The American Federation of Teachers and the CIA
Almost all the books we read have been censored in some way by the US government via the publishing industry.
The Substance pamphlet "The American Federation of Teachers and the CIA" is now . . .
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The American Federation of Teachers and the CIA
Almost all the books we read have been censored in some way by the US government via the publishing industry.
The Substance pamphlet "The American Federation of Teachers and the CIA" is . . .
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UNION NEWS: Instead of stalling the discussion and debate on the CTU budget (and ignoring the CTU Foundation budget completely) the union's officers should have called a special meeting so that delegates could get clear answers on the budget before voting...
When it became clear to the union's school delegates that the agenda for the June meeting of the Chicago Teachers Union's House of Delegates had been designed to stall discussion and debate on the actual . . .
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Chutzpah is the only word for Byrd Bennett's claim for a lighter sentence so she can go back to 'helping children'... but the support she received from the union(s) in New York, Cleveland and Chicago has yet to be analyzed!....
Former Chicago Public Schools "Chief Executive Officer" Barbara Byrd Bennett will be in federal court on Friday April 28, 2017, to hear the sentence she will serve because she admitted to federal fraud charges in . . .
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EDITORIAL: It's time for a critical look at the way the leadership of the Chicago Teachers Union handled the contract negotiations and the last minute settlement that resulted in the worst contract since the CTU began collective bargaining in the late 1960s...
Since the leadership of the Chicago Teachers Union successfully pushed through a contract settlement within hours of the beginning of a planned strike (which would have begun the day after Columbus Day in October 2016), . . .
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NEWS ANALYSIS... Where's the 'accountability' now? Democratic Congressmen charge GOP consideration of Trump's lies and crimes is 'worse than Watergate'...
[Editor's Note: While we have tried to stick to local, Illinois, and national education news here at Substance, the recent revelations about Donald Trump's pre-election ties to Russia require a closer look at everything the . . .
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Parents expose breach of CPS data on special needs students
One of the most likely results of the privatization of key administrative work in any organization is that there will be leaks and further leaks available to anyone who wants to hack into the organization's . . .
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Catholic school teachers criticize Trump and DeVos for using a Catholic school for a publicity stunt...
The following communication was sent to President Donald Trump from Catholic school teachers who are part of the ACE program at Notre Dame University. The Catholic teachers object to the use of a Catholic school . . .
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Former Byrd Bennett aide Tim Cawley named to top post in Chicago Catholic Schools...
While the city awaits the sentencing of former Chicago Public Schools "Chief Executive Officer" Barbara Byrd Bennett (who pleaded guilty to federal corruption charges in the SUPES case), another former administrator of CPS now has . . .
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Trump's anti-Muslim travel ban blocked again by a federal court...
Hours before it was scheduled to go into effect, President Donald Trump's latest anti-Muslim travel ban was blocked by a federal court judge, this time in Hawaii. Once again the courts have held that Trump's . . .
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President Donald Trump's 'wiretap' ... or 'tapp' ... charge against former President Barack Obama has now been rejected even by Republican leader House Speaker Paul Ryan...
On March 18, 2017, the America On Line (AOL) news service reported that Paul Ryan has become the highest ranking Republican leader to reject the claim by President Donald Trump that former President Barack Obama . . .
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Artist Thomas Lanigan Schmidt honored in New York by the American Academy of Arts and Letters...
While the Trump administration, aided and abetted in Illinois by Governor Bruce Rauner and Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, continues to gut art and music programs in public schools, a lifelong artist (and brother of this . . .
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Mary Sharon Reilley was re-elected Chicago Teachers Union 'Retiree Functional Vice President', but... More than a week after the votes were counted, CTU is still keeping the results of the retiree vice president election from the union's members...
More than a week after the Chicago Teachers Union's Rules-Election Committee counted the votes in the runoff for the post of "Retiree Functional Vice President," the union leadership has still refused to inform the union's . . .
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Republican loss on 'Trumpcare' can't be spun, and is now the opening for a civilized health system even for the United States of America...
Despite the feeble attempts by President Donald Trump and House Speaker Paul Ryan to spin the major defeat they have suffered in their inability to "repeal and replace" the Affordable Care Act (also know as . . .
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CTU WATCH: Leaders of Chicago Teachers Union calling for more 'actions' while failing to explain how they could have agreed to two years of a new contract with no raises... and now because of furloughs a two percent pay cut...
The officers of the Chicago Teachers Union are expected to spend a good part of February 1, 2017 rehearsing their lines to present to an increasingly angry group of local school delegates prior to the . . .
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RESISTANCE UPDATE: Trump and Bannon wanted chaos but didn't expect massive resistance against ban on Muslims...
[Editor's Note: As the resistance to the massive discrimination against Muslims instituted by the administration of Donald Trump continues on February 1, 2017, more and more analysts are noting how the Trump White House is . . .
