Education

Illinois School Cuts Crossing Guards, But Spends $120k For ‘Chief of Equity And Social Justice’

  • Financial crisis forces the second-largest Illinois School district (U46) to cut budgets for student transportation, physical education, art, and even crossing guards.
  • School Superintendent gets appointed to Dept Of Ed commission on “Equity in Education”
  • Three months later, the budget-strapped U46 School District announces $120,000 job for “Chief of Equity & Social Justice”
  • Residents and parents protest, yet the School Board approves the new position without a single dissenting vote.

The U46 School District in Elgin, Illinois is the second largest school system in the state and U46 has dealt with the same financial strain facing many districts around the country. Budgets have been cut to the bone, programs like physical education and art have been eliminated, but that did not prevent the school board from hiring Ushma Shah as “Chief of Equity & Social Justice,” at a cost of $120,000 a year (plus another $12,450 in benefits).

As might be expected, parents who have watched their children’s classroom become increasingly overcrowded are not pleased. Many residents believe the money allocated to “Equity and Social Justice” would be better spent hiring teachers — or crossing guards. Two days ago the Daily Herald revealed that the school district, in cost cutting moves, had reduced the number of bus stops for high school students and also decided against spending just over $13,000 to pay for two crossing guards near an elementary school.

So, recapping: U46 has cut funds for student transportation and crossing guards, while allocating over $120,000 for a newly created position — the chief of equity and social justice.

The question remains, what is the job of a chief of equity and social justice? CBS Radio in Chicago reports that the role of the chief will be “to overcome the district’s educational gaps and foster racial equity.” (Huh?)

The official online job listing for the position states the following “position goals”:

Develop and communicate the vision, mission, goals and measurable outcomes for equity, closure of the achievement gap, and culturally responsive teaching in School District U-46.  Work with Superintendent and Cabinet to drive and infuse equity into all aspects of the District.  Accountable for developing and implementing “proof of concepts” models for closing the achievement gap in support of the District’s Accountability for Continuous Improvement Plan, Destination 2015.  Member of Superintendent’s Cabinet advising District leadership regarding current and future equity and social justice issues and needs of the District.

Coincidentally enough, in March of this year, the man who created the position, U46′s Superintendent Jose Torres, was appointed to a high profile Department of Education commission to study “equity and excellence in education.” And it should also surprise no one that the department does offer training in “social justice” and “equity”.  The Dept. of Ed website attempts to offer clarity on the purpose of this program:

The purpose of this program is to award grants (cooperative agreements) to operate ten regional equity assistance centers to provide technical assistance and training, at the request of school boards and other responsible governmental agencies, on issues related to equity in education to ensure that all children, regardless of race, gender, or national origin, have equal access to quality education and the opportunity to develop high academic standards in reading, math and other core subject areas.

Huh? Does that mean the Illinois program is one of 10 being set up around the country? If so, where are the other nine “Chiefs of Equity and Social Justice?” A quick search of the Internet did not turn up another one. . . yet.

Either way, the Dept. of Education commission on which Superintendent Torres served must have learned that “equity and social justice” is an important component to a good school, because it was only a matter of a couple of months before Dr. Torres appoint Ms. Shah to be his chief, telling the Daily Herald:

“Dr. Shah brings to U-46 her expertise and her proven ability to work with school leaders in closing the achievement gap between student groups.”

The hiring of Ms. Shah to this controversial position was the subject of a public meeting on Monday August 1st. Parents and local taxpayers were in attendance to voice their displeasure.

One very vocal resident at the meeting was Terry Gavin, a native Chicagoan and former Elgin City Council member who has lived in this NW Chicagoland suburb for twenty years. Terry spoke with The Blaze about the appointment of Ms. Shah, stating that he only heard about the hiring on Saturday in an email that alerted him to the meeting slated for this past Monday. Mr. Gavin gathered a crew of eight concerned citizens. He did address the U46 School Board letting them know:

“The term Social Justice is not a religious or Christian term, it’s not in the Constitution, it is not in the Pledge of Allegiance. At best it’s a socialist term and at worst, it’s Marxist.”

