The Shell Game

Posted by Grant Muioc on 10.21.2009

Who wants a Chicago's School System? I didn't think so.

In "Dreams from My Father", Barack Obama wrote "… (The students) number one issue was this: Because the school district couldn't afford to keep teachers for a full school day, (the high school) let out every day at 1:30 in the afternoon? With the abbreviated schedule, there was no time for students to take science lab or foreign language classes. "How come we're getting shortchanged?" They asked me. Seems like nobody even expects us to go to college, they said. They wanted more school."

In 1995, Barack Obama was visiting schools and ramping up for a political career when he wrote this. He was torn between doing what was right for the kids and gaining the support of the powerful Chicago Teachers Union (CTU). The CTU is a sub-organization of the largest union in the United States, the National Education Association. In the giant Chicago Political Machine a Chicago politician needs union support to win elections. Obama had to make a choice to either support the students or the union.

Obama supported the CTU. This is not entirely Obama's fault; he lives by the mantra of "You have to win to make change." Obama never changed anything, and that is his fault. He won the election and left the CTU alone in exchange for political support. The Chicago Political Machine is a system of favors. The Chicago politicians need the unions, the unions need the Chicago politicians, and nobody can change the system. Not even Barack Obama.

In 2003, the former Chicago Teacher Union President agreed to a fifteen-minute increase in the school day in exchange for a seven-day reduction in the school year and large annual raises. She was voted out of office for not supporting the union more. The Chicago Teacher Union only was only asked to teach five more hours a year. In 2007, the CTU received new contracts that contained no extra hours, but had pay increases. In 2004, the CTU boasted $5.6 million in reserve. By 2008, the CTU leadership announced to a packed Illinois House of Delegates meeting that the union was $2 million in debt. The union had increased expenses on salaries and perks for a 60-person office staff to the point of bankruptcy.

The Chicago Public School (CPS) system is the third largest school system in the country. It has over 410,000 students enrolled, and 85 percent live in poverty. Chicago is also home to the highest paid teachers, on average, for the country. Some of these educators are making over $120,000 annually. This income is of course paid for by the tax payers of Illinois. In return for the highest paid teachers, Chicago has some of the worst graduation rates in the country with only 50% percent of CPS students graduating and only 10% ever enrolling in college.

The CTU is embroiled in several lawsuits between former union officials and current leadership over missing funds. This year CPS has been criticized in the news for the record level of student murders, 36, with 27 of those from Obama's old district. An estimated $60 million of stimulus money will be used by Chicago to improve security at a handful of inner-city Chicago schools this year. Chicago's problem has become the nation's problem. Stimulus money is drawn from all tax revenue, not just the State of Illinois. Recent news stories show that the $60 million dollar security fund will benefit only 10,000 students. What about the rest of the 400,000 students in the school district? What about the rest of the students across the country? Why is Chicago getting so much attention and money?

Obama, as a state senator, lobbied for his friend Arne Duncan to become the CEO of Chicago Public Schools. After Duncan was appointed by Mayor Richard Daley, he and Obama set forth a new initiative to revamp the crumbling school system. Duncan pioneered a system of hiding dropouts dubbed "the Shell Game". This system that allowed teachers to account for a drop-out student as a "transfer student" for a period of time. For example, if a student never returns to a school they can be presumed to be "transferring" to another school. The number of drop-outs appears to be less than reality due to this type of paperwork shuffle, hence the "Shell Game" nickname. Its Duncan's own version of Three-card Monty and the stakes are tax dollars for inner city schools. This was an important tactic for Obama, Duncan and other politicians who used education as a cornerstone for campaign promises. They could hide poor results with fancy names. A drop-out sounds bad, while a "transfer student" is completely acceptable. A similar shell game is used to shuffle students from school to school to give the appearance that the grades were improving. If a Chicago school is failing it is common practice to "redistrict" the school zone and shuffle a demographic to another failing school. The idea is to cut the losses of at least one school, but at the expense of another. It was also an effective way to manage the loopholes of President George W. Bush's "No Child Left Behind" policy.

