SOUTHWEST SIDE PRINCIPAL ON BUDGETS, PENSION, TIFS, NWEA AND MORE

I am the principal of ******** on the Southwest side.  I know firsthand that in the military the lowliest of enlisted soldiers are told to speak up if they see something unethical.  You have tried to do that and CPS has been tone deaf due to the leadership of our Mayor.... There is a movement growing against the use of a corporate leadership style in our public schools which conflicts with everything schools have stood for in the past two centuries: local control by parents and the community....

I experienced the silencing of principals, but it continues, despite being called the "CEO" of our school building.  When we received our budget a Board member requested principals return to their LSCs and explain the pension crisis and that the only solution is cutting pension benefits that politicians promised.  We all know there are other solutions, including cutting networks, central office departments, and ending TIFs.  TIFs have been used to enrich the mayor’s political allies, from the Pritzker’s Hyatt hotel to the construction company building the new DePaul stadium with our tax dollars.  We are being recruited to advocate for their profit and our colleagues’ loss.  The public loses as the 1% gain.

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What parents and tax payers and voters need to know is that education reform as led by Rahm Emanuel does not have the goal of helping your child or your community.  They are only interested in the bottom line, and they are the ones that will earn the profits.