Like you need more evidence that Democratic political operative and Chicago mayor Rahm Emanuel is an asshole. But he’s also a champion of education ‘reform.’ So it’s interesting to hear what Emanuel really thinks about educating at-risk children (boldface mine):

Yes. When I first met him [Mayor Emanuel], we had dinner together, and he said, “Well, you know, 25 percent of these kids are never going to be anything. They’re never going to amount to anything. And I’m not throwing money at it.” And I was like, “Wow! You know, even if you believe that, you can’t say that to me.” So, I just watch how he has used black and brown and poor children as props to push an agenda that is all about privatization and all about so-called accountability, but it’s really the status quo, because once schools get put on probation here in Chicago, the Chicago Public Schools takes over, takes away the democratically controlled local school councils, takes that power away from them to hire and fire and evaluate principals and to spend discretionary funds. So, we see this culture of punishment and culture of disinvestment, and it is rampant and obviously spreading throughout the country.

Many reformers, including Michelle Rhee, believe that the fundamental problem with U.S. education is the existence of teachers unions. And poor public school performance is a feature, not a bug, since that provides the opportunity to privatize the schools–that is, reward their wealthy friends. Whatever they burble about poor children is nothing more than window dressing.

I’m surprised though: I thought Emanuel was smart enough to keep his mouth shut…