Suburban school districts, police working out protest logistics

Daley is a maroon wrote:

Time to get out the dogs and water cannons.

Like the color?

Ok, I realize that supplies and such in CPS are lacking. I noticed a post about missing pages in books. Is throwing money at the problem the answer? How about this line of thinking. 1. Tax the residents more to provide funding for new books/etc. In a set time frame, continue to monitor these new items and see if they are kept in good shape and the levels of grades increase.
2. Once this is determined that the new books/resources are helping raise grades and opportunities for CPS students, lower the tax and get more funding from the state.
3. If no change is apparent, then no funding will be applied.

This will force parents to monitor their children and promote learning with a direct relation to their wallets. Should we deem CPS a case for more money in our current environment, it is my guess that the money will be wasted and tax payers outside of the CPS district will carry the load.

There was a reason that slave owners wouldn't allow their slaves to learn to read, but instead, cross-bred them for cotton-picking.

HUH wrote:

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Like the color?

:) Maybe he meant he was a U of C student?

We moved out of Chicago 12 years ago because we knew the CPS did not offer the same programs as the suburban schools. We pay huge taxes and are very involved with our schools and making sure the kids are keeping up with their studies.
I would like to know how many parents are really involved in these poor schools. If they get the money this will make the students study more? Get better grades? How will this money motivate a child to do better in school? It all starts at home. If parents don't get involved, whose fault is it? Meeks is an idiot. How much did it cost to educate him?

Suburban Ignorance wrote:

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exactly why I hate suburbanites. Their sheltered outlook and experience. Their Blatant and masked racism. Their narrow minded and uneducated view of the world outside of their little lily white bubble of affluency. It's about opportunity you ignoramuses. There is a huge inequity, you have to make half a million a year to live in most places that feed into the New Trier school district. After a quality book education, where is the cultural education? Where will one be exposed to other cultures and backgrounds, ethnic and economic? Not in Winnetka, IL. I can assure you. Why can't these parents have quality schools in their own neighborhoods? Property taxes are high enough in the city, and all over cook county. How are these monies allocated? It's about access to an already well heeled and well-connected network. Which basically means, rich, white, and suburban.
If you took a second and actually left the strip malls, megaplexes, and cookie cutter housing in far flung suburbia and take heed to the conditions in which other people are forced to live. Just cause you live and probably grew up around extreme privilege and little adversity, don't make sweeping generalizations about poeple you've never seen, met, or talked to. idiiots. geez

You are the ignorant one, My family makes a combined $180,000 not a half miil. We are surrounded by a family from China, Honduras and England, maybe none of them are black but there is definitely a melting pot of culture in our neighborhood. We are Russian Jews and our family came from nothing but persecution, my grandparents where in the holocaust and ate nothing but raw potatoes straight from the ground on many days too hungry to wait to go home to clean and cook them. What is happening in the city is a microcosm compared to what the rest of the world deals/dealt with. So we are not onlu unsheltered to the problems of our city, we are accustomed to the problems of the world. Our families struggled to bring us to this country with just the clothes on their backs so we could make a better life for ourselves and our kids. You have a choice in life to run with the right or wrong crew or to do the right thing study and go to school even if it is not the ideal situation get a good job and then move to a better environment. Whether it is from communist Russia or inner city Chicago. I think it is you who is ignorant and should really think about our backgrounds culturally instead of the color of our skin.

Why don't they take these kids to Lane Tech, Payton Academy, Whintey Young?

I'm actually a little dismayed that all these "city" people look down on suburbanites as being racist/sheltered/privileged/wh atever. Look at yourselves! How dare you deem yourselves superior because you live in the city. Have you ever seen Lincoln Park?! Before you start to condemn those who have elected to live in an area where crime is low and education is high, look around other areas of the city.