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Taft High School 'expansion' is only one of the controversies facing the semi-secret CPS facilities plan...
While the most public attention has been paid to the previously semi-secret plans to add a seventh to ninth grade "campus" to Taft High School in the Dunning community on Chicago's Northwest Side, much more . . .
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How many sellouts by 'labor leaders' before the working class needs new unions and a new class struggle vision of unionism?...
After the dramatic appearance of a faction of the leadership of the AFL-CIO with President Donald Trump at a convivial meeting at the White House recently, more and more people have been indicating that they . . .
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Chicago Teachers Union blasts Senate approval of Betsy DeVos while research continues to show her hostility to American traditions of universal public schools... CTU notes that DeVos and Rahm Emanuel agree on privatization, other policies...
The Chicago Teachers Union and dozens of other organizations immediately moved to denounce the February 8, 2017, approval of billionaire Betsy DeVos as U.S. Secretary of Education. The CTU statement came after the Senate, for . . .
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Trump's loss at the 9th Circuit begins the end of his mindless bluster against democracy...
[Editor's Note: Donald Trump's silly (all caps) "SEE YOU IN COURT!" may be some kind of mindless mantra from the golden domed guy presently holding the office of President of the United States. But as . . .
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Northwest side parents, politicians, and school leaders oppose Noble charter school expansion, while Noble continues citing its alternative facts about 'waiting lists' and so-called 'demand'...
Leaders from the real public schools of Chicago's northwest side continued to voice their opposition to charter school expansion and charter school lies, with the majority of aldermen opposing the expansion of the Noble Network . . .
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A tribute to the 'Mango Mussolini'... Matt Farmer and his band are back with a new song, 'Alternative Facts', and it's better than the 2012 Rahm Emanuel Chicago hit 'Too Big to Fail'...
The lyrics and graphics are a hoot, and the song should go to the top of anyone's charts as Matt Farmer has returned with a new song, "Alternative Facts." Farmer and his band have dubbed . . .
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Another elected official who 'persists'... Chicago Congressman Luis Gutierrez ejected from meeting by Paul Ryan!...
This news is just coming in, and it gives people from the Resistance another reason to head across the border into Wisconsin to unseat one of the most odious of the Republican leaders currently wallowing . . .
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Federal immigration officials to be barred from Chicago Public Schools unless they have a criminal warrant, says CPS... History will evaluate how far Trump administration will go against Chicago's schools, teachers, families, and children...
On the days that the Trump administration announced its latest draconian attacks on "illegal immigrants", top officials of the City of Chicago and Chicago Public Schools announced important guidelines to protect children and families of . . .
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Rauner's union busting plan now state law in Iowa... Unions sue to block so-called 'Right to Work' attacks on organized workers, weakened unions...
The union busting "Right to Work" law that has been pushed for Illinois by Governor Bruce Rauner just became law in Iowa, and unions have been forced to sue to try and block it. Meanwhile, . . .
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'Scrapping the Cap' (as proposed by Bernie Sanders) will keep Social Security solvent for the next sixty years (at least)...
Despite the decade-old propaganda (begun when President George W. Bush was trying to privatize Social Security) that the nation's Social Security system was going to go "broke" (in twenty or thirty years or so, maybe), . . .
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CPS reverses part of local school cuts the day after major protests against impact on minority schools...
One day after leading officials -- including the former Vice President of the Chicago Board of Education -- rose up at a Board of Education meeting to protest the impact of the latest budget cuts . . .
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Chicago Teachers Union update... The nasty Christmas Eve eve surprise most union members received after believing the lies about their latest contract 'victory'...
Although many of those who voted in favor of the last-minute contract settlement offer recommended by the leadership of the Chicago Teachers Union were skeptical -- especially since they were poised to go on strike . . .
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MEDIA WATCH: Is The New York Times ending its blacklist of critics of Common Core and the Obama versions of corporate 'school reform'?...
[Editor's Note: The New York Times published a letter during the Christmas holidays indicating that they might be willing, once again, to publish critical voices against their favorite corporate "school reform" plans. A letter from . . .
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Extending (and expanding) the Vietnam War... New research shows how Nixon sabotaged Lyndon Johnson's attempts at peace prior to the 1968 voting...
Anyone who knows even a little history knows that not all of it comes out at once, or in simple narratives. The end of the Soviet Union and the "Eastern Bloc" of Communist nations had . . .
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Operating Engineers lawsuit defeats attempt at Illinois 'Right To Work' law...
Among the many items of good news for the New Year comes the announcement below from Operating Engineres Local 150, which won its lawsuit against the attempt by reactionaries in Illinois to put a local . . .
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Donald Trump continues e-mail fundraising hustles even after he becomes President of the United States!... Trump will get a 'friends' list... 'I am compiling a list for our next president of all those grassroots supporters who have renewed their commitment for the 2017 year as Sustaining Members...'
