PeoriaStory

Schools should teach civics, justice says

PEORIA -- Illinois Supreme Court justice Thomas Kilbride called for schools to do more to educate students in civics, during a speech on April 29.

Kilbride was the guest speaker at the 49th annual meeting of the  Peoria chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union.  His talk was entitled "Civic Education and the Preservation of Liberty."

 "I don't intend to criticize teachers and school administrators. I have a new found respect for teachers," he said, citing recent visits to high schools. But the facts show civics has fallen out of the curriculum, he said.

In the 1960s, most high schools included three semesters of civics.  Today students are lucky to get one semester, he said.

Illinois students must pass a test on the Illinois Constitution, but the passing grade is 40 percent, and "there is no grading criteria," he said he has learned.

The tests all students must take in Illinois to graduate from high school don't contain any questions on civics, he said. The state has reportedly spent $6.5 billion on the federal mandate No Child Left Behind, which contains no civics requirement.

As a result surveys show that students and adults know little or nothing about the workings of the government.  Only 27 percent in one survey could name a right guaranteed under the lst Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, and 70 percent didn't understand the difference between the judiciary and the legislative branches. "It's being lost on a generation."

This lack of knowledge affects how people view the government and appreciate their rights and liberties, he said.

Meanwhile judges are under attack from partisans, even though most judges rule on a non-partisan basis, he said. "Our system is based on fairness and impartiality," and decisions based on "the law and the facts."

"We need to refocus our priorities on civic education," he said. Studies show that children with a good background in civics tend to be more tolerant, more cooperative and ready to work for a the common good, and become more involved in their communities.

He urged the audience of about 85 people to speak to their legislators about this situation.

Kilbride, a Democrat, was elected to the Illinois Supreme Court in 2000 and is running in November for retention.

Also at the meeting two Peoria women received awards for their advocacy of civil liberties and civil rights, Peoria attorney Patricia Benassi and Peoria Park Board member Jackie Petty.

 -- Elaine Hopkins

Haz waste landfill issues at the Appellate Court

OTTAWA, IL --  Here's a report from Tracy Meints Fox, who attended an April 13 hearing at the Illinois Appellate Court in Ottawa. It involved Peoria Disposal Co.’s attempt to have some of the hazardous waste it handles “delisted” so it can be treated and then disposed of in a regular landfill.

 

A lucky panel draw, a great lawyer and a fantastic effort to fill the chairs by Sierra Club activist Joyce Blumenshine made yesterday a real cause for celebration. Joyce rounded up ten people to attend the hearing, and our large presence in the small Italianate courtroom made the citizen engagement in the matter clear to everyone involved.

Peoria Disposal Co. was represented by five lawyers, including Brian Meginnes, Janaki Nair and Claire Manning, and an attorney named Schmidt from the Attorney General’s office representing Illinois Pollution Control Board.

The panel of judges included Carter (the author of the opinion upholding the Peoria County Board's denial of PDC’s original hazardous waste landfill expansion request); Lytton (a panelist on the appeal that denied PDC’s attempt to reclassify itself as a generator); and Vickie Wright (a panelist on the expansion request appeal and the author of the opinion on PDC’s reclassification attempt).

The Peoria Families Against Toxic Waste/HOI Sierra Club attorney Dave Wentworth started off talking about the reasons why PFATW/HOISC have standing to challenge the IPCB decision. Justice Carter interrupted with a lot of questions about how section 41 talks about being a “party” while section 29 talks about “persons adversely impacted.” I was a little surprised that a justice jumped in  in mid-sentence, but Dave assured us later that is normal (though not necessarily typical).

Dave did a great job defending our actions, bringing in the historical order the various statues were enacted, the history of the IPCB in never allowing outside “parties” to adjusted standard cases, comments by IPCB about our “exceptional” participation and dioxin/furan inputs, etc.

