Way better than Fox Chicago Sunday w/Roskam: Berkowitz w/Ald. Jackson on School Vouchers: Cable Tonight and Streaming 24-7
Ald. Sandi Jackson [Chicago, 7th Ward]: I will take the backpack, with this caveat.
Jeff Berkowitz: Offer it to your constituents. The sixty thousand constituents in your ward.
Ald. Sandi Jackson: I don’t have a problem with options.
Jeff Berkowitz: School vouchers, school choice. You’ll sign on to that today?
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Jeff Berkowitz: But you would consider school vouchers, school choice.
Ald. Sandi Jackson: I would consider it.
Jeff Berkowitz: And you would consider charter schools.
Ald. Sandi Jackson: Absolutely.
************************************************************
The "Public Affairs," show with Ald. Jackson airs throughout the City of Chicago tonight, July 14, at 8:30 pm on Cable Ch. 21 (CANTV) and the show also airs tonight on cable in Aurora and surrounding areas at 7:30 pm on ACTV-10. The Aurora station, Aurora Community Television, Comcast Cable Ch. 10, reaches all of Aurora, Bristol, Big Rock and parts of Oswego, Sandwich, Sugar Grove and Montgomery.
A partial transcript of the show is included, below. For another partial transcript [Go here] and links to additional partial transcripts, a detailed list of show topics and information about Ald. Sandi Jackson, please go here.
To watch the show with Ald. Jackson at a computer near you, please go here.
**********************************************************
$14,000 per kid per year spent by CPS
Jeff Berkowitz: Do you know how much we spend, per kid, per year, in the Chicago Public Schools?
Ald. Sandi Jackson [Chicago, 7th ward]: I don’t have that figure.
Jeff Berkowitz: Let me tell you. The figure is—it’s a six billion dollar budget, you take the four hundred twenty thousand students, it might only be four hundred ten thousand now, in the Chicago public schools-
Ald. Sandi Jackson: It’s a large number.
Jeff Berkowitz: If you divide four hundred twenty thousand into six billion, you get more than fourteen thousand dollars, per kid, per year. So we may spend more in Naperville, or on the North Shore, but not that much more.
Ald. Sandi Jackson: Jeff-
Jeff Berkowitz: Now, that’s an average figure. So what I’m trying to say to you is--that fourteen thousand dollars, per kid per year—do you know that if you took twenty five kids in a Chicago public school, you would have [more than] three hundred fifty thousand dollars in that classroom? Do you think you can educate those twenty five kids-
Ald. Sandi Jackson: Jeff, I can tell you this, I can tell you this from experience. We have children within this school system who are sharing books. We have schools within Chicago whose infrastructure is-
Where does the $370,000, or more, per CPS classroom go?
Jeff Berkowitz: Where’s it going? Where’s that three hundred fifty thousand dollars going?
Ald. Sandi Jackson: I don’t know, we have to ask our state-
Jeff Berkowitz: Pensions? Teacher pensions?
Ald. Sandi Jackson: We have to ask our state legislators what is happening with that money.
Jeff Berkowitz: Graft? Embezzlement?
Ald. Sandi Jackson: I can tell you-
Jeff Berkowitz: Where’s it going?
Ald. Sandi Jackson: I think there’s a lot of that going on. I do. I don’t think there are enough reformers to deal with that.
Tax Swaps vs. School Vouchers-School Choice
Jeff Berkowitz: I have an idea. Let me challenge you with an idea.
Ald. Sandi Jackson: Okay.
Jeff Berkowitz: Your idea is to have a tax swap, raise the income tax, lower property taxes. A net infusion of six to seven billion dollars in revenue to the state.
Ald. Sandi Jackson: That makes a lot of sense to me.
Jeff Berkowitz: That’s your idea.
Ald. Sandi Jackson: It’s an idea been proposed by others that I agree with.
Jeff Berkowitz: Reverend Meeks.
Ald. Sandi Jackson: Absolutely.
Jeff Berkowitz: Ralph Martire.
Ald. Sandi Jackson: Absolutely.
Jeff Berkowitz: A bunch of folks. Perhaps even Congressman Jesse Jackson.
Ald. Sandi Jackson: Perhaps even the Congressman.
Choice, Competition and Innovation in K-12 schools
Jeff Berkowitz: But here’s another idea, because it may take a while to get people to sign on [to your idea]. How about introducing a little choice, a little competition, into the public schools? How about saying—if I’m right, that we spend fourteen thousand per kid, per year, take on average, that’s what we spend—take that fourteen thousand dollars, and put it in our backpack. You know about this backpack?
