Sly and the Family Stone. Another famous Chicago no-show.
Funny story.
A few years back, Joe Williams of Democrats for Education Reform (DFER), threatened to kick my brother’s ass. And mine too.
DFER is a project of Whitney Tilson, the billionaire boys club member and hedge fund manager. He’s never seen a privately operated charter school he didn’t like or a regular public school he did.
DFER was planning to hold a rally for privately-run charter schools in Chicago. Mayor Rahm is a potential ally of these characters and they probably thought Chicago is fertile ground.
Except.
This morning local organizers of the Chicago branch of the Save Our Schools march on Washington, including the Small Talk blogger who is my brother Mike, held their first local SOS meeting at the Jane Addams Hull House. As reported on Mike’s Twitter site, included among the group’s plans was to hold a protest at the DFER rally.
Hearing this, the next thing you know DFER cancels.
There hasn’t been a no-show like this in Chicago since Sly and the Family Stone didn’t show up at a concert in Grant Park and caused a riot back in the 60s.
Some ass kickers these DFER boys are.
Fred Klonsky 
Awesome!
But Sly and the Family Stone had some redeeming qualities.
I was at that Sly concert. My sister and I left before people started setting police cars on fire. The atmosphere felt unsettled so we jumped on the IC and came home. They’ve really ruined the public schools I attended, haven’t they? Sad. My parents were passionate believers in public education but if my sisters and I were in school today, no way would they tolerate this current crap; we’d be in U of C Lab School. And speaking of the glowing success of privately run charter schools, here in Ohio they released the list of the worst ten percent of schools where they are forcing the entire staff to retake their certification tests. There are 349 schools on the list; there are 131 charter schools — 43.5 percent of the list. Charter schools only account for 8.6 percent of Ohio’s schools. A whole raft of David Brennan’s White Hat for-profit charter menaces are on the list.