When Dave tried to keep things moving forward to specifically discuss the nine criteria under 27A that PDC failed to prove it met and were never considered by IPCB, things got a little wilder. Justice Wright began questioning Dave about how it was the IPCB could rule PDC was not the generator of waste in the earlier case and now grant it a delisting … a privilege reserved for generators.

She clearly stated that in her opinion all ten sites sending waste to PDC for delisting needed to apply for their own delisting permits … and Illinois jurisdiction didn’t apply to all the stuff coming from out of state. She also insinuated that PDC was acting as an un-sited, un-permitted transfer station.

Dave, of course, stepped right up to concur with the Justice’s remarks. Steering back to the 27A factors, Dave was again quickly derailed by Justice Wright. This time she was concerned about what lab specifically tested the samples and who was doing the testing now.

There were several consultations between the lawyers. Dave’s time ran out without much time for a wrap-up, but under the circumstances it was not too significant a setback for us.

Janaki then gave her arguments and more discussion of standing ensued. She tried to make a “net good” for delisting argument. Janaki tried to cast delisting as a different regulatory animal (adjudicatory versus legislative) but I think from the questions asked by Justice Carter even he found it unconvincing.

Schmidt took over to talk about the merits of the case and made the mistake of pointing out that it was the residue of the treatment process rather than the waste itself that was being delisted.

Justice Wright jumped all over that making Schmidt explain that the overall volume increased … not what it typically thought of as “residue.” She then began to question how it was that stacking boxcars of curing residue on top of the closed portions of the landfill is not in fact a vertical expansion.

At that point Janaki interrupted Schmidt to point out that the curing takes days … but Justice Wright’s points were clearly made.

After that things quieted down a bit, Schmidt finished and Dave made his rebuttal. He reiterated the points validating our standing and emphasized that PDC had failed to meet its burden of proof and did not in any way demonstrate that its new process met the nine 27A siting criteria.

He explained our view of the curing process, and the potential for multiple retreat/recure cycles, and refuted Schmidt’s assertion that Peoria County had signed off.

He pointed out that Patrick Engineering merely recommended that Peoria County let the IPCB make a decision, and then concluded that the IPCB had let Peoria County and the public down.

All in all, a really great day!  The hardest part was not cheering at various points in the proceedings and not applauding at the end

    -- Tracy Meints Fox

 

Music and veggies on May Day

PEORIA --Local farmers will sell spinach, lettuce greens, micro-greens, green onions, kohlrabi, hazelnuts, winter carrots, bok choy, asparagus, rhubarb, turnips, beets, Swiss chard, tatsoi, mizuna, snap peas, radishes, herbs, plant starts, aronia jam, breads and organic beef, pork and lamb at the last of three local  winter markets from 9 a.m. to noon on Saturday, May 1 at the Methodist Medical Center Atrium Building, 900 W. Main.

And there's more. The Academy of Fretted Instruments will perform live during the market.  You can also bring your questions about food, as Methodist Medical Center dietitians will be on hand to discuss healthy eating, share recipes and answer those questions.

Shop early, as this market sold out in previous events.

District 150 Summer School and Failures

PEORIA -- Here is the research Sharon Crews, a retired Peoria School District 150 teacher, has done on the failure rates and the District's decision to cancel summer school.  She presented it to the board on April 26 with this speech: 

Summer school in 2009 cost the district over $62,000.  The total cost was about $93,000 counting the cost of security with only $27,500 paid through tuition.

Not only was last summer probably the most costly summer school ever but also the enrollment at 413 was lower than ever before.  Before 2003, summer school was almost totally self-funded, but since then the district has lost money every summer.

On page 1 of my handouts, the columns highlighted in green indicate the number of students who went to summer school from each high school to repeat English.  That number is compared to the number who failed English for the last three completed semesters.  An extremely low percentage of students make up courses in the summer.

 In fact, of the 900 students who failed English in 2009, only 153 repeated the courses in summer school in 2009.

