I’m exhausted.
This Thanksgiving week stuff is great, but today is some much-needed down-time. Maybe I’ll take Ulysses over to the park for a run. After all, the temperature is up from the mid-20s yesterday. And he needs to let loose.
In the mean while, I’m sitting here at the counter with my second cup of Italian roast. I poached an egg and dropped it on some re-heated corn bread stuffing with some Cholula sauce. Then I opened up the paper and to read about the soap opera that Cathie Black has become.
Cathie Black and mayoral control.
Anyone who can refrain from laughing when the next person in power talks about doing what’s “best for the kids” following the Cathie Black episode deserves a medal.
The battle over NY Mayor Bloomberg’s appointment of the clueless Hearst executive to the post of Chancellor of the city’s schools, her rejection by his hand-picked panel and the cave-in by NY state commissioner David Steiner can be interpreted a number of ways.
It’s a lose-lose deal.
On one level, it is a loss for the parents, students and teachers of New York who deserved better. New Yorkers in poll after poll opposed this appointment. Certainly the teachers opposed it, although their union leadership did pitifully little in the battle to stop it.
The Mayor got what he wanted. But it is hard to see how he wins or what he wins politically.
On the other hand, the policy of mayoral control got a public relations whipping. Following up on the disastrous experiences of mayoral control in Chicago, DC and now NY, it may be that a movement for a more democratic and accountable governance of public schools can emerge. It’s a hope.
The school and community activists in New York have much to be proud of. The power of their push-back on the Black appointment must have come as a major surprise to the arrogant Michael Bloomberg.
Kudos to them.
A rally to support The DREAM Act.
I just got this in my email.
Nov. 29 * 10am * UIC FORUM (725 W. Roosevelt)
Arrive 9:30AM to Sign-In; Program begins promptly at 10AMOn Monday, November 29th, Illinois civic leaders will unite to support the bi-partisan DREAM Act, a bill that would allow undocumented youth the opportunity to attend college or serve in the military as a pathway to legal status. The DREAM Act is supported by Republicans, Democrats, business leaders, educators, labor unions, people of every faith, and military veterans.
We will all come together under one roof on the 29th, the day before the Senate votes on the Act, to stand with undocumented youth who want nothing more than to work hard and serve our country.
Hosts
Alie Kabba, Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights & United African Organizaiton
Raul Raymundo, The Resurrection Project
Omar Duque, Illinois Hispanic Chamber of Commerce
Jesse Ruiz, Illinois State Board of Education
Marty Castro, IL Human Rights Commission
State Senator Antonio Munoz*
State Representative Toni Berrios*
Fr. Larry Dowling, Archdiocese of Chicago
Police Chief Arturo Venegas (Retired), Law Enforcement Engagement Initiative
Juan Ochoa, Our Nation’s Promise, Marine Corps Veteran
Jose Luis Gutierrez, Federacion de Clubes de Michoacanos
Billy Lawless, Illinois Business Immigration Coalition
Dr. Zaher Sahloul, Council of Islamic Organizations of Greater Chicago
Oussama Jammal, Mosque Foundation
Oscar Chacon, NALACC
Tania Unzueta, Immigrant Youth Justice League
Ron Powell, UFCW Local 881
Rosi Carrasco, Latino Organization of the Southwest
David Roldan, Hispanic Law Enforcement Association
Carlos Azcoitia, SPRY Community Links S.A.
Carmen Velazquez, Alivio Medical Center
Luis Darte, Latin American Recruitment and Educational Service
Ricardo Lopez, Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning
Maria Hawley, Hispanic Chamber of Commerce of Northern Ill.
Bertha Magana Latino Education Alliance
Andrew Sund, President St. Agustin College
Dr. Sharon K. Hahs, President Northeastern Illinois University
Rev. Dennis Holtschneider, C.M., President of DePaul University
Dr. Charles Middleton, President Roosevelt University
Manuel Flores, Illinois Commerce Commission
Dr. Mary Nelson, Bethel New Life
Noel Castellanos, Christian Community Development Association
I like my coffee, but this is going too far.
From the Houston Press:
Just adding a coffee shop to a neighborhood library so people can feel like they’re in Starbucks and ultra hip was apparently too passe a trend for Principal James McSwain of Lamar High School.
Finishing up a week ago, McSwain has thrown out nearly all the books and filled the space they were unnecessarily taking up with couches and coffee and food and told his students that they can access the exciting world of reading through e-books! And if they don’t have a laptop of their own and Internet access to do so, they can use one of the laptop computers in the library coffeeshop!
He’s even expanded the library coffeeshop hours to 6:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. which works great if you’re one of those kids with your own transportation and not one who is too young, too poor or with rotten parents who won’t let you drive to school yourself rather than riding the bus.
Fred Klonsky 
We made him fight for it. And what he got was not so great – he could’ve had a poorly trained but credentialed Superintendent just as easily (look at that “deputy” for an example).
So thanks. Feels good.
Jonathan
Some principals are notorious for throwng out books, making it all the more difficult for the librarian who they finally decide they can pay for. Nobody can deny the appeal that technology has for children, but put a book in their hands that THEY choose, and their faces light up! There is no getting around it, if you want kids to read, then they have to READ.