Monday, June 18, 2007

Backpacking with State Rep. Flowers, Cable and Streaming

Jeff Berkowitz: ...I am getting a little lost here, why is it a parent could be made worse off by that choice? Because they can stay in the public school if they want—but if they want to try the private school, they can, so how are they made worse off. If they stay in the public school, their situation is the same. If they want to try the private school, they have another choice.

State Rep. Mary Flowers: Because the public school system is the only school system that has to accept all children. Okay? So, private schools can cherry pick, they can get the best of the best.
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State Rep. Mary Flowers [D-Chicago], is the featured guest on tonight’s [June 18] City of Chicago edition of "Public Affairs," airing at 8:30 pm on Cable Ch. 21 [CANTV] throughout the City of Chicago. Rep. Flowers is also featured on the Aurora edition of Public Affairs, airing at 7:30 pm in Aurora and some surrounding areas on Aurora Community Television, Comcast Cable Ch. 10. The Aurora station reaches all of Aurora, Bristol, Big Rock and parts of Oswego, Sandwich, Sugar Grove and Montgomery.

For a partial transcipt of tonight's show ,a summary of tonight's show topics, and more about Rep. Flowers, Go here.
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You can also watch Republican Presidential Primary Candidates McCain, Giuliani and Cox, Democratic Presidential Primary Candidate Obama and many more pols, opinion makers and opinion shapers, e.g., tonight's show with Rep. Flowers, soon this week's suburban edition of Public Affairs with State Sen. Martin Sandoval [D-Cicero], and currently, recent shows with MarySue Barrett, President of the Metropolitan Planning Council, Cook County Commissioner Roberto Maldonado [D-Chicago], State Reps. Jim Durkin [R-Western Springs], Linda Chapa LaVia [D-Aurora] and Julie Hamos [D-Evanston], Republican Campaign Consultants Dan Proft and Dan Curry on your computer by going to PublicAffairsTv.com
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Another partial transcript of tonight's show is included directly, below.
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CPS spends about $12,000 per kid per year [or more]

Jeff Berkowitz: What do we spend. It is about $12,000 per kid per year in the Chicago Public Schools ("CPS").

State Rep. Mary Flowers[D-Chicago]: Oh, I doubt that. I doubt that. I am talking about $4,000 or $5, 000.

Jeff Berkowitz: The budget for the CPS is about 5 billion dollars [Actually, the number has gone up]. You know that, right?

State Rep. Mary Flowers: Right.

Jeff Berkowitz: CPS has about 420,000 students. Now, divide 420,000 into 5 billion dollars and the number you come up with…it’s about $12,000 per kid, per year.

State Rep. Mary Flowers: Those monies go for administration, to pay for lights—

Jeff Berkowitz: Yes, but I am talking—total expenditures per kid per year-- $12,000.

State Rep. Mary Flowers: Right.

Jeff Berkowitz: Some of those monies go to classroom [instruction], some go to the things you mention. $12,000 per kid per year.

State Rep. Mary Flowers: Ummm.

Jeff Berkowitz: That’s a lot of money.

State Rep. Mary Flowers: Lot of money.

Jeff Berkowitz: Not as much as is spent in Winnetka, Glencoe, Arlington Heights, and in certain other parts of the state, but still in those areas, they are probably pushing $16,000 or $17,000 per kid, per year, even at the grade school level [K-8]….

State Rep. Mary Flowers: Right.

The backpack proposal: School Vouchers-School Choice

Jeff Berkowitz: So, here is the proposal. We take this symbolic $12,000, which we spend per kid per year and we put it in a backpack. We then get 420,000 backpacks for each of those kids in the CPS and we put $12,000 in each backpack [so if a family has two kids, they get two backpacks or a total of $24,000 per year for their two kids]. Let me ask you, State Rep. Mary Flowers, would you like to offer each of the kids in your District and indeed throughout the City of Chicago one of these backpacks? The parents could take that backpack and strap it on their kid and if the parents are happy with their public school, and there are a number of schools in the CPS that are performing, the kids turns around and goes back to the public school; the kid stays there, the backpack stays there, the cash stays with the public school—no change; but if the parents would like to send the kid to the private school of their choice, out goes the kid, out goes the backpack, out goes the cash and maybe that private school can do better than the public school in educating the kid—and if they don’t, the parents can always send the kid back to the public school. So, you want to give the parents that backpack?

