In 2008, Ald. Joe Moore, 49th, asked Duncan's office to reconsider an admissions case involving the relative of one of President Barack Obama's campaign advisers. The student's application to a prestigious public prep school was rejected, and the family said it was because he had missed too much school after falling ill with mononucleosis.The 'silver spooned' kid didn't even live in the ward, and Barack didn't promote Joe to any Washington post. The 49th ward residents lost on all accounts.
CPS previously factored attendance into students' application score, but stopped doing so this year. The student's family did not live in 49th Ward, but the alderman said their families are old friends.
"He did the responsible thing and stayed home as his doctor ordered," Moore said. "If he hadn't been sick he would have been admitted without a problem." The student was admitted after Moore said he made three or four calls to Duncan's office. Source/read more.
Friday, March 26, 2010
Joe Moore on Duncan's Clout List
Not only was Joe Moore on the special political favor list, his persistent calls to Arnie Duncan worked.
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YAWN. Seems the 49th Ward wasn't affected at all. How do you know Joe Moore didn't make this call on his own time?
You're missing the point, Moldy.
This post is about the pervasive corruption and cronyism that dominates this city, and the abuse of his power by our alderman, in this case to secure a place in a selective enrollment public school that should have gone to a more deserving student.... but that deserving student did not have a friend who is an alderman.
Joe should not have been able to get his friend's kid in ahead of a more qualified student, and would not have been able to do so except by his position as a tenured alderman.
Actually, I'm not missing the point. I understand what the corruption investigation is about. However, this post is an unwarranted smear on the alderman (who usually deserves his smears). This blog is about the 49th Ward and this didn't affect the 49th Ward. I don't disagree that he shouldn't abuse his clout like this, I'm just saying that it does not reflect the spirit of this blog, which is to provide news that affects residents of this ward.
The fall-out begins. Schools official who maintained logs of admission requests quits. Mayor vows reforms. Source/read more.
Oh, but it DOES affect this ward.
In case no one remembers, this ward in IN the City of Chicago. That's right, folks, we live in CHICAGO, not some isolated little enclave where the endemic corruption of this city, and the costs it carries, do not affect us.
Perhaps some people in this ward are trying to get their talented and able kids into a selective enrollment school, but that place was taken by the child of some favorite toadie, regardless of the kid's academic merit.
Publicizing our alderman's participation in this corruption does not constitute a "smear". He and his mates in the council need to know that citizens look and sometimes see. If he doesn't want the scrutiny or criticism, he can retire on a lush city pension since he has served (served SOMEONE, not necessarily his constituents) for 20 years.
Ald Moore represents the collective view of the 49th Ward. Since he holds public office and our public trust, there is no such thing as calling "on his own time" to another governmental organzization for a personal favor.
Ald Moore should have advised the family to work with their own Alderman. And, since he believes clout is OK, then what about W49 families trying to get into selective enrollment schools? What has he done for them?
The market value of that clout benefited the family by as much as $100K after tax over 4 years since their alternative was probably private school...or...moving to Winnetka.
yawn
"the alderman said their families are old friends."
as if if they were new friend$, that would somehow be worse?
I find this information really quite shocking. I didn't think that buffoon Joe Moore had any clout at all since he is always portrayed as an adversary to city hall.
does anyone know anything about the rash of car break-ins? Over near Columbia and Ashland I've seen 3 cars in the last 2 weeks with smashed glass...presumably because someone is stealing something inside. This blog is more 'in-the-know', so I was curious if there has been any information.
I think it's disgusting - no politician should be making calls for anyone - friends or not!
I see Joe is really trying to make himself look good these days - when is the alderman election?
CPS used to factor in absences when making admission decisions only in those instances where all other measures were equal, meaning this kid made the score.
CPS persisted with this misguided policy even though they knew it worked against qualified students with routine and chronic illnesses—violating a whole host of federal anti-discrimination laws.
A lot of the families I have worked with have kids who were bumped because of absences due to diabetes, cancer and related hospitalizations. Think about it, these kids aced everything despite their illnesses and were passed over for the kid who went to school sick or missed fewer days on vacation. Not for nothing but I would have called the Secretary of Education, too.
Joe wasn't exercising clout to gain access to unqualified kid. He was railing against a stupid policy that discriminated against a qualified student.
