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| Troy LaRaviere |
When embattled Chicago’s Blaine Elementary School principal Troy LaRaviere resigned Tuesday, and posted his resignation on his blog, he not only removed himself from the line of fire in an administrative hearing for alleged ethics violation and insubordination, but also threw down the gauntlet in a charged battle to try and fix the nation’s third largest school system.
While many observers have noted the politicization of education, across the country, they also have seen a near collapse of Chicago’s public schools as it deals with a massive deficit, junk bond rating and a threatening teachers strike looming on the horizon.
What LaRaviere resignation revealed - at least publicly - is what many have complained about for decades: mind numbing paperwork, lack of accountability and best practices to create and nurture the type of educated resident that its self-proclaimed label of “world class city”, it has often touted.
With an enrollment just under 900, Blaine was recognized by Chicago Magazine in 2010 as the 16th best elementary school in the city, and also the 6th best “neighborhood school.” But there were obstacles he said that prevented it from reaching the number one slot. And, in this struggle, public enemy number one, at least according to him, is Mayor Rahm Emanuel, whose tenure has been marked by what he has often failed to do: keep city schools open in neighborhoods that need them and shore up the finances and the physical plant required for daily instruction.
When Emanuel closed over 50 schools in predominantly African American and Hispanic neighborhoods, the largest in Chicago history, the hue and cry that emanated from residents, politicos and administrators was deafening.
Citing politics as his nemesis as he turned around Blaine during his five year tenure, LaRaviere also noted, in his resignation, the fingerprints of the mayor, when he said ,“In a word, the biggest obstacle to Blaine becoming the #1 neighborhood school in Chicago was politics. And while many people contributed to this problem, nobody in our great city is more responsible for that political obstruction than you.”
While the mayor has touted charter schools as having the best test scores, the opposite has been true, and the former principal has “published research that revealed public schools produced significantly more academic growth in students than charter schools; exposed filthy conditions in Chicago schools that were the result of botched custodial privatization deal; and uncovered the manipulation of charter school test score data by CPS officials.”
When Emanuel closed over 50 schools in predominantly African American and Hispanic neighborhoods, the largest in Chicago history, the hue and cry that emanated from residents, politicos and administrators was deafening.
Citing politics as his nemesis as he turned around Blaine during his five year tenure, LaRaviere also noted, in his resignation, the fingerprints of the mayor, when he said ,“In a word, the biggest obstacle to Blaine becoming the #1 neighborhood school in Chicago was politics. And while many people contributed to this problem, nobody in our great city is more responsible for that political obstruction than you.”
While the mayor has touted charter schools as having the best test scores, the opposite has been true, and the former principal has “published research that revealed public schools produced significantly more academic growth in students than charter schools; exposed filthy conditions in Chicago schools that were the result of botched custodial privatization deal; and uncovered the manipulation of charter school test score data by CPS officials.”
As can be imagined, his outspokenness, his disdain for the mayor, cost him points at City Hall. Equally damning was his support for mayoral rival Jesus “Chuy” Garcia who forced Emanuel into a runoff, in the recent mayoral election, a first for the city and produced a nervous incumbent who had to work hard to stay in office.
LaRaviere’s support for presidential candidate Bernie Sanders also cost him dearly, with the mayor and the Illinois School Board of Education, who felt that these activities were an ethics violation. But, his real sin may have been giving voice to many that the “emperor has no clothes,” and as recent headlines have shown, financial mismanagement has stripped CPS of both its clout and its seaworthiness.
In a recent move the Chicago Board of Education in a 6-0 vote agreed to pass a $5.4 billion public schools budget for 2017, that, at its core, relies on aid from the Illinois State legislature, to the tune of $215 million; and is dependent on lawmakers agreeing to pension reform, plus more accrued borrowing at $94.5 million, and still another increase in property taxes.
Adding fuel to an existent fire is the “request” that Chicago teachers pay more towards their pension, an effort that the teachers and their union have fought against, since it was negotiated in lieu of a raise, back during the Harold Washington administration.
A recent “financial analysis prepared for the Board of Education, the district’s pension costs are projected to increase 32% over seven years, but the debt service on borrowed money is projected to increase 350%.”
In all, the budget is dependent more on hope than reality. As Laurence Msall, president of the Civic Federation has said: “This is a very expensive budget, at the mercy of the CTU on the concessions, at the mercy of the Legislature on what pension reform would look like and what the governor would accept — and then they still need everything to break right.”
With such observations the LaRaviere objections have more than a ring of truth; CBE is looking to obtain $945 million in borrowing for capital projects, without any long-term capital improvement plan, with a budget that becomes self-defeating by accounting standards. But, spokesperson Emily Bittner insisted still that “CPS’ revenues match expenditures, and expenditures are down $232 million from FY16.”
Into what many are calling a morass, LaRaviere’s departure was seen as inevitable, especially since he was one of the few voices that objected to the $20 million “no bid” contract negotiated by the now disgraced school CEO Barbara Boyd Bennett from her former employer, SUPES academy, for teacher training.
One remedy than many CPS critics have wanted is an elected school board to replace the handpicked one, currently in existence. Last fall, local lawmakers held a series of town hall style meetings to address the concern and the mounting debt that had cost many schools, staff reductions and program cuts, and what was thought to be at least $8.7 million in looming cuts.
