Obama-Ayers: Failed Chicago Schools Under Ethnic Identity Agenda
Posted on August 28, 2008
Bill Ayers
Chicago Magazine Photo
Angry Obama supporters were asked to contact WGN’s 720 Extension radio talk show en masse to encourage the station to drop an interview with Stanley Kurtz, a National Review Online contributor with new information on Barack Obama. The show went on.
No secret now, why the Obama Campaign is desperately trying to silence National Review Online’s Stanley Kurtz.
Milt Rosenberg’s two-hour interview on WGN Radio last night with Kurtz revealed some of the agenda behind a late 1990’s Chicago public school program, of which Barack Obama was at the helm.
When news of the pending interview broke, the Obama campaign sent out emails, detailing talking points, and asking supporters to flood the radio station with calls and email messages, which they did. (The Obama Wire email appears at the end of this article.)
The Obama campaign was offered to participate in the entire two hour interview. According to Rosenberg’s producer, after the offer was made, a high-level Obama staffer asked for the name of the station manager and then hung up on the producer.
I have listened to the entire interview. It is available for your listening pleasure :
Background and my synopsis of the interview:
The University of Illinois released documents yesterday that propelled this conversation forward. Barack Obama and Weatherman terrorist Bill Ayers, who spent a number of years on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted List, were the leading powers behind a massive educational reform for the city of Chicago. Then Secretary of Education, William Bennett stated that the Chicago educational system was the worst in the Nation.
William Ayers prepared the proposal that got the seed money for the education reform program that would become the Chicago Annenberg Challenge - some $50M from the Annenberg Foundation, which was then matched by philanthropists and business interests - to total over $100M for Chicago’s failing school system.
With the money came the need for a organization - hence the Chicago Annenberg Challenge (CAC) was formed. The Chairman of the Board was Barack Obama. William Ayers was an ex-officio board member. The two attended meetings together…how often is not yet known.
Obama and Ayers presided over a very powerful political duo: The CAC headed by Obama and The Collaborative, co-chaired by Ayers.
It allegedly worked like this: “Programs” would apply to the CAC for an educational grant. Some programs were chosen, and others were not. Before the CAC was disbanded, almost all, if not all, of the monies were spent.
Kurtz, reading from yesterday’s released documents, gave these examples of who or what received the grants:
Chosen to receive a grant:
The South Shore African Village Collaborative for their “Celebrate African-American Holiday of Juneteenth” (celebrating the Emancipation Proclamation). Some African-Americans celebrate Juneteenth instead of the Fourth of July (a report fromTexas). Kurtz commented that in his reporting of Obama’s previous church, Trinity United Church of Christ, some members told him that Juneteenth was their Independence Day, not Fourth of July (Kurtz did not say that all members held this view).
Turned down to receive a grant:
*The Chicago Algebra Project: goal to increase student achievement
*The District 5 Math Initiative: goal to aid Hispanic students in the process of learning English, to further learn math and science.
Kurtz characterized the information he viewed as showing grant preferences for ethnic identity projects. The grants were evidently not given to schools, but rather to “external partners,” to which schools sought to attach themselves - such as a South Shore African Village Collaborative.
In the meantime, after “external partners” received millions, ethnic identity didn’t help math and science scores. It is interesting to note that this Chairman of the Board position was Obama’s first “executive” experience.
There’s more: Obama’s connections to the Gamaliel Foundation, Kurtz says has a “core point” advocating for a form of “liberation theology.” He further states that his research shows that Jeremiah Wright’s Black Liberation Theology preaching is not an anomaly.
Kurtz refers to a book written by Dennis A. Jacobsen, Doing Justice - Congregations and Community Organizing. This book, according to Kurtz, embodies the views of the Gamaliel Foundation. Further he asserts that Greg Galluzo, “the most important figure” in the Gamaliel Foundation, approves Jacobsen’s book, and is also an Obama mentor. Kurtz believes that Obama was a teacher at the Gamaliel Foundation before Jacobsen wrote the book. Kurtz does not know whether Obama has read the book.