I know it's not popular to stick u for Joe on this blog but so what. Joe did exactly what I want an elected officials to do.
This was on Huffington Post Today! Does anyone know about this?
Joe MooreChicago Alderman
Posted: April 5, 2010 12:17 PM
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From Chicago's City Hall to the halls of Congress, important policy and spending decisions have been made for far too long by a handful of politicians behind closed doors working in concert with corporations and special interests. This old way of doing the public's business has bred anger and mistrust of all levels of government.
It shouldn't come as any surprise, then, that only 1 out of 5 Americans trusts government to do what is right most of the time. Citizens don't believe their government listens to them and they don't believe they have any power to affect public policy.
This anger and mistrust aren't healthy for democracy. We need a new governance model, one that empowers people to make real decisions about policy and spending decisions.
As a Chicago alderman, I have embarked on an innovative alternative to the old style of decision-making. In an experiment in democracy, transparent governance and economic reform, I'm letting the residents of the 49th Ward in the Rogers Park and Edgewater communities decide how to spend my entire discretionary capital budget of more than $1.3 million.
Known as "participatory budgeting," this form of democracy is being used worldwide, from Brazil to the United Kingdom and Canada. It lets the community decide how to spend part of a government budget, through a series of meetings and ultimately a final, binding vote.
Though I'm the first elected official in the U.S. to implement participatory budgeting, it's not a whole lot different than the old New England town meetings in which residents would gather to vote directly on the spending decisions of their town.
Residents in my ward have met for the past year -- developing a rule book for the process, gathering project ideas from their neighbors and researching and budgeting project ideas. These range from public art to street resurfacing and police cameras to bike paths. The residents then pitched their proposals to their neighbors at a series of neighborhood "assemblies" held throughout the ward.
The process will culminate in an election on April 10, in which all 49th Ward residents 16 and older, regardless of citizenship or voter registration status, are invited to gather at a local high school to vote for up to eight projects, one vote per project. This process is binding. The projects that win the most votes will be funded up to $1.3 million.
Though the process isn't yet complete, it's already yielding positive results. Hundreds of residents in the 49th Ward, many of whom had never before been involved in a civic activity, have become engaged in the participatory budgeting process. Rather than being passive observers of government they've become active participants in governing.
More important, they know they have the power to make decisions, and that their government is not just hearing them but actually following their mandate.
Empowering people to make real decisions openly and transparently is the first step toward restoring public trust in government.
Joe Moore is alderman of Chicago's 49th Ward. Known as one of the most progressive members of the Chicago City Council, Moore has gained national recognition for his successful sponsorship of a resolution against the war in Iraq, and measures requiring living wages for employees of big box retail stores and environmental restrictions on Chicago's coal-fired power plants.
Joe Moore can go fuck himself...
anyone here got a kid in a selective enrollment school? here is how it works- lots of kids apply. lots of kids are accepted. lots of kids who deserve to be accepted don't get picked.
now, here comes the part that some don't seem to get- the system always has a few open seats left in those schools. since kids apply to several schools, they always turn down some offers. hence, there are always some openings. now, some of those kids who don't get accepted have parents who go about the task of getting them accepted to fill that odd number of seats.
those parents call everyone that they can think of. principals of grade schools make calls. aldermen make calls. senators make calls. but all they are asking for, and all they get is a look. a look at a kid who lost out on the process.
i know because i had a kid who missed out in the big process. why? because an attendance clerk misplaced a decimal point. 45 days absent? no, try 4.5. makes the admissions score come out a little different, doesn't it. but the principal knew the kid, knew the family, and got right on the phone. after explaining the situation, she got a second look. and as a junior with straight a's including several ap classes, i know that her school is glad they did.
but most of those frantic calls get a second look followed by a second no thank you. the principals make the call. having been on the bad side of a cps principal once or twice, i have no doubt that they could care less about the alderman's friends kid if they are not qualified to be there.
so, is there somebody here who has a problem with a kid getting a second look that might make for a brighter future? yeah, sadly, there are a lot of you here who would have a problem with that.
Here's how it works. Mo Cahill opens her mouth and shit flies out.
Suzanne and Been There have the right picture.
This is a non-issue as far as the 49th ward goes, and trying to make something nefarious out of it makes you look pretty ridiculous.
There are enough real issues out there to chew on. This isn't one of them.
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