Despite the complaints from many parents and residents, the School Board voted again to unanimously appoint Shah as chief of equity and social justice.

And she may not be the last.

Comments (156)

1 2 3 ... 5
  • cloudsofwar
    Posted on August 5, 2011 at 9:26am

    public schools are schools of the state for the state and nothing but the state. send your children to private school where they can learn to think on their own. public school will teach your child to be part of the collective. there is no GOD there is only the state. Marxist

    Report Post »  
    • Snowleopard {gallery of cat folks}
      Posted on August 5, 2011 at 10:03am

      Indeed, the progressive socialists see their plans coming apart from the top with the tea parties having taken part of the House back; so they are also doing the ‘fundamental transformation’ from the bottom up at the same time.

      The sheer volume of damage done to the fabric of society by this administration will be a generation or more in being rewoven into a better American; assuming we survive long enough to see him out of office.

      Report Post » Snowleopard {gallery of cat folks}  
    • Marylou7
      Posted on August 5, 2011 at 10:10am

      Private school or home school is the only way. The Marxist don’t care about anything but power and making our children obedient little drones of the state.

      Report Post » Marylou7  
    • Flagwaver
      Posted on August 5, 2011 at 10:25am

      Yup, my kids are being sent to a military school where they will be taught the necessary skills for when the country goes into martial law and any freedom-loving Americans are herded up into “Social Justice” reeducation centers. It will be my kids leading the resistance.

      Report Post » Flagwaver  
    • Jaycen
      Posted on August 5, 2011 at 11:15am

      This isn’t a surprise in any way. I live in St. Louis, MO, and East St. Louis in IL has been rocked by scandal for the last 2 decades.

      The Superintendant pays herself a ridiculous salary, and all of the top administrators in the district are her relatives. A few years back there was a big story about a janitor making 6 figures – I think I recall it was her uncle.

      Illinois residents should flee the state.

      On the bigger issue of a low-level czar on social justice and equity – my goodness. The first “block commander” has appeared. I wonder to whom does this position report? I bet it’s not to someone at the State level.

      Report Post » Jaycen  
    • shazam3
      Posted on August 5, 2011 at 11:48am

      That’s what the Progressives want. Keep your kids at home schooling and at private schools but pay your taxes to the state. Now you can’t say anything against the school system even though you are financing them. They will educate all the little kids to be wards of the state and eventually politicians that will decide what your “home schooled” kids will eat and how they will live. The state kids will be the only ones that will get into colleges and med schools and probably for free. How about the 5 year old turning their next door neighbors into criminals for burning their leaves in the back yard and polluting the air. It will never stop. If the parents of today don’t fight this it will deteriorate the school systems of today into homosexual pedophile fodder, all within the laws. Just like our Progressive, 60′s bombers, radicals in the Gov today we have to vote them out and then their cronies all the way down to the local union dog catcher making 100k a year.

      Report Post »  
    • Tim Law
      Posted on August 5, 2011 at 11:54am

      Chief of equity and social justice. The name says it all, social justice the Obama & progressive mantra. I thankful my children are grown and no longer in this SICK school system we have now.

      Report Post »  
    • Miguelito
      Posted on August 5, 2011 at 1:05pm

      And we wonder what is wrong with our kids and their education in the public schools?

      Report Post »  
    • getalong
      Posted on August 5, 2011 at 1:46pm

      If more people put their children in private schools or home school their kids, the progressives will come up with a way to shut them down.

      Report Post »  
    • hifi74
      Posted on August 5, 2011 at 1:48pm

      I lived just 1 town north of Elgin for awhile (only 30 minutes away now so still relativey close) and that entire area is a liberal and illegal immigrant haven. Some of the most egregious fraud I have ever seen befor in my life is in that area of Illinois. I am not surprised by this at all, and Gov Quinn is just driving the state further into the ground. These people (school boards) need to be placed in jail for misuse of funds. They steal my kids futures and makes decisions like this and expect the citizens to be ok with it? Fire them ALL and start over with a clean slate. I think I need to call a few friends of mine still in the Elgin area.