Anyone who believes that the Trump businesses would stop hustling just because Donald J. Trump was sworn in to be the 45th President of the United States of America on January 20, 2017, was as . . .
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Scientists plan February 'Scientists March on Washington' in response to the anti-science and anti-intellectual agendas of Donald Trump and the Trump administration...
Proclaiming that "...an American government that ignores science to pursue ideological agendas endangers the world...", a growing group of prominent scientists, including reportedly some winners of the Nobel Prize, have announced that they will march . . .
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Calvin College students and alumni organize... against Betsy DeVos, the most important financial supporter of the conservative Christian school...
[Editor's Note: One of the few remaining claims justifying the Trump administration's selection of a basketful of reactionary ideological right-wing zealots for the Trump Cabinet is that the reactionaries are, somehow, representing the "people" who . . .
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Where is Barbara Byrd Bennett? With Bennett's former Michigan ally Betsy DeVos looming to replace Arne Duncan (and John King) as America's secretary of educational privatization, the question continues as to when the former Chicago schools chief will finally enter prison...
By the first day of December 2016, it had been more than three years since Chicago first learned that former Detroit Michigan school chief (and Broad Foundation "leader") Barbara Byrd Bennett had become the city's . . .
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Barack Obama and his neoliberal 'education reform' policies during Arne Duncan's reign over the Department of Education paved the way for Donald Trump's continuation of those policies under Betsey DeVos...
[Editor's Note: It's still too early to know whether American "progressives" will again try to pull a "Blame the Republicans" strategy following the inauguration of Donald Trump in a month, but the possibility still exists. . . .
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Rahm provides Trump with script for DeVos to continue to push 'choice'... Rahm's Washington Post Op Ed makes it clear that many Democrats are still pushing the 'Waiting for Superman' version of reality that Rahm pushed at the White House and then in Chicago's City Hall...
Only one major Democratic Party figure -- mayor of a major city, former White House Chief of Staff -- pushed himself into the national media spotlight by going to Trump Tower in New York City . . .
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Hillary's elitists ignored warnings from working class communities that this was coming... 'In the final months of the brutal and chaotic 2016 campaign, there were plenty of Democratic activists freaking out about Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania...' but 'HILLARY' ignored them...
[Editor's Note: Expensive TV ads and even more expensive consultants may have many ways to taking your dollars in an election campaign, but one way you can tell the extent of enthusiasm at the "grass . . .
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Rahm began gloating to The New York Times as soon as the sellout CTU contract was approved by the negotiators and the so-called 'Big Bargaining Team'...
Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel didn't even wait until the Chicago Teachers Union's House of Delegates was railroaded through an unprecedented quickie vote on the "Tentative Agreement" (the new contract) before he began using his private . . .
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UNION NEWS? CTU's 'Executive Team' is no longer looking for the union label when it buys stuff. Walmart and Aramark are now getting business from the union's leaders at the new union headquarters...
Those union members who no longer buy Oreos or Hostess Brands products (including Twinkies) because of union busting were surprised to hear that the executives of the Chicago Teachers Union are using Walmart products and . . .
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Chicago Teachers Union members voting on the 'Tentative Agreement' on Halloween and All Saints Day...
More than 25,000 school-based members of the Chicago Teachers Union began voting on the 'Tentative Agreement' (the proposed union contract) on October 31, 2016. The voting will terminate on November 1, 2016, when the totals . . .
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ELECTION NEWS: Trump's tax returns are still kept secret, while Newsweek reveals Trump destroyed evidence in violation of court orders against his companies...'The Trump strategy was simple: deny, impede and delay, while destroying documents the court had ordered them to hand over...'
With one week to go before voting ends in the 2016 election, Donald Trump has continued to evade disclosure of his federal income tax returns, while mounting evidence of his illegal activities is ignored behind . . .
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ELECTION NEWS: Trump still avoiding taxes and releasing his federal income tax records, and a New York Times investigation shows why... 'in the early 1990s, as he scrambled to stave off financial ruin, Mr. Trump avoided reporting hundreds of millions of dollars in taxable income...
With less than a week to go before voting ends in the 2016 election, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump continues to call Hillary Clinton "Crooked" when in fact Trump's entire history shows that he's the . . .
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Chicago Teachers Union members approve contract that will extend until June 30, 2019... Thousands vote 'No!' but the deal still gets a 72 percent percent 'Yes' vote from those voting...
The voting members of the Chicago Teachers Union, more than 25,000, voted in a two-day referendum on October 31 and November 1 to approve the four-year contract that was brought to them by the union's . . .
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ELECTION NEWS: Comey continues 'Hoovering' (as in J. Edgar Hoover) of the Clinton family as Election Day 2016 draws near...
The FBI and James Comey continued its "Hoovering" (as in following the ugly legacy of J. Edgar Hoover) on November 1, 2016, by releasing what can only be described as dirt on Bill Clinton. While . . .
