SUBSCRIPT: From Richie's 'Renaissance' We Now Go Back To 'Rahm's Dark Ages'
Rahm and 'J.C.' crusade to destroy the heresy of public education and the scourge of democracy.…Richie Daley had his “Renaissance 2010” plan for privatizing public schools, and now it’s clear that Rahm Emanuel’s plan has the same object, but as yet no current name. So we’re giving it one: “Rahm’s Dark Ages 2015 Plan.” Since Rahm’s election as ordered by the nation’s million- and billionaires, we’ve been hearing that Rahm has promised his corporate masters that he would close 140 or 150 schools during his term. Of course, it’s all going to be done for the good of the children and to create and synergize efficiencies on behalf of the city’s taxpayers, blah, blagh, blagghhh… Etc. It’s clear, though, that one of Rahm’s main missions is to complete the destruction of public education in Chicago. How else to explain why he hasn’t even dared to place his own children in a public school, choosing instead the expensive and hypocritical University of Chicago Lab School (hypocritical because they claim to be following John Dewey’s democratic philosophy, when in fact the U of C is providing a new generation of “Chicago Boys” versed in the most reactionary educational and economic theories to force feed fascism on Chicago’s schools). Rahm doesn’t want his own kids in the way when he brings in the spiritual and physical bulldozers to complete the job his buddies Paul Vallas, Arne Duncan and Richard Daley began. The objective all along was to mask the destruction of the public schools (and the “monetization” of these public assets) behind the rhetoric of corporate “reform” on the one hand and the obfuscations (always disguised as “research”) of the University of Chicago on the other hand. The Dark Ages have begun…
By: Theresa D. Daniels
Rahm and Dark Ages a perfect fit
George, let me be the first to congratulate you on helping the Mayor Emanuel name his program. It is truly Mayor Rahm Emanuel's Chicago Dark Ages 2015. You know how important it is for the new kid on the block--whether newly elected mayor or alderman, or just appointed principal or what-use-to-be-called district superintendent--to make their mark with a new and "innovative" program, no matter how retro, useless, or destructive. I remember one D.S. who had scabs during a strike submit ideas for a book she compiled to teach children about the seasons. The book should have been entitled "What I Did During the Teachers Strike While Scabbing." Another D.S.'s thing was to dash around with the principal and in every classroom thunder How many students here out of how many enrolled? Never mind that they caught the teacher in the middle of a lesson. One principal had the vocabulary word of the day with monthly contests that the kids began to totally ignore after 8 months, but he wouldn't let the program stop until years later. Better examples of "innovation" than these abound, I'm sure. I wish I knew all of them. Maybe others can supply them.