      Report Post » hifi74  
    • getalong
      Posted on August 5, 2011 at 1:50pm

      I am not surprised. At the Nequau Valley High School in Naperville they brought in one of the leaders of the communist party to speak at a youth conference. Absent at the conference was a speaker on free markets or capitalism. They used the guise of the Junior Statesman of America group – a group that has been taken over by the communist, and is recruiting kids from all over the country!

      Report Post »  
    • banjarmon
      Posted on August 5, 2011 at 1:54pm

      Are the Crossing guards like cattel guards??

      For those of you who have never traveled to the west, or southwest, cattle guards are horizontal steel rails placed at fence openings, in dug-out places in the roads adjacent to highways (sometimes across highways), to prevent cattle from crossing over that area. For some reason the cattle will not step on the ‘guards’, probably because they fear getting their feet caught between the rails. (People in the south also know what cattle guards are.)

      A few months ago, President Obama received and was reading a report that there were over 100,000 cattle guards in Colorado . The Colorado ranchers had protested his proposed changes in grazing policies, so he ordered the Secretary of the Interior to fire half of the cattle guards immediately!
      Before the Secretary of the Interior could respond and presumably try to straighten President Obama out on the matter, Vice-President Joe Biden intervened with a request that…before any cattle guards were fired, they be given six months of retraining for Arizona border guards. “Times are hard”, said Joe Biden, “it’s only fair to the cattle guards and their families!”

      Report Post » banjarmon  
    • robert
      Posted on August 5, 2011 at 1:56pm

      This economy is continuing its downward spiral, so this appointment is not going to hold.

      Budgets are falling right now, but nothing like they will by next year.

      ALL the fat will be trimmed from the budgets as soon as the threat of tax riots starts to become a reality.

      Report Post »  
    • Secret Squirrel
      Posted on August 5, 2011 at 9:33pm

      .
      What?
      You thought education was about the kids?
      Hell no. It’s big business and big socialism.

      Report Post » Secret Squirrel  
  • matt708
    Posted on August 5, 2011 at 9:25am

    they should fire all the board members along with the position being eliminated

    Report Post »  
    • IntransigentMind
      Posted on August 5, 2011 at 9:29am

      One more useless expenditure of taxpayer dollars. These bureaucrats don’t care. Spend. SPEND SPEND!!!

      Report Post »  
    • 4truth2all
      Posted on August 5, 2011 at 11:23am

      to Matt708, that is somewhat correct. You cannot just fire them. However, you run against them in the next election. but that takes effort and not a bunch of talk. Please understand, I do not accuse you personally of doing nothing, but this does seem to be in part the reason we have this problem. I myself am active and have also considered running for the local school board to prevent this very type of thing. My suggestion 2all … less talk more action.

      Report Post »  
  • Silversmith
    Posted on August 5, 2011 at 9:23am

    Is the pendulum swinging back YET??

    Silversmith

    Report Post » Silversmith  
  • kinnick1
    Posted on August 5, 2011 at 9:18am

    Actions like this are EXACTLY why Illinois is broke and traveling at light speed on the highway to Hell. If I lived in Elgin, my kids would be pulled from that socialist school district immediately.

    Report Post »  
    • ILConservative
      Posted on August 5, 2011 at 6:42pm

      If you lived in Elgin, you probably wouldn’t put your kids in public school to begin with. For that matter, you probably wouldn’t even live in Elgin! It’s not hard to find a nicer, safer area!

      Report Post » ILConservative  
  • SpankDaMonkey
    Posted on August 5, 2011 at 9:17am

    .
    California of the Mid-West…..

    Report Post » SpankDaMonkey  
  • psst
    Posted on August 5, 2011 at 9:16am

    The publiK sKrool systems are a Kash Kow for politicians and their Kronies.
    I think it would be a safe bet that all these folks had a D after their names.
    This is Ill. Home of union thuggery.
    What da hey, We have one in the WH. Ya don’t even have to be born in the US to get there.just as long as you come out of the Daley’s marxist machinery.
    I don’t even know why we keep up this pretence of referring to these places as Public Skools
    Most normal Americans knows these places are Indoctrination Centers.It’s past time that we start referring to them as such.

