“What on earth is whiteness that one should so desire it? Then always, somehow, some way, silently but clearly, I am given to understand that whiteness is the ownership of the earth forever and ever, Amen.” -W.E.B. Dubois One of the great voices in education today, Chris Stewart of Citizen Education, has a great piece in the Washington Post. He…
Author: Chris Butler
Governor Rauner’s Latest Sickness Is Hurting Our Schools
Log onto any social media platform and search for #notaprison. Unless you are a certified Bruce Rauner apologist, one thing will be abundantly clear; the governor is suffering from a serious case of foot-in-mouth disease. Foot-in-mouth is a condition that is commonly found among leaders with some sort of visible, vocal platform (elected officials, organizational leaders, even parents). It is…
Drugs, Money and College: A First Generation Story #ProofPointDay
When I walked onto the campus of DePaul University in the fall of 2003, I was scared. I felt prepared academically. Socially, I could hold my own. But, culturally I had no idea what I was getting into. I was what they call “first generation”, the first in my family line to attend a four-year university. I thought that nothing…
The One Thing Bill O’Reilly Forgot to Mention in His Chicago Rant
Bill O’Reilly forgot to mention one thing in his now viral rant about broken neighborhoods in Chicago. He forgot to talk about the schools. Violence in Chicago is out of control. And I 100% agree with O’Reilly that if this reality were playing out in the streets of richer, whiter communitties the problem would have already been solved. But, make…
WTH: Fix Illinois’ School Funding System
“A step in the right direction” “Moving Chicago students “toward equality” “An important step forward” These are words that leaders around Illinois were using to describe the school funding reform bill that narrowly passed out of the State Senate yesterday. These statements don’t make me feel like we are on the brink of any kind of sweeping reform becoming law in…
Homeschool Is School Too: Happy #TeacherAppreciationDay
It has been a crazy day. But, it’s Teacher Appreciation Day and nobody has crazier days than the mighty souls charged with making sure our little ones get the education they need to protect both their futures and ours. So, if the President of the United States can find time to celebrate teachers today, I had better take a moment…
Should Chicago Parents Think About Our Own Public School Walk Out?
Yesterday, after a few premature reports that they had decided not to strike before the end of the year, the leaders of the Chicago Teachers Union announced that they had not yet decided when they will walk out of the city’s classrooms. Hmmm…makes me think even harder about the question that Marilyn Rhames raised a few weeks ago: If a…
I’ll Tell You What Parents Resist: Low-Performing Schools
The Walton Foundation won’t be funding charter work in Chicago any time soon. That news came to charter school and school quality advocates as an undeniable setback for a movement that has engaged thousands of parents and provided access to college and careers for multiplied thousands of students in Chicago. But it also seemed to set anti-charter advocates like Diane…