Before our unions smashed child labor, founder of Northern Trust, Armour and Co. ruthlessly exploited children for gain in their meatpacking business – now they would like to “educate” your toddlers for profit. Northern Trust is a partner in the new pre-k initiative.
When you think of child exploitation, what do you think of?
A grimy basement filled with whirring sewing machines and silent children, toiling for an evil, shouting, and unshaven boss with a grease-stained shirt and a belt in his hand? Or little boys stuffing sausages in a frigid, unsanitary, meatpacking operation from over a century ago – like in the picture above? At least something like that, right?
How about high-stakes testing and high-pressure ‘evaluations’ of 5, 6, and 7 year-olds?
This is one story of how child labor has made its’ way into the 21st century: the wealthiest Americans are pinning their investment returns on children’s pre-kindergarten, 1st, and 2nd grade performance.
In Chicago, these new, sophisticated child exploiters are celebrated and honored, receiving praise and patronage from politicians, and minimal scrutiny from the press – but make no mistake, they are the same child exploiters, repackaged. Is this child labor 2.0™?
Indeed, what seems to be drowning out the cries of Chicago’s children is the clinking sound of champagne glasses in the halls of Chicago’s elite.
Why are teachers and education professionals removed entirely from these for profit early education schemes? Could it be because these investments are terrible for kids and teachers? [From coverage of earlier Pritzker/Goldman Sachs early ed investment in Utah. Source: edweek.org]
Why do the richest people in the United States want to make money off of the work of Chicago 5 year-olds?
On November 5th, the Chicago City Council approved a $17 million loan to the Chicago school board from a group of finance capitalists, which will allow the city to expand its’ pre-kindergarten slots by about 2,600 kids.
The lenders are guaranteed to make a killing from their investment – up to $30 million – but only as long as the little kids can be forced to produce results.
It is not a stretch to say that the most powerful finance capitalists in the world are dead-set on undermining education in the public interest. For years, these vampires have been making massive amounts of money at the expense of Chicago schools in scams such as auction-rate securities, which allow Goldman Sachs and their buddies at Bank of America to steal and/or gamble away up to $100 million of the public’s money. I guess when you can steal that kind of dough, why not get into the harder stuff – why not get into tying your profits directly to the performance of school kids?
Goldman Sachs (the most powerful finance firm in America,) Northern Trust (which financially represents 20% of America’s richest families,) and the Pritzker billionaires (Hyatt hotels, Royal Caribbean cruise lines, etc.,) have instituted what they call a Social Impact Bond, designed to generate wealth based on the hard work of preschoolers. Taking their orders from The Most Corrupt Man In Chicago – Mayor Rahm Emanuel – the rubber stamp city council voted the measure through with little debate, which is perhaps the strongest argument for their wholesale replacement (only five no votes against the scam).
So, if the politicians, newspapers, and TV stations are going to stop short of saying it, let me make this clear: There is an epic crime afoot in Chicago – Tying profits to the work of children is a violation of child labor laws.
“This hasn’t swept the nation yet, but this is part of the wave that’s coming,” – JB Pritzker, “industrial sector” billionaire, on his plans to make millions off of child labor. Glowing coverage of the child labor outfit at chicagobusiness.com.
Millions in cash transfers with names like, “Kindergarten Readiness Payments” and “Third Grade Literacy Payments,” will be funneled directly from public funds to the banks’ escrow account. I couldn’t make this up.
Emanuel’s cowed neoliberal defenders may argue that this technically isn’t a legal conspiracy to commit crimes against minors. However, in political, civil, – and most assuredly – in moral terms, what I’ve just described cannot be characterized as anything other than child labor violations.
Why has the press allowed this scam to be described in glowing terms by the establishment (from the Mayor to The Civic Federation,) with no questions about how this is the very definition of child exploitation?
It doesn’t take a genius to know that when Goldman Sachs starts going after little children in Chicago, you can’t for a minute consider yourself safe. No matter where you live.
Media Colossus 