The action was peaceful and our really cool lighted signs earned a number of honks from holiday travelers. There was a bit of controversy when we approached the Walmart store. A number of security guards attempted to stop us from taking up a spot in front of the store and told us that “we had to leave now or they would call the police.” We stayed for 3-5 minutes and chanted, “Low Pay is not OK” and “hey-hey, ho-ho, the poverty wages have to go!”
After making 16 similar presentations at public hearings over the course of 10 days in the Fox Valley, and receiving hundreds of tough questions, K12 Inc. finally showed up with a panel of executives. I counted seven K12 Inc. executives, one attorney, and three board members from Virtual Learning Solutions. They were all nicely dressed in business attire, their PowerPoint had new graphics, and their data was still non existent. K12 Inc. had 10 days to do their homework and once again failed to produce any substance.
For almost three hours the D365U School Board kept pushing for data, substance and explanations about K12’s questionable history of grade doctoring, cover-ups, lawsuits, scandals and investor settlements. The board was phenomenal, and Dr. Vince Gaddis (NIJwJ Steering Committee member) drove it home in a “worth the watch 12 speech” below the fold.
We will have some exciting news at the informational meeting on K12 Inc. that is scheduled for Sunday, March 17th from 2-5 p.m. at the Geneva First Congregational Church (321 Hamilton St.) in Geneva, IL!
In addition to hearing from Tennessee State Representative, Gloria Johnson about how k12 Inc. has hurt students and taxpayers in her home state of Tennessee, we will have a charter school expert by the name of Sharon Teefey to share knowledge on Illinois’ Charter Commission.
Teefey will be reporting that State Rep. Chapa LaVia (IL 83rd District) intends to initiate an amendment to address virtual charter schools. According to an e-mail from Rep. Chapa Lavia, she intends to file the following amendment in the house when they return to session.
(l) From April 1, 2013 through April 1, 2016 there shall be a moratorium on the expansion of charter schools with virtual schooling components which includes but is not limited to full-time online virtual schools and virtual blended schools. For the purposes of this subsection (l) virtual blended schools means a virtual school with in-person components.
This moratorium will give Illinois parents and lawmakers more time to study K12 Inc. and their questionable track record of performance.
An amendment is progress, and it shows that organizing works and we need to keep doing more of it!
If you want to support the fight against K12 Inc. and want to see this fight continue, please consider supporting NIJwJ financially.
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.”
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.
The bill, HJRCA 0002 would amend the Illinois Constitution and allow for a graduated income tax. Please take a minute to sign our petition to Representatives Jakobsson and Chapa LaVia.
The language of the bill reads:
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.
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.
Other blog and press coverage of the event can be found at FredKlonsky.com, Tim Furman’s blog, The Daily Herald, and The Aurora Beacon News (Suntimes affiliate).
Below the fold are all of the videos from the event. We are also asking people to sign a petition that pushes for new funding proposals to fund pensions, create jobs and restore Illinois’ fiscal health. These proposals are outlined by economists in the videos below.
Members from several groups came together on October 5th at the Elgin, Illinois Walmart to show their support for striking Walmart workers at Walmart’s largest distribution center at Elwood, near Joliet,Illinois.
The strike is now over but I wanted to submit this to show what the strikers went through. They are heroes.
On Friday, Oct 1, I protested with the Walmart warehouse workers in Elwood, Illinois. I am with Jobs with Justice of Northern Illinois and we were there to show support for workers who are in just such a position and need some moral support
It was a typical rally with an off site location across from the gigantic warehouse where the contents of trailers are unloaded into the facility and are re-loaded for distribution to local Walmart stores. Several of the speakers were “strikers” who walked off the job after trying to deliver a grievance petition to their management and were ignored and fired from their jobs. They told of inhuman working conditions where the temperatures inside the trailers parked outside in the sun reach up to 130 degrees on summer days.
from PDA-IL
PDA IL joins the Chicago Teachers Union, Chicago Teachers Solidarity Campaign, Gray Panthers, Northern Illinois Jobs for Justice, Unite Here and National Nurses United among other labor unions and Hyde Park community activists to protest against the use of property taxes going to fund the building of a new luxury hotel in Hyde Park while schools face millions of dollars in cuts.
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