Chicago Teachers Union Kurt Hilgendorf, noted at one of those meetings, that in the advisory referendum in the last election, 37 wards voted for an elected school board, “more than for Rahm Emanuel [to remain in office].” He also noted that Chicago’s appointed board had been in place since 1995, and that it “is bad for policymaking,” and “has limited participation for parents,” but is ultimately “bad for policymaking,” especially with “the rapid decline in neighborhood school enrollment,” which are being drained by the charter schools favored by the board.
Opinions do vary for an elected school board, and former Alderman Dick SImpson, now an associate professor of political science at the University of Illinois at Chicago, in 2012 commented in an article for the Chicago Journal: “An elected school board would get the voice of citizens between the near dictatorial control of Mayor Emanuel and opposition by the Chicago Teacher's Union. We citizens pay for the school system and we parents depend upon the system to educate our children. We should have a voice separate from the mayor's that can provide a check and balance to both the mayor and the union.”
That withstanding, an elected board is not a perfect panacea, especially for quick solutions for CPS indebtedness, and Simpson concluded that, “on balance we need a positive start [towards change] and no solution, no financial solution, or representation problem can be solved easily.”
Adding to the mix is a racial component that has a system that is mostly African American and Hispanic and an elected board Simpson noted this three years ago, with a then 90 percent, and greater makeup. Thus a citywide elected board could tip heavily in favor of whites, and disenfranchise students of color; but the move now leans towards a proposed district election rather than citywide.
In May LaRaviere accepted the presidency of the Chicago Principals and Administrators Association, a position where he will undoubtedly continue to wield influence and judgement on his shared vision of what Chicago Public Schools, can, and should be.
LaRaviere’s support for presidential candidate Bernie Sanders also cost him dearly, with the mayor and the Illinois School Board of Education, who felt that these activities were an ethics violation. But, his real sin may have been giving voice to many that the “emperor has no clothes,” and as recent headlines have shown, financial mismanagement has stripped CPS of both its clout and its seaworthiness.
In a recent move the Chicago Board of Education in a 6-0 vote agreed to pass a $5.4 billion public schools budget for 2017, that, at its core, relies on aid from the Illinois State legislature, to the tune of $215 million; and is dependent on lawmakers agreeing to pension reform, plus more accrued borrowing at $94.5 million, and still another increase in property taxes.
Adding fuel to an existent fire is the “request” that Chicago teachers pay more towards their pension, an effort that the teachers and their union have fought against, since it was negotiated in lieu of a raise, back during the Harold Washington administration.
A recent “financial analysis prepared for the Board of Education, the district’s pension costs are projected to increase 32% over seven years, but the debt service on borrowed money is projected to increase 350%.”
In all, the budget is dependent more on hope than reality. As Laurence Msall, president of the Civic Federation has said: “This is a very expensive budget, at the mercy of the CTU on the concessions, at the mercy of the Legislature on what pension reform would look like and what the governor would accept — and then they still need everything to break right.”
With such observations the LaRaviere objections have more than a ring of truth; CBE is looking to obtain $945 million in borrowing for capital projects, without any long-term capital improvement plan, with a budget that becomes self-defeating by accounting standards. But, spokesperson Emily Bittner insisted still that “CPS’ revenues match expenditures, and expenditures are down $232 million from FY16.”
Into what many are calling a morass, LaRaviere’s departure was seen as inevitable, especially since he was one of the few voices that objected to the $20 million “no bid” contract negotiated by the now disgraced school CEO Barbara Boyd Bennett from her former employer, SUPES academy, for teacher training.
One remedy than many CPS critics have wanted is an elected school board to replace the handpicked one, currently in existence. Last fall, local lawmakers held a series of town hall style meetings to address the concern and the mounting debt that had cost many schools, staff reductions and program cuts, and what was thought to be at least $8.7 million in looming cuts.
Chicago Teachers Union Kurt Hilgendorf, noted at one of those meetings, that in the advisory referendum in the last election, 37 wards voted for an elected school board, “more than for Rahm Emanuel [to remain in office].” He also noted that Chicago’s appointed board had been in place since 1995, and that it “is bad for policymaking,” and “has limited participation for parents,” but is ultimately “bad for policymaking,” especially with “the rapid decline in neighborhood school enrollment,” which are being drained by the charter schools favored by the board.
Opinions do vary for an elected school board, and former Alderman Dick SImpson, now an associate professor of political science at the University of Illinois at Chicago, in 2012 commented in an article for the Chicago Journal: “An elected school board would get the voice of citizens between the near dictatorial control of Mayor Emanuel and opposition by the Chicago Teacher's Union. We citizens pay for the school system and we parents depend upon the system to educate our children. We should have a voice separate from the mayor's that can provide a check and balance to both the mayor and the union.”
That withstanding, an elected board is not a perfect panacea, especially for quick solutions for CPS indebtedness, and Simpson concluded that, “on balance we need a positive start [towards change] and no solution, no financial solution, or representation problem can be solved easily.”
Adding to the mix is a racial component that has a system that is mostly African American and Hispanic and an elected board Simpson noted this three years ago, with a then 90 percent, and greater makeup. Thus a citywide elected board could tip heavily in favor of whites, and disenfranchise students of color; but the move now leans towards a proposed district election rather than citywide.
In May LaRaviere accepted the presidency of the Chicago Principals and Administrators Association, a position where he will undoubtedly continue to wield influence and judgement on his shared vision of what Chicago Public Schools, can, and should be.
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