Guest Column
By David Stocker
School boards (BOEs) sit on one of the last piles of public money in the U.S. economy. The agenda of school reform represents a major redirection of public sector policy decided upon and implemented by private interests. This is no different from how Wall Street decided on its bailouts, or how the military industrial complex runs its pentagon.
How bad will this get in Rockford?
Six hundred teachers fired, half a dozen campuses closed, soon to be sold to willing bidders and school reform profiteers?
Two dozen principals are fired. Within days, the same jobs appear in state openings.1
Board members Jeanne Westholder and Lisa Jackson heap shame on the public for showing up and raising concerns. Our superintendent chooses this moment to be off on another cruise.
New budget line items (ENI) appear that exceed the entire cost of the threatened Early Childhood. One 205 administration insider privately calls it a “sleight of hand.” Another terms recent dismissals, “pure evil,” retribution for those who suggested alternatives or who were perceived as opposing sweeping reforms.
What would we be willing to do for $100 million? Would people be willing to endure some hardship and get to the pot of gold?2 How far would Rockford’s policy makers and board handlers go? Would we be willing to scrap the sticky democracy of BOEs altogether?
If purse strings could be loosened, would access to this kind of money interest local venture capitalists and developers?3 Would the board be willing to cut costs, to fire expensive older teachers and principals?4 Would our superintendent be willing to sour the community against anyone who spoke out? Would she be willing to risk provoking racial disharmony?
If you were an unqualified wildcat CFO who had built a reputation for fantasizing numbers, would you be willing to work hard to create the appearance of a $50 million gap, even in the face of contrary evidence?5
AND THEN…
If parents could be made angry and confused…
If teachers could be made to seem greedy…
If students could be made to seem disadvantaged…failing kids in failing schools…
Would this help us to look more deserving of $100 million and more?
Sure.
The havoc in RPS 205 fits this strategy.
The carrot
Two years ago, the board’s handlers understood that a $50 million deficit and a reformed district would earn a higher rank among applicants for President Barack Obama’s Race to the Top (RTTT).
RTTT favors high-stakes school reform for high-yield outcomes.
This same demonstrated need qualifies communities for Ford Foundation monies, grants from the Broad Foundation (TASAP), the Kellogg Foundation (that funded the propaganda film Waiting for Superman), the Walton Foundation, and numerous other reform advocates.
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, with nearly $50 billion in resources, has already spent $4 billion advancing its education reform agenda.6
Districts (termed Local Education Authorities, LEAs) must vie for point scoring over a range of evaluative categories. For RTTT, about 25 percent of the points for the $100 million involves laying the basis for school reform.
Reform-minded funders look for districts that have prepared a legislative agenda to weaken collective bargaining, eliminated mediation for pension disputes, and opened up to mayoral takeover of a board.
Applicants must describe how local corporations will participate. For RTTT, in Illinois, 15 percent of the grade is awarded based on the charter readiness of the community. Another 25 percent of the points go for retraining, repurposing, replacing and reorganizing teachers and principals.
Twenty-five percent is awarded for the LEA’s adherence to testing and data-driven standards. The last 10 percent is about dramatic turnaround school efforts.7 BOE member Bob Evans was right when he said, “legislation in Illinois is stacked to favor charters.”
The great alignment
In a planning process that began shortly before Sheffield’s arrival, local proponents of charters have formed several initiatives, including a charter advocacy group, Rockford Charter School Initiative (RCSI), a blog called Next Rockford (hosted by the Register Star) and a coalition of partners called Alignment Rockford (AR) sharing common leadership values, but who studiously avoid the charter debate.
The AR group sought to provide resources to schools and saw charter advocacy as a hot button. As part of building trust between the new superintendent and stakeholder members, AR adopted the Visualize 2015 Strategic Plan as a guide. As explained to me by Director Laurie Preece,
Alignment Rockford is a group of people who “agreed to leave their guns outside.” Whose guns, I wonder? Who got to decide that some people’s opinions were the guns? Those with concerns about Visualize 2015, or with differing opinions to those of Superintendent Dr. LaVonne M. Sheffield were seen as impediments to the process of shifting power and transforming public policy, and so were left out.
A skeptical REA has not been a participant to this point. The chairmen of Alignment’s four committees are all District 205 administrators. Meanwhile, charter advocacy updates appear at the Rockford Charter School Initiative (RCSI) website8.
AR members represent multiple connections among influential local institutions and strongly pro-charter individuals. Superintendent Sheffield and Mayor Larry Morrissey are on the governing board. District 205 CFO Cedric Lewis is on the operating board.
