ED, Davis/Yarbrough west sub educator meeting

What can I say?

Davis & Yarbrough kicked-off the meeting. And then the superintendents spoke. Then audience members chimed in.

Oh, why hold back? I had a quibble with most of what people said.

Dr. Sue Bridge started off with the Oak Park liberal bullshit about agonizing over the learning gap. Dr. Bridge, how many years has Oak Park had a gap? Have you made progress? Do you understand what causes it? I'm getting tired of seeing affluent, educated "White" liberals try to outdo each other at handwringing. It's... offensive.

Dr. Willie Mack said some stuff that resonated. That's probably why District 88 isn't renewing his contract.

We are up against forces that do not have children uppermost in mind....

Don't go into the board room looking for peace; look for justice for the children.

Libka prefaced his remarks by saying he "had not expected to speak." The meeting had the same format as the previous meeting in early 2004. I covered it for the Forest Park Review. It was the first time I met Emanuel Christopher Welch. So, if Libka has a beef with someone for sandbagging him, he should complain to Welch.

Also, three superintendents spoke before Libka. The guy should be able to adlib about his fucking job without notice, but he had the time provided by the three previous speakers to compose a couple thoughts.

Last time I saw Libka he was whining that people criticize him because it's a way of going after Welch.

Libka also made a fool of himself by mispronouncing "collegiality". He pronounced the "g" as in "gas" instead of as in "giant". It would be less embarassing if he had hit the word by accident. But he used it in describing his priorities for District 209. He wants to promote "collegiality" among teachers and staff. If you worked for Libka, how would you feel? You're working for an educator that can't correctly pronounce words that are supposed to be his priority agenda.

Dr. Phylistine Murphy complained about parents disagreeing with teachers and staff in front of students. She said the adults should present a unified front to the students.

Blaming parents was a common theme throughout the meeting. But Murphy almost made students sound like prisoners or the enemy.

Cynthia Broughton has a line, "It's turn around time in District 89." She advocated teachers loving students. Broughton seems like more of a passionate leader than a wonk.

I have much respect for Dr. Randy Tinder of Forest Park. He said the following of the No Child Left Behind Act:

The goal of this law is to destroy public education.

He's right. Different parts of the GOP want to destroy public education for different reasons, but it's the party's consensus agenda.

However, I disagree with Tinder's thesis that unequal funding is the problem. Riverside-Brookfield spends less per student than District 209 and gets better results.

Mr. Jordan (?) of Lindop School District built on the education funding theme. He blamed tax caps and salaries. He didn't blame health care costs.

From the audience Barbara Coles made a good point about NCLB. It has raised the visibility of problems in education.

And on a humorous note, a woman who is a crossing guard at Circle and Jackson in Forest Park spoke. She wasn't holding the microphone close enough to her mouth. Congressman Davis told her, "Hold it like you're being intimate with it." She responded, "I don't have much experience with that."

I was neither impressed with the solutions advocated nor the understanding of the problems in education.