Wirepoints President Ted Dabrowski joins Dan Proft and Amy Jacobson on Chicago’s Morning Answer. They discussed Chicago Public Schools, school choice and Ken Griffin’s speech at the Economic Club of Chicago.
Wirepoints Pieces:
Hopefully, all media will get the message, in Illinois, too.
Ted joined Tom Miller of WJPF to talk about Illinois’ highest-in-the-nation property taxes, why lawmakers don’t want to touch the tax’s cost drivers, just how much Illinoisans’ tax burden has grown over the decades, why Gov. Pritzker failed to meet his promise to reform property taxes, and more.
Illinois’ dismal education numbers – especially for minority students – are embarrassing to politicians and officials. But rather than admit there’s a problem with Illinois’ education system, they attack the state’s own standards for being “too high,” instead.
Ted joined Dan and Amy to talk about the free speech controversy brewing in Wilmette due to the city’s refusal to fly a religious freedom flag, the city’s left-wing excesses and the growing culture war, the latest money spent on the illegal immigrant crisis, and more.
Weekly crime statistics from the Chicago Police Department: Report through 4/14/2024.
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Good old Harper High School is nicely photographed. When I taught there in the late 60’s, it was pleasant enough but even then the 3rd ranked student in the senior class had a C- average. Could have been my fault or their fault but it was all going nowhere.
I’ve heard them talk on the street.
I find it hard to believe it’s as high as 20%.
Apparently, teachers are high priced babysitters
Assuming many here would agree on your viewpoint my question is which came first with those kinds of work ethic predispositions—the teachers or the students and their parents? If your viewpoint is valid its likely one happened because of the other already being in place to implicitly demand it, don’t you think? A really old expression that seems apt here is “you can’t create a silk purse from a sow’s (female pig) ear.”
The last item you published about these scores caused me to look at the data. I found the 2018-2019 report and using the student count estimate provided on the report, White, Black and Hispanic students comprise 95% of the student population (11%, 37% and 47% respectively). When you weight the segment results by population, it results in the statistic that 74% of the W/B/H population taken as a whole, are not meeting standards. This is astounding. What entity would be allowed to continue operations with such poor results? Given such poor results, there would seem to be an argument that… Read more »
To answer your question just about every unit of government in Illinois allows that level of success.
It would seem that most institutions demand a high level of success according to the underlying assumpion made in the arguments. Yet, “high level of achievement” for some types of work are quite different than for another. Maybe we should castigate baseball pitchers who don’t cause batters to strike out 90% of the time, for example. Yet, surprisingly they are paid BIG bucks for what might be considered as embarrassingly low rates of proficiency. Maybe we ought to look at the education process as we do at baseball and celebrate the truly great educators while at least politely tolerating those… Read more »
Nobody expects perfection, and teachers are not professional baseball players.
Okay, at least you agree to some extent. I just think the general public thinks educating someone is easier than it really is. As an example, when is the last time people not in your camp on the COVID-19 vaccine agreed with you the first time you expressed your point of view? You’re probably still waiting for that level of agreement. Its a little similar to trying to teach someone with neither the will nor interest to care, let alone agree with what you’re trying to promote. Educating someone is more than simply talking with them usually. It involves prolonged… Read more »
James, as a parent I do understand that it is difficult to get some kids, especially teenagers, to show any interest in learning. My husband says that as a kid he didn’t suffer from ADD, but from DGS. DGS stands for “Don’t Give a S***” . But the article is about a lack of a fundamental ability to READ. This cannot be excused by bad attitudes. As a society, we must require our educational system to be able to teach students this most basic of skills. These low rates of success simply cannot be accepted. No advanced society can survive… Read more »
I agree. At least you understand that teaching is not an easy job in many, many cases. That’s something a lot here seem not to understand at all.
Everyone understands it’s not an easy job but easier than the jobs most of the rest of us do every day.
Its true enough in your mindset at least if maybe not so in fact. If you’ve never done one job of those jobs for any length of time how can you realistically compare it to another so glibly? Surely you’re not such a superficial thinking fool—or are you?
Chicago is not the only large city that is broke financially and broken socially. Many people moving out cite schools as the reason. Many businesses trying to recruit as well as prospective residents are frustrated and deterred by the schools. Given the large cost per student for a second- or third-rate education (if any), one would think that consolidation of schools and requiring teachers to move or resign would begin to address the problem. Not a significantly greater burden than masking-up or getting the vaccine. I understand that the City’s hands may be tied by collective bargaining agreements but those would go out… Read more »
I understand your frustration. Sure, given enough incentive you could get a reasonable number of teachers to “retire early.” Forcing any to quit might be another matter. But, what would be the magic cure-all in the way of staffing afterwards other than to simply try to get new people to enter the system again as teachers? How many really top-notch candidates are out there not already working in, say, one of the wealthy suburban districts who would even consider employment by CPS? If there are any, its got to be a really small number. Whatever you envision as the replacement… Read more »
My only real point is that doing nothing simply makes the problem worse, let alone giving in to teacher demands for pay raises and consequent pension increases. Time to jump off the bobsled. After a Chapter 9 treatment, chemo for the fisc, it’s likely to take awhile to staff-up again. The more teachers who decide to retire, the greater the unfunded liability of the pension system, which is unlikely ever to be funded. However, if businesses and charitable foundations see a demonstration of will and commitment to move toward fixing the system, you might see a turnaround. I have to… Read more »
Its true that we live in trying times politically in all of IL and Chicago in particular. I don’t see any quick-fix solution on the horizon to really any o fit, so a continuing downward spiral is what I’m predicting. Government leaders seem to me to be living in a fantasy world, trying to appease every interest group imaginable at an unsustainable cost. I don’t expect a happy ending to it.
