Ed Reform in Chiraq?

The Illinois Network of Charter Schools glibly states, "We know all children can achieve academic success and have bright futures!"  As actual Chicago public school teachers, we at WCT would, of course, like to believe the same.  CPS has certainly supported INCS's ed reform tran$formation efforts, with $442 million of tax-payer money given to charter schools in 2015.

But will busting unions ed reform really provide bright futures to all children? What are some other factors that get in the way of children's bright futures besides unions lack of charter schools?

Yesterday's Trib published two interesting op-eds on Chicago's violence problem:

• In the first, Robert Milan, Cook County State's Attorney, asks that the National Guard be called in to protect Chicago.  Milan notes that "CPS's regular school year is over and thousands of teenagers are now on the streets."
• In the second, Cook County Commissioner Richard Boykin calls for 1. strict curfew enforcement 2. prosecution of gangbangers as domestic terrorists 3. increased presence of Cook County Sheriff's police 4. an increase in parenting/drug rehab/work training programs.

These op-eds, plus the ongoing debate over Spike Lee's new film, provisionally titled "Chiraq", warrant a review of Chicago crime data:

• A person is shot every: 3.22 hours
• A person is shot and killed every: 19.21 hours

In other words, a Chicago student, parent, cousin, aunt, uncle, grandma, grandpa, brother or sister commits, witnesses, or is the victim of an act of gun violence every 4 hours.  And that's just guns.

So, Illinois Network of Charter Schools and ed reformers everywhere, we ask you:  How are you so sure that all children can have bright futures if only unions are busted and education is privatized?

Perhaps Ken Griffin and his ilk can get moving on some lucrative corporate police reform.

The welcoming plan that wasn't

Where is everybody?

Both the Chicago Tribune and WBEZ  take time to note that CPS's welcoming plan is less than successful: the Trib states that 48% of students are not attending their designated welcoming schools, while WBEZ puts that number slightly better at 40% of students. Either way, CPS earns a D-, or worse, for their plan. If CPS were a teacher, they'd be explaining their failure rate to an administrator right now.

That's just what pathological denier district spokesperson Becky Carroll attempts when she chooses to don the rose-colored glasses to explain the failure this way, "Thousands of parents every year choose to enroll their child at a different school in our district--or even outside the district--and we support those choices."  While most of us would feel that only a 52% - 60% success rate sounds more like failure, Becky is ever the optimist! Huzzah, huzzah for choice, dear reader(s)!

Maybe if anyone at CPS had actually listened at all of those community hearings, the district could have been spared:

• Spending $233,000,000.00 in renovations that went to the welcoming schools CPS chose versus the schools students, parents, and families thought it was best to go.

• More spending--$15.7 million--for 600 Safe Passage monitors and increased police presence along those routes.

• Students attending elementary schools like Metcalfe and Langford that do not have accommodations or facilities for disabled students who might be attending, and haven't yet received funds to make upgrades since they were not deemed welcoming schools.

Rahm Emanuel, when asked about the discrepancy between the projected enrollment (80%) at welcoming schools and the reality (52% - 60%), refused to answer the questions. Seems everyone is Chicago is in a choosy mood, especially Emanuel, who silently refuses to acknowledge the problem he created.