Friends of the African Union

We, the African Diaspora in the USA, can be a change Africa needs – now .

FAU Chicago Schools

 

Greater Chicago Community Reinvestment Coalition Education Committee

Greater Chicago Community Reinvestment Coalition plans to build through its Education Committee  an inclusive and fair economy that meets the educational needs of the African American community and allied American citizen communities of color along with low-income communities by ensuring that banks and other corporations invest and conduct business through a customized superset of ISO 26000 (corporate social responsibility) in our communities in a just and equitable manner that supports best of class educational outcomes.

Chicago Community Reinvestment Coalition Education Committee

FAU Chicago will Create Chicago Community Reinvestment Coalition Education Committee who will by January 14th 2017 create a citywide PTA to support the creation of the following 10 curriculum initiatives:

  1. Fashion Art Music Entertainment
  2. Science Technology Engineering and Math
  3. Sports and First Responders
  4. Military Academy
  5. Public Policy and the Law
  6. International Studies featuring the UN Model School
  7. The Business School
  8. People with Disabilities
  9. The Citywide My Brothers Keeper School Project
  10. The Citywide My Sisters Legacy School Project

Our goal is 20,000 students under management by 2020.

The Chicago Board of Education

The Chicago Board of Education, founded in 1840, is responsible for the governance, organizational and financial oversight of Chicago Public Schools (CPS), the third largest school district in the United States of America. It establishes policies, standards, goals and initiatives to ensure accountability and provide a high quality, world-class education for the 21st century that prepares our students for success in college, work and life.

In 1987, Secretary of Education William Bennett declared Chicago Public Schools as “the worst in the nation.” In 1988, the Illinois General Assembly passed a school reform act which authorized Mayor Richard M. Daley to take control of Chicago’s crisis-riddled education system. The Chicago School Reform Act officially took effect on May 1, 1989 and one of the series of amendments created to effectuate change was the Amendatory Act. In 1995, it empowered Mayor Daley to appoint the five-member Reform Board of Trustees who embarked upon comprehensive reform measures to improve Chicago Public Schools.

In July 1999, the Amendatory Act restored the original title of the Board of Education of the City of Chicago, expanded the Board to seven members, and reinstated the position of Board Vice President.

Chicago Teachers union’s rank-and-file membership, including nearly 30,000 teachers and support staff members .

Peoples with Disabilities

The district has seen an increase in the number of students with special learning needs, with more than 52,000 students registered this school year compared to 49,186 enrolled in 2010. The memo said CPS is now spending about $900 million on special education, a $131 million increase since 2010.

Charter Schools

Chicago charters are operating in a political environment altered by a new Chicago Teachers Union contract that puts a cap on charter growth.  The contract reads, “There will be a net zero increase in the number of board-authorized charter schools over the term of this agreement, and the total number of students enrolled by the end of school year 2018-2019 will not exceed 101 percent of the total student enrollment capacity as of school year 2015-2016.”  Chicago Charters are capped at 127.

Teachers’ unions have long opposed charter schools, alleging they siphon off funds that would otherwise go to public schools. The Chicago Teachers Union has promoted books and research critical of the charter-school business model.

The Office of New Schools (ONS) in the Chicago Public Schools oversees the application process for starting a new charter, contract, or performance school, as well as some turnaround schools. Once the schools are opened, ONS works with the charter and contract schools, while performance schools are assigned to a CPS area. ONS holds charter and contract schools accountable to the terms of their agreements with the Chicago Board of Education. In 2016 125 Charter Schools are in operation right now.

The Illinois State Board of Education said charter-school attendance in Illinois has doubled in the last five years — primarily in low-income areas. There are 58,590 students enrolled in Chicago charter schools in 2016. According to the University of Chicago Consortium for School Research, charter school students account for 25 percent of the city’s high school graduates but account for almost half of the students who will enroll in college.

The Illinois Charter School Commission also can grant charter-school licenses on appeal but has only done so eight times. The Illinois Charter School Commission was established in 2011 as an independent body with statewide chartering jurisdiction and authority. The Commission, comprised of nine appointed members supported by a professional staff, is guided by the belief in the right of all Illinois families to a high quality education. Its vision and mission as well as its set of governing principles incorporate and expand on this belief.