Adding the failures from 1^st semester of this year brings the total who failed English to 1,046.  Adding the number who will fail English this semester will probably bring the total to 1,300.  Remember these numbers don’t include the failures in math, social studies, and science.

I believe you are planning a very limited summer school for this summer.  When are all these students going to make up the courses they have failed? Remember my numbers don’t even consider the students from 2008 who probably haven’t made up failed classes yet.

   What are your answers to these questions?

   #1 - Will there be enough time, classroom space, and teachers during the regular school year at just 3 high schools for all these students to take two or more English classes a semester so that they can graduate on time?

   #2 - Should taxpayers be asked to pay for these students to repeat classes in the regular year or even in summer school?

   #3 - Can District 150’s education fund afford to pay for these students to repeat classes?  Remember, no matter when the students repeat the courses, there will be a drain on the education fund.

 I believe that 150 should follow its previous policy of allowing students to take only one English class per semester.  Such a policy would force students to repeat the course in summer school if they want to graduate on time.

NCLB and all of you are concerned with the graduation rate.  Students who are allowed to accumulate failed courses from one year to the next eventually become so discouraged that they drop out.  Forcing students to catch up in summer school at the end of each school year could possibly improve the dropout rate.

Look at page 2--Last summer 308 students eligible for free lunch were charged only $30 per course.  98 such students were enrolled in two classes.  102 students paid the full tuition of $160 per course. 

 I see no way around it—you have to offer summer school on a much larger scale and you have to find a way to fund it—maybe Jim Ardis, Glen Barton and Rob Parks have some suggestions.

 Seriously, don’t give the three of them a reason to take any more of your power.

 Pages 3 and 4 will probably tell you why last year’s summer school was so expensive.   Only from 1 to 9 students signed up for 33 of the 53 courses offered.  Undoubtedly, as usual, there was some doubling up and some were credit recovery, but still my guess is that classes were very small.

I wish you could compare the numbers with summer school figures from the years before 2002 but strangely those figures are not available.  I was told a year ago that they couldn’t be located. 

 I hope you will consider making summer school mandatory for students who fail classes and that you will find a way to fund this very necessary and once very successful program.  It was the closest to year-round school that 150 has ever had—and may ever be able to afford.

Also, isn’t it a shame that when Dr. Lathan first introduces herself to the public at her first board meeting that the TV viewing public will have to wait a week to view the meeting. -30-

 

District 150: WTF?

PEORIA -- The Peoria District 150 School Board suffered through it's last live televised meeting on April 26.

Last month it announced the meetings will no longer be televised live, but instead will be broadcast on the cable public access channel a week later, with comments from the public (and who knows what else!) censored out. 

Well, that should take care of the public criticism of the monarchy!

A telling incident, said to have been recorded live on TV:  At the April 26 meeting, the room was overflowing, and to meet the fire code, board president Debbie Wolfmeyer asked those who planned to attend the meeting to give up their seats briefly to those who were there only for student awards. 

We willing gave up our seats to go outside for a few minutes. Then as the other folks were leaving, board member Jim Stowell said it was too bad the doors could not be locked, before the critics came back in.  Debbie laughed in agreement.

One woman who left with the group, then came back in and registered to give her public comment was told it was too late and denied the opportunity. She left the meeting.

The rest of us spoke for nearly an hour. Several told the board not to stop televising the meetings live.  I spoke and asked the board to take a public vote on this issue. It was just "announced" as a "consensus."  So when was it discussed and voted on?  Was the Illinois Open Meetings Act violated? 

Probably. That's nothing new for this board. (Peoria Chronicle has a good post on the meeting and its fallout, also.)

Others spoke about various issues of importance to this board and the taxpayers. Four movingly testified that the wonderful teachers at the alternative public high school saved their lives and made possible their middle class careers. It's likely to be closed to save money.

I told the board to read the review in the New York Review of Books on Diane Ravitch's great new book, "The Death and Life of the Great American School System." The review, by an educational expert, outlines what has gone wrong with US schools -- an eye opener.