Backpacking with Ald. Jackson
Ald. Sandi Jackson: No, I don’t know about your backpack. There are many others, but I don’t know about yours.
Jeff Berkowitz: Do we have that fourteen thousand dollars here? I don’t know if we have it here. Have to dig real deep in the pocket. Usually I have my props set up better. Here’s fourteen thousand. We’re going to put the money in the backpack, that’s the hypothetical fourteen thousand dollars, per kid, per year. Give the parents of each of the kids in the Chicago Public Schools one of these backpacks.
Ald. Sandi Jackson: Um, um.
Jeff Berkowitz: In fact, you’re in a position to help do that. I realize it’s partly controlled by state, but also by the city. You could go down to Springfield and say, “I want, today, four hundred and ten thousand backpacks.
Ald. Sandi Jackson: Yes.
Jeff Berkowitz: I will work with you to take the state money, the city money, the federal money, the county money—property taxes—put it in the backpack. We’ll give each parent the backpack, strap it on the kid,
Ald. Sandi Jackson: OK
Jeff Berkowitz: And if the parents are happy with the public schools—and many are—the backpack stays there. The kid stays in the public schools, the backpack stays there, the cash stays there. But, if the parents want to choose differently, out goes the kid, out goes the backpack, out goes the cash, and there’s competition for that [public] school that may not be doing well. How about that? Would you sign on to that? School vouchers? School choice?
Will Ald. Jackson take the backpack?
Ald. Sandi Jackson: I think there is room for all of those options.
Jeff Berkowitz: You want to take this backpack? Come on. It won’t hurt you. It won’t bite.
Ald. Sandi Jackson: You’re a tough customer.
Jeff Berkowitz: Take the backpack. There you go.
Ald. Sandi Jackson: I will take the backpack, with this caveat.
Jeff Berkowitz: Offer it to your constituents. The sixty thousand constituents in your ward.
Ald. Sandi Jackson: I don’t have a problem with options.
Jeff Berkowitz: School vouchers, school choice. You’ll sign on to that today?
Who will help parents and children exercise school choice?
Ald. Sandi Jackson: I don’t have a problem with it. What I’m concerned about are the children who are left behind in those schools. Once the children who are high-performing, who have parents who are engaged, who are fully engaged. We’ve got a class of students, Jeff, unfortunately, whose parents are not as engaged as others.
Jeff Berkowitz: You could help them.
Ald. Sandi Jackson: When you separate those children out-
Jeff Berkowitz: You and the other leaders in the community could help them. You’re the alderman in the community.
Ald. Sandi Jackson: If I can finish.
Jeff Berkowitz: Okay.
Ald. Sandi Jackson: When you separate those children out, and you say, okay, for you parents who are highly motivated to pick your children up and take them out of here, here’s a voucher, here’s a vehicle to get them from here to there. And then you [also] have those children who—through no fault of their own—you know, may be in a dysfunctional situation and they are left there, now you’ve taken away funding, you’ve taken away parents who may be involved in the LSC systems, who have great oversight, who are engaged, who will help pull not just their children up, but other children.
Could Senator Barack Obama help students exercise school choice?
Jeff Berkowitz: But everybody who wants to leave could. You know there are community people—Barack Obama started out as a community organizer.
Ald. Sandi Jackson: Yes, he did.
Jeff Berkowitz: If Barack Obama were there on July 7, 2008—“there” being on the South Side, “there” being in South Shore, “there” being in Hyde Park, a bunch of areas in Chicago where kids, admittedly, have difficult family circumstances, don’t have parents-
Ald. Sandi Jackson: Incredibly difficult. Incredibly difficult.
Jeff Berkowitz: But there are people like Barack, there are people like your husband, Congressman Jesse Jackson Jr., as a leader, there are people like you, Alderman Sandi Jackson, and a bunch of other folks who are motivated, who are intelligent, and could say to these kids—if your parent isn’t going to counsel you, we will, and we’ll advise you, or the legal guardian—there are people who are watching over these kids.
Ald. Sandi Jackson: There are those folks.
Jeff Berkowitz: If they will not make the right decision, you and I and others will help them. The only people who would stay—there are a lot of people who would stay who like the public schools. They’re performing--
Ald. Sandi Jackson: The only thing I would say there-
Jeff Berkowitz: We’ve got to go on.
Ald. Sandi Jackson: We do, because there’s a lot of good things to talk about, in addition to this. The only thing I would say about this whole education component is that it is a very complicated, very difficult issue. It is not nearly as stark. There’s no bright line on either side in terms of which way to go with respect to education.
