WHERE ARE THE PARENTS? Ron Huberman, CEO Chicago Public Schools (CPS) has laid out a plan to try to stop the violence in schools. Melissa Harris gave a preview in her Sunday column in the Chicago Tribune of what Huberman reports he will be asking for from Chicago civic leaders.

"--Adopt one of the 38 schools Huberman says are operating "in chaos" because the students don't respect each other, and they don't respect the staff.--Give these kids jobs--Lobby to change Illinois law. Huberman says running the program would be easier if he had access to these kids' arrest records, which Illinois law forbids.

--Fund programs to keep them running. The $30 million in stimulus money that's paying for these kids to have full-time mentors (at a 4-1 ratio) runs out in 2012. He'll need donors to pay for the program to continue.--Build a statistical model to identify at-risk, elementary-age youth before they get arrested. --Managers and executive coaches need to volunteer.

--Finally, a leader -- perhaps another Patrick Ryan type -- needs to become Huberman's partner. “

Because Ron Huberman was born in Israel and his parents are Holocaust survivors, I will never write anything negative that personally attacks Huberman. That is a personal choice. I will, however, write negatively about what I think is missing from his plan to combat violence at CPS. Where are the responsibilities of parents on Huberman’s “wish list”? Everything that Huberman is looking at has to do with what OTHER PEOPLE should be executing and accomplishing. People who are not the blood relations of the students are being asked to bring about results that should start at home with good parenting. Why aren’t parenting classes on Huberman’s list? Why is it everybody else’s responsibility to step in when parents aren’t even being asked? As I wrote in my blog of July 21st (Pay for your own damned baby!),“Deciding to have a child is a personal decision and I do not understand why other people, companies or the government should bear the burden of the cost of the baby. Pay for your own damned baby or keep your legs crossed.” If you do not know how to raise a child, you should not have one! It is obvious from the violence problems among Chicago students that the children are not being raised correctly at home or they would know how to act like civilized human beings. Stop asking for outsiders to help when the insiders are doing nothing and are being asked for nothing.