Letter To Alderman = "UNO RECIEVES STATE FUNDS TO OPERATE SEGREGATED SCHOOLS"

Dear Alderman Sposato:

I am writing to you not as a direct constituent but as an extremely concerned resident of the city of Chicago.  I am a Chicago Public School teacher, a member of the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU).  I live in the 19th Ward and teach in the 10th Ward.  I am also a member of CORE (Caucus of Rank and File Educators) within the CTU.

UNO literally means "one."  It originally stood for "United Neighborhood Organization," but I think that translating it as "ONE" is presently much more accurate given what the organization and its political connections have created in the Chicago Public Schools (CPS) over the past decade.  It also has come to represent ONE word in the city of Chicago: SEGREGATION.  UNO schools have literally been and are set up for ONE race in the city - Hispanics.

According to the 2011 Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) School Report Card (page 1), UNO (which has many schools but is presently still lumped together into one data file on this report card) had an enrollment of 4,328 students: of those, 95% were Hispanic; 0.7% White; 2.7% Black; and 0.2% Asian.  This is not exactly "open enrollment" at its finest in the city of Chicago or within CPS, which according to the same Report Card had an overall Hispanic student population of 43.7%.  It is ONE word: SEGREGATION.  And this PUBLIC SCHOOL SEGREGATION completely benefits a PRIVATE organization (UNO).

UNO schools, according to the ISBE School Report Card (pages 25-26), are NOT making Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP).  Although I completely question and challenge the data used to measure AYP in our schools, the fact remains that UNO does not do any better on the measurement than the rest of us.

According to the 2011 School Report Card (page 1), and though, again, I question and challenge how these numbers are derived for all our schools, UNO's schools have significantly higher class sizes completely across the board (Kindergarten through Grades 9-12) than the Subregion, the District (Chicago), and the State.  What this indicates is that for all the monetary flow heading into UNO, UNO is not spending its ample financial resources on classroom teachers and therefore, one might argue, the children/students in those UNO classrooms.  And if and when they do spend any of their money on teachers, their teachers are NOT UNION MEMBERS.

UNO = UNION-BUSTING.  The "Chicago Tribune" editorial writers (aka the spokespersons for the 1%) are about PRIVATIZATION and UNION-BUSTING, NOT: public school children, public education, and unionized labor (read: employees who have minimal protections when and if they point out things that are wrong in the schools, and employees who work under mostly well-established-over-time and much needed city and state policies/rules/regulations/laws/etc.).  UNO = FIRE AT WILL.

Personally and professionally, I am deeply troubled by what I witnessed on two occasions from UNO and its supporters who attended CPS functions.  At one CPS done-deal, public-school-closing-for-UNO-to-takeover meeting, their leader, Juan Rangel, ever-so-slightly nodded his head (with a look of utter disgust on his face toward the microphone) and the UNO members in the room got up and walked out as supporters of the public school being closed began to speak; the person who was speaking at the time literally had to stop, as had everyone else in the room, and wait for the completion of an outrageously rude exodus.  UNO and its supporters did not stay to hear anything from the other side.

At another hearing held at the Board of Education for a proposed UNO expansion, I witnessed as one of the UNO leaders literally just quietly said, "Sit."  All the UNO supporters obediently sat; just as they must have obediently stood on cue.  Because UNO is able to turn out pretty impressive numbers of people for any hearings, etc., this has an impressive effect, unless it more-so troubles than impresses you as it does me.  However, although the supporters brought out by UNO to attend such events sit, stand, and move on command, by percentages I witnessed very very few (if any) of said UNO supporters actually speak for themselves or their children at the hearings I attended.

In the 10th Ward, troubling rumors are flying around that the new school being build for an overcrowded neighborhood public school (Gallistel) is going to be given to UNO.  (Alderman John Pope had already approved, and thus opened up the charter school flood gates, for another charter operation further north.)  It would totally fit their pattern: find an area with an overcrowded concentration of Hispanic students and siphon them off, SEGREGATE THEM, into an UNO school, with CPS and UNO all the while proudly and publicly claiming that UNO "serves" the Hispanic community in such a manner, as opposed to stating that UNO is taking advantage of a problem that public education leaders are choosing not to address (to the benefit of UNO).

The very serious question that needs to be asked of UNO and all of Juan Rangel's political supporters is this:  How does such SEGREGATION serve the city of Chicago or the United States of America or just public education in general in the new millennium?  Answer: It doesn't.

Please take a stand against the destruction of public education through privatization of the public schools in Chicago.  I think it's why you were voted into office - to stand against the powers-that-be.  From what I heard, I would have voted for you, if I could have.  I celebrated your win.  Please stand for something that has honor (read: NOT UNO/ONE or any of the other privatizers falsely claiming to care about children and their education in the city of Chicago and anyone, such as parents who want something better for their children, who might out of desperation and ignorance believe them.)

Thank you for your present service to our city and for your previous service as a firefighter.