Why do we let Mayor Daley (Chicago) call himself a Democrat?

[iconoclastic cat]

Let's see...he's against teachers' unions, and today decided to put into motion more union-breaking public school policies by basically killing the public school system:
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-0406230196jun23,1,1785304.story?coll=chi-news-hed
After a decade of experimenting with charter schools, contract schools and small schools-within-a-school, the Chicago Public Schools system is set to unveil a plan that will combine all those elements in an unprecedented effort to create more than 100 new schools by 2010.

This new wave of reform has less to do with buildings than with the programs offered in those buildings, sources say. The emphasis will be on breaking up large schools, especially poorly performing high schools, into smaller specialized units that offer families alternatives.

If implemented, the plan will also hand over day-to-day control of a significant number of the city's schools to independent operators.

Mayor Richard Daley acknowledged Tuesday that a major plan is in the offing, saying that although $3 billion had been poured into the physical plants of the city's schools, the essential work of improving education still remained.

"It's not the new building itself that changes the educational system around," Daley said. "One program doesn't fit all. ... You should have vocational training, college-bound , technical training, ROTC, arts programs."

Ald. Walter Burnett Jr. (27th), who was briefed Tuesday by schools chief Arne Duncan, endorsed the new approach.

"I think smaller schools are very good," Burnett said. "It is worth trying something new, especially for those schools on probation. I am concerned about the money but I think having the schools smaller and having more attention given to the kids."

Daley and top school officials declined to offer details of the plan, which he and Duncan are scheduled to present Thursday.

(snip)
Charter schools and many contract schools employ non-union teachers.

Dion Miller-Perez of the Cross City School Campaign for Urban School Reform, a non-profit advocacy group, says the biggest problem with contract schools is that they are less responsible to parents and the community. Charters and contract schools are typically reviewed by the district every five years for performance, but otherwise operate independently.
****
Which includes firing thousands of teachers without just cause:
http://www.suntimes.com/output/education/cst-nws-school23.html
Hundreds of Chicago public school teachers will likely be told to re-apply for their jobs or find new ones under a massive plan to create 100 new schools in existing school buildings over the next six years.

The plan, to be unveiled by Mayor Daley Thursday, calls for 100 troubled school to be reconstituted with new staffs, principals and innovative teaching approaches, according to a handout distributed to aldermen Tuesday.
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He wants Wal-Mart to open stores in the city. He hands out contracts to cronies.

Why are Dems putting up with this?

I'm just waiting for a Bush endorsement from him.

[lil-petunia]

1. Mayor Daley is no democrat

He is a crook, like the rest of his family.

For all too many years, the polical-criminal combine running this part of the state and city have stuffed themselves silly at the public trough.

For those of you not baptized in the ways of Da Mayor and his criminal cohorts, the best place to start is with Daley's dad. There was a fantastic book by a now deceased columnist named Mike Royko. His Book "Boss" was a local best seller, and caused some threats against Royko's life.

(If you have seen the movie Continental Divide, with John Belushi, that loosely portrays the crime and deceit, fraud and bribery present in the City)

The city is so rife with crime and pay-offs, that local citizens have become numb from the continuing breaking stories. At least for now, there is an independent United States Attorney, Patrick Fitgerald (no relation to the retiring senator from Illinois) who has taken some great steps in squashing this lame excuse for a democratic party.

[Tim4319]

2. If you are starting a list, can I add Joe Lieberman to Daley?

I heard him on Hannity the other day, kissing up. I thought to myself, "and he was almost the vice-president".

[iconoclastic cat]

4. Oh, most definitely.

He can go into a corner with Zell and have some over-clothes petting.

[Fenris]

3. Um, mob ties?

[chiburb]

7. Yes, and documented...

Snip:

The Duff stories broke in 1999, when Tribune investigative reporters Ray Gibson, Andrew Martin and Laurie Cohen wrote about the Duffs' City Hall deals and their connections to Daley and the Outfit. You can find the archive of the stories available on the Tribune's Web site.

Much of what was alleged in the indictments was laid out in those stories: that the Duffs, who are white, ran phony front companies that got $100 million in city contracts that should have gone to firms owned by women or minorities.

Daley knew the Duffs were not minorities, even when he was a crime-fighting Cook County state's attorney. A Duff sits across from you, gives you campaign cash, pours a drink, it's reasonable to assume that even the mayor could tell whether the person was white or not.