The last portion of the interview was given to callers and emails, most of which were angry that Kurtz was allowed radio time. One emailer confused Kurtz with Weekly Standard editor, Bill Kristol, referring to “the vile traitor Bill Kristol.” Another asked about FCC oversight of the “unbalanced” station.
It was striking that few callers had anything to say more than the email’s talking points. Some pulled out the constant whine that Obama was only eight years old when the Weathermen were bombing our U.S. Capitol, the Pentagon, the State Department building, etc. They further pointed out Obama has “denounced” William Ayers. He did not, however, denounce him until he was forced to for the sake of his political campaign, and he wasn’t eight years old when he and Ayers began their educational reform.
Obama Wire email as printed in The Politico.
From: Obama Action Wire
Date: Wed, Aug 27, 2008
Subject: Chicago: CALL TONIGHT to fight the latest smear[Name] —
In the next few hours, we have a crucial opportunity to fight one of
the most cynical and offensive smears ever launched against Barack.Tonight, WGN radio is giving right-wing hatchet man Stanley Kurtz a
forum to air his baseless, fear-mongering terrorist smears. He’s
currently scheduled to spend a solid two-hour block from 9:00 to 11:00
p.m. pushing lies, distortions, and manipulations about Barack and
University of Illinois professor William Ayers.Tell WGN that by providing Kurtz with airtime, they are legitimizing
baseless attacks from a smear-merchant and lowering the standards of
political discourse.Call into the “Extension 720″ show with Milt Rosenberg at (312) 591-7200
(Show airs from 9:00 p.m. to 11:00 p.m. tonight)
Then report back on your call at http://my.barackobama.com/WGNstandards
Kurtz has been using his absurd TV appearances in an awkward and
dishonest attempt to play the terrorism card. His current ploy is to
embellish the relationship between Barack and Ayers.Just last night on Fox News, Kurtz drastically exaggerated Barack’s
connection with Ayers by claiming Ayers had recruited Barack to the
board of the Annenberg Challenge. That is completely false and has
been disproved in numerous press accounts.It is absolutely unacceptable that WGN would give a slimy character
assassin like Kurtz time for his divisive, destructive ranting on our
public airwaves. At the very least, they should offer sane, honest
rebuttal to every one of Kurtz’s lies.Kurtz is scheduled to appear from 9:00 p.m. to 11:00 p.m. in the Chicago market.
Calling will only take a minute, and it will make a huge difference if
we nip this smear in the bud. Confront Kurtz tonight before this goes
any further:http://my.barackobama.com/WGNstandards
Please forward this email to everyone you know who can make a call tonight.
Keep fighting the good fight,
Obama Action Wire
Disclaimer: This is my view and my word-processed interpretation of portions of the interview, although I have diligently attempted to represent the conversation closely, if not exactly, as I heard it.
Related:
Chicago Annenberg Challenge Shutdown (Kurtz)
Inside Obama’s Acorn (Kurtz)
Obama/Ayers Funnel Funds to Jeremiah Wright and The Arab American Network?
» Filed Under Communism, Congress, Education, Elections, Government ethics/corruption, Illegal Activities, Interview, Liberal Media/Bias, News, Obama/Biden, Politics As Usual, Socialism, religion, terrorism
Trackback URL
Comments
13 Responses to “Obama-Ayers: Failed Chicago Schools Under Ethnic Identity Agenda”
Affiliations
The Giants
-
Donate
Steal Me
Our Store
Click the design to visit our store and help Stop the ACLU!
More blogs about the ACLU
Maybe, but not necessarily. We’ll see where the money actually went. Remember, these were funds to be used to reform Chicago Public Schools.
Well I think the election should be suspended. We have nobody in either of the two glory parties worth using my vote. I suggest the media be fined $100,000,00. for every moment they give McCain and Obama ,when they don’t give the other candidates who are running for office the same air time……maybe Ron Paul or even Chuck Baldwin and Alan Keyes might get some news coverage………….
