CPS students sent home with anti-RAUNER letter

So, who was expecting to find this in their kid’s backpack?: Some 380,000 Chicago Public School students were sent home with a letter blaming Gov. Bruce Rauner for the latest round of cuts hitting the state’s largest school system. CPS CEO Forrest Claypool wrote that Rauner’s veto of a bill that would have provided $215 million to the district, was akin to stealing from children. “We are writing to let you know about two of the biggest cuts that Governor Rauner has forced us to make right now,” Claypool’s letter said. He then made this comparison to President Donald Trump. “Like President Trump, Governor Rauner is targeting our most vulnerable citizens: immigrant children, racial minorities, the poor.”

This prompted a sharp reply through an “open letter” to CPS parents from Rauner’s Education Secretary Beth Purvis. “Rather than cutting services and creating a crisis to help justify a campaign to raise taxes in Springfield, it would be helpful to everyone if CPS would work with all parties to enact a balanced budget package that includes comprehensive pension reform and a new and equitable school funding formula.”

Claypool’s letter. “All CPS students sent home with letter accusing Gov. Rauner of ‘cheating’ kids,” “Intense rhetoric between Chicago Democrats and Illinois’ republican governor is nothing new, but some parents are upset it is now being played out in a letter sent home with their kids. Chicago Public Schools officials sent home a letter with all 381,000 students blasting Gov. Bruce Rauner and ignoring any role democrats may have played in the state’s budget woes … One CPS parent who contacted WGN wrote: ‘This is so inappropriate. How can he send political propaganda home?’ The letter, paid for by taxpayers, does not mention democrats who have been in control of the city and state legislature for decades.”

TRIB WEIGHS IN — “City Hall’s CPS blame game: Why isn’t Claypool pounding on his fellow Democrats to fix their fiasco?” by Chicago Tribune’s editorial board: “Chicago Public Schools CEO Forrest Claypool is scrambling because the district’s budget is seriously out of whack and a huge teachers pension payment looms in June. On Monday, Claypool announced a $46 million ‘spending freeze’ that will force principals to scramble themselves to rejigger their budgets in the middle of the school year. Those cuts likely will be felt by teachers and students, not just bureaucrats in the central office. And the budget still isn’t balanced. What — or whom — does Claypool blame for this budget debacle? How about the district’s many years of reckless fiscal mismanagement and chronic spending beyond its revenues?

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