I've never written a diary here before, but I heard some BS this weekend and thought I had some obligation to address it. Beyond the Beltway is a nationally syndicated radio talk show hosted by Bruce DuMont and airs on Sundays. It generally features a panel of 3 or 4 guests representing a mix of liberal, conservative, and "middle" positions. Mr. DuMont is in many cases a fair moderator, but sometimes lets wacky callers and guests dominate a conversation.
Last Sunday, Dan Proft was the "conservative" guest. As unfamiliar as I was with the man (regular conservative talk show commentator, which about sums it up), I didn’t know that I was in for a snide serving of bile. Following a few angry, ranting calls, including a condescending white fellow who presumed to speak for all African-American men, the issue of Barack Obama and the performance of public schools in Chicago reared its head. From multiple sides, the specter of Democrat-led Illinois was paraded onto the stage for a summary whipping.
Sunday’s episode is archived and hosted here. Beginning at 1:27:30, we hear how the public school system in Chicago is worse today than it was 20 years ago and that most of the leadership have been Democrats. Then Mr. Proft chimes in [my personal transcription follows]:
The same Democrat and the same philosophy that Obama is proposing, and when you get past the [?] to the substance, the same exact philosophy he is proposing today. Let me, the scariest statistic—and here’s the thing: Barack Obama’s not on the hook for [Chicago Public Schools] for what’s happened in the Chicago public school system or what, more to the point, has not happened. But for seven years he sat in the state senate, he did nothing. He said nothing. He was carried around by the teacher’s unions like a celebutante’s cockapoo [???]. And the most—you want to hear a tragic statistic from Chicago’s public schools, and it’s like this in a lot of other big, urban school systems, too. A study done in 2005 that [measured outputs ?] by the Consortium on Chicago Public School Research found that of every 100 freshman that attend a Chicago public school system, six will go on to get a college degree. Six in a hundred spread over a universe of four hundred thousand kids. Those are death of civilization numbers, those are permanent second-class citizen numbers, and Barack Obama said and did nothing about that.
Hearing this during an evening drive, I wasn’t sure what to think. At first, I suspected Mr. Proft was probably lying or ignorant, simply because bombastic assaults on a limited radio forum are generally bombastic because they have to be in order to obscure weakness and convert or reinforce more listeners. You use simple details while obscuring other relevant details to myopically hammer out a point. I get that. As a person unfamiliar with Chicago and Illinois, I might have been susceptible to swallowing the venom through my radio. But it just didn’t sound right.
I went home and thought about this for a few days and did a little digging. It turns out that Mr. Proft was not completely accurate.
First, the study referred to was a huge project undertaken in 2005 that, among other things, tracked high school students who had graduated from Chicago public high schools in 1998 and 1999 and found that its statistics "suggest that only about 6 percent of students who begin high school in CPS earn a four-year college degree by the time they are in their mid-twenties." That is, within six years of graduation from high school. This does not mean that these students were to never receive a four-year degree over the course of their lives to remain "permanent second class citizens," whatever Mr. Proft means by that term (i.e. not rolling in gobs of cash).
Second, the study was originally published in April 2006 and subsequently corrected in October 2006. Among the corrections was a change to the 6-percent figure:
The aggregate statistic of the percentage of students who begin high school in CPS and earn a four-year college degree by their mid-twenties increases just slightly—from 6 to 8 percent.
Okay. Big deal, right? A difference of two points? Well, it’s not a huge difference; I mean it’s a difference of two measly points. But statistically, it’s an error of 25 percent. Besides, Mr. Proft should have known this. The correction to the study has been out since October 2006 and isn’t difficult to find. The Chicago Tribune covered it on October 13, 2006. The Christian Science Monitor mentioned it in a March 19, 2008, article. Plus, here’s more on Mr. Proft from his bio on Urquhart Media:
In April 2008, Proft was added as a featured columnist for School Reform News, a national newspaper published by the Chicago-based Heartland Institute.
