Chicago - A message from the station manager

The [Thursday] Papers

By Steve Rhodes

“Despite a 1990 state law requiring that African-American history be taught in public schools, the subject has been taught sporadically in Chicago, often coming up only during Black History Month or to mark the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday,” the Tribune reports.
“On Wednesday, Chicago Public Schools unveiled a new curriculum guide that will allow teachers to incorporate African and African-American studies into core subjects throughout the year, bringing the district into compliance with the state requirement, officials said.”
The first lesson in the new curriculum should be how the law is applied unevenly when it comes to black people.


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“CPS officials could not explain why the curriculum had not been implemented previously,” DNAinfo Chicago reports.
“[E]arlier this year, some activist groups grew frustrated with some of the initial proposals for the curriculum and the slow progress in getting anything adopted. Some even suggested filing a lawsuit against CPS.”
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Charter schools, however, are exempt from the law.
“[T]he whole concept behind charter schools being created was to allow them to choose their own curriculum,” Andrew Broy, president of the Illinois Network of Charter Schools, told DNAinfo Chicago. “Most, if not all, charter schools in Chicago already offer this type of curriculum.”
When pressed for an exact number, he said 19,000.
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“Others questioned who was allowed to have input into the new curriculum. We Can Inc., a community group, made recommendations earlier this year to the school district about what to include, but as of Wednesday was unsure if any of its input was included.
“‘I was allowed to review a draft of the curriculum for one hour, which was not enough time to look through five binders of information,’ said the group’s president Florence Cox, who became the first black woman to lead the Chicago School Board in 1992. ‘I never did see the final draft, so it is hard for me to support something I have not seen. It sounds like a ‘shell’ game to me.'”
CPS: Chicago Public Shells.
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This Took A Lawsuit
Cook County Recorder of Deeds Karen Yarbrough Relents, Will Accept Freedom Of Information Requests Via E-Mail.
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Drone Zone
“Maciek Nowak is an operations management professor and director of the Master of Science in Supply Chain Management program at Loyola University Chicago’s Quinlan School of Business,” according to the tagline on his Crain’s Op-Ed “Amazon’s Drones Strike At Heart Of Retail Industry’s Biggest Fear.”
James Ball is a journalist.
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Tangentially related:
“Three members of the House Intelligence Committee recently made an unsuccessful attempt to ban so-called ‘signature’ drone strikes – attacks in which the targets of lethal U.S. actions are identified by their actions rather than as individuals,” Politico reports.
“However, the author of the intelligence authorization bill amendment that was voted down, Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.), told Politico that she plans to continue to press for a stop to such strikes because she views them as morally dubious and counterproductive for the U.S.”
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Payment Due
The Obamacare Deadline No One Is Talking About.
Chicago’s New Doctor Of Jazz
A cultural icon in his own right.
The Proverbial Josh McCown
Just a guy. In The Blue & Orange Kool-Aid Report.
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Cubs Rebuilding Update


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The Beachwood Tip Line: Just a tip line.

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Posted on December 12, 2013