Obama and Duncan are huge supporters of Charter Schools. Obama used the charter school argument during his presidential campaign, and touted it as the secret to education reform success. This is being proven to be false. The largest benefit of that these schools offer is that they can be closed down for poor performance, while public schools are harder to close down. Often a charter school is sold to new "owners" or just a name change if it fails. The reality of charter schools are that they are income earning businesses that contribute to campaign funds. They are becoming one of the hottest startup companies in the United States. They use tax money as venture capital and offer little risk to the owners should they fail. They offer education for profit but without the legislative headaches if public schools. Charter schools offer great political capital for political campaigns, they are private businesses that can freely give money and support to those who return money and support.

Charter schools would be used to offset the problems of the public schools. This program takes tax payer money and funnels it as grants to private organizations to fund the creation and operation of private charter schools. These schools, at the moment, have little oversight on what is taught to students. The curriculum is established by the parent corporation of the charter school. This article will not explore the dangers of indoctrination, but they exist. These schools are profit turning businesses that run on tax payer money. The same money that could go towards rebuilding the public school system that has fallen into neglect. Charter schools have yet to show any promise of being a better alternative, posting similar graduation levels and establishing curriculum that are arguably easier than public schools. Some of these schools do not require any actual attendance, with entire school courses taken online. This raises additional questions on how American children will ever learn handle people on a personal or social level.

Obama and Duncan recently began pushing science and math courses to make American children more competitive with the rest of the world. However, the fastest growing course taught in college is actually ethics. Why are subjects such as ethics, morals, and leadership being ignored at the elementary and high school level? They provide the groundwork for discipline not science and math. In many states athletic programs are being cut for more classroom time, and yet childhood obesity is at record levels. In states such as Illinois, it's not the length of the day that is the problem; its the cost of running the system. Chicago schools have cut hours off school days because the cost of running CPS is too high. CPS has some of the shortest school days for any school district in the country. Teachers are making guaranteed money through deals worked out with the union and school district. When budgets get trimmed it comes out of extra school programs, new technology, the light bill, etc. The teachers still get their pay checks, but the students still receive a lackluster education. They still get the same education that Obama himself criticized in his own book. Eventually the cycle destroys the entire system. It is built to fail.

Arne Duncan is now the Secretary of Education within Obama's cabinet. He was picked by Obama because of his "successes" in Chicago, a subject still under debate. Duncan graduated Harvard and was a college friend of Obama's. The Chicago Political Machine has moved to the nation's capital. Friends and favors outweigh facts, trends and history. Chicago's recent public school history should not be ignored.

Obama and Duncan did nothing to help the kids Obama wrote about after he received the endorsement of the Chicago Teachers Union. They played their political game and won. The Chicago Students lost. There are still many questions about the rights of parents and teachers to discipline unruly children. There are questions about what kind of education children are entitled to receive.

Do we really want the Chicago education system for the rest of the country?

What do we want for our children? Do we want more "Shell Games" and private charter schools or do we need to return to traditional education, with community born educators empowered to maintain discipline? Do we want more unions or more independent local teachers? Do we want more State Officials or more Parent Teacher Organizations leading the curriculum at the local level?

I am a father of two, and was raised in the inner city. I am black, and I've seen my own community fall apart due to poor support of education systems. The future has always been with education. We need to make sure that it's properly managed. It's not a business; it's our children these leaders are ruining.

Lastly, Parents need to step up, take responsibility from elected officials and make a difference in their children's life.



Here are some sources, email me for more:

"Dreams from My Father" by Barack Obama

"The Case against Barack Obama" by David Freddoso

http://swz.salary.com/salarywizard: Chicago High School Teachers

http://ccsr.uchicago.edu/news_citations/070506_chicagotribune.html : Chicago Graduation rates

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/04/01/national/main3985714.shtml : Chicago Graduation rates

http://www.chicagopublicradio.org/Content.aspx?audioID=27780 : CTU misuse of funds trial begins

http://socialistworker.org/2008/05/19/chicago-teachers-union-broke : CTU Broke

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicago_Public_Schools: general information

http://www.momlogic.com/2009/10/report_1_in_8_female_students_pregnant_at_chicago_high_school.php: Chicago student pregnancies