Chicago Politics, Politicians and School Choice

It's a simple matter of 'do as I say and not as I do' when it comes to Chicago politics and school choice.

For that matter, it's not any different than our national politics or countless other Democratically controlled cities, states and school districts.

The politicians are totally aligned with the teachers unions and not the best interests of the school children and their parents.

Yet the citizens keep falling for this totally hypocritical way of doing versus saying way of 'good' governance. What a crock!

Emanuel, CPS CEO Claypool prickly about their children attending private schools has the Chicago story and the thin skinned sensitivity when politicians are asked about the hypocrisy involved with doing and saying:

"Mayor Rahm Emanuel and Chicago Public Schools CEO Forrest Claypool were deep into their familiar pitch Thursday for the Chicago Teachers Union to join them in pressuring Springfield to restructure how teachers pensions are funded across the state to bring more money back to Chicago. Then a reporter pointed out both men have children in private schools and suggested that created "a credibility gap here, an optical problem here" as they seek solutions for the cash-strapped school district and its largely poor and working-class students.

The topic of his kids' schooling at the elite Lab School at the University of Chicago has long made Emanuel prickly. He has argued it's a personal choice, and reporters should respect his family's privacy.

On Thursday, the mayor invoked President Barack Obama while trying to make the case he fights on behalf of all sorts of Chicagoans.

"I've got to be honest, I don't think it's a fair question, and I'll say why," Emanuel said. "My kids go to the same school that President Obama sends his kids to school, and nobody said anything when President Obama was leading the fight for Race to the Top. I don't live in public housing, but I do fight for fairness in housing. I'm not homeless, but I do fight for resources for homelessness. So if it's only about whether I as a parent make a decision, that's not actually, it's not about my kids, it's about the kids of Chicago."

Claypool said the fact his kids attend the exclusive Francis W. Parker School in Lincoln Park is "a parental choice. It's appropriate, OK?"

"And credibility, we have a mayor of Chicago and a head of the Chicago public school system, we are responsible for fighting for these kids," Claypool added. "It's important for their futures, it's important for the city of Chicago. And it's not about anybody's credibility. It's about doing the right thing and educating the public and the legislators about what's really going on."

Summing Up

In other words, and using plain language, it's a simple matter of elitism when it comes to where elite politicians and ordinary citizens are able to choose to send their kids to school.

What's good enough for the ordinary folks isn't good enough for the elites when it comes to education.

The financially and otherwise elite politicians have school choice, and the vast majority of financially burdened We the People don't have that very same 'privilege.'

But they're fighting hard for us, as they like to remind us each and every day --- and Hillary is now leading the fight. Aren't We the People lucky?

And aren't the vast majority of our urban kids lucky too?

To repeat, what a crock!

That's my take.

Thanks. Bob.