172 Barack H. Obama: The Unauthorized BiographyBy 1997, the entire LSC community control project was visibly moribund, but it may well have
served its purpose of warding off a political upsurge by a united city against the lakeside financiers.
It had certainly functioned as a colossal manpower sink, consuming the energies of yet another
generation of ignorant and naïve activists. ‘The annual report for 1997 made special mention of the
surrounding political context of the CAC’s work. Director Ken Rolling noted that a goal of the CAC
was “seeking a changed policy environment” but that this “has been the most elusive to date with no
major progress to report at this time. He explained further: “The Challenge began its work in 1995
at the same time a dramatic change in the leadership and management of the Chicago Public
Schools took place. The Illinois state legislature awarded complete control of the...Schools to the
Mayor of Chicago in 1995. A new management team and Reform Board of Trustees was installed
and a major emphasis began on administration, financial stability and accountability measures that
are tied to specific test scores. The Challenge began its program at the time the central
administration of the public schools took off in a different direction.” Indeed, the 1995 law gave the
Mayor and the Board the power to dissolve LSCs – the very bodies that the CAC was trying to
bolster.’ (Steve Diamond, ‘That “Guy Who Lives in My Neighborhood”: Behind the Ayers-Obama
Relationship,’ noquarterusa.net, June 19, 2008) Counter-insurgency operations cannot be Johnny
one note — they must always be modulated and varied according to sharp turns in the political and
economic situation. ‘By the end of this 1999, ... Barack Obama would step down from the role of
Board Chair as he anticipated an upcoming run for Congress.’ (Steve Diamond, ‘That “Guy Who
Lives in My Neighborhood”: Behind the Ayers-Obama Relationship,’ noquarterusa.net, June 19,
2008) Obama cultivated his glittering career, while the hapless victims of the Chicago Annenberg
Challenge drifted off into educational mediocrity and personal obscurity.
Evaluations of the impact of Obama’s Annenberg meddling have been largely negative. ‘A
report authored by Dorothy Shipps on the first three years of the Annenberg Challenge program,
when Obama was its Board chair, concluded: “The Challenge sought to build on the momentum of
the 1988 Chicago School Reform Act which had radically decentralized governance of the Chicago
Public Schools.” While apparently several hundred school principals had been fired by the LSCs,
kids were still doing poorly in schools and there was chaos of sorts in the system.... Interestingly,
Shipps concludes that the local control movement in Chicago, though backed by radicals like Ayers,
gave “business the clearest voice in system-wide reform.”’ (Steve Diamond, ‘Who “sent” Obama?’
globallabor.blogspot.com, April 22, 2008) Shipps discovered the obvious post festum when she
pointed out that the scale of the LSCs was too fragmented, too minuscule, to be able to implement
positive reforms; she recommended a district-wide or city-wide assembly, but this is still too narrow
and parochial, since schools cannot be successful unless there are good jobs waiting for the
graduates.
Diamond’s estimate is that the political sponsors of Obama were the extended Ayers family. As
long as we are limited to the purview of Chicago, this is doubtless a sound analysis: ‘Thus, we have
one possible answer to the question: Who “sent” Obama? It was the Ayers family, including Tom,
John, Bill and Bernardine Dohrn. It is highly unlikely that a 30-something second year lawyer
would have been plucked from relative obscurity out of a left wing law firm to head up something
as visible and important in Chicago as the Annenberg Challenge by Bill Ayers if Ayers had not
already known Obama very well. One possibility is that Obama proved himself to Ayers in the
battle for local school control when he was at the DCP in the 80s. One guess as to why Obama does
not play up his educational experience more thoroughly now – it certainly could be of use to him
one would think in beefing up his “I have the experience to be President” argument – is that it
would lead to a renewed discussion of the Ayers connection, which is clearly toxic for Obama. And