Snip:

I'm sure he also appreciates the new federal prosecutor, Patrick Fitzgerald. The feds have already outflanked former Gov. George Ryan's Republicans. Ryan himself is a target. And now the feds are moving toward Daley's Democratic City Hall.

The Daley-Duff relationship is not just a Tribune story anymore. A group of citizens--sworn as federal grand jurors--looked at the evidence. They didn't find a flaw in the system, as the city claims. They found a crime.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/columnists/chi-0309280487sep28,1,2742113.column?coll=chi-news-col

[XNASA]

5. I'd welcome the second coming of Harold Washington.

That would be great.

But at least Daley isn't a total bust. This is still the best city in America.

[iconoclastic cat]

12. I do dig it--and I'm not saying that I want a sterile city,

but Dicky is screwing the least fortunate for the benefit of the wealthy. Deja vu?

[mopinko]

6. well, chicago is a one party state

and a corrupt one at that. i always vote against daley, even though i know it doesn't matter.
as far as the chicago teachers union, i think the same can be said about them. their recent election where they turned their back on the teachers obligation to particapate in reform. sigh. so i have mixed emotions about supporting the ctu.
smaller specialty high schools is something that is so badly needed. there are math and science acadamies in all 5 regions, but there are NO, repeat NO public arts high schools in the city. and they scratch their asses and wonder about dropouts.

[AngryAmish]

8. The Chicago Public Schools are a crime

They suck. S.U.C.K. I would never send a child to CPS unless they could get in a good magnate school like Whitney or Sweetness.

For the average kid (ie minorities) they can graduate and still be extremely poorly educated. Do you think the teachers union cares about the kids education? They don't. Do you think Daley cares? He doesn't - he is just trying to look busy while spreading the wealth around. The people who run the city do not send their kids to CPS, they send their kids to Ignatious or Rice or some other private school.

There will never be changes in CPS until .... I don't know. I don't think they will ever change. That is a shame.

[salin]

10. Many of our large urban systems

have exceptional challenges - with no easy answers. We, progressives, tend to be very blind to this. In a number of these districts fewer than 50% ninth graders ever make it to be enrolled in the 12th grade, let alone have a chance to graduate.

There is no national method for counting "Dropouts" - so there are all sorts of funky ways that districts and states use to cover these numbers. One method is to carry students on the books as "enrolled" during the school year, even if they are no longer attending, unless they and their parent come in to the school to sign papers to affirm that the child has officially dropped out. Then the student is dropped from the enrollment rolls during the summer and counted as "out migration from the district". Another fun trick is to count GEDs against the dropout numbers. Thing is - that means we can count 25 year olds getting GEDs to make up for 16 year olds leaving school. Sadly GEDs do not make up the difference of a high school diploma in terms of averate annual and lifetime earnings.

I am not terribly familiar with the Chicago public schools - but am familiar with numerous urban districts - and the problem of dropout and counting dropouts. I think that it is an exceptionally huge crisis. In some districts the matriculation rate from 9th to 12th grade in 3 years is only about 33%. That means that only one in every three entering nineth grader will be in 12th grade in three years. That, to me, is a social justice concern.

Breaking up large high schools into smaller entities has been a movement going on for a number of years. Am not sure of the research on the results - as to whether or not the practice has an impact. In most cases when this is done, however, the schools are still primarily public schools which appears to be different than what is described in this story.

I do know that the national policies of test and punitive measures are having an even greater negative impact upon the educational system. NCLB makes a bad situation worse. That fact, does not however, negate that there IS a crisis in some of our urban districts - esp at the upper grade levels. Silencing the voices raising these concerns does not make the concerns go away, nor does it do anything towards addressing the crisis of sending thousands of students to schools that see 50% or more dropout. Until I see more details of the Mayor's plans - I don't know that I would be so quick to see dark ulterior motives... as much as desperation at trying to find any solution that might try to turn the tide around at the high school level.

[LuminousX]

9. The closer to local politics you get, the less political affiliation means

A Democrat in the Chicago Mayor's Office is not the same as a Democrat in the Springfield Governor's Mansion. Different issues, different resources, different agendas.

[greatauntoftriplets]

11. I've often asked myself the same question.

He certainly always looks happy when numbnuts is in town.

Also, in total agreement with XNASA's post about the second coming of Harold.