Then there's the secret pay raises given to part of the clerical staff, without a public vote of the board. When those raises came to public view, they were rescinded last night "by consensus," again without a vote.  Those raises, to ten on the clerical staff, came last fall during the Ken Hinton administration. Some say he gave the OK. He reportedly has denied it.

It's a perfect ploy to destroy the union, when only some got pay raises. The district should have negotiated any changes in assignments and pay with the union but did not. Did they think this would never be discovered?  Fat chance. Unions routinely acquire pay information as part of collective bargaining, and would eventually have figured it out. Now a grievance has been filed.

Will those who got the substantial raises -- which totaled about $80,000, almost enough to finance summer school which has been cut -- have to pay back the money?

Will the person who gave out the raises be fired? What about the law firm that reportedly also OKed them? Oops, they just get to collect more fees handling the grievance.

Another day, another scandal in this dysfunctional school district. But more about the meeting:

During the public presentation, Sharon Crews, a retired teacher, presented the board with her research. She should give them a bill as a consultant!  She analyzed the high numbers of high school students failing English who should make up the classes in summer school. As they grow further and further behind will they drop out?  Are they being pushed out?  How many will be poverty stricken, commit crimes and end up in prison, and what will that cost the public?

Finally there's Paul Vallas, said to be the mentor of the US Secretary of Education Arne Duncan.   Ravich attacks both in her book for their misguided support of charter schools. She says Duncan rose in Chicago on the basis of test scores later shown to be faulty.

Duncan was in Peoria last week for an educational symposium, an expensive dog and pony show. If the press reports are accurate, he didn't say much. Vallas was supposed to attend but ditched it.

But here's what Vallas is quoted as saying in a BBC newscast when asked about staff burnout:

The report begins,  "It is a question that is bothering some within the charter school movement - but not Paul Vallas.

Mr Vallas is superintendent of the school district here and is seen by many as a mentor to the US education secretary, Arne Duncan.

"I don't want the majority of my staff to work more than 10 years. The cost of sustaining those individuals becomes so enormous," he says.

"Between retirement and health care and things like that, it means that you are constantly increasing class sizes and cutting programmes in order to sustain the cost of a veteran workforce, so I think you want a mix, you want a balance."

Hummm -- if only slavery could be made legal again, that might fit right in with Vallas' (and Duncan's) plans for cheap, disposable labor to run their charter schools.

But will the students learn anything from a revolving door school?  Don't count on it. 

 -- Elaine Hopkins

Iran speaker April 29

PEORIA --  This looks interesting. The news release: 

The Peoria Area World Affairs Council presents:

 

The Green Movement and the Future of Iran

 

With Reza Aslan

Author of No god, but God: The Origins, Evolution, and Future of Islam and Beyond Fundamentalism: Confronting Religious Extremism in a Globalized Age

 

Dr. Reza Aslan, an internationally acclaimed writer and scholar of religions, is a contributing editor at the Daily Beast (thedailybeast.com). Reza Aslan has degrees in Religions from Santa Clara University, Harvard University, and the University of California, Santa Barbara, as well as a Master of Fine Arts from the University of Iowa. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, the Los Angeles Institute for the Humanities, and the Pacific Council on International Policy. He serves on the board of directors of the Ploughshares Fund, which gives grants for peace and security issues, Abraham's Vision, an interfaith peace organization, and PEN USA, which champions the rights of writers under siege around the world.

 

   Thursday, April 29, 2010

Barrack’s Cater Inn

1224 W. Pioneer Parkway, Peoria

 

Registration and book signing begins at 5:00 p.m.

Dinner will be served at 6:00 pm

Presentation will begin at 7:00 p.m.

 

 

Please RSVP by April 26 for the “early bird special”!

