The Chicago Public School system has long been in a state of decline, with poor student scores and massive budget deficits. Teacher pensions in Chicago have threatened to bankrupt the state after politicians yielded to demands from the powerful teachers’ union. Despite the budget crisis, however, school administrators are burning through money on woke programs and resulting litigation. The latest example is the over $2.6 million in damages that will be paid to students who were forced to participate in a Transcendental Meditation program during classes. Teachers ignored the religious objections to the Hindu-based program, and the school subsequently litigated the case, incurring even greater costs to the system.
U.S. District Court Judge Matthew Kennelly approved the settlement with the Chicago Board of Education and the New York-based David Lynch Foundation to pay $100,000 to the lead plaintiff and between $3,000 and $9,500 to each of the other students in the lawsuit.
Attorney John Mauck, partner at Mauck & Baker, said that students were coerced to go through a Hindu initiation ceremony with offerings to a guru and were told to repeat mantras with the names of Hindu deities.
He further recounted how “[one] student was told, ‘If you don’t kneel before the picture of the guru during your initiation ceremony, it could affect your eligibility on the girls basketball team.’” Mauck claimed that students were instructed not to tell their parents, especially if the parents were religious.
In the litigation, counsel was able to confirm 773 of the students who were required to participate in the program. More than 200 filed claims for damages.
Chicago is now facing bankruptcy and the unpopular mayor Brandon Johnson is calling for massive “progressive tax” hikes to keep the city solvent. Yet, the Chicago school system (which has contributed significantly to the budget crisis) prefers to spend money on these programs and then litigate ill-conceived cases.
The state must come up with $154.3 billion to pay its retired educators. It is $86.3 billion short of that amount. Illinois is ranked as having “the lowest funding ratio for state pensions in the nation at 52%. The Teachers Retirement System is even lower, funded at 45.8%, making it the second-worst funded state teacher retirement system in the nation. Only New Jersey is worse.”
Illinois leaders like Gov. JB Pritzker and Chicago Mayor Johnson are closely aligned with the teachers’ union and have signed generous contracts with crippling pension allotments. The political benefits of such contracts are obvious, but there comes a point when you cannot continue to kick the financial can down the road on the costs.
What is clear from this case is that, despite the financial crisis, school officials are still spending time and money on unnecessary programs. In the meantime, fewer than one in three school kids in Chicago read at applicable proficiency levels.
I have been a strong supporter of public schools throughout my life. While my parents could afford private schools, they helped form a group to keep white families in the public school system in Chicago in the 1960s and 1970s. They wanted their kids to be part of a diverse school environment. I also sent my kids to public schools for the same reason. I view our public schools as important parts of our society as we shape future citizens.
Teachers and boards are killing the institution of public education by treating children and parents more like captives than consumers. They are force-feeding social and political priorities, including passes for engaging in approved protests.
As public schools continue to produce abysmal scores, particularly for minority students, board and union officials have called for lowering or suspending proficiency standards or declared meritocracy to be a form of “white supremacy.” Gifted and talented programs are being eliminated in the name of “equity.”
The school administrators in Chicago would prefer to spend time on eliminating high-achieving programs to erase the gap between students.
It is crushing to see the continued failure of Chicago schools, particularly for poor and minority kids who are locked into cycles of poverty. This case simply highlights the disastrous sense of priorities for school officials in Chicago.
yeah…right!
Missing from the article is the very interesting fact that the Chicago schools that subscribed to the Transcendental Meditation program (which was called Quiet Time), turned their schools around dramatically: weapons brought into the school decreased, noise in the hallways decreased, grades improved dramatically (with many classes reaching an average of 80% academic performance), and these results were verified by a concurrent scientific study of the effects, expected to be published soon.
“. . . expected to be published soon.”
The program, that included five schools, ended in 2019 — six years ago. How long does it take to complete a “scientific” study of five schools?
“. . . turned their schools around dramatically . . .”
That is a lie.
Gage Park High School was one of those five schools. It is currently ranked among the “lowest-performing 5% of schools in Illinois” and deep in the bottom of high schools nationally.
Your program is hokum. And your study is nonexistent.
Meh. Had they been taught Aztec practices of sacrificing children to the pagan gods, the effect would have been the same.
OTOH, to use your “argument”, violent crime by ordinary citizens decreased drastically in Joseph Stalin’s USSR, Mao Zedong’s China, Fidel Castro’s Cuba, Pol Pot’s Cambodia, et al. Communist practices of killing “counter-revolutionaries” has that kind of chilling effect. Strange, right?
