catalyst-chicago.org

African-American boys face a peculiar dilemma in Chicago’s public schools: how to get a solid education when, more than any other group of students, they are singled out for harsh punishments and sent packing for days, weeks, sometimes months at a time. Some are expelled—even in elementary school—for a year or longer. Many folks assume that these punishments are deserved. Isn’t it true, they ask, that black male students are more likely to behave in ways that warrant such sanctions?

It took years, some would say decades, to get universal preschool off the ground in Illinois. So when Preschool for All got a green light three years ago, it was cause for celebration, especially among early childhood education advocates who had worked assiduously behind the scenes and on the frontlines to make it happen.

But then, a curious thing happened. In some places, shiny new preschool classrooms set up shop, and nobody came.

There are many parts of President Barack Obama’s March 10 speech on education to applaud, though some of it will make education leaders uncomfortable.

Obama’s call to the nation’s youth to enter teaching is certainly laudable. The president’s remark that “the most important factor (to a student’s) success... (is) the person standing in front of the classroom” echoes the sentiments Golden Apple has proclaimed for decades, and we hail those that heed his call.