Ald. Jackson will consider school vouchers, school choice; and increasing the number of potential charter schools
Jeff Berkowitz: But you would consider school vouchers, school choice.
Ald. Sandi Jackson: I would consider it.
Jeff Berkowitz: And you would consider charter schools.
Ald. Sandi Jackson: Absolutely.
Jeff Berkowitz: You would consider lifting the cap. You would talk to Senator Meeks and make sure that cap is high, so there can be more charter schools in his ward and yours.
Ald. Sandi Jackson: I think you’ve got to put all options on the table. Every option.
Jeff Berkowitz: Let’s go back to economic development—your ward…
**********************************************************
Thanks to "Public Affairs," intern Amy Allen for preparing a draft of the above partial transcript of tonight's City of Chicago and City of Aurora editions of "Public Affairs."
**************************************************
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, next week's suburban edition of Public Affairs with State Rep. Candidate Tim Stratton (R-Glencoe, 58th Dist.), last Monday night's Chicago and Aurora show with State Rep. Mark Beaubien (R-Wauconda), Tonight's City of Chicago and City of Aurora edition of Public Affairs w/Ald. Sandi Jackson, our prior show with 13th CD Dem. Nominee Scott Harper, State Sen. Kwame Raoul (D-Chicago); State Senator John Cullerton (D-Chicago), Comm. Forrest Claypool (D-Chicago), State Rep. Candidate Joan Solms (R-Aurora), 6th CD Democratic candidate, Colonel Jill Morgenthaler (Ret.), State Rep. Jim Durkin (R-Western Springs) and shows with many other pols at www.PublicAffairsTv.com
*************************************************************
Now included on the Public Affairs YouTube page is tonight's show in the cities of Chicago and Aurora withAld. Sandi Jackson. Another very recently posted show on the Public Affairs YouTube page is next week's suburban edition of Public Affairs with State Rep. Candidate Tim Stratton (R-Glencoe, 58th Dist.), last Monday night's Chicago and Aurora show with State Rep. Mark Beaubien (R-Wauconda). Other recently posted shows include our prior show in Chicago, Aurora and across the State of Illinois with 13th CD Dem. Nominee Scott Harper, our prior show with Sen. Kwame Raoul(D-Chicago), Senator John Cullerton (D-Chicago)- watch here; State Rep. candidate Joan Solms (R-Aurora), Comm. Forrest Claypool (D-Chicago) on the Obama Presidential campaign and shows with many other pols
Jeff Berkowitz: Offer it to your constituents. The sixty thousand constituents in your ward.
Ald. Sandi Jackson: I don’t have a problem with options.
Jeff Berkowitz: School vouchers, school choice. You’ll sign on to that today?
********************************************
Jeff Berkowitz: But you would consider school vouchers, school choice.
Ald. Sandi Jackson: I would consider it.
Jeff Berkowitz: And you would consider charter schools.
Ald. Sandi Jackson: Absolutely.
************************************************************
The "Public Affairs," show with Ald. Jackson airs throughout the City of Chicago tonight, July 14, at 8:30 pm on Cable Ch. 21 (CANTV) and the show also airs tonight on cable in Aurora and surrounding areas at 7:30 pm on ACTV-10. The Aurora station, Aurora Community Television, Comcast Cable Ch. 10, reaches all of Aurora, Bristol, Big Rock and parts of Oswego, Sandwich, Sugar Grove and Montgomery.
A partial transcript of the show is included, below. For another partial transcript [Go here] and links to additional partial transcripts, a detailed list of show topics and information about Ald. Sandi Jackson, please go here.
To watch the show with Ald. Jackson at a computer near you, please go here.
**********************************************************
$14,000 per kid per year spent by CPS
Jeff Berkowitz: Do you know how much we spend, per kid, per year, in the Chicago Public Schools?
Ald. Sandi Jackson [Chicago, 7th ward]: I don’t have that figure.
Jeff Berkowitz: Let me tell you. The figure is—it’s a six billion dollar budget, you take the four hundred twenty thousand students, it might only be four hundred ten thousand now, in the Chicago public schools-
Ald. Sandi Jackson: It’s a large number.
Jeff Berkowitz: If you divide four hundred twenty thousand into six billion, you get more than fourteen thousand dollars, per kid, per year. So we may spend more in Naperville, or on the North Shore, but not that much more.