Advisers represent: the City of Rockford, the Chamber of Commerce, the Rockford Register Star, Next Rockford, the Rockford Charter Schools Initiative, Anderson Industries, Rockford College Department of Economics and others.9 To her credit, Preece has spent no little amount of time trying to sort out my thinking.
Unfortunately, the effect of AR has been to lend the business community’s endorsement to Sheffield’s efforts to document failing schools, implement closings, rezone, manufacture a huge deficit, and break the teachers’ union…all this with charters just over the horizon.
It seems to me like the nudist camp where everybody agrees not to comment about other people’s equipment, but it’s still there.
Alignment is careful to say they do not bring a charter agenda into their public meetings, but it is evident that in the form of Alignment Rockford, a shadow government of our school system has been created by school reformers and charter advocates that bypasses the board of education’s legitimate responsibility of planning, oversight, management and informing the taxpaying public.
Alignment Rockford has unprecedented access and intends to wield unprecedented influence in a process of school reform. Replacement of school board member Jeanne Westholder with Tim Rollins is a shift in deportment, but not necessarily in ideology.
At the Heartland forum, Rollins (who has finally come out in favor of charters) was unwilling to even comment about the idea of a negotiated teachers’ contract, saying incorrectly that negotiations are under way. They are not.10
This master plan was not placed before our whole community. It was not voted on as a policy or in any kind of referendum. It was planned and implemented by a small group of people who avoided opposition.
It is being launched using our school district and has access to our school district funds. Teachers, nor principals, nor parents were aware of it. Now, our kids’ education is held hostage.
Enter the unions? A war of words and confusion. There is confusion regarding use of the word “compromise.”
1. A broken nuclear reactor may have a compromised barrier: e.g.; Our district’s system of financial checks and balances has been vastly compromised. It is dangerously broken.
2. An agreement whereby each side in a dispute yields something is also a “compromise”: e.g.; Over years, the teachers’ union has granted numerous compromises to an uncompromising district.
Teachers must accept less and do more.
Charter reform, based on cheaper, non-unionized workers, is a challenge to unions because the model either eliminates union teachers or co-mingles union and non-union employees. Unions sharing workplace with non-unions is a long balancing act that has yielded local apprenticeships, internships and successful programs like YouthBuild and ShareFest11. I can personally remember when I needed a union waiver to put a screw in a wall at Fairview to hang artwork.
I’d say union leaders offering compromises to non-union or anti-union pressure is more the rule than the exception these days. Union labor as a percentage of the workforce dropped to 12 percent this year, from 36 percent in the late 1940s when America began three decades of unparalleled prosperity at all income levels.
As contrasted with the booming 1990s through the crash of 2008, that placed the middle class in debt servitude and created more billionaires in the U.S. than in any other land at any other time in human history.12
Here we are in Rockford. It is March. Our school system is being wrecked by an anti-union agenda, and because the BOE is such a front, we barely know why. Would some local union chiefs be willing to compromise the teachers’ contract?
Teachers have come a long way from the days of “…haven’t they got husbands…” to being one of the last remaining national unions of any clout.
The REA local of the IEA, of the NEA, is one of the strongest locals left standing. Yet, in a historically pro-labor state, the IEA could not get a bill out of committee in the Illinois House (H.B. 0942) that would prevent bullying and intimidation of employees by districts!13. Don’t think for a minute that Broad, Gates and Walton are not watching how it goes down in Rockford.
The REA/IEA have made firm statements (Molly Phalen at BOE) and have played strategic cards in a timely manner, like the offer of $50,000 to pay for a proper audit of 205’s books.14, 14A
The argument about all of us having to tighten our belts is specious when applied to teachers, who have always compromised. Starting 10 years ago, while other labor sectors took pay raises, teachers accepted smaller increases to keep good health insurance.
Now, they are painted as greedy for their reluctance to toss their health insurance. Rockford has an unexplainable streak of subservient behavior when it comes time to speak truth to power.
Good health insurance makes sense for people who spend long days around 20 to 30 sick kids all winter, people whose health and well-being is linked directly to the health and well-being of the community.
Likewise, we should not punish teachers who have earned master’s degrees to be better qualified to teach and meet the complex needs of students today.15 After 25 years, a teacher earns about $65,000, below most other industrialized nations, many of whom have nationalized health care.
As far as union solidarity between trades and teachers, I have high standards. In this horrendous economy, more building tradesmen sit idle than at any other time since the first Depression. It’s more likely that the REA mom/teacher is supporting her unemployed NIBCA husband.