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ELECTION NEWS: Donald Trump's anti-Semitism is now right out in the open (when we first exposed it, it was still partly hidden unless you were paying close attention)...
On the evening of the final voting in the 2016 American presidential election, more and more observers and critics are finally noting that a major theme of Donald Trump's election campaign -- and Trump's supporters' . . .
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Does Michelle Rhee have the inside track to become Trump's Secretary of Education?... One way Trump can check a couple of 'diversity' boxes and checkmate some critics?...
Although there has been speculation about others, the most recent reports on those meeting with Donald Trump about Cabinet positions show that Michelle Rhee now seems to have the inside track to become Trump's Secretary . . .
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MEDIA WATCH: Trump's real 'scam' is keeping corporate media focused on his Celebrity Apprentice Cabinet Selection antics while continuing to push Trump Gear profits and Trump's corporate interests -- even after the election!...
Is a Christmas tree ornament on sale for $149 news? Or a "Trump Pence Tumbler" for $25? Well... As usual, America's corporate media was again following Donald Trump's celebrity agenda over the Thanksgiving Weekend, most . . .
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Protests planned for December 7 Board of Education meeting, earlier hearings on the 'revised CPS budget...'
With more than a week to go before the "November-December" 2016 meeting of the Chicago Board of Education, protests are already being planned against the Board's continual destruction of the city's real public schools. One . . .
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BOOK REVIEW: The Making of Donald Trump, by David Cay Johnston... a treasure trove of facts uncovered over more than a quarter century about the racism, lies, sexism, narcissism, and cowardice of the Republican candidate for President of the United States in 2016...
With a little over one month to go before the November 8 voting, those who plan to vote in the Presidential Election have a wealth of materials if they are interested in learning more about . . .
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Chicago Teachers Union strike preparation goes into high gear with one week of negotiations left... union members warned to expect a long strike
Chicago Teachers Union members are being warned both formally and informally to expect a long strike if the Chicago Board of Education doesn't stop stonewalling against the union and forces the second strike in four . . .
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Claypool to try and keep ALL schools 'open' during the Chicago Teachers Strike of October 2016, with principals to get a 'Webinar' on how to do that...
Another proof that Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel and his appointed schools "Chief Executive Officer" Forrest Claypool want a confrontation with the Chicago Teachers Union this time was given on October 3, 2016, when principals received . . .
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Great news from the Southwest Side... Alderman drops plan to 'merge' Kellogg and Sutherland elementary schools...
While the eyes of politically active Chicago citizens were on the upcoming elections (now less than a month away) and on the negotiations between the Chicago Teachers Union leadership and the Board of Education's two . . .
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Chicago Teachers Union House of Delegates to meet next Wednesday, October 19, in the next step towards ratification or rejection of the proposed contract...
The Chicago Teachers Union's (roughly) 800-member House of Delegates will meet next Wednesday, October 19, 2016, at the Holiday Inn Mart Plaza beginning at four o'clock. The meeting will be preceded by a "Tele Town . . .
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NAACP reiterates opposition to charter expansion... 'Historically the NAACP has been in strong support of public education and has denounced movements toward privatization that divert public funds to support non-public school choices...'
In a statement to the press issued on October 15, 2016, the Board of the NAACP reiterated the organization's opposition to the continued expansion of charter schools in the USA. The statement came after several . . .
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ELECTION WATCH 2016... Trump's 'militias' plotted bombing of Muslim homes in Kansas, attacks on Muslims in Georgia, and racist graffiti in New Jersey...
As if to remind Americans that the most serious terrorists in the history of the United States have always been home grown and white, supporters of Donald Trump, whipped up by his most unhinged and . . .
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UNO charter teachers avert strike with last-minute deal...
Negotiators for the union representing teachers and other workers at Chicago's UNO charter schools averted a strike at the last minute with a three a.m. deal on October 19, 2016. The union representing UNO teachers . . .
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Early voting in all 50 Chicago wards begins on Monday, October 24... Trump's attacks on Chicago and Chicago voting and the historical record... Chicago's history of voting the dead was matched by Republicans voting downstate cows when no one was watching...
Although early voting for Chicagoans began two weeks ago at the downtown offices of the Election Board, early voting at community locations in all 50 Chicago wards does not begin until Monday, October 24, 2016. . . .
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ELECTION NEWS: Early voting in all Chicago wards began on October 24, 2016... Turnout heavy...
Early voting in every one of Chicago's 50 wards begin on October 24, 2016, with the Board of Elections sending out a mailing to all citizens announcing their polling places if they choose to vote . . .
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ANATOMY OF THE SELLOUT... CTU leadership postpones membership vote on the Tentative Agreement (the "TA") until Halloween and All Saints Day because of delays in providing copies of the TA to most of the members...