I could provide you “concurrent scientific study” (WTF does that mean?) as well but it’s all at press right now, and well, you know how those predatory journals are in China, India, Saudi Arabia and Harvard when it comes to timeliness and accuracy
/s
moral relativism is not a good look but then again, trolls do that for money so we understand your M.O. to live by lies.
Chicago teachers can’t teach student to read, write or do math,
Mayan child sacrifice involved Chichén Itzá’s ritualistic offerings of young boys, many closely related, to deities, particularly the rain god Chaac, to ensure vital cycles like harvests and rulers’ accessions. Recent DNA studies have revealed these victims were boys, contradicting older beliefs that the victims were mostly young girls, and a study at Chichén Itzá found many were closely related, including sets of twins. The sacrifices were considered a holy act, a powerful blood offering to the gods. These boys who were sacrificed at least died quickly.
The uneducated children in Chicago die the slow death of poverty made possible by their incompetent overpaid teachers. My kids were educated by teachers who taught for less money to influence the future lives of their students. Thank God.
The best way for the dems to preserve their majority in deep blue cities and states is to keep the kids [future voters] fat, dumb and happy.
“…They wanted their kids to be part of a diverse school environment. I also sent my kids to public schools for the same reason. I view our public schools as important parts of our society as we shape future citizens….”
A better way to do this would be to bring back the draft.
It’s shocking how Chicago schools are wasting taxpayer money on unnecessary programs like Transcendental Meditation while the city faces a budget crisis. The focus should be on improving education, not pushing political agendas. For a different perspective on cost management, here’s a link: https://www.grayestimating.com/
How does any school system anywhere condone such unconstitutional and illegal behavior?
Should teachers and administrators be required to complete college-level courses in constitutional law?
This program managed to violate two clauses of the first amendment. The coercion violated the free exercise clause, but the very existence of the program in the classroom, with the schools’ endorsement, violated the establishment clause.
Teacher pensions in Chicago have threatened to bankrupt the state […] over $2.6 million in damages that will be paid
I’ve got the perfect solution. Identify every single teacher and administrator who was involved in this illegal program (not only those who coerced students to participate, which was doubly illegal, but anyone involved in implementing the program at all), terminate them immediately, and strip them of all pension rights already earned; use those confiscated pensions to pay the damages. You might even end up with a small surplus.
*. Yes, all held accountable. Teachers have insurance. Lawsuits should not yield a single taxpayer dollar. Malpractice insurance and for any other personnel involved. Insurance is purchased via the individual as a group after salary.
It’ll make them put their money where their mouth is. There is State adopted curriculum and no deviations are allowed. Requires investigation.
chicago is a loosely adapted native indigenous north american indian name for a city on a particular river. The “term” Chicago was not really a name for a city, but actually described a very specific odor that was produced each spring when the river and i up above the banks and inundated natural garlic that was prolific in the area. Over the course of days and weeks, the entire area would be consumed with the STENCH of rotting garlic, that would literally drive wild life, fish and river dwelling creatures away. It was literally a odor so powerfully naseating that the local indians came up with a a name for it. Loosely, translated as “chicago”
smells like death would probably be about the equivalent expression of “chicago”.
appears the name checks out.
history might not repeat itself, but It often rhymes. and in this case, smells awful, just from a different cause.
God Bless America
Um, no. Šikaakonki refers not to the smell but to the garlic itself. It means “the garlic place”.
I never heard this before–extremely interesting and apropos to the “Chicago” of today. I lived there in the early 80’s and found it to be a pleasant city at the time. Upon visiting it recently–it’s unrecognizable. Tragic shame.
No other country in the world spends as much on public education that yields so little. The teachers’ unions have honed the practice political extortion with wonderful finesse, while they forget their REAL job–teaching children. An uneducated child will suffer his/her ENTIRE life — while many teachers collect their bloated, unearned pensions. “Tragic” doesn’t begin to describe the pathetic outcomes.
More MAGA propaganda. Turley: if you want to discuss the topic of failing public schools, why pick only on Chicago? Why don’t you discuss failing public schools in red states, like Mississippi or other red states that produce scores that are consistently at or toward the bottom? Could it be because MAGA media only attacks blue cities, blue states and Democrats?
