Tell me ow this lady has improved the graduation rate?

Vulgar Rapper's Mom on Chicago Board of Education

M Catharine Evans

What does the Chicago teachers' strike have to do with the rapper Common? The rapper's mother, Dr. Mahalia Ann Hines was hand-picked by Rahm Emanuel in 2011 to sit on the city's Board of Education? The same Board is now in negotiations with the Chicago Teachers' Union.

Hines has not only raised a son who thinks it's okay to kill cops, she became the business manager of her son's music company in 1996. She is CEO of his Common Ground Foundation and is president of his company Hip Hop Schoolhouse, which publishes "educational materials for children."

A radical, cop-hating, misogynistic rapper's mom has influenced the Chicago school system in her various capacities as teacher, principal and now Board member. This speaks volumes as to why the schools in her city are representational of the ills found in public schools across the nation.

The rapper became national news in May, 2011 when Michelle Obama invited Lonnie Rashid Lynn, Jr., AKA Common, to a poetry event at the White House. After an outcry from police groups and conservatives, Jay Carney told the WH press corps the invitation would stand. President Obama himself defended Common's presence in the people's house as "a socially-conscious rapper" who has done a lot for the children of Chicago.

Really? Chicago has often been called ground zero for youth violence in the United States. The Associated Press just reported the teachers' strike has law enforcement on high alert. The Chicago Reporter stated more young people are killed in Chicago than in any other American city.

When Emanuel appointed Common's mother to the Education Board she promised to "bring the mission of the rapper's Common Ground Foundation to the board and will look out for the interests of teachers and principals."

Has that mission involved teaching Common's poetry and "educational materials" to school children? Hines presided over her son's career while she was a principal in Chicago. As Common's business manager didn't she object to her son's foul, violent and misogynistic "songs"? How about the one in praise of a cop-killer? Or this one entitled "The B--ch in Yoo":

You backed in to a Four Corner Hustla
Lying on your dick, said you was f***n' her
Use Higher Learning, don't take my words out of text
Went from gangsta to Islam to the d**k of Das EFX
It'll take the Nation of Millions to Hold Me Back

I'm a have ta wreck a Ho'shea

heard a ho say you her favorite rapper

(So what) so I had to slap her, ugn

And violate you, a Muslim drinking brew

Your nigga ain't no Mack 10, he's a 22

I seen you, you ain't say s**t in ATL

Hines, alongside her fellow Board members, which includes Obama's 2008 campaign finance chair Penny Pritkzer, is bringing her expertise to the fight between Emanuel and the unions. Her presence on the Board as well as her long history in the Chicago school system does not bode well for the city's schoolchildren.

The hip Hines is a radical who attended the same church as the Obamas when Lonnie was growing up. While Reverend Wright spewed his anti-white, anti-American vitriol to the congregation, her son was probably taking notes.

Maybe part of the problem with the school system in Chicago is that the kids have role models who don't inspire, but teach hatred which pits the children against each other based on race, class and gender. Maybe school systems shouldn't hire people who perpetuate these stereotypes.