As criticisms of the Tentative Agreement (the "TA") approved by the Chicago Teachers Union's negotiating teams and recommended by one of the narrowest votes in history by the CTU House of Delegates grow from mumbles . . .
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ANATOMY OF THE SELLOUT... CTU leadership continues to stall and stumble as time nears for vote on the controversial 'Tentative Agreement'... Latest is the claim that not enough print copies of the proposed deal are available to members in the schools...
As part of what is becoming a pattern of denying Chicago Teachers Union delegates and members printed information about the workings of their union, the leaders of the CTU announced on October 27, 2016, that . . .
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BOOK REVIEW: Building Global Labor Solidarity in a Time of Accelerating Globalization (By Kim Scipes)...
During the time I've been studying Kim Scipes's latest book, Building Global Labor Solidarity in a Time of Accelerating Globalization, the biggest strike in human history took place. In India. There was at least one . . .
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MEDIA WATCH: Bill Gates gets plaudits for his 'contributions' to education by uncritical media adulators... The Guardian is gulled by Gates's propaganda machine...
It's been said for as long as there have been economic classes in society that money buys influence, and today, in 2016, a billionaire who can't get good press is doing something almost Trumpian. And . . .
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BOOK REVIEW: If it's one election book you have the time to read, it must be 'The Making of Donald Trump' by David Cay Johnston...
The history of the publication of the book itself could be the subject of another book, maybe one to be called "Blindsided: How America's publishing leaders missed the onrushing of the Trump candidacy." A recent . . .
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TRUMPWACHT: Speaking about candidates' 'health,' Trump really is a fat cat... and anyone can get all the Trumpian trumpeting and other nonsense by doing the Mark of the Beast '666' solutions...
Who is the healthier candidate for President of the United States? With less than a week before the first of three presidential debates, the Donald Trump organizations have been escalating their feud with reality . . .
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Chicago Teachers Union gives 'another overwhelming Yes' in strike vote...
It was Monday, September 26, 2016, before the Chicago Teachers Union officially announced that the latest strike authorization vote was "Yes". Now the union's House of Delegates (of which this reporter is a member) will . . .
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RAHMWATCH 2016: Chicago's mayor is clueless on September 26, 2016, as Republican candidate slanders the city and teachers vote overwhelmingly for another strike...
In an episode that might be called "Clueless in Chicago," on the day that the Republican candidate for President of the United States declared that Chicago is a "war zone" (interesting, from a guy who . . .
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CTU House of Delegates sets October 11 strike date if no contract is reached...
The Chicago Teachers Union will lead the second strike in five years beginning October 11, 2016 if no acceptable contract is reached by that date. The strike date was set by a vote of the . . .
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TRUMPWACHT: Donald Trump surveys his 'supporters' but doesn't ask about his racism, sexism or overall creepiness... 20-question on-line email survey (published here) shows Trump plans to be even more obnoxious in attacking Hillary Clinton in next debates...
In an obvious panic after the disaster of his showing in the first debate, Donald Trump has actually taken to asking his supporters in a lengthy survey how he should play the second debate. Note . . .
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CPS leaders continue lying as strike date approaches... Letter and emails to parents repeat the talking points without key facts...
The leaders of America's third largest public school system continued to repeat their mendacious talking points in an email to CPS parents now that the Chicago Teachers Union has set a strike date, nearly two . . .
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The talk is about 'accountability,' but at the bargaining table only a couple of CTU officers and the lawyers are really doing the bargaining as the contract stalling begins its second year...
It's now been more than a year since the Chicago Teachers Union's contract expired and a faction of the union leadership declared, through the words of union president Karen Lewis, that the union would continue . . .
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Chicago Public Schools releases 2016 - 2017 budget in 235 page PDF format, schedules hearings for August 17, August 18 and August 19...
The Chicago Board of Education has released its proposed budget for the 2016 - 2017 school year, six weeks into the fiscal year (which began July 1). Hearings are scheduled on August 17, 18, and . . .
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PFT denounces Claypool's budget attacks on Chicago teachers, CTU...
Parents 4 Teachers, the growing Chicago organization that has been one of the leaders in community organizing for better public schools, issued its latest manifesto on April 16, 2016, urging people to participate in the . . .
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Substance back 'up' after a week off the grid, and then technical difficulties caused by, of all things, a meteor shower and the Northern Lights...
By August 16, 2016, Substance was back on the Internet, after a week "off the grid" and an additional two days off the Internet, apparently because of the recent meteor shower and the Northern Lights . . .
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Board plays 'bait and switch' on timing of capital budget hearing at Chicago Teacher Academy, while also avoiding discussion of a real capital improvement plan
Despite public announcements that the Chicago Board of Education's August 17, 2016 budget hearings, the Board of Education's budget team began the actual hearings early. One result was that a number of reporters, including Substance . . .
