by John Laesch, posted on Wednesday, March 13th, 2013 at 9:03 pm
K12 Incorporated, a for-profit charter business has a track record of poor academic performance, misleading investors, and deliberately telling teachers to “delete bad grades.”Now, as many Illinois school districts are struggling with shrinking budgets, K12 Inc wants to milk our schools of $8,000 – $11,000 per pupil with a new, “virtual charter school.”In my first piece on this subject, I listed the public hearings for all 18 schools that K12 Virtual Learning Solutions is targeting in the Chicago Suburbs.
K12 Inc. has a Record of Poor Academic Performance and Deletes Grades to Boost Scores.
When I learned that K12 Inc was trying to get their hand in the pocket books of Aurora taxpayers, I started researching the company.One story by investigative reporter, Phil Williams, with Tennessee Channel 5 News exposes an e-mail from the Tennessee Virtual Academy’s vice principal to middle school teachers titled, “important.”The e-mail reads:
“After … looking at so many failing grades, we need to make some changes before the holidays,” the email begins.
Among the changes: Each teacher “needs to take out the October and September progress [reports]; delete it so that all that is showing is November progress.”
“Does it talk about we need to make changes in curriculum? Does it talk about we need to make changes in our teaching strategy? No,” Rep. Johnson observed. “Those changes we need to make are deleting grades from the computer system.”
by John Laesch, posted on Wednesday, March 13th, 2013 at 7:26 am
New rules allow an Illinois charter school to apply for a charter from a local school district and appeal any rejections to the Illinois Charter Commission.
As of this blog post writing, I am aware that K12 Inc. has applied for charter schools in 18 school districts in the Chicago Suburbs. Please plan on attending these hearings (listed below) to ask the board to reject this scandalous business.
In addressing local school boards we need to let them know that K12 Inc. is a business that pays their CEO $3.9 million dollars per year and offers returns to investors. It is not a school. Our tax money is being diverted from the classroom to the pockets of the wealthy. K12 Inc. may perform well on Wall Street, but they don’t perform well in the virtual learning environment. And, according to Channel 5 News in Tennessee, when K12 Inc. fails to perform, they instruct teachers to “delete grades.”
by John Laesch, posted on Monday, February 11th, 2013 at 8:00 am
I hope that readers take the time to attend the Aurora City Council meeting on Feb. 12th at 6:00 p.m. in the city council chambers, 2nd floor of city hall, 44 E. Downer Place, Aurora, IL. If you want to address the City Council should notify the City Clerk’s Office at (630) 256-3070
Being discussed and voted on at this meeting is the appropriations of $750,000 of taxpayer money to fund a development project in downtown Aurora.
This latest TIF deal has me asking lots of questions about our city’s TIF policy. This one certainly has “politically connected insiders” written all over it, but other developers and “businessmen” have taken the city for a ride in the past.
by John Laesch, posted on Saturday, January 26th, 2013 at 11:14 pm
Updated Monday, January 28th, 2013 at 8:37 pm
On Jan 9th, State Representative Naomi Jakobsson filed a bill that would give Illinois voters an opportunity to amend Illinois’ tax code and pave the way for a graduated income tax.
On Jan 23rd, State Rep. Linda Chapa LaVia added her name as a co-sponsor to the bill.
Proposes to amend the Revenue Article of the Illinois Constitution. Provides that individual income taxes may be at a graduated or a non-graduated rate. Provides that any such tax imposed on corporations shall be at a non-graduated rate, not to exceed the average of the lowest and highest individual rates by more than a ratio of 8 to 5. Effective upon being declared adopted.
If the bill passes the general assembly, Illinois voters would have to approve of the measure by voting “yes” on the November 2014 ballot before it went into law.
by John Laesch, posted on Monday, January 7th, 2013 at 4:15 pm
A special thanks to our distinguished panelists (list and video links below), State Representative Linda Chapa LaVia, East Aurora High School and all of the volunteers who helped make one of the first “democratic pension discussions” a success.
by John Laesch, posted on Saturday, January 5th, 2013 at 10:40 pm
As the Democratic Party is back to pushing anti-union austerity proposals in Springfield this veto session, I find this video to be relevant. It also provides some important lessons.
The text below the fold was written by Larry Duncan (Labor Beat). Their work is important and deserves your financial support.
by John Laesch, posted on Sunday, December 30th, 2012 at 2:07 pm
While many are following the manufactured cliff debate in Washington, in Illinois, a Democratic House, Senate and Governor are attempting to wash their hands of their financial mismanagement of teachers’ pensions once again.
Illinois’ veto session is our “lame duck” session and, hard to move legislation like public employee pension rip-offs is back on the table. In Springfield there is no progressive voice in the room proposing that the general assembly rescind the $85 million/per year tax break to the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME). There have been no proposals to implement a tax on contracts at the CME (our Wall Street) and, there have been no proposals to modernize Illinois’ tax code with a graduated income tax.
by John Laesch, posted on Tuesday, July 31st, 2012 at 8:05 pm
Reflections from the Workers United Hall at 333 S. Ashland Ave., Chicago IL on July 30, 2012 – Chicago Teachers Solidarity Campaign meeting.
Present, past and future merge –
strolling through the halls of power
Walking in their footsteps – gaining strength hour by hour
Their voices echo off cold brick walls – shattering doubt and despair.
Only resolve lives here!
Great women and men sat on this very chair – plotting justice.
Alive and well – justice lives here!
Their rough hands pounded on this table – a solidarity drum – Here! Here!
Only solidarity lives here!
From the stage, the people’s voices gave democracy birth – the birth pains of revolution –
America, Democracy lives here!
It is here that anguish and anger
chiseled change – challenging pragmatism’s powerful, “no.”
Si, Se Puede is all we know – hope lives here!
Ours is not the first nor the last – today’s struggles strengthened by the past
Worn steps, worn bodies – warm welcome comrades!
Power through unity – our future lives here!
While not necessarily connected to the Obama campaign, there is a new push inside labor circles to draw attention to a small company based in Freeport, IL named Sensata. The company is owned by Bain Capital and is preparing to move 170 Illinois jobs to China. Factory workers are calling on Mitt Romney to step in and stop the plant closure.
I support the move to target Romney on this issue and I hope that national pressure causes Bain Capital to keep those jobs in Illinois and sign a union contract with the workers.
At the same time, I can’t help but call out the hypocrisy of the Obama Administration for blasting Romney in public while secretly (and I mean very secretly) holding closed-door meetings with 600 corporate advisors to write another free trade agreement, the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), that will result in more off shoring and outsourcing of U.S. jobs. TPP is expected to be the largest and worst free trade agreement in global history.
“Bush was better than Obama on this,” Judit Rius of Doctors Without Borders Access to Medicines Campaign tells HuffPo. “It’s pathetic, but it is what it is. The world’s upside-down.”