Tickets for the dinner and presentation are

$30.00 for Peoria Area World Affairs Council Members and Students

($22 for meal and $8 for program)

$35.00 for non-members if received by April 26

($22 for meal and $13 for program)

 A $5.00 late fee will be applied to all reservations made after April 26. 

No dinner reservations will be accepted after Tuesday, April 27.

 

Tickets for the presentation only are $10.00 for PAWAC members and college students if purchased in advance by April 28.  Non-members and all tickets purchased at the door are $15.00.  Students through grade 12 may attend the program only for free; advance registration is recommended.

 

On-line registration for this event is available at http://artstix.artspartners.net, or tear off the registration form below and return with your payment.  Note:  ArtsPartners charges $2 for their service; PAWAC charges $4 for acceptance of credit cards.  There is no extra fee for cash/check.

 

For more information about this and other programs offered by the Peoria Area World Affairs Council,

please visit our web site at www.pawac.org or call (309) 677-2454.

Lathan ducks but Derflinger speaks on District 150

PEORIA -- The incoming superintendent of Peoria School District 150, Grenita Lathan, was scheduled to speak on April 22 at the South-West Kiwanis Club.  But she blew off the engagement,  leaving interim superintendent Norm Durflinger as a stand in. 

I attended to hear the new superintendent -- as did several other guests in the audience. But once Durflinger got beyond praising everyone he has worked with at District 150, even though he has laid off a lot of them, presumably because the district "needs fixing," as he put it, his remarks were worth hearing.  He said: 

• If Gov. Pat Quinn cuts back the school funding 'foundation' as proposed, District 150 "will lose millions." It already has a $6.5 million deficit. The alternative high school, early childhood education and adult education will be casualties.

• On vocational education, "we are woefully behind in vocational programs. I do not believe we are meeting the needs of many students.  Manual High School is beginning a vocational program. "So many students come from low socio-economic backgrounds" they have "different learning styles" and need hands-on experiences. Vocational education "is the way out of poverty."

• He decided to support the science/technology charter school because District 150 "was losing the support of the business community and it wanted" the charter school. "I'm not a charter school fan."

• But -- "We need lab schools, Edison, Johns Hopkins, charter schools, to study the best practices. It's not necessarily the answer." The charter school will be "as good as the accountability of the Board of Education requires," and can be canceled if it doesn't work.

• "Choice" schools and private schools accessed with vouchers lack accountability. "We start having an elite private school system."  But public education is supposed to be a "melting pot" for all. "I don't want to see the demise of public education." 

Asked whether he has read Diane Ravitch's excellent new book "The Death and Life of the Great American School System" (see story below), he said he has not, though his statement on public education reveals he agrees with her about public education.

Asked about the incoming superintendent, he said, "she's going to demand accountability of our principals who will demand accountability of teachers. She will be very demanding. I've seen quality. I'm pleased with the board's choice."

She's also a good speaker, he said, adding "good leaders never make everyone happy."

Then he said, "I've been told that Dr. Lathan asked the board five times 'do you really want change?' and five times the board said 'yes.'

Fasten your seat belts.

 -- Elaine Hopkins

4/24/10.  Emailed Comment from Ed Dentino:

I have to agree with a couple of points that interim superintendent Norm Durflinger made.   I am a product of Manual Training High School last class 1962.   In 1963, the school became Manual High School.  

The two skills that I learned that have been the most used in my work life were drafting and typing.  Others that counted were English usage and math.  Without drafting or vocational options,  I can't guess what direction I'd have taken.  Maybe geography or history as I had a lot of National Geography reading growing up.  Gosh knows, I could have really failed and become a politician.

As school board members, various education officials and administrators got more philosophical and less practical, the system seemed to go off the tracks.   They tried to simplify the system into a one size fits all basic education with reading, writing, and arithmetic being the staples.   Not only did that leave behind the community needs, it left out a couple of the basic realities of human nature.  