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Outlining the failure of neoliberalism, Joseph Stiglitz now outlines how the dominant ideology of neo-capitalism since the 1980s is being abandoned in favor of a new socialism, and a 'neo-Keynesianism'...
The growing critique of monopoly capitalism that has swept the USA in recent years is part of an international understanding that so-called "neoliberalism" (actually, the latest jargon defending rapacious capitalism) is either dead or dying. . . .
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TRUMPWACHT: Donald Trump... Trump's 'empire' a confusing maze of debts and 'opaque ties'... New York Times reports
The New York Times is reporting (on line on August 20 and on the front page of the print edition, to which we subscribe, on August 21) on what it calls the 'maze' of Donald . . .
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Access Living challenges CPS Proposed Budget, elaborating on CPS's attacks on the rights of students with disabilities under so-called 'Student Based Budgeting'...
Despite the refusal of the current leaders of the Chicago Teachers Union to utilize the union's vast resources to do a comprehensive analysis of the Chicago Board of Education's "Proposed Budget 2016 - 2017," other . . .
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Chicago Teachers Union details impact of outsourcing on schools in new report issued August 22, 2016...
Two days before the Chicago Board of Eduction is scheduled to meet (and approve its Proposed Budget for 2016 - 2017), the Chicago Teachers Union issued a detailed research report criticizing the outsourcing of major . . .
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Union busting charter management company receiving special treatment from Detroit leaders, Michigan governor... Charter school closes in Detroit two weeks before school year begins...
Another more-hype-than-reality charter school just closed in Detroit (which among other things gave Chicago Public Schools Barbara Byrd Bennett and some other educational leaders) two weeks before school is scheduled to begin. "New Paradigm" charter . . .
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Will Hillary Clinton also be at the AFT convention?
As July 2016 began and the National Education Association (NEA) announced that the presumptive Democratic Party nominee for President of the United States, Hillary Clinton, would be speaking to the national convention of the National . . .
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Will an organized opposition to the so-called 'Progressive Caucus' finally emerge at this month's AFT convention?
As the critique of the policies of the leadership of the 1.6 million member American Federation of Teachers (AFT) continues to grow across the USA, a question arises on the eve of the union's national . . .
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Substance back issues search shows how the NEA 'RA' was pushing reactionary union-busting corporate 'school reform' during Year One of the Obama administration
As another convention of the Democratic Party looms and another reactionary "reformer" is poised to get the Democratic Party nomination for President of the United States, it's worth re-reading how Substance reported on the July . . .
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Hillary booed at NEA convention over favorable reference to charter schools...
Hillary Clinton was booed at the National Education Association (NEA) convention on July 5, 2016 when she tried to make a favorable reference to charter schools. The booing, which has not been widely reported, came . . .
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MEDIA WATCH: Now that the PARCC is being replaced by the SAT and the ACT (and EPAS) by the SAT, how many reporters are reporting how many sure-fire testing programs have been utilized by CPS since corporate reform began with Paul Vallas nearly 30 years ago?
It's actually an old story -- unless Chicago's corporate press is afflicted with amnesia. Which is apparently is, even though the Tribune reporter covering this particular story knows better of the history. But, here we . . .
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Lead total in CPS schools is now up to 99 schools, and high schools haven't even been tested...
[Editor's Note: We are reprinting the following article published on July 25, 2016 by DNA Info Chicago. Some officials at the Chicago Teachers Union are discouraging others from researching these topics. George N. Schmidt, Editor, . . .
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Bernie Sanders's convention speech endorsing Hillary Clinton... 'Hillary Clinton will make an outstanding president and I am proud to stand with her here tonight...'
[Editor's Note: The following is the exact text of the speech delivered to the Democratic National Convention on July 25, 2016 by Senator Bernie Sanders. We are publishing it in full here at Substance for . . .
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Latest Latin King indictment raises questions about why Chicago is now in its fourth generation of the 'new' Chicago street gangs -- and the gangs have grown more powerful than ever...
It's not fashionable in 2016 to talk from the 'Left,' as I am about to do, about the fact that Chicago's massive street gangs are now in their fourth or fifth generation since they consolidated . . .
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Union leaders begin plans to end Bruce Rauner's time as Illinois governor ... and it won't be by supporting an anti-union duo like 'Quinn - Vallas'...
While the political news nationally was from the Democratic National Convention (DNC) in Philadelphia, in Illinois union leaders were planning to make billionaire Bruce Rauner a one-term governor. And it won't be by repeating the . . .
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Donald Trump and Bruce Rauner, both billionaires, both philosophical soul brothers... Rauner's hypocrisy exposed when reporters ask him what 'crumbling prison' Chicago schools he had visited -- the answer: Two...
While Donald Trump's racist hypocrisy has dominated the national discussion about the state of the Republican Party, Illinois has been getting a dose of the same level of racism, ideological monstrosity, and hypocrisy through the . . .
