Reading about the Chi Public Schools apparatchik who took the fall for the little list of clouted applicants to elite schools, various noteworthy items:
. . . Duncan ordered admissions requests tracked over several years, creating a lengthy and detailed compilation of politicians . . .
Whazis, tracked? Either Trib copy editor did this or was so challenged by it, he gave up. I refer to this sequence:
The Tribune revealed earlier this week that Duncan ordered admissions requests tracked over several years, creating a lengthy and detailed compilation of politicians and influential business people who intervened on behalf of children during his tenure.
Look. Can’t a newspaper be clear and concise and punchy? Apparently not.
Then this, which seems to be a diminishing of the important story the Trib broke a few days ago:
The lists, used mostly in appeals cases, also show inquiries from politically unconnected parents. [How many?]
There is no evidence that principals were forced to admit unqualified students. Indeed, many applicants were still rejected after powerful patrons became involved.
Crazy. A reader might ask, “So what’s the problem?”
Care and prudence is one thing, pulling back Uriah Heep-like is quite another.
What also of this?
The girls were not accepted to Whitney Young, because of low test scores.
Were not accepted to? Not by? Or at, assuming by someone there, say, the principal? Whazis accepted to business?
The quotes are good, supporting the obvious conclusion that this guy fell on his sword for his old buddy Arne Duncan.
The Rev. Susan Johnson, senior minister at Hyde Park Union Church who has known Pickens since childhood, said: “To sacrifice someone of his caliber and race and gender is just such a waste of talent.”
And gender? What’s that about? Race we get: it’s standard racialism away with which no white person could get. But what’s the gender business? Black male achievers so rare, or what?
Then we have an “unwieldy” bureaucracy at the Chi Board of Ed? So stated by the reporters. You can’t wield that bureacracy for love or money, it just won’t be wielded. Instead “tangled”? How’s corrupt and incompetent? Politically infested. Come on, Trib peoples, say something. It won’t kill you and it could save a subscription or two.
More to the point of apparatchik falling on sword:
“David was a very honest and loyal lieutenant to Arne Duncan,” said Bill Gerstein, a high school principal and longtime friend of Pickens. “He was loyal to a fault and honest to a fault. In organizations, oftentimes the people who do the work and follow through on initiatives — they’re the first ones to go.”
I love the honest to a fault. He didn’t lie.
Then way at the end of the story, in hard, not digital copy:
Through a spokesman, Duncan declined to comment.
Of course not.
Blithe Spirit 