The main concern shouldn't be who lives where, but rather how the education system is failing the children. Raise taxes even more than they have been recently and give your children the attention they need. Show them how to work hard and value an education. Give them a role model to look up to. If the books are in such disrepair at your kid's school, buy a used copy off Amazon for them!

Invade my suburbs if you must, but all it does is show that you care more about publicity and the shock value than you do about your kids starting the school year correctly - by actually GOING to class. Talk about rewarding a negative behavior.

As a 24-year-old African-American female raised on the south side, I put the blame on the parents. When will we learn that academic failure/integrity starts in the home? I'm sure the New Trier facilities were nicer than mine, but I got the education I needed and have since graduated from college and moved back to the city. It amazes me if I ever stay home from work or work from home how many children I see running around, knowing that it is a school day. My mother let me miss two days a year, and only if I was extremely sick. Take responsibility of your kids.

This is pretty impressive actually. You have to consider that if it was somehow the other way around, suburban kids bussing to the CPS, most likely NO ONE would prepare, let alone every possible group : School District, teachers, parents, police. Reading this article, it sounds like EVERYONE up there is prepared.

Independent Observer wrote:

Left Wing Liberal Democrats of the North Shore, welcome your fellow Obama supporters. I hope you enjoy the change. You deserve it.

Note that that area is solidly republican sending Mark Kirk (R) to the house after years of other Republicans going. As for the Liberals up here they are happy to vote their "white guilt" but it is overwhelmingly conservative here.

TOM SLICK wrote:

Maybe New Trier can teach meeks how a responsible school is run and how that relates to the parents being involved in the lives of their children, the school, and the community. It just doesn't work because you want it to, it works because of the hard work everyone puts in.

I couldn't agree more! As the parent of two kids who graduated from New Trier I can guarantee they were expected to attend class, do the work and take the consequences if they didn't. Neither of them were geniuses - both average students but they both knew from day one what was expected of students who attend New Trier. As parents we were invested in their success in school. If the parents don't care, the kids won't care. It starts at home.

O'Hare and Midway are in Chicago. Tax those airports. Midway is actually in Stickney Township and was taken by Chicago but thats another story. Sell the Skyway for 2 billion and oops wheres the money from that.

I grew up in Glenview and went to neighboring Glenbrook South (please hold your boos and anti-surburbanite comments), and know how lucky I am that I had great facilities to learn at. However I think that the fact that my parents took such a strong interest in my education played an even bigger role.

To all the bitter Chicago residents - if you took 1/2 the time you spent writing/reading these comments going over your kids homework instead you would see huge improvements, but it's probably easier to sit back and complain than try to do something productive, right ?

One last thing, think that the CPS are underfunded now ? Imagine if the CPS didn't have the property tax money from us evil surburbanites subsidizing these schools that our kids aren't going to.....

You can't have it both ways, complaining about us spoiled suburbanites who obviously never worked for anything (it was all just given to us), while keeping your hand out for our tax money at the same time.

Take the 25 million dollars from the Fountain Daley wants and build 4 or 5 community centers that would have seniors tutoring aand mentoring children. Oops, that makes too much sense.

New Trier Parent wrote:

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I couldn't agree more! As the parent of two kids who graduated from New Trier I can guarantee they were expected to attend class, do the work and take the consequences if they didn't. Neither of them were geniuses - both average students but they both knew from day one what was expected of students who attend New Trier. As parents we were invested in their success in school. If the parents don't care, the kids won't care. It starts at home.

Exactly!!!

And just think of how many books (with all the pages) could have been purchased with the money used for the 125 buses.

It is interesting that out here in the suburbs people are actually planning (not protesting) for this event. You'd be amazed what we're really like out here, we really don't care where you've come fom, just that you have the ambition and drive to get somewhere better. What we don't tolerate is the blame for everyone elses problems.

yeah wrote:

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No one in the north shore is saying they're better than those in the city. If you have a problem with the funding in the city, move out of the city then! If you can't afford a Winettka or Glencoe suburb, try Wheeling or Buffalo Grove or Palatine. There are plenty of great schools in much more affordable areas. There are cleaner facilities, cleaner ballfields, safer parks and other great ammenities that the city lacks. The city is only a 30 minute train ride from many of the suburbs too.

