the Voice of
The Communist League of Revolutionary Workers–Internationalist
“The emancipation of the working class will only be achieved by the working class itself.”
— Karl Marx
the Voice of
The Communist League of Revolutionary Workers–Internationalist
“The emancipation of the working class will only be achieved by the working class itself.”
— Karl Marx
Sep 1, 2014
Chicago’s Board of Education announced its budget for the schools for next year. The 5.8 billion dollars they propose to spend is a 3% increase over last year. But that’s not stopping them from cutting 72 million dollars from the budgets of 504 of the city’s neighborhood schools. Those cuts mean even more layoffs and dropped programs at the schools that are struggling the most. At the same time, the Board is increasing funding to the system’s 143 charter schools by the same amount. There’s no doubt about it, Emanuel wants to privatize the school system as much as he can.
Charter schools take public money and put it into private hands. Concept Schools, a charter network in Chicago, has been under an investigation by the FBI for white collar crime for several months now. But that’s not stopping the school board from handing them two more schools on Chicago’s South Side this year. No wonder–Concept Schools flew Michael Madigan, the head of the Illinois State legislature and the most powerful politician in Illinois, out to Turkey three times in a year.
The fact that it is much easier to make corrupt business deals through charter schools is one of their main attractions for businessmen and patronage-minded Chicago Democrats.