Many young people are focused on what it takes to achieve  a life based on natural skills, talents and interests.   Dropping out early became normal for many due to few provisions for those goals to be achieved.   Getting through the basic education system of K-12  and then to face Junior College or a College or University became too distant, and far from their immediate concerns.   And lacking that early goal,  they dropped out in droves.  Following that, street crime, teen pregnancy, court costs, jail and prison costs soared.   Put some attorneys and others into expensive cars and homes - left a lot of the city deluged with problems.  

Norm Durflinger acknowledges that vouchers and 'choice' schools duck the issue of quality public education. I agree.  My view is that those options support private schools that are public in  charter but private in spirit.   Those options dismiss the bigger picture of what is occurring when the school system does not become inclusive to the needs of the students, their teachers,  the community, and the nation.   -30-

'
 

Earthlings for Earth Day

PEORIA -- Here's something interesting: EARTHLINGS

From a news release: "This award-winning film (Earthlings) reveals the suffering of animals for food, fashion, pets, entertainment, and medical research.  One of the most powerful and eye-opening documentaries ever made, Earthlings truly has the power to change your life for the better.  Make this Earth Day the day you begin to bring all Earthlings into your circle of compassion!

Thursday, April 22
7:30 pm
Baker 51
Bradley University

Free and open to the public.  Free refreshments will be served.

Sponsored by the Bradley Vegetarian Club and Peoria Area Voices for Animals

For a sneak preview, visit: www.Earthlings.com.

Also, please stop by our table at Forest Park Nature Center's Earth Day Festival this Saturday, April 24, from 11 am-4 pm.  The festival is also free and open to the public."

Now: an environmental human rights movement

EAST PEORIA -- On the 40th anniversary of Earth Day, author and activist Sandra Steingraber is calling for an environmental human rights movement, to ban the chemicals poisoning our planet and its inhabitants.

Steingraber's powerful new film, Living Downstream, based on her book of the same title, received a free screening to a large audience on April 17 at Illinois Central College.  It closes with the call for an environmental human rights movement.

One of the chief chemical villains for Steingraber is the farm chemical atrazine, which coincidentally takes its licks in a April 17 Chicago Tribune story that should be a 'must read' for every politician and citizen. We're unwittingly drinking this cancer-causer, the story reveals.

Steingraber gently covers the familiar environmental concerns -- chemicals in mother's milk, in marine mammals, on farm fields, together with increased incidences of cancer including her own bladder cancer at age 20.  She grew up in Pekin, where many in her family, the family that adopted her, also had cancer.

She's been called the new Rachel Carson, whose book Silent Spring led to the banning of DDT then PCBs in the US.  There is more evidence of atrazine's harm than there was evidence against those two chemicals, Steingraber says. But that was then.

The Tribune story reveals that executives from the atrazine manufacturer met with the Bush administration 50 times. So nothing was done. Now the US EPA is taking another look, it says.

Atrazine already has been banned in Europe. 

Steingraber's pleas are effective because they are done so quietly, so gently.  She's a committed activist but not strident, just quietly insistent. She makes a courageous and powerful statement in a riveting film.

 -- Elaine Hopkins

Kellar line freed at last for a trail!!!

PEORIA -- Open the champagne!  The U.S. Surface Transport Board on April 16 ruled that the defunct Kellar rail line that runs through Peoria can be turned into a recreational trail!

This is huge news -- and culminates years of work by trail advocates.

It's a 'don't-ask, don't-tell' moment.  Don't ask how this happened. You don't want to know.

Just celebrate the moment that it finally occurred, with little thanks to the city of Peoria, which dropped the ball on this effort.

Private developers then picked up the ball and scored a touchdown in persuading Pioneer Rail and Central Illinois Rail to finally agree to seek abandonment of the line.

No doubt there will be a news conference and party soon. 

The ruling, linked here, is fairly incomprehensible, but it's ultimate meaning is clear.  We'll soon be biking and walking on this trail.  Yea!

-- Elaine Hopkins