Additionally, Proft is a frequent guest on Illinois radio and television public affairs shows. Proft is also a regular panelist at workshops and conferences on media, politics, and foreign affairs.
A columnist for a school reform magazine, political commentator on a Chicago talk radio station, and a media clown living in Chicago. It’s his job to know these details, but he somehow doesn’t know—or doesn’t care to share—that the study was corrected 20 months ago??? That the college graduation estimate was based on six years following high school graduation, not an entire lifetime? Are these unreasonable demands for accuracy?
But there’s more.
Mr. Proft claims that Obama "sat in the state senate" and said and did nothing for seven years about public schools in Chicago. A big claim. Let’s see if it checks out.
The General Assembly of Illinois posts bills and resolutions that were proposed since 1979. Each bill or resolution has a number, a sponsor, and a short description of its purpose. Every bill or resolution requires a sponsor to bring it to the floor, advocate for its passage, etc., and many bills and resolutions have more than one sponsor. Granted, sponsors don’t have to work very hard for everything they sponsor. But a legislator puts his or her reputation on the line by sponsoring a bill.
I casually searched the Illinois GA website to find bills and resolutions sponsored by Obama from 1997 to 2004 that addressed the issue of public school education beyond technical changes. There are many of them. Not all of them passed and I cannot say that any of them are good or bad because I haven’t analyzed them. But here they are, with their purposes slightly edited for relevant content and brevity:
90th General Assembly
HB2147: Creates the Youth Crime Prevention Consortium Act. Authorizes universities, colleges, and community colleges located in the same county to form a consortium that operates to supply an educational component to youth crime prevention programs organized by local communities within that county. Provides that the consortium shall develop and implement a curriculum offering one or more courses for academic credit at an institution of higher learning that is part of the consortium. Provides that the course or courses are to be offered in disciplines normally associated with young people, their families, or the criminal justice system and that as part of each such course students are to be required to provide adult mentoring and leadership to community youth during informal, safe opportunities organized by and in local communities as part of their youth crime prevention programs. [Passed]
SB637: Creates the Fund Education First Act. Establishes a minimum funding for elementary and secondary educational programs from general funds revenues for subsequent fiscal years.
91st General Assembly
HB3315: Amends the School Code to require the State Board of Education to provide after school program grants to qualifying school districts for the purpose of assisting individual students who fail to meet State academic standards and their families.
HB3981: Creates the Higher Education for Real Opportunities Act. Creates a program of grants to support the pursuit of post-secondary education by low-income adults who are supporting minor children.
SB346: Amends the School Code to require the State Board of Education to provide after school program grants to qualifying school districts for the purpose of providing academic assistance at the end of the regular day of instruction or on non-school days for students and their families at school sites.
SB687: Amends the "Temporary Assistance for Needy Families" (TANF) Article of the Public Aid Code. Provides that if a family unit includes a child who is enrolled in kindergarten or any of grades 1 through 12, the family unit is not eligible to receive TANF unless the parent or other custodian signs a responsibility contract with the Department of Human Services, pursuant to which the parent or other custodian agrees to participate in the child's school activities.
SB1280: Provides that a suspended or expelled student must (instead of may) be immediately transferred to an alternative school program [in certain circumstances].
SB1726: Establishes the Youth Service scholarship Program, to be administered by the Illinois Commission on Community Service. Provides that the Program shall be made available to consortia of school districts and community-based organizations who then select pupils to earn scholarships while they are enrolled in any of grades 9 through 12 in a public school. Provides that, upon completion of 100 hours of volunteer community service performed between September 1 of one year and August 31 of the next year, a pupil shall earn a $500 scholarship. Provides that the pupil may redeem the scholarship if the pupil enrolls in a private or public postsecondary or vocational institution in this State.
SB1895: Establishes the Teacher Cadet Program, to be operated by the State Board of Education, to introduce public secondary school students to the teaching profession.