Building trades are making any concessions they can to big money, so they’ll be invited to the uptick in housing that may or may not come.
What can union leaders do but be agreeable to the scraps that fall off the table of industry? This is the same industry leadership that brought us NAFTA, sent America’s jobs to Mexico, Indonesia and China, crashed the banking industry, demanded the bailouts and are presently laughing all the way to their gated mansions in Montana and Barbados.
Local union members should challenge their leadership about who receives union donations in local elections. Question about leaders being invited to receptions and taken on expensive field trips and not bringing home real jobs. Building trades can pay clackers to stand outside a Taco Bell job site in a Carhardt jacket and hold a sign, but did any show up in solidarity with teachers to save 600 union jobs at 205?
I have yet to see one building trade union sign at the weekly BOE rallies of 400 and 500 people these many weeks in the cold and rain. In Madison, Wis., building trades showed up in force in support of public sector workers. I wonder why this is not happening here? Teachers are fighting the battle that gives union the name of union.
I was more comfortable when I thought this mess was about all of us tightening our belts. I thought that if some sectors had done it, the rest of us could as well. This is different.
These are powerful players who are determined to win. They wish to control the destiny of our schools.
There is planning to which you are not invited. They are seeking to make this irreversible.
This has consequences for us and for our children.
There is no need to exaggerate this crisis. It is so visible it would be ludicrous to call it a conspiracy.
There will be more rounds of RTTT and foundation awards. Focusing only on Dr. Sheffield’s calamities misses the point. She is but the highly-paid agent of a set of determined handlers who think they are doing something good…for all of us. If we’d only just shut up.
What would you do for $100 million?
David Stocker has been a union worker for more than 32 years.
IBPPW, AEA, SAG, AFTRA, IATSE, AFM.
(1)http://www.k12jobspot.com/?Keyword=rockford
(2)http://illinois.statehousenewsonline.com/429/rockford-superintendent-wants-illinois-to-win-”race-to-the-top”/
(3) http://newsroom.dc.gov/show.aspx/agency/seo/section/2/release/20621, RTTT Vendor Fair
(4) http://www.huffingtonpost.com/social/Onertwo19/chris-christie-education_n_808758_73998438.html
(6) http://www.woopidoo.com/biography/bill-gates/foundation.htm
(7) http://www2.ed.gov/programs/racetothetop/phase1-applications/score-sheets
(8) http://www.rockfordcharterschools.com
(9) http://www.alignmentrockford.com/About.html
(10) http://www.alignmentrockford.com/uploads/Op_Board_Minutes_021011.pdf
(11) http://www.wifr.com/news/headlines/27578294.html
(12) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_the_number_of_US_dollar_billionaires
(13) http://www.ilga.gov/legislation/billstatus.asp
(14) Rockford Register Star, March 26, 2011, “REA’s response to school board on Baker Tilly, Karen Bishke.”
(14A) www.rrstar.com/…/Teachers-union-to-respond-to-proposed-Rockford-school -cuts
(15) http://www.ieanea.org/media/2011/03/Broadway-column.pdf
From the March 30, April 5, 2011 issue
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School Board Endorsements: Vote Westholder, Hayes and Powers for Board of Education
Wednesday, March 30th, 2011By Jim Hagerty
Online Editor
and Brandon Reid
Assistant Editor
Education is the foundation of any community. Rockford’s foundation has been fractured for far too long.
The current slate of Rockford Board of Education members is largely responsible for the ongoing disintegration of Rockford Public School District 205. While the policies and procedures of Superintendent Dr. LaVonne M. Sheffield have drawn the most ire from taxpayers, the board has been more than complicit in rubber-stamping her overhaul of the district.
Transparency and a full understanding of the issues has been greatly lacking among many board members. Change must come to this district, and it must start with the Board of Education.
Following are The Rock River Times’ selections for the four open seats in the Tuesday, April 5, election.
Board of Education endorsements
Sub District B (Revised Thursday, March 31)
Incumbent: Jeanne Westholder
Opponent: Tim Rollins
Jeanne Westholder claims to be a steward of taxpayer dollars and preaches diversity. However, she’s proven to be easily swayed by the superintendent.
A music teacher in the Harlem School District, Westholder has flip-flopped on zoning and seems to be using her position on the board to springboard from the classroom into administration.
She’s also been a staunch supporter of the $50 million budget deficit. In spite of findings that the district could receive more than $23 million in state aid revenue next year, Westholder has stood by the shortfall and the work of Superintendent Dr. LaVonne M. Sheffield and Chief Financial Officer Cedric Lewis.
