As CPS prepares to close a record number of schools, the fate of students and communities is in question.
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In the News: CTU calls for an elected school board
By: Cassandra West / February 23, 2012
Speaking at a news conference around 8 p.m. at the union’s headquarters in downtown Chicago, Chicago Teachers Union President Karen Lewis called for an elected school board to replace the current one, which is made up of appointees chosen by Mayor Rahm Emanuel or his predecessor, Richard Daley, the Tribune late Wednesday evening.
The board's decision to move ahead with closings and turnarounds came despite the outcries of parents, activists and other opponents. (Catalyst Chicago)
WBEZ goes "inside" Herzl Elementary in North Lawndale to check out accusations that Chicago's school district lets some school buildings go to pot before turning them over to private management groups.
Chicago Teachers Union president Karen Lewis told school board members Chicago is at the "epicenter of the education justice fight in America" after the board voted late Wednesday to close seven schools and completely re-staff 10 others. She said the nation is watching." The Rev. Jesse Jackson told the board, "This is Little Rock, 1957. This is apartheid." (WBEZ)
Dozens of people packed a conference room at Chicago Public Schools headquarters Wednesday and another 100 or so filled an overflow room upstairs to plead for board members to put off a vote on closing or overhauling 17 struggling schools. (Tribune)
About 33 neighborhood schools with at least 95 percent low-income students not only outscored equally poor schools cleared out of all staff and “turned around’’ by the Academy for Urban School Leadership, but even beat the city test score average, a study by Designs for Change indicated. (Sun-Times)
Joining a crowd of hundreds that packed two rooms at Board of Education headquarters, the Rev. Jesse Jackson made his first appearance ever at a school closing vote. He declared that closings disproportionately impacted African-American communities and teachers and reflected an “apartheid” Chicago educational system. (Sun-Times)
Trib Nation points out something that's become obvious of late: "the pace and emotional intensity of stories about the Chicago Public Schools has increased."
Here's how the Wall Street Journal's Stephanie Banchero summarized the Chicago School Board's actions on Wednesday: "This city's school board voted Wednesday to shake up the teaching staffs at 17 low-performing public schools, handing Mayor Rahm Emanuel a victory in his battle with the teachers union and highlighting an increasingly aggressive stance on education overhauls by a number of Democratic mayors nationwide." (*A subscription is required for full access to WSJ article.)
IN THE STATE
A public hearing Tuesday served as a litmus test on a proposal to open a charter school in Cary Elementary District 26 in the next school year. (Daily Herald)
IN THE NATION
On The New York Review of Books blog, NYR, in a post titled “No Child Left Untested,” education historian Diane Ravitch calls it “madness” to rely on a system of teacher accountability based on student test scores.
Crimes and homicides in public schools nationwide have declined, part of a downward trend seen over the past several years. Data released Wednesday by the U.S. Department of Education and the Department of Justice show declines across a number of indicators, including thefts, violent crimes, bullying and gang activity. (WBEZ)
Concerns are mounting that strict new federal rules meant to improve the quality of Head Start preschool services for poor children could drive good providers out of business, as scores of Head Start programs begin to face the specter of losing the federal funding they have received for decades. (Education Week)
Confused by WSJ
How is his own appointed board voting unanimously for his own proposals a "victory for Rahm"?
Choosing your own plan over the communities' plans with no opportunity for voice or agency is not a victory, it's a dictatorial privilege.
Our CPS neighborhood school is in great need of paint, plumbing
plaster, heat and a phone system. ALL of our positive programs have been systematically taken from us and and given to magnet or charter schools. If only we were funded the same as a magnet or charter schools--we take all children-all minority and poor- we are not asking to discriminate against our students, just to have shoes when we play football against the schools that Rahm and the Board favor.
The Mayor IS Elected
The Mayor who appoints the school board *is* elected by the people of Chicago. If they don't like the job he is doing running the schools, they can vote him out of office.
IIRC the Chicago Teachers Union made no endorsement whatever in the mayoral election last year, in large part due to racial/ethnic group identity politics.
People have obviously forgotten how "broken" the previous system of selecting a Board of Education was.
Remember D. Sharon Grant? She was the teacher-bashing head of the Chicago Board of Ed who went to prison for failing to file tax forms for 17 years. Those weren't the "good ole days", and I don't want to return to them.
yes we vote him in
however, chicago has an economy and population that rivals some small nations. how is that our mayor has so much power. i say elect the board and let him pick a few people and the teachers on person. what is he so afraid of ..the very people he is trying to help? isnt that what Chavez and Stalin did/do ...fear the masses so they take away the power from the people??? Serioulsy are we livng in Chicago or Pygong North Korea?