My wife and I grew up in a red state in the deep south. Our daughters went to the same public schools we attended. The oldest daughter, now 37 is a partner in her law firm. My younger daughter is a practicing physician and surgeon. Public schools don’t have to fail in their responsibility to educate children. Most often failing public education systems are the result of policy choices made by politicians and administrators, notably progressive Democrats.
It would be nice if people could refrain from mentioning their spouses and/or progeny while discussing current events. When politicians and media hosts do it, it’s stomach churning. This is part of the reason I no longer listen to lamestream media.
To the contrary, it adds color and interest to what might otherwise be a gray and bland theoretical discussion.
And, it might also be big, fat lies.
*. Anecdotal
” why pick only on Chicago? Why don’t you discuss failing public schools in red states, like Mississippi or other red states”
Gigi, even when a state elects a Republican governor, the schools are usually run by Democrats. Just look at Jackson, Mississippi, and New Orleans, Louisiana. To prevent looking foolish, check your data.
Gigi, this article is not primarily about failing schools, but a public school system that forced students to worship a particular deity, or otherwise to practice a particular religion. Read the article again. Apparently, on the first time through you largely misunderstood the topic.
If a failing public school in a red state was forcing students to kneel in front of a cross and say the Hail Mary or Our Father, you would be screaming bloody murder. Yet you shrug your shoulders when a public school in a blue state forces students to practice Hinduism, or Buddhism. Even rational left-wingers are uncomfortable with that, but you are not. The only conclusion is that you are irrational. But that’s not news.
When broken out by demographics, for each demographic southern states’ educational outcomes are comparable to or higher than those in such states as Wisconsin and New Hampshire, let alone in sh*tholes like Chicago.
It is noted that you cite NOTHING to support what you claim are facts–how MAGA of you! But then, MAGAts have been indoctrinated to be immune to facts from any source other that Trump and MAGA media, to make things up and attack anyone who says anything to the contrary. Here is an excerpt from the “Sun Herald”:
“Since the 1950s, most Mississippians have expressed support in surveys for better public schools and for better funding for those schools. But more often than not, those wishes have failed to turn into reality, and the state has struggled to get off the bottom. Although Mississippi has seen several stabs at reforms (Education Reform Act, Enhancement Act and the Mississippi Adequate Education Program), the state Legislature has often undermined those goals. After passing MAEP (aimed at making sure Mississippi students wouldn’t be left behind), lawmakers fully funded the schools only twice under the formula — both during election years. According to that formula, lawmakers have underfunded public schools $2.3 billion since 2008. Lawmakers have now shifted their focus from adequately funding schools to giving pay raises to teachers. In 2015, the Legislature passed such a raise, and there is talk of another raise this session, during another election year. Using constant dollars, the average teacher’s salary in Mississippi has fallen 16 percent since the 2009-10 school year. The state pays teachers the lowest wages of any state in the Southeast. Nearly four times as many white students attend public schools than private schools, but a perception persists among many policymakers that spending money on public education means spending money strictly on black students, said Leslie B. McLemore, professor emeritus of political science at Jackson State University. “That’s not the case,” he said. “It’s the same with public assistance. The majority of the people receiving public assistance are white, but based on the propaganda, you would think they were black.” Too often, he said, policymakers deciding how much money to invest in public education “are sending their children to white private schools.” By failing to invest in public education, “we have deprived ourselves of our best minds,” he said. “Many of our kids, black and white, are leaving the state because we have not maintained a high-quality education system.” This story was produced by the Mississippi Center for Investigative Reporting, a nonprofit news organization that seeks to hold public officials accountable and empower citizens in their communities.
Read more at: https://www.sunherald.com/news/local/education/article226512855.html#storylink=cpy‘
What I wrote is the exact truth, as you could readily find out if you had bothered to do any research.
You’re the one who made an unsupported assertion about the outcome of Mississippi schools, without citing any evidence. If you bothered to look you’d find that what I wrote is true. MS’s schools, and southern states’ schools generally, do as well or better, for each demographic, as northern states’ schools do.
The specific numbers I saw were a comparison of Texas and Wisconsin. White kids in Texas public schools do better than white kids in Wisconsin public schools. Black kids in TX public schools do better than black kids in WI public schools. Hispanic kids the same. WI’s better overall results than TX is thus entirely an artifact of the states’ different demographics.
Oh, and the garbage you cited this time rests entirely on the false premise that increasing school funding produces better results. It doesn’t. The worst school systems are the best funded. The money is just thrown down the toilet.