There’s currently a state moratorium on charter schools that would utilize virtual learning that lasts until 2017.

Greater Chicago Charter School Operators

Dec 2016 Current News: As of Board meeting on Dec 5th 2016 Chicago Public Schools won’t be advancing any plans for new privately operated schools this year.  A group of the district’s existing independent school operators are still set to have their contracts extended in a vote by the Chicago Board of Education. That list includes nine charter operators that run 29 campuses, and a contract school operator, according to CPS. Those seeking five-year extensions through June 2022 are:

The Chicago International Charter School; Catalyst Maria Charter School; KIPP Chicago Charter Schools; Legal Prep Charter Academy; The Montessori School of Englewood; Perspectives Charter Schools; and Polaris Charter Academy.

Those seeking three-year extensions through June 2020 are: Chicago Excel Academy; Instituto Justice and Leadership Academy Charter High School; and Providence Englewood Charter School.

The Noble Network of Charter Schools

The Noble Network of Charter Schools, which runs 17 schools in Chicago.

FAU Chicago Capital Program for Schools

We will create a series of financial instruments that are complimentary to creating best of class schools for the children of Chicago.In doing so we support the financially struggling Chicago Board of Education who will in December sell a new type of debt, armed with an investment grade rating from Fitch Ratings based on the bonds’ ability to withstand a bankruptcy filing.

Ref.: In doing so we support the financially struggling Chicago Board of Education who will in December sell a new type of debt, armed with an investment grade rating from Fitch Ratings based on the bonds’ ability to withstand a bankruptcy filing.

The $500 million of capital improvement tax bonds slated to price through Barclays Capital are secured by a new property tax levy earmarked exclusively for capital spending and not by the school district’s junk-rated general obligation pledge.

That money would be considered special revenue in a “hypothetical” municipal bankruptcy by the district, allowing debt service payments to continue as bondholders retain a lien on the tax collections, according to the debt issue’s legal opinions. The Chicago Public Schools cannot file for bankruptcy under Illinois law.

Fitch assigned the bonds an A rating, eight steps above the district’s B-plus junk rating with a negative outlook.

Alan Schankel, a municipal bond strategist at Janney Capital Markets, said the new bonds should fetch lower yields than the district’s February GO bond sale, when yields hit a whopping 8.5 percent. “I suspect pricing will still be well into high yield territory given lack of Moody’s and S&P ratings as well as relative novelty of Fitch’s rating approach,” he said.

Bankruptcy attorneys hired by the district and bond underwriters to scrutinize the planned sale believe a court would see those tax dollars as “special revenue” that wouldn’t be cut off from bondholders if CPS ever filed for bankruptcy, financial disclosure documents said.

FYI Note: For nearly 40 years, Janney has focused on the business of municipal finance by providing governments, municipal agencies and non-profit organizations with a wide array of financing alternatives and an unmatched commitment to their clients’ changing needs. Since 2003, Janney has been a senior or co-manager in more than 650 tax-exempt offerings, raising over $83 billion in fixed- and variable-rate bonds and notes for issuers throughout its geographic reach.  This includes: Public Issuers including school districts, municipalities, counties, States and other governmental/public sector entities, such as utility authorities, single-family and multi-family housing, and economic development agencies along with tax increment districts; Nonprofit Issuers including cultural institutions, senior living facilities, hospitals, independent schools, colleges and universities and other nonprofit organizations, and; Corporate Issuers of industrial development bonds and other exempt facility issuers including solid waste, recycling, water utility, landfill, gas reclamation, pollution control and transportation.

Earlier in December 2016 some of the school system’s longer-dated GO bonds yielded as much as 380 basis points over Municipal Market Data’s benchmark triple-A scale, according to MMD.

Munis suffered in the wake of the 2016 presidential election, with the 30-year yield jumping 82 basis points to 3.35 percent between Nov. 7, the day before the election, and Dec. 1.  Yields have since dropped, closing at 3.12 percent on Friday.