SB1918: Requires the State Board of Education to conduct an analysis to determine if the funding gap between school districts with high equalized assessed valuations and school districts with low equalized assessed valuations has been narrowed as a result of certain State aid formula provisions.
92nd General Assembly
HB582: Requires the Illinois Student Assistance Commission to implement and administer a teacher scholarship program, to be known as the Teach Illinois Scholarship Program. Requires the Commission to annually award scholarships to persons preparing to teach in areas of identified staff shortages. Requires the recipient to accept employment to teach in an elementary or secondary school in Illinois in an area of identified staff shortage for a period of at least 5 years.
HB1927: Makes changes concerning the waiver or modification of School Code mandates and State Board of Education rules.
HB5660: Creates a K-3 class size reduction grant program to be implemented and administered by the State Board of Education.
HB5700: Amends the Children with Disabilities Article of the School Code. Provides that the Community and Residential Services Authority shall have 4 (instead of 3) representatives of the Department of Human Services, and specifies from which Divisions and Offices these members must come from. [Passed]
HB5734: Allows the Chicago Board of Education to levy a capital improvement tax to provide revenue for specified capital improvement purposes. [Passed]
SB636: Allows a charter school to (i) borrow money without regard to any referendum requirements, (ii) issue bonds, notes, and other obligations, and (iii) secure any of its obligations by pledge, mortgage, or deed on its property. Allows the governing body of a charter school to pledge, as security for the payment of its obligations, grants, other revenues, gifts, or donations expected to be received by the charter school from certain sources. Allows a school board to guarantee the repayment or otherwise enhance the credit of the debt obligations of a charter school.
SB667: Beginning with the 2004-2005 school year, requires the State Board of Education to annually test all pupils enrolled in the 4th, 6th, 7th, 9th, and 10th grades in English language arts and mathematics. Makes changes concerning sufficient funding for State tests, aligning school and classroom practices with the State Standards, using State test results to improve instruction and student learning, giving pupils individually identifiable, confidential, and consistent numbers to be placed on State tests, disseminating State test results, the maximum time allowed for actual testing, and requiring all State tests to be aligned to the State Standards.
SB1983: Provides that all schools in this State that are part of the sample drawn by the National Center for Education Statistics shall administer the biennial State academic assessments of 4th and 8th grade reading and mathematics under the National Assessment of Educational Progress. Provides that the school report card assessing the performance of a school district's schools and students shall be posted on the school district's Internet web site. [Passed]
SB2005: Creates the Certified Teacher Retention Bonus Program. Allows a school district to apply for a grant each school year from the State Board of Education on behalf of schools in the district that are on the Academic Watch List or Early Academic Warning List and have a high rate of teacher turnover.
SB2156: Establishes a program to encourage high-quality, veteran teachers of exemplary ability to teach at low-performing, high-needs schools by offering these teachers incentives.
93rd General Assembly
HB13: Requires the State Board of Education to implement and administer a quality teacher incentive program, in which the Board provides signing bonuses of $1,000 each to eligible teachers.
HB20: Requires the Commission to annually award scholarships to persons preparing to teach in areas of identified staff shortages.
HB2375: Requires the State Board of Education to develop and submit to the General Assembly a plan for identifying and assisting financially troubled school districts.
HB4197: Provides that the State Board of Education shall implement a Giant Steps Autism Center for Excellence program for the study and evaluation of autism and to provide related teacher training and other services.
SB66: Requires the State Board of Education to establish and implement a 21st Century Community Learning Center Grant Program, in accordance with federal guidelines, to provide grants to support academically focused after-school programs for students who attend high-poverty, low-performing schools. Allows the State Board of Education to establish any other grant programs that are necessary to establish high-quality, academically based, after-school programs that include family-centered education activities. [Passed]
SB167: Creates the Council on Responsible Fatherhood. Requires the Council on Fatherhood to establish a responsible fatherhood initiative. [Passed]
SB492: Allows the State Superintendent of Education to extend the 6-year time limit for becoming a U.S. citizen for a period of 2 years if the person certifies his or her intention to become a U.S. citizen and furnishes proof that he or she has filed an application for citizenship.