You've completely missed the point. Why should anyone have to move to the suburbs for a better education? And by the way, the towns you mentioned may not be as expensive as those on the North Shore, but would still not be an option for those living in the city's poorest neighborhoods (with the worst schools). The conditions in some of the city schools are really deplorible and in long need of attention. I don't agree with the city kids missing school their first day, but at the very least, attention is being drawn to this sad issue.

wow wrote:

I don't agree with Meeks on this one.
But, Something has to be done about school funding.
We as a state rank 49th in funding per child?
We can build Billion dollar sparts stadiums. Throw money at the olympic committee and Pay for Air/Water and taste festivals. But we can't raise the amount of money we s[pend per child.
And this is for all you **** on the north shore who think you're better than the folks in the city.
Spending more per child would help your districts too.
If the state spends more, Than thoretically your local taxes would go down.
And if they don't? Then your child just receives that much more.
This is about funding equality. Not geography.
Those kids deserve to have the same amount of funding.
PERIOD.

You are not realistic to think that NorthShore real estate taxes would go down with state funding. The reason is that the taxes have to come from somewhere and further if the state did fund our schools in many areas the state funding would not be enough to run the schools as they are now. So New Trier Township would need funding from somewhere to make up the shortfall. And who would pay the state's share?- again it would be the people at New Trier as the tax would have to be an income tax and those in wealthy (wage earners) would get stuck twice.
Then the areas that are fully funded by the state would still be in a cash short position relative to the wealthy school districts. And if you outlaw local districts from further adding more money to their local schools then most parents in those districts will send their kids to self funding private or charter schools.
I would be happy to see a different method of school funding but without ruining those decent schools. No matter how it is done it should be done locally so that parents have a stake in their schools. So for now those south side schools should pay more real estate taxes because thats how we fund schools in Illinois. And they are not paying their fair share now. Note also that the state can't pay anymore cash to schools because the state doesn't have any money- its $2 billion in the hole now (thanks Ryan and Blago). Note that we rank 49th only in state funding not local real estate tax or overall funding- you are only talking about shifting the tax burden not additional funding that the state and Fed dont have.

Suburban Ignorance wrote:

<quoted text>
exactly why I hate suburbanites. Their sheltered outlook and experience. Their Blatant and masked racism. Their narrow minded and uneducated view of the world outside of their little lily white bubble of affluency. It's about opportunity you ignoramuses. There is a huge inequity, you have to make half a million a year to live in most places that feed into the New Trier school district. After a quality book education, where is the cultural education? Where will one be exposed to other cultures and backgrounds, ethnic and economic? Not in Winnetka, IL. I can assure you. Why can't these parents have quality schools in their own neighborhoods? Property taxes are high enough in the city, and all over cook county. How are these monies allocated? It's about access to an already well heeled and well-connected network. Which basically means, rich, white, and suburban.
If you took a second and actually left the strip malls, megaplexes, and cookie cutter housing in far flung suburbia and take heed to the conditions in which other people are forced to live. Just cause you live and probably grew up around extreme privilege and little adversity, don't make sweeping generalizations about poeple you've never seen, met, or talked to. idiiots. geez

You hate and sterotype suburbanites - great start.

We're sheltered (if only I had more shootings on my block growing up I'd obviously be better off).

We're racists, yet you make reference to our "little lily white bubble of affluency," and "Which basically means, rich, white, and suburban." In suburban high school they didn't teach me that racism only worked one way - must've been out on the yacht that day.

Where do we get our real life cultural education and exposure to different backgrounds - in college, perhaps you should have given that a try.

P.S - there's only one "i" in idiots.