    Report Post »  
  • Penn
    Posted on August 5, 2011 at 9:14am

    Alhamdulillah!

    Report Post »  
    • NOTAMUSHROOM
      Posted on August 5, 2011 at 10:18am

      Seriously? “Praise be to Allah?”. You’ve got to be joking. Why would anyone praise the false god of an evil religion whose “prophet” was a pervert murderous pedophile who duped an entire race of people into Islam?

      Report Post »  
  • let us prey
    Posted on August 5, 2011 at 9:13am

    More social justice, will they ever give it up?
    article says, Shah will be responsible for studying how programs and initiatives impact various racial and ethnic groups, monitoring the achievement of such groups.

    Report Post » let us prey  
  • ginger100
    Posted on August 5, 2011 at 9:13am

    Illinois is gone

    Report Post » ginger100  
  • nysparkie
    Posted on August 5, 2011 at 9:12am

    Your Kids will be killed crossing the street but this IDIOT will insure they are killed equally.
    DIP WADS!

    Report Post » nysparkie  
    • ILConservative
      Posted on August 5, 2011 at 6:49pm

      Actually, where this is, your kid might be killed by one of those kids. Gang shootings are a pretty regular thing around there!

      Report Post » ILConservative  
  • TRONINTHEMORNING
    Posted on August 5, 2011 at 9:12am

    2012, indeed; true Americans patience are at the test and we can get thru it, guys and gals. These germs will be dealt with with our votes. Hang in there!

    Report Post »  
    • lynnissmart
      Posted on August 5, 2011 at 11:26am

      Thanks for the spiritial uplift…..I needed that……and I hope you are right!

      Report Post »  
  • One Man Progressive Wrecking Crew
    Posted on August 5, 2011 at 9:04am

    “chief of equity and social justice”

    Stand in the way of hoodies actually learning something by instead handing them things they don’t earn like better grades when needed, needling teachers who push the smokies too hard, a laison in between local law enforcement and the school, figuring out ways to raise the grades of the hoodies without actually having to teach them anything so they can get em out the door with a diploma in their hands instead of a prison sentence:

    All that so they can then cajole them into colleges they don‘t deserve to be at or in which they can’t afford which we’ll foot the bill for on the Obama Affirmative Action plan all the way down the line just like he did, and perhaps one of them too can become president that can‘t handle the job because he was pushed through all his grades through high school and college because of half of his racial makeup and didn’t even learn 5th grade economics along the journey plus how many states we have, stuff like that..

    Meanwhile whitey has to keep making grades or get kicked out and lives ruined so there’s more spots open for affirmative action quotas to be met.

    Report Post » One Man Progressive Wrecking Crew  
    • smithclar3nc3
      Posted on August 5, 2011 at 9:11am

      EXACTLY BUT WITHOUT THE RACISM. Grades and Scholarships should earned on merit not skin tone. Equality means being treated as an equal but somehow when you put racial in front of that it means something entirely different

      Report Post »  
  • LadyIzShy
    Posted on August 5, 2011 at 9:03am

    yep schools have odd priorities. My proerty taxes are about to go up because they passed a millage for the local schools for the sinking fund. im sorry if you spend money on the track and football feild and new signs and TVs in the hallways then you do not need MORE of my money.. I am in MI i imagine its was in IL

    Report Post » LadyIzShy  
  • dtitus1304
    Posted on August 5, 2011 at 9:01am

    Elgin (U-46) was the same school district that spent several millions of dollars on a new middle school (late 90′s early 2000) but didn’t have the money to staff it so it sat for years unoccupied. Pathetic.

    Report Post »  
    • ILConservative
      Posted on August 5, 2011 at 6:39pm

      They are broke! It’s one of the worst school districts in the surrounding Chicago area and heavily hispanic!

      Report Post » ILConservative  
  • Striker
    Posted on August 5, 2011 at 9:00am

    This, unfortunatly, is becoming more common. When government gets so big that no one is accountable, these things happen.