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'Atlas Shrugged' free books and essay contest, plus other inducements, still used to lure schools into the Ayn Rand web especially when teachers can't get real books for the kids in austerity-plagued public school districts...
Among the other complaints voiced by protesting Chicago high school students in June 2016 was about books: A Curie High School student told the crowd locked out outside the Thompson Center on June 9 that . . .
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Swaps to cost Illinois another huge amount...
The cost of so-called "toxic swaps" continues to hurt both Chicago and Illinois, while the growing grassroots movement to end the damage caused by the swaps (actually, variable interest rate bond) to Chicago and Illinois. . . .
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AFT delegates face serious challenges, as 'New Democrats' continue their thrusts behind Hillary Clinton, while Bernie Sanders continues to demand a truly new party of the people...
Despite the triumphalist claims by supporters of Hillary Clinton that the results of the Democratic Party primaries and the upcoming Democratic Convention are decided, every teacher (including this reporter) who will be a delegate to . . .
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Top CPS officials trying to use principal resignations to spin latest attack on Chicago teacher pensions... 'Our principals and teachers are leaving for jobs where their district doesn't have to take hundreds of millions of dollars out of the classroom to fund their pensions...' Jackson claimed...
The "Chief Education Officer" of the nation's third largest school system continues trying to use the school system's financial problems to attack the Chicago Teachers Pension Fund and the city's more than 25,000 retired teachers . . .
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'Broke on Purpose or Flat contract on purpose...'? Part One... Maybe that should be the theme of the Chicago Teachers Union's June 22 theatricals... A factual study of CPS finances resumes on June 23 beginning at four in the afternoon...
Once again, this time without calling it a "strike," the leaders of the Chicago Teachers Union are preparing another spectacle, a kind of theatrical event. A few weeks earlier, once again, the president of the . . .
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Scab 'chess coach' expelled from Chicago Teachers Union despite publicity from Chicago's corporate media -- and possible support from Obama...
Question: How many teachers, coaches, and sponsors of extra curricular activities in Chicago's more than 500 public schools honored picket lines and participated in the April 1, 2016 one-day strike and day of action? Answer: . . .
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Hillary Clinton to speak at the NEA convention. Will she also speak at the AFT convention later in the month?
The prospective presidential nominee of the Democratic Party, Hillary Clinton, will speak at the "Representative Assembly" ("RA"), the convention of the National Education Association, next week. The NEA announced the Clinton speech in a press . . .
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UNION NEWS: Will CTU leaders really be 'transparent' at the union's monthly House of Delegates meeting... In addition to the CTU budget, members have been waiting more than a year for all the details on PAC and 'Foundation' spending...
As more and more delegates and members of the Chicago Teachers Union ask how the union is spending their dues money, which has now reached more than $1,100 per year for teacher members (and the . . .
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Continued push for 'financial transaction tax'... with hearing having been held in Springfield and scheduled for June 7 in Chicago!
While the news reports once again told the Chicago Teachers Union's 28,000 members and the public that CTU President Karen Lewis was again preparing to accept a losing contract with the Chicago Board of Education, . . .
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Lines drawn as unions and communities challenge the priorities of the ruling class with Chicago teachers' strike and dozens of actions across the city...
As April 1, 2016 dawned across Chicago and Illinois, the latest challenge to the austerity version of economics in the world's wealthiest nation was beginning. Since the 1970s, when Substance first began documenting it, and . . .
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MEDIA WATCH: Zorn aptly characterizes Bruce Rauner as the 'foundering ideologue...' he is, but misses one piece of the context -- the 'education policy' nonsense (and Paul Vallas) that led to Pat Quinn's political suicide...
Bruce Rauner: Donald Trump without the bombastic Tweets? Paul Ryan -- but with the Aryn Rand nonsense hidden from most of the public? It's rare that the Chicago Tribune editorial and Op Ed pages give . . .
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Chicago Teachers Union and thousands of supporters heading to Springfield in support of progressive income tax and additional funding for schools... Teachers across the city laugh at the biased report of the 'Fact Finder' and the nonsense being preached by CPS's two 'EduChiefs'...
As thousands of Chicago Teachers Union members and supporters prepare for a day in the Illinois state capital, even normally conservative pundits were beginning to realize that both city and state solutions are necessary to . . .
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Troy LaRaviere still eligible to run for president of Chicago Principals and Administrators Association (CPAA) despite attacks... 'We need to stay focused on the corrupt fiscal management and incompetent education policy of our district and our city' LaRaviere told supporters...
Blaine Elementary School principal Troy LaRavier is still eligible to be elected President of the influential (and potenially powerful) Chicago Principals and Administrators Association (CPAA) despite efforts by the current administration of Chicago Public Schools . . .
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Massive turn outs in protest against CPS removal of Troy LaRaviere, both inside and outside Blaine Elementary School, on April 25... CPS CEO Forrest Claypool ducks the hearing, and Mayor Emanuel denies he had anything to do with the attack on Chicago's most outspoken principal...