Hate the truth An…. Most libs do.
Just maybe one day you’ll wake up.
70% of “Chicago” is not even supposed to be there according to the American Founders, 1790.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________
Naturalization Acts of 1790, 1795, 1798, 1802 (four iterations for maximal clarity)
United States Congress, “An act to establish an uniform Rule of Naturalization,” March 26, 1790
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America, in Congress assembled, That any Alien being a free white person, who shall have resided within the limits and under the jurisdiction of the United States for the term of two years, may be admitted to become a citizen thereof…
We are a Christian Nation, Samuel Adams = Father of Our American Revolution is a Puritan. Our Pilgrims, my ancestors, left the Monarchy -Pope (i.e. Roman Curia, mind-controller mafia)/ Treaty of Verona scammers 1600, the politics Elaine Pagels exposed in ” Beyond Belief ” book.
Actually, most of the Founding Fathers, including Jefferson, were products of the Enlightenment, and as such they were deists.
They were not Christians.
They believed in a benevolent creator who did not intervene in the lives of humans.
They rejected core Christian doctrines like the divinity of Jesus, the virgin birth, the Trinity, the resurrection, the atonement and original sin. They viewed these supposed miracles and supernatural events as being incompatible with reason and logic.
Jefferson was the most ardent deist.
He created his own bible in which he excised all references to the divinity of Christ and all references to “miracles”.
https://www.monticello.org/research-education/thomas-jefferson-encyclopedia/jeffersons-religious-beliefs/
https://thejeffersonbible.com/
Actually, most of the Founding Fathers […] were deists.
[…]
They believed in a benevolent creator who did not intervene in the lives of humans.
No, they were NOT deists, and they absolutely DID believe that the Creator intervenes in our lives. Every single one of them believed in that, and publicly proclaimed it.
Paine was a deist, but he was NOT one of the founders, and his deism was one reason that they all shunned him, and why Washington let him languish in a French dungeon rather than waste political capital to try to get him out.
Most of the USA’s founders were full-on orthodox (small o) Christians. The clique around Washington, who were the most prominent among the founders, were best described as Unitarians, (except Mason, who was an orthodox Christian). They believed in a Creator Who runs the affairs of humans, and listens to prayer and is influenced by it. They publicly prayed, fasted in repentance, and sought this Creator’s blessings for the new nation.
Yup. But haters gonna hate, so there is no need to reply to them. It is all they have to live for
Holy Cow! They don’t call it flyover country fer nuthin’. 🐄
Does anyone else notice certain comments vanishing from the threads of the Turley Blog, or am I losing my sense of perception?
You are correct.
Censorship has been alive and well for some time on this worthless blog devoted to “free speech”.
You say it’s worthless yet here you are commenting, hypocrite.
Ano
free speech”.
___________________
You total moron. This is a private blog. NOT the US Government.
TM was first known as an outreach by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi in the 1970s. I remember small town America being introduced to it by TM teachers who were actually missionaries for the Maharishi’s cult org, which invited and advocated joining his cult, Instructors did their part inviting if the students showed sufficient interest. I was VP of a small town Rotary Club, and booked the itinerant TM instructor as a lunch speaker. One of our members was an Anglican Priest. He went absolutely berserk in challenging the TM guy at the meeting to the point we had to ask him to be polite and listen. In later years, I met and had pleasant conversations with a New Age minister, who confessed that he became a brief part of the Maharishi’s cult. Recounted an early group meditation session where the room went dark, lots of OHMs going on and half hour later he opened his eyes and found all his fellow meditators naked and engaging in an orgy.
I always kept that in mind when counselling my children on getting involved with New Age or occult groups. They are often filled with needy losers and folks who find it difficult to form normal relationships or lacking in opportunities for sex in normal interactions.
*. It was a fad for bit of time. People were given mantras or some line of verse to repeat over and over. It’s like any prayer said over and over. It’s similar to a rosary , no blasphemy or disrespect intended. Reincarnation is resurrection and karma are the usual good and bad deeds.
Hinduism has many sects and some are truly weird to the western mind. Sounds like your friend was involved in tantric yoga.
I don’t recommend any of it. It’s a fated religion, really old and can engulf all kinds of magic and fakirs.
No, children should not participate in pagan religions while in public schools. Those authorities should be fired and charged. Civil suits as private individuals but lawsuits involving public money are not part of the remedy. Any person knowing of this practice all the way up to superintendent of public instruction should be fired. IMHO