    Report Post »  
  • Cherynn
    Posted on August 5, 2011 at 9:00am

    And you wonder why our schools are IDIOT factories ?????

    Report Post » Cherynn  
  • Darla_K
    Posted on August 5, 2011 at 9:00am

    They don’t get it, never will, and never have.

    Report Post » Darla_K  
  • ColoradoMaverick
    Posted on August 5, 2011 at 8:58am

    You know, it’s real hard to feel sorry for States like Illinois, New York, California and others that vote to elect the people who support this non-sense. I see it happening in Colorado. This was once a conservative state and now because of the population boom in Denver, Boulder, Fort Collins and other cities that have universities, the political make-up is becoming more liberal. Taxes go up, the economy goes down and liberals get their way. After a while, the regular folks who get stuck paying for this get sick and tired and try to protest on deaf ears. Make your voice heard with your votes people. Make it impossible for these idiots to do their bidding and next time an election come around, even a small local election, take the time to vote and be heard.

    Report Post » ColoradoMaverick  
    • NHwinter
      Posted on August 5, 2011 at 9:35am

      Someone on the Blaze the other day suggested a tax revolt. I’m beginning to think that is the only way to stop these fools. No money, no spending. How do you organize a national withholding of paying taxes? They can’t put 50% of the people in jail. Instead of throwing tea in the Boston Harbor, just throw all the school board members, politicians, and unions in the harbor. No money, no spending.

      Report Post » NHwinter  
  • kentuckypatriot
    Posted on August 5, 2011 at 8:58am

    It seems to me Chicagoland is doomed. With high taxes, unions, thugs, entitlements, and BO’s hometown, it sounds like a wasteland. What a shame the school board doesn‘t give a rat’s behind about what the parents want.

    Report Post » kentuckypatriot  
  • obfuscatenot
    Posted on August 5, 2011 at 8:57am

    You can bet they took stimulus money. The feds get to run your district IF you take the money.

    Report Post »  
  • hi
    Posted on August 5, 2011 at 8:57am

    At my son’s Jesuit school social justice was explained as society makes people poor . Charity does not do enough to help. Therefore the poor have a right to take it from the rich.

    Report Post » hi  
    • one years food ration like glenn says
      Posted on August 5, 2011 at 9:13am

      A “ right” ? What gives them a “ right” to others hard earned money ? I hope you explained to your son that this was foolish, and shouldn’t be… Thanks for the info…

      Report Post » one years food ration like glenn says  
  • hightide
    Posted on August 5, 2011 at 8:56am

    That’s the way to lead us out of recession Illinois. Appoint more unwanted government jobs and cut out the ones that are needed.

    Report Post »  
  • clockwatcher
    Posted on August 5, 2011 at 8:56am

    Chief of Equity & Social Justice, what another joke. How about you teach the black people in your district to marry, have a family of a mother and father, get off drugs and get a job. That will give you social justice.

    Report Post » clockwatcher  
  • burr99
    Posted on August 5, 2011 at 8:55am

    School Board = Social engineering. How are we ever going to get out of this mess, if our kids don‘t understand that you can’t provide equal outcomes? Only equal opportunities.

    Report Post »  
    • one years food ration like glenn says
      Posted on August 5, 2011 at 9:08am

      So ,in other words, his job is to dumb down American or rather, Illinois children ? Please, I need an explanation… <<< ( funny word to pull out of explain , no ?) where in the hell did the i go ? Shouldn't it be spelled, " explaination" ? Must be that new social justice guy /story I was reading about , I get confused.. ..

      Report Post » one years food ration like glenn says  
  • NHABE64
    Posted on August 5, 2011 at 8:50am

    Sociailist cockroaches. More gag and puke stuff, it just never seems to end. Not until Nov 2012 that is.

     
1 2 3 ... 5

Sign In To Post Comments! Sign In

Sign Up For Our Newsletter!

Glenn Beck Radio

Listen to Glenn Beck 24/7 Listen Now
Restoring Love