More than 500 people filled the auditorium at Chicago's Blaine Elementary School on the evening of April 25, 2016 to protest against the removal of the school's principal, Troy LaRaviere, by the administration of Chicago . . .
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LaRaviere still on CPAA ballot, now confirmed by Catalyst... Speculation that Emanuel wanted LaRaviere out of the race still denied... Tribune publishes Op Ed by a 'parent' against LaRaviere...
When the Board of Education announced during Spring vacation that Blaine Elementary School principal Troy LaRaviere was being moved out of the school -- no explanation -- many speculated that the reason was that Forrest . . .
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Elected School Board legislation for Chicago moving overwhelmingly through the General Assembly with a veto-proof majority if Gov. Rauner continues to try his 'bankruptcy' ploy...'This has nothing to do with Rahm Emanuel,' Rep. Rob Martwick said. 'This is a movement.'....
The overwhelming vote in the Illinois House of Representtatives on March 3, 2016, indicates that supporters of Chicago's elected school board have both the momentum and the votes to pass the legislation and to override . . .
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Chicago Teachers Union donated more than $90,000 to the Jay Travis election campaign... No record of most of those donations ever being submitted to the House of Delegates for approval...
According to the most recent contributions listings from the Illinois elections board, the Chicago Teachers Union PAC (Political Action Committee) gave at least $90,000 to the election campaign of Jay Travis. Travis lost to incumbent . . .
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MATEWAN and other movies we should be studying... Union movies for review and viewing during the latest class struggles in Chicago... Matewan, Salt of the Earth, Norma Ray and The Harlan County Wars...
Union organizing movies are as old as Hollywood and as new as April 1, 2016, in Chicago. As Chicago teachers and other school workers face their first "furlough" day as Mayor Rahm Emanuel's "Happy Easter" . . .
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BOARDWATCH: Parents, teachers and children demand that CPS kick McDonald's and other junk food out of the public schools...
Organized by staff of the Chicago Teachers Union and "Corporate Accountability International," a group protested the massive presence of the McDonald's fast food chain in Chicago's public schools. Notes and the group's press release are . . .
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OPT OUT NEWS: One picture a day to show what a thousand words can't do
Every day for the next three weeks, Substance will be publishing the one picture that seems to us to be telling the Chicago Opt Out story better than anyone's "thousand words." So here is the . . .
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MEDIA WATCH: Chicago BULLSHIT -- not 'Chicago BULL' -- should be the headline on the Time magazine cover hyping the propaganda piece on Rahm Emanuel
The cover of the "current" (June 10, 2013) issue of Time magazine shows Mayor Rahm Emanuel standing at an "L" stop looking cool and claims that Rahm is in trouble for fighting the city's twin . . .
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How many 'waiting lists' can one sophist dance on the head of a fictional pen?... Charter's Big Lies debunked at Catalyst debate
It's been really a pleasure to re-read and watch, thanks to Catalyst, the "debate" over charter schools held last week. The participants -- Jackson Potter from the CTU, Charles Payne, from the University of Chicago, . . .
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LABOR DAY SINGALONG: Solidarity Forever... The words of the song for those who need to learn all of them in 2012
[Below are the four ‘main’ verses of the union song “Solidarity Forever”. Two other verses from the “original” have been deleted. These are the ones usually sung. The original was first published in the IWW . . .
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Chicago strike begins
After a quarter century, it was finally scheduled to begin at midnight, and it did with a handful of pickets in front of the headquarters of the nation's third largest school district four blocks south . . .
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NOTICE: Substance's Web Editions will be 'Gone Fishing' until August 19
And as we go to meditate on the joys and pleasures of the 21st Century, we're reminded of something George once taught our students back in the 20th Century, before he was blacklisted by CPS . . .
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Pinkney article needs approval
What Will it Take To Bring Obama Home?
Bringing Obama 'Home'? Get REAL!
Moving Left – Part 5
By Larry Pinkney
BlackCommentator.com Editorial Board
"In America, anyone . . .
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'BOOM!' That wasn't a bomb, that was a highly audible unauthorized science experiment (and therefore you can't make us evacuate this building)...
When some teachers at the huge Chicago Vocational Career Academy (CVCA) heard what they thought was an explosion at the school, they prepared to evacuate the building. CPS security procedures require a building's evacuation when . . .
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CTU Behind the scenes... Who could have guessed that Bruce Rauner and billionaire Ken Griffin were going to spend money to elect Republican loyalists to the Illinois House and Senate? CTU 'PAC/LEG' has last minute by phone meeting to push big bucks to Democrats...
For the second time in three years, the Chicago Teachers Union's "Political Action/Legislative" committee has been called into a last minute by telephone meeting to approve a massive donation -- well in excess of the . . .
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