And don’t forget, they too are actively pursuing vengeance against the remaining interests that disagree with them.
I’d go full Dr. Kevorkian on schools. There will be hardship and cost however fast or slow the decline. A slow downward spiral will for sure increase costs and prolong the hardship to students and parents and taxpayers. Teachers can live with displacement or get out. Just like the coal miners and the milkmen and folks who have to decide whether to follow their jobs to Arkansas. What is so special about educators and administrators that they have to be cushioned on a downhill slide? For once think of the children … generations of them.
In some respects that seems the right thing to do, but at the present time the law offers each child a “free” public supported education through senior high school (even to age 21, I think) and requires attendance to age 16, assuming those requirements of many years ago are still in effect. How and where that’s to occur is a political matter. Woe always accrues to the authorities who close the neighborhood schools in favor of schools farther away, and we all know politicians don’t want to worry excessively about their next election results! Convenience and local control trump the… Read more »
I stated every level of government and did not single out teachers. To clarify in government there’s people that get their job through a political connection and there’s some who are legitimately hired based on their qualifications. As far as teachers there’s good, average and poor. I would say most are good to average and the poor ones give them all a bad name (any similarity to another profession?). I’ll bet those averages have a high correlation to parental involvement. Hard to teach a kid when his parent(s) can’t help him with his homework after fourth grade. Maybe once they… Read more »
Parents primary duty re education their children is to help establish a positive attitude and to provide frequent, periodic follow-through as to progress. Their job isn’t to act as the teacher but to act as a helpful mediary for both the teacher and the student rather than as a disinterested party or as an adversary. When the latter attitude is present its far more likely to be an uphill struggle for all concerned. Any student having the proper attitude is likely on his way to be a successful one. Those on the opposite end of that scale will think of… Read more »
Someday someone will figure out how to do a study that accurately estimates how much parents spend on tutors.
With crt, LGBTQ and inappropriate content in elementary books, activist teachers, anti racist content, sooner or later one usually ends up with a lousy teacher, and the list goes on and on, the days of a parent not being actively involved in a child’s education are over.
Public indoctrination.
These crazy activists are going to cause a bigger teacher shortage.
They are driving good teachers and administrators nuts.
Does anybody really think that effective learning usually takes place many days in a classroom of highly diverse, fidgety, school kids who minute-to-minute are alternately on-task and off-task in thought? There are times when all goes well and times it doesn’t. Kids in group settings are all too easily distracted from the goal of the moment, choosing to focus elsewhere. The larger the group the more such distractions occur. Most non-teaching adults likely can’t begin to imagine how demanding that becomes! Tutors deal with kids one to one. Public school teachers can only wish they had that kind of no-distraction… Read more »
The point about tutors is that (for who knows what percentage of kids), learning is taking place beyond the classroom. Adding to that, for who knows how many kids, the parent is the primary or sole tutor. Those are just a few points. Just putting blind trust in teachers, administrators, and school districts is not a good idea. Supporting that point are the educator misconduct cases. And I would say most professions and for that matter categories of people, believe they are under appreciated. Plumbers, roofers, Principals, parents, taxpayers, etc. How could one truly appreciate a particular job unless they… Read more »
I agree.
I pray you are not an English teacher.
Nope, its all Greek to me.
So very few cps students can read or write at grade level?-when is CPS going to have a course on how to get a Linc card and get on government assistance?-alot of these people are headed that way anyway
This lack of proficiency is disturbing, but not unique to CPS, not Illinois, or the state, or nation for that matter. Even the “best” schools have a fourth of the students not reading at grade level. The thing is, in urban districts, like Chicago, we have schools where the number of students who are proficient is in the single digits. Many of theses schools are not safe, and do not have a climate conducive to learning. Is this exclusively the fault of the “system”, CPS, or the staff? No. But something must be done, especially for the good kids who… Read more »
The school system likes the kids dumb. They’re easier to brainwash them with their leftist America hating views. The evidence is their and pretty obvious.
Dumb kids = future democrat voters
Time for the Chicago Teacher’s Union to change the testing standards again such that a test result bespeaking functional math and language illiteracy (oral and written) becomes a “passing” grade.
No matter the consequences. Dem’s in Washington are hard at work transforming our country into one where employability is no longer a prerequisite for personal income.
Leave Chicago now parents- Your children will thank down the road!