Thanks for summarizing the interview for us. I don’t like listening to radio because it’s so time-consuming compared to reading, and thanks to your summary it looks like I can get away with that :-).
In Barack Obama’s speech last night, we just learned that he was not going to even let one child drop through the cracks in his new educational edifice.
As a result, I don’t think there’s anything more legitimate than questioning how he managed a large bucketful of money that was supposed to go to education. If we can show that it essentially accomplished nothing, we can tell that Obama does not know what to do about education in this country.
Obama has claimed he will do great things with the schools and so if he can be proven not to have done so in the past, that’s a real story that needs to be pursued with vigour.
I have read numerous extraordinarily boring documents created by the Challenge and its evaluation arm. Its evaluation arm was strikingly honest in saying that little improvement was seen in any readily measurable aspects of student performance.
So far, in my research, it appears that the Board of which Obama was Chairman did little other than meet and rubber-stamp the “Collaborative”’s recommendations. At least in the beginning, it appears that Obama and his staff knew little about the subject of education and what they were funding, and trusted the Collaborative (led by Ayers) to guide them into doing the right thing.
It’s difficult to think of Obama as anything other than a tool for Ayers, because it helped support Ayers’ friends and compatible organizations. In this way the Challenge could be thought of as a political success but an educational failure. The Obama campaign still defends him as a noted educational reformer, and that praise comes largely from the Challenge.
The reports are strikingly vague about what was actually tried to improve schools and what the organizations actually did in the classroom. These would appear to be essential questions when it comes to seeing how well the money was used, but they were not addressed in the reports. It appears that the Challenge simply gave out grants to organizations and hoped their efforts would help.
The only recorded achievement of Obama I have seen so far is that when Ayers tried to involve the Challenge more in local school politics, someone protested that this was inconsistent with Challenge goals. Obama met with the malcontent and shortly thereafter $2 million of grants went to “leadership development” which was a code for shoring up a political structure supported by Ayers.
In short, Obama was responsible for supporting Ayers in his goal of sending Annenberg money to an essentially political effort that was inconsistent with the goals of the Challenge.
It’s difficult at this time to tell how responsible Obama was in all this. I’m not sure if he knew or understood what he was doing. He’s likely to have trusted the far more seasoned Ayers to help. On the other hand, I don’t think anyone would say Obama is dumb.
The Chicago Challenge is important because I believe Obama would ratchet up similar efforts and donate to similar organizations in a clearly mistaken belief that they will improve schools. If they didn’t work then they probably won’t work now.
Perhaps his new agenda can be called “No dollar left behind.”
Hope that was interesting to the folks out there. If you’re interested in learning more about my research please drop me a line at david@amazing.com .
David, thanks so much for this very interesting comment and perspective.
“He’s likely to have trusted the far more seasoned Ayers to help.”
From all I’ve read, Ayers ran the show and greatly benefited from it.
I was puzzled at the “external partners.” I perhaps see some answers here in your comment.
I’ll contact you by email and, again, thanks for your fine comment.
PIM: I agree with much of what you are saying. We desperately need a “do over” of our parties. If we had a stronger Congress it would be easier. From my Republican perspective, our Party needs to get back to what Conservatism really is.
I do not know much about Chuck Baldwin but I love the name: Constitution Party.
Thanks so much for your comment.
Maggie
Maggie’s Notebook
> alright so this didn’t work out,
> well guess what, that’s how people
> learn; trial and error.
Fair enough. But before we put someone into the whitehouse wouldn’t it be good if Obama tried his hand at something that succeeded? To date this CAC deal is his only attempt at wielding executive power and it was a total failure.
I’ll repeat a question I ask everywhere and nobody ever attempts to answer. Other candidates for POTUS can normally point to at least one distictive accomplishment. What is Obama’s? Being elected to the US Senate against Alan Keys doesn’t count, btw. I could probably manage that much.
