CRITICALLY PROBLEM SOLVING CPS

DB 2022 POL1

INTRODUCTION

    What if you had the power of an ever-expanding web of connections in the palm of your hand? At the click of a button that once pressed, continues to stretch further and further? You could send any message you wanted, that you needed. You could raise awareness about any subject you felt mattered to you, and all it takes is one little click. What could this power be? Who has it? You're probably imagining some big corporate job, HR level of control and power over a facility, some kind of CEO. Maybe you've figured it out by the title or it might've slipped past you, but this type of power is often overlooked until you really think about it. It's a principal. 

This is the subject of my action project here today as my class on policy explores legislation. We took time to explore what a bill is, the roles and functions that legislation has and lastly reviewing current bills attempting to go and turn into law. We got the luxury of meeting two great FE guests, Andy Davis and Troy LaRaviere (who is hands down my favorite FE guest I've met so far). Andy Davis is a citizen who's taken part in the legislation process and LaRaviere is the head of CPS principals. 

THE VOICEMAIL 

For this action project (as mentioned before), we had to look at current bills looking to become law. For me though, I didn't plan to look any further than the bill introduced to me by Troy LaRaviere. I've become so familiar with it I remember the number that accompanies it of the top of my head. That name and number would be HB5107, which is a bill that has thankfully passed house and is currently under review by the senate. This bill is designed to remove the restriction placed on CPS principals forming a union in Illinois, which would be big. 

So now my job is to find an important figure in my state that's representative of me and has an impact on HB5107.

After looking up my address on a website designed to find your appointed representative, in my case my senator representative, I found that Senator Villanueva was a perfect candidate for my voicemail. She supports HB5107 and can be found with her name supporting the bill, which obviously tilted the favor of persuasion into my hand. Senator Villanueva is a wonderful person, of Hispanic origin, and an active supporter of immigrant rights. Being Hispanic myself, I felt it was appropriate to utilize our shared background and interests in my voicemail to persuade and fortify her belief in HB5107. Below you'll see the work of the appeal to logic, emotion, and credibility in this voicemail. 

In the case that you're having difficulty understanding me, I've left the script below the voicemail for you to read through. Enjoy.

doc · Voicemail to Senator Villanueva.

Hola Senadora Villanueva,


I’m a resident around West Lawn and I’ve been particularly fascinated by a bill you’re pretty familiar with and, luckily, a part of. Recently got the luxury of meeting Mr. LaRaviere, who dropped by my school to give us a rundown of HB5107 along with his take on CPS and Chicago’s questionable political approaches. I’m pretty caught up with what’s going on for education, especially CPS, as not only am I a student who has experienced the pros and cons of public schooling in Chicago, but also the son of a teacher who’s had her fair share of protests against CPS and Lightfoot.


I still remember how horrible the food was at Curie. The only edible food was the pizza, everything else was either dry to the equivalent of sand in terms of texture or was stale enough it could break glass if you tried to. Safe to say I’ve never been a fan of how CPS has been run, especially not after doing a little bit of my own research after learning a handful from Mr. LaRaviere.


Mr. LaRaviere was pretty confused and infuriated by the decision made by CPS to pour more of the budget into Pre-K, as according to the official CPS website, the decision was made on the statistic that kids who participated in Pre-K did academically better than kids who didn’t, so obviously the best choice here is to dump money into something we already know works. On paper, it sounds amazing and a smart decision to fund Pre-K to give kids a better shot at academics.


Luckily for me, Mr. LaRaviere is really good at snapping people out of that fantasy world that CPS enjoys painting so much for the public and bringing it back to reality, specifically his reality. We shouldn’t be dumping more money into something we already know works well, nor on something that’s got a price not every family can afford to pay. On top of that horrible decision, you’ve got the quality of middle and high schools in its current state and an incoming 40% of CPS schools seeing a budget cut. Why are we funding Pre-K just to send kids into a horrible learning environment after experiencing a short-lived luxury? It’s a glimpse into heaven before a long fall through hell.


I think the worst part of it all is seeing the passionate teachers that work at public schools being severely limited in their true potential to create a learning environment. They print worksheets, read from textbooks to a class, and quite literally the only thing making it enjoyable is their character outside of the lesson. They show up every day with the energy to make the dullest of assignments genuinely bearable. When they’ve got that much spirit going for them, I begin to wonder what they would do if they could look at their classes in the same way an artist looks at an empty canvas.


Which is where this barricade begins to fester, formed by CPS and Lightfoot who actively have chosen time and time again to ignore teacher protests and demands for as long as inhumanely possible.


So I understand why you’re supporting this bill, I understand why it had to be pushed towards the hands of Springfield to make Chicago better. CPS needs a union with the kind of political power to actually matter at their table, to push for improvement. Principals are knee deep in the situations that district management (who I only imagine are sitting comfortably in their chairs away from the student body) are making decisions for. CPS also continues to try and argue that the position of a principal isn’t one that should be classified as “non-managerial employees in state law.” So far they haven’t even had a stated reason on why that’s the case or then they just feel like it doesn’t make sense. So then the counterargument here really is to look at cities like New York or San Diego, who realized the importance of principal unions and permitted it. If others can imagine it and ALLOW it, why can’t CPS? It just sounds like fear of change, meaningful change.


Point of this voicemail (as I’m wrapping up here) is just to let you know that some 18 year old high schooler in West Lawn loves what you’re supporting and wants you to keep supporting it.


Hasta luego Senadora Villanueva. And of course, good luck!

Untitled by Max Herman, 2017

CONCLUSION

It felt good to do this. It's easier to do something like this when you're writing to and about people you support and easily admire their efforts to improve the city that you grew up in. I'm talking to somebody I could see randomly showing up to my cousin's quinceanera, somebody I could recognize as family if need be. In that, I'm able to be comfortable in my own skin. You can tell if you read through the script as I'm talking, I don't always stick with the script. I'm able to improvise myself into my writing to make it be me. Me, in the sense that I'm able to place myself truthfully and honestly in the place I'm talking and reading from. This was a great action project that I feel I've gotten lucky with. It's not every day I'm able to look at a politician and see a cause that's respectable. Thank you for reading.