Ald. Sandi Jackson: Jeff-
Jeff Berkowitz: Now, that’s an average figure. So what I’m trying to say to you is--that fourteen thousand dollars, per kid per year—do you know that if you took twenty five kids in a Chicago public school, you would have [more than] three hundred fifty thousand dollars in that classroom? Do you think you can educate those twenty five kids-
Ald. Sandi Jackson: Jeff, I can tell you this, I can tell you this from experience. We have children within this school system who are sharing books. We have schools within Chicago whose infrastructure is-
Where does the $370,000, or more, per CPS classroom go?
Jeff Berkowitz: Where’s it going? Where’s that three hundred fifty thousand dollars going?
Ald. Sandi Jackson: I don’t know, we have to ask our state-
Jeff Berkowitz: Pensions? Teacher pensions?
Ald. Sandi Jackson: We have to ask our state legislators what is happening with that money.
Jeff Berkowitz: Graft? Embezzlement?
Ald. Sandi Jackson: I can tell you-
Jeff Berkowitz: Where’s it going?
Ald. Sandi Jackson: I think there’s a lot of that going on. I do. I don’t think there are enough reformers to deal with that.
Tax Swaps vs. School Vouchers-School Choice
Jeff Berkowitz: I have an idea. Let me challenge you with an idea.
Ald. Sandi Jackson: Okay.
Jeff Berkowitz: Your idea is to have a tax swap, raise the income tax, lower property taxes. A net infusion of six to seven billion dollars in revenue to the state.
Ald. Sandi Jackson: That makes a lot of sense to me.
Jeff Berkowitz: That’s your idea.
Ald. Sandi Jackson: It’s an idea been proposed by others that I agree with.
Jeff Berkowitz: Reverend Meeks.
Ald. Sandi Jackson: Absolutely.
Jeff Berkowitz: Ralph Martire.
Ald. Sandi Jackson: Absolutely.
Jeff Berkowitz: A bunch of folks. Perhaps even Congressman Jesse Jackson.
Ald. Sandi Jackson: Perhaps even the Congressman.
Choice, Competition and Innovation in K-12 schools
Jeff Berkowitz: But here’s another idea, because it may take a while to get people to sign on [to your idea]. How about introducing a little choice, a little competition, into the public schools? How about saying—if I’m right, that we spend fourteen thousand per kid, per year, take on average, that’s what we spend—take that fourteen thousand dollars, and put it in our backpack. You know about this backpack?
Backpacking with Ald. Jackson
Ald. Sandi Jackson: No, I don’t know about your backpack. There are many others, but I don’t know about yours.
Jeff Berkowitz: Do we have that fourteen thousand dollars here? I don’t know if we have it here. Have to dig real deep in the pocket. Usually I have my props set up better. Here’s fourteen thousand. We’re going to put the money in the backpack, that’s the hypothetical fourteen thousand dollars, per kid, per year. Give the parents of each of the kids in the Chicago Public Schools one of these backpacks.
Ald. Sandi Jackson: Um, um.
Jeff Berkowitz: In fact, you’re in a position to help do that. I realize it’s partly controlled by state, but also by the city. You could go down to Springfield and say, “I want, today, four hundred and ten thousand backpacks.
Ald. Sandi Jackson: Yes.
Jeff Berkowitz: I will work with you to take the state money, the city money, the federal money, the county money—property taxes—put it in the backpack. We’ll give each parent the backpack, strap it on the kid,
Ald. Sandi Jackson: OK
Jeff Berkowitz: And if the parents are happy with the public schools—and many are—the backpack stays there. The kid stays in the public schools, the backpack stays there, the cash stays there. But, if the parents want to choose differently, out goes the kid, out goes the backpack, out goes the cash, and there’s competition for that [public] school that may not be doing well. How about that? Would you sign on to that? School vouchers? School choice?
Will Ald. Jackson take the backpack?
Ald. Sandi Jackson: I think there is room for all of those options.
Jeff Berkowitz: You want to take this backpack? Come on. It won’t hurt you. It won’t bite.
Ald. Sandi Jackson: You’re a tough customer.
Jeff Berkowitz: Take the backpack. There you go.
Ald. Sandi Jackson: I will take the backpack, with this caveat.
Jeff Berkowitz: Offer it to your constituents. The sixty thousand constituents in your ward.
Ald. Sandi Jackson: I don’t have a problem with options.
Jeff Berkowitz: School vouchers, school choice. You’ll sign on to that today?
Who will help parents and children exercise school choice?
Ald. Sandi Jackson: I don’t have a problem with it. What I’m concerned about are the children who are left behind in those schools. Once the children who are high-performing, who have parents who are engaged, who are fully engaged. We’ve got a class of students, Jeff, unfortunately, whose parents are not as engaged as others.
Jeff Berkowitz: You could help them.