State Rep. Mary Flowers: No.

Jeff Berkowitz: You don’t want to take the backpack?

State Rep. Mary Flowers: No.

Jeff Berkowitz: I didn’t think so.

Why State Rep. Flowers rejects school choice:

State Rep. Mary Flowers: Let me tell you the reason why. Because, once again, some charter schools are doing fine, some are not. Some private schools are doing fine, some are not. When you take into consideration the funding of education, it’s not only about the $12,000, there is the continuity of education. A report was done recently that Chicago has a shorter school day. I do know that in some schools, there is not two consecutive weeks of education—

Why not help as many students as you can?

Jeff Berkowitz: Let me just interrupt to say we are going to continue to speak as the credits roll, but I very much want to thank our guest ….for coming out here…so go ahead, I didn’t mean to interrupt but I am getting a little lost here, why is it a parent could be made worse off by that choice? Because they can stay in the public school if they want—but if they want to try the private school, they can, so how is it that they are made worse off. If they stay in the public school, their situation is the same. If they want to try the private school, they have another choice.

State Rep. Mary Flowers: Because the public school system is the only school system that has to accept all children. Okay? So, private schools can cherry pick, they can get the best of the best.

Jeff Berkowitz: Assuming you are right [Although, it is not clear why all students couldn’t choose to go to a private school], so a number of kids get out and make themselves better off

State Rep. Mary Flowers: Right.

The Oprah Winfrey analogy:

Jeff Berkowitz: Other kids stay in the public school. They are not worse off. They are in the public school where they were before. So, if you wanted to help a thousand kids, and it turns out you could only help five hundred kids—what are you going to say, Don’t help the five hundred? Would you say to Oprah Winfrey when she helped some girls in Africa—“You couldn’t help everybody in Africa, Oprah, so why did you bother to help that small number of girls.” You didn’t say to Oprah, did you?

State Rep. Mary Flowers: But, these are taxpayer dollars that is funding this educational system. So, therefore, we have to make this right.

Jeff Berkowitz: [My argument holds] even more, it is their money. Give them a choice. Let those people go.

Incarcerate?

State Rep. Mary Flowers: We are spending $32,000 to incarcerate. It doesn’t matter what zip code you come from. But, for some reason, it matters the zip code you come from as far as the funding that we spend on our children in the City of Chicago.

Jeff Berkowitz: Help the kids that are there now and then you’ll, later, address the other problems: improve employment, deal with immigration, lower incarceration rates. Listen to what Chicago Sun-Times columnist Monroe Anderson wrote [about immigration hurting low income blacks]. You’re against immigration?

State Rep. Mary Flowers: Education—

Monroe Anderson, Flowers and Immigration:

Jeff Berkowitz: Are you against immigration?

State Rep. Mary Flowers: It is not so much that I am against immigration. It is the how—

Jeff Berkowitz: Is that hurting blacks—

State Rep. Mary Flowers: It is the how—

Jeff Berkowitz: But, is immigration hurting blacks?

State Rep. Mary Flowers: Is immigration hurting blacks? Not legal immigration, no.

Jeff Berkowitz: But illegal immigration is? Because of low wages [low skilled immigrants are depressing wages for low skilled non-immigrants-- hurting Blacks, disproportionately, writes Anderson; he does not distinguish between illegal and legal immigration]

State Rep. Mary Flowers: Absolutely, because [illegal immigrants] bring down regular wages, all over, absolutely. Legal immigration? I have no problems with. I am for good education. I am for legal immigration.
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State Rep. Mary Flowers [D-Chicago], interviewed on Public Affairs on June 3, 2007 and as is airing tonight in Chicago [8:30 pm on Cable Ch. 21] and Aurora and surrounding areas [7:30 pm on ACTV, Comcast Cable Ch. 10], and as is streaming on computer at www.Public AffairsTv.com
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Jeff Berkowitz, Show Host/Producer of "Public Affairs," and Executive Legal Recruiter doing legal search can be reached at JBCG@aol.com. You may watch "Public Affairs," shows with Presidential Candidates Obama, McCain, Giuliani and Cox and many other pols at www.PublicAffairsTv.com
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