SB533: Requires a public school to develop, establish, and implement a new teacher induction and mentoring program to assist new teachers in developing the skills and strategies necessary for instructional excellence. [Passed]
SB565: Establishes the Illinois Early Learning Council to coordinate existing State programs and services for children from birth to 5 years of age in order to better meet the early learning needs of children and their families. [Passed]
SB903: Allows a school board to establish, maintain, and operate a summer kindergarten program that begins 2 months before the beginning of the regular school year and a summer kindergarten program for grade one readiness for those pupils making unsatisfactory progress during the regular kindergarten session that will continue for 2 months after the regular school year. [Passed]
SB1369: Requires the State Board of Education and the Capital Development Board to file with the General Assembly a comprehensive assessment report of the capital needs of all school districts in this State before January 1, 2005 and every 2 years thereafter. [Passed]
SB2115: Allows a school or school district to deny enrollment to a student 16 years of age or older for one semester for failure to meet minimum academic or attendance standards if certain conditions are met. Requires a district to identify, track, and report on the educational progress and outcomes of reenrolled students (defined as dropouts who have reenrolled full-time) as a subset of the district's required reporting on all enrollments. [Passed]
SB3109: Requires the State Board of Education to establish a system to provide for the accurate tracking of transfer students. [Passed]
So, these were all the bills I could locate relating to education that Obama sponsored. As you can see, most of them did not pass, although the passage rate increased in the 93rd assembly. I make no judgments regarding the merits of the bills; I leave that up to others for now. I only post them to illustrate that Obama did not sit and do nothing on public education while he was in Illinois. To make the accusation as Mr. Proft did was absurd, lazy, and insulting to any audience—even Limbaugh’s audience. And I should point out that he made the "said nothing" remark earlier in the program, at around 1:00:25; this was not an isolated occurrence.
Following his diatribe quoted above, Mr. Proft continued in response to a question from the liberal guest on the show, who successfully pushed him into emotionalism:
Liberal Guest: Oh, so we’re going to blame the entire failure of the Chicago public school system on Barack Obama?
Proft: No! What, what did, what did I just say? What, what did I just say? Don’t, don’t, don’t recast what I said. What did I just say? It is not strictly his fault, of course. But he said and did nothing about it. He made no effort to do anything about it. And that is a crime.
[smug silence]
.
.
.
*fart*
Okay, I made up the farting bit. But flatulence would have more accurate then his actual words.
I don’t mind criticizing the status of public schools--that’s fine. We know there’s a lot of work to do on public schools all over the country, just as there’s a lot of work to do on private schools. But if a person, any person, wants to go on a nationally syndicated radio show and slam a front-running presidential candidate, they better have their facts straight. They better rely on more than an outdated article from a newspaper or a pundit for their information, especially when the corrections to the outdated information are readily available.
Do you know what’s a crime? Representing a senate district and passing laws in an effort to improve education in America is not. But appearing on a radio show and arrogantly misleading Americans—and getting paid for it—should be. At the very least, it's intellectual fraud.
Last Word(s): I was a Hillary Clinton supporter in the beginning. The outcome of the Democratic primary still stings a bit, but I'm over it. I also like Obama, but I haven't been outspoken in support of his candidacy. However, I’ve been motivated by the baseless slurs of Mr. Proft to come here and do what I’ve never done before: share what little research and insight I can to document and correct the misinformation of the smear machine that dominates present Republican politics. I know I could do more, but I hope this is an adequate effort. I’d welcome any constructive criticism, and if I’m wrong on this subject, feel free to share your thoughts.
And thanks to Mr. Proft for giving me yet another reason to vote Democratic in November.