“The grants were evidently not given to schools, but rather to “external partners,””
Chicago has been, and will always be corrupt.
Bribes are still required to do business, and public money still is funneled to connected cronies.
Check out http://www.theconservativevoice.com/article/33028.html
Also google chicago corruption
With Obama familiar with the way Chicago corruption works, and with his current campaign of “change”, talk of fixing government, and politics as usual, is there any record of any legislation that he tried to pass to fix any of this? Are there any crooked politicians that he helped get prosecuted?
Or is he quiet on this, as he benefited from it too?
John, my answer is that this country should not be at risk from an Obama Presidency.
Not only is he not ready now, but he should never be President.
Even if I knew nothing else about him, I know that one-half of his family is Muslim. What will he do on the day when the U.S. MUST take extreme action against a jihad. Can he do what he MUST? I don’t think so. He has very, very strong ties to Islam, socialism and communism through his family. The man shouldn’t be on the ticket.
One big issue to me: his cousin (or not?) ran for President of Kenya. Obama went there to campaign with him. The cousin is Christian. The cousin, before the elections, signed a document with the Muslim Leaders Forum to put some portions of Kenya under Shariah Law, IF Obama’s cousin became President. Obama was on the campaign trail with him. The cousin (Odinga Ochinga) did not win.
Who would offer to put their own people under Sharia Law? Certainly not a person interested in democracy. Later, Koffi Annan put the cousin in the Kenyan government as Prime Minister. Obama’s father was very, very close to the Odinga’s - and especially to this Odinga’s father. Unconfirmed rumors insist Odinga is Obama’s father.
Here’s some of my background:
The Meat
Obama’s Father, Why it Matters
Outside of the Muslim issue, he has no experience, but the Democrats don’t care. There are no laws against Democrats nominating him.
We have our vote and blogs. That’s it.
Maggie
Boss Hogg: Obama was the head of an organization that had the ability to give millions to schools which desperately needed funding.
The program was set-up by Bill Ayers NOT to take up that agenda. Obama was a grown man, a well-educated man. He knew what he was doing. The millions were designed to conspire to fund Ayers and ethnic projects. It’s pitiful, really.
Chicago may be corrupt forever, but Obama is in line to be the U.S. President - and he sanctioned this ugly project.
The “external partners?” Despicable, and it is his first and only try at “executing.” What did he do, he abuse his power.
I’ll follow your links. Thanks so much.
Maggie
Obama question on legislation:
There’s almost nothing. He trumpets “sweeping ethics reform” and tried to tie McCain to it’s support, which was not true - McCain and almost Republicans voted against it.
While in the Illinois State Senate, he also says he had important ethics reform, but it did change anything.
He avoids controversial votes, and has spent very few days actually doing the work of the people in the Capitol.
He adores the UN and is the sponsor of SB 2433, which ties us to UN reforms that are astounding! It also commits us to the $845B to the UN, over and above the money we already give them. It is a vicious bill - due for a Senate vote soon. This bill begins the socialist march to place us under the One World rule of the UN - and I’m not being an alarmist, here. It’s in writing.
I’m working on the “legislation” issue now, but there is little to his credit.
Maggie
I am a liberal democrat. But, I cannot accept Obama. He is a corrupt chameleon. When he was caught supporting Rezko for 16 years he “changes” by jettisoning him. When he is associated with Rev. Wright for 20 years and the public learns what Wright stands for, he also is jettisoned. When Ayers becomes known better by the public and the ridiculous ineffective educational expenditures in Chicago become known, Osama will no doubt dump him. He is not prepared to be president, despite his Teflon exterior.
Maynard, I agree and I like the way you think. Of course, he had to “jettison” them, because his whole political career was at stake.
I believe he and Wright will pick up on the cozy get-togethers that they’ve abandoned at the moment, if he gets into office.
Maggie