get paid protesters, or, as I see it, rabble rousers on behalf of the Mayor.
C'mon, Ben, get in there and write an article about the turnaround and closure schools ! Yeah, it's nice that Substance, Catalyst and WBEZ are reporting it as they see it, but they don't have the readership that you do , and they reach mostly people in education already, which is preaching to the choir basically. YOU , on the other hand, reach across all types across the city. And what CPS doesn't need right now is people who are not in education actually knowing what's going on in CPS and caring about the schools that are about to be destroyed. AND that's what you need to do ... make them care !
This practice in public relations is known as putting your words in the mouth of someone else. In this case maybe Rahm and the CPS want something done, said or supported. So maybe they employ someone like a Reverend, a man of respect with community support. They put their words in his mouth, done all the time. Possibly in this case it was done with taxpayer money. Can’t fault the Reverend for making a buck, not a lot of business opportunities in his community or the guy on that bus, getting that envelope might be his meal for the day.
What’s Rahm's or those high paid bureaucrats at CPS motivation though? Rahm is a millionaire worked hard on Wall Street for 2 years and made over 12 million, got everything. Is it good government, power, union busting? Maybe he doesn’t even know. Maybe just the drive to want more, to play the game and win. Maybe one of you psych majors can let me know.
90 minutes protestors were paid as well. I was there I asked them. Some had just gotten out of jail 2 days prior and were living in half way houses.
Just thought I should point out the absurdity of Rahm using a store front preacher to supply paid protesters at $25 a pop and thinking that somehow this wouldn't blow up in all their faces. Out of touch much? Clueless? Just plain STOOOPID? Or was preacher man just too stingy to pay for some quality liars instead of pocketing most of the payola? Epic fail on all counts.
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