History of non-elected school board
From its early days what in now the Chicago Board of Education was not picked by direct election of the citizens of the city of Chicago. The very first public school built in Chicago in 1835, was built by a private individual named John S. Wright at Clark Street just south of Lake Street. The tuition at this school was $2 per quarter or free if the parents of a child could not make the payments. Also in 1835, in what is now Chicago ( it was then called Congressional Township 39 north, range 14 east) was divided for educational purposes into four school districts none had an elected school board.
After incorporation on March 4, 1837 Chicago the city's Common Council created a standing committee on schools that consisted of three aldermen and the city appointed what was called a Board of Inspectors which oversaw the city's confused school system. In 1837 the city Council called for citizens to elect trustees of the various school districts within the incorporated city, but the citizens of the school districts in city failed to convene meetings to elect trustees so the city Council appointed them. Through the 1840s the city's appointed Board of Inspectors controlled education in Chicago.
In February 1851, the city Council passed an ordinance that authorized the Council to appoint a school agent, the Board of Inspectors, and each of three trustees for each of the city's school districts. In 1856, the school agent became the School Superintendent and that position was appointed by the city Council. William H. Wells was the most important of the early Superintendents, eventually a Board of Education was elected by the city Council but they were still overseen by the city Council.
Danny's reference to the system of appointment that led to D. Sharon Grant becoming President of the CPS Board is confused to a degree. Mayor Daley publicly supported her appointment and the Board of Education would have never approved it had he not supported her appointment. Below is a May 26, 1993 article Tribune on this issue which Danny should read:
School Board Ready For Another Coup
May 26, 1993|By Jacquelyn Heard, Education writer.
Almost a year to the day that Florence Cox managed to sway the Chicago School Board to overthrow its president and name her to the top post, a board composed of mostly new members plans to do the same thing to her Wednesday.
The 15-member board is expected to replace Cox with D. Sharon Grant, who has been on the board for only three months and has been pegged as a mouthpiece for Mayor Richard Daley. Some say the move is part of a larger effort to give the mayor more control over city schools.
Cox could not be reached for comment Tuesday. But board members, including some who opposed her presidency last year, complained that during her tenure she routinely engaged in behind-the-scenes politicking and rallied the black community against board members who made decisions she didn't like.
"I personally feel there is a need for change," said board member Jack Valinote. "I think that Sharon Grant has the kind of ideas that can be very positive for this board and this school system."
Grant, owner of a private health care agency, said she is interested in heading the board and has 11 to 12 votes, substantially more than the 8 needed to oust Cox.
"I think I can bring a new kind of leadership," said Grant, who attended Chicago public schools and whose daughter currently does. "The last time I checked, America was a democratic society and Chicago is in America where votes count.
"A few months ago, I got a call from Florence wanting to know if I was going to run against her," Grant said. "I told her, Florence, if you've got seven votes, Sharon Grant will give you the eighth. It's pretty clear now that she's doesn't have the seven."
If Cox is kicked out, board members are sure to face the same storm of criticism that came when they toppled Supt. Ted Kimbrough in December.
Like Kimbrough, Cox has the backing of a fiercely vocal group of community activists, most of them African American. About 40 representatives from groups such as the Parent Community Council and the Coalition for African American Equity in Education have become fixtures at the monthly meetings and often a thorn in the board's side.
Some activists contend that Cox's ouster is part of a trend toward removing blacks who have ties to the community from high profile positions. In addition to Cox and Kimbrough, they point to interim Supt. Richard Stephenson, who was eliminated as a candidate for the permanent position of superintendent. Even though each of them will be replaced by another African American, activists said, their comptetence has been questioned.
Mark Allen, a member of the School Board Nominating Commission, said Cox's long history as a school activist makes her a better president than Grant, who is hardly known in the black community.
"Tell me one thing Florence Cox has done wrong, one thing. Nobody has been able to come up with a reason, just like they haven't been able to say why Stephenson isn't good enough to be the superintendent," Allen said.
Rod Estvan
history of mayoral control
As far as anyone I know can recall, the Chicago mayor has always appointed the School Board. Rod set the early history straight --thank you very much. More recently, there was a time when the mayor did not have a completely free choice of candidates. From 1988 until 1995, the mayor had to chose people recommended by a community-based nominating process that was part of the 1988 Chicago School Reform Act, which created local school councils. Mayor Daley didn' t like some of the nominees and left seats vacant. The 1995 amendments to the Reform Act scrapped the nominating process, reverting to unfettered mayoral control.
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