Tim Rollins is a business attorney, running largely on the platform of transparency in the budgeting process. With a goal of busting secret committees, he’s vying for the administration to make financial information more accessible to the community and to create a volunteer-friendly environment.
While it’s clear Rollins strikes a chord in a cry for transparency, he is also on the operating board of a the charter school-friendly Alignment Rockford. Rollins’ private sector association with Alignment Rockford indicates an agenda to privatize the public school system.
While it seems a vote for either Sub District B candidate is one to keep Sheffield, or a similar agenda in place, it is Westholder who emerges as the most sensible choice.
Westholder was the only member to urge the Board of Education to regard the elementary school zoning plan–passed last fall– while it closed six District 205 schools.
Her professional dedication to public education also weighs heavily in her favor.
Vote for Westholder in Sub District B.
Endorsement: Jeanne Westholder
Sub District C
Incumbent: Alice Saudargas
Opponents: Mickey Simmons, Ken Scrivano, Jane Hayes
Longtime educator Alice Saudargas has been in public education for more than 60 years and has served Rockford well. She’s been pro-teacher, taught at nearly every level and has been a principal. Aside from writing curriculum, Saudargas has been keen on making sound budgeting decisions and keeping vitally important programs alive.
Mickey Simmons, a local truck driver, is an eager west-sider championing racial harmony and the board to hold the superintendent more accountable. However, his lack of knowledge about why the superintendent and the budget deficit are under fire has proven him too inexperienced to serve the students of Rockford.
A hospital administrator and former Rock Valley College instructor, Ken Scrivano aims to restore community trust. The father of a District 205 teacher, Scrivano claims he’ll use his experience in health care administration to improve Rockford’s public education process.
Jane Hayes is a retired District 205 teacher and co-founder of Watchdogs for Ethics in Education (WEE). She’s been active in obtaining information from the administration through use of Freedom of Information Act requests, and aims to keep officials in check and stop excess spending.
She’s been virtually instrumental in a quest for the community to rally for change amid confusion about the superintendent’s seemingly hidden agenda.
It’s time for a guard change in Sub District C. Although she has the backing of the Rockford Education Association, Saudargas sealed her fate with comments made at a Sunday, March 27, school board candidate forum.
Each was in direct contrast to those made in February when she said Sheffield was the wrong person to head the district. Saudargas has also outlived her capabilities to remain properly abreast of what’s happening inside the city’s schools.
Administrative experience aside, Scrivano has also made conflicting statements regarding his willingness to work with Sheffield if he’s elected.
At a candidate forum March 24, Scrivano said he would support a motion to dismiss the superintendent. March 27, he told the media he’s willing to work with Sheffield in the future. The father of a teacher, Scrivano also has a biased, vested interest in the district.
Jane Hayes remains the only candidate not swayed by hidden agendas or special-interest groups. She’s the only one of the nine who has supported the removal of Sheffield without changing her stance. A vote for Hayes is a vote for honesty, passion and integrity.
Endorsement: Jane Hayes
Sub District E
Incumbent: Bob Evans
Opponents: None
A key figure in the hiring of Sheffield, Bob Evans has a proven track record of conservatism. He’s pro-policy and stands steadfastly by keeping the Board of Education a political organization composed of elected officials only. Major negatives: he continues to support Sheffield and is often unresponsive to our free speech inquiries.
Endorsement: NONE
Sub District G
Incumbent: None
Opponents: Bill Neblock, Laura Powers
In a seat left vacant by Board of Education President David Kelley, who is not seeking re-election, both candidates say they would work with Sheffield—briefly.
Bill Neblock, 59, an East High graduate and board member in the 1990s, wants to reverse recent decisions to close schools and set policies to keep the board and administration accountable to the community.
As the wife of a district teacher and daughter-in-law of a WEE official, Laura Powers, 47, echoes the need for transparency, accountability and fiscal responsibility. Her candidacy is an obvious attempt to buck the current system, and she has pledged to advocate for what she calls “student-facing” investments as opposed to “legal fees, consultants or administrative overhead.”
Neblock certainly has the advantage over Powers when it comes to experience and hometown roots. However, Neblock’s most notable action as a board member was choking fellow board member David Strommer in the parking lot following a board meeting in 1997.
It’s time to give someone else a chance. Vote for Powers in Sub District G.
Endorsement: Laura Powers
From the March 30-April 5, 2011 issue
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