Ald. Sandi Jackson: When you separate those children out-
Jeff Berkowitz: You and the other leaders in the community could help them. You’re the alderman in the community.
Ald. Sandi Jackson: If I can finish.
Jeff Berkowitz: Okay.
Ald. Sandi Jackson: When you separate those children out, and you say, okay, for you parents who are highly motivated to pick your children up and take them out of here, here’s a voucher, here’s a vehicle to get them from here to there. And then you [also] have those children who—through no fault of their own—you know, may be in a dysfunctional situation and they are left there, now you’ve taken away funding, you’ve taken away parents who may be involved in the LSC systems, who have great oversight, who are engaged, who will help pull not just their children up, but other children.
Could Senator Barack Obama help students exercise school choice?
Jeff Berkowitz: But everybody who wants to leave could. You know there are community people—Barack Obama started out as a community organizer.
Ald. Sandi Jackson: Yes, he did.
Jeff Berkowitz: If Barack Obama were there on July 7, 2008—“there” being on the South Side, “there” being in South Shore, “there” being in Hyde Park, a bunch of areas in Chicago where kids, admittedly, have difficult family circumstances, don’t have parents-
Ald. Sandi Jackson: Incredibly difficult. Incredibly difficult.
Jeff Berkowitz: But there are people like Barack, there are people like your husband, Congressman Jesse Jackson Jr., as a leader, there are people like you, Alderman Sandi Jackson, and a bunch of other folks who are motivated, who are intelligent, and could say to these kids—if your parent isn’t going to counsel you, we will, and we’ll advise you, or the legal guardian—there are people who are watching over these kids.
Ald. Sandi Jackson: There are those folks.
Jeff Berkowitz: If they will not make the right decision, you and I and others will help them. The only people who would stay—there are a lot of people who would stay who like the public schools. They’re performing--
Ald. Sandi Jackson: The only thing I would say there-
Jeff Berkowitz: We’ve got to go on.
Ald. Sandi Jackson: We do, because there’s a lot of good things to talk about, in addition to this. The only thing I would say about this whole education component is that it is a very complicated, very difficult issue. It is not nearly as stark. There’s no bright line on either side in terms of which way to go with respect to education.
Ald. Jackson will consider school vouchers, school choice; and increasing the number of potential charter schools
Jeff Berkowitz: But you would consider school vouchers, school choice.
Ald. Sandi Jackson: I would consider it.
Jeff Berkowitz: And you would consider charter schools.
Ald. Sandi Jackson: Absolutely.
Jeff Berkowitz: You would consider lifting the cap. You would talk to Senator Meeks and make sure that cap is high, so there can be more charter schools in his ward and yours.
Ald. Sandi Jackson: I think you’ve got to put all options on the table. Every option.
Jeff Berkowitz: Let’s go back to economic development—your ward…
**********************************************************
Thanks to "Public Affairs," intern Amy Allen for preparing a draft of the above partial transcript of tonight's City of Chicago and City of Aurora editions of "Public Affairs."
**************************************************
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, next week's suburban edition of Public Affairs with State Rep. Candidate Tim Stratton (R-Glencoe, 58th Dist.), last Monday night's Chicago and Aurora show with State Rep. Mark Beaubien (R-Wauconda), Tonight's City of Chicago and City of Aurora edition of Public Affairs w/Ald. Sandi Jackson, our prior show with 13th CD Dem. Nominee Scott Harper, State Sen. Kwame Raoul (D-Chicago); State Senator John Cullerton (D-Chicago), Comm. Forrest Claypool (D-Chicago), State Rep. Candidate Joan Solms (R-Aurora), 6th CD Democratic candidate, Colonel Jill Morgenthaler (Ret.), State Rep. Jim Durkin (R-Western Springs) and shows with many other pols at www.PublicAffairsTv.com
*************************************************************
Now included on the Public Affairs YouTube page is tonight's show in the cities of Chicago and Aurora withAld. Sandi Jackson. Another very recently posted show on the Public Affairs YouTube page is next week's suburban edition of Public Affairs with State Rep. Candidate Tim Stratton (R-Glencoe, 58th Dist.), last Monday night's Chicago and Aurora show with State Rep. Mark Beaubien (R-Wauconda). Other recently posted shows include our prior show in Chicago, Aurora and across the State of Illinois with 13th CD Dem. Nominee Scott Harper, our prior show with Sen. Kwame Raoul(D-Chicago), Senator John Cullerton (D-Chicago)- watch here; State Rep. candidate Joan Solms (R-Aurora), Comm. Forrest Claypool (D-Chicago) on the Obama Presidential campaign and shows with many other pols
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