The mass closure of 50 public schools is unprecedented.
Who decided?
This from a reader:
I am appalled at the lack of objectivity, fairness and independence that was brought to the table by the Commission on School Utilization, which conducted the study of school utilization and found, of course, that schools were underutilized. The Chicago Teachers Union has reported that this commission is staffed with those who have close ties to charter schools, including being housed in the same office space as the Civic Consulting Alliance, New Schools for Chicago and the Renaissance Schools Fund (all stalwarts for charter proliferation). Why has this not been investigated further?
Furthermore, the CTU reports (on their blog) the following ties between members of the commission and charter schools:
Frank Clark (chairman of the Commission): Noble Street’s Rowe-Clark campus is named for John Rowe and Frank Clark. Rowe is the chief executive officer of Exelon; Clark is the retired chief executive officer of Exelon subsidiary ComEd. (Rahm Emanuel was an advisor to the merger of Unicom and ComEd that created Exelon.) Rowe is the chairman of New Schools Chicago. Clark chairs the School Utilization Commission.
Phyllis Lockett is the president of New Schools for Chicago and a spokesperson for charter proliferation in Chicago. She is also on the board of the Civic Consulting Alliance.
Bruce Rauner is the on the Board of New Schools for Chicago, and a Noble Street campus is named after him. He has also proposed to buy 100 public schools and lease them back to charters and chairs the Education Committee of the Commercial Club of Chicago.
R. Eden Martin and Ty Fahner sit on the boards of both the Civic Consulting Alliance and New Schools for Chicago. Martin and Fahner have also served as president of the Civic Committee of the Commercial Club of Chicago. The Civic Committee’s 2003 report “Left Behind” became the blueprint for Renaissance 2010, the massive charter proliferation and school action program started under Mayor Richard M. Daley and continued under Mayor Emanuel. The Civic Consulting Alliance recommended that CPS hire Todd Babbitz as its new “Chief Transformation Officer,” even though Babbitz had never previously worked in education. Babbitz is charged with leading the district’s reconfiguration.
Why is the public not demanding a more independent commission?
Also, I recently saw some photos of the Crispus Attucks elementary school (on another blog-sorry if I shouldn’t have posted the link here!) that was shuttered in 2008 through school closings. It has now become a haven for gangs and other illegal activity. The last thing neighborhoods in crisis need is another abandoned building to harbor criminals. Shame on CPS for allowing this to happen in one of its properties!
Diane Ravitch's blog 
I think at least part of the intent is to deliberately create (in some cases) abandoned buildings like the Crispus Attucks building. That drives out any nearby residents who have even the remotest means to flee. Eventually all that’s left is the gangs, the homeless and the most severely poor, which gives the city and “developer” license to sweep in and “clean up the neighborhood”, which, of course, happens after these developers have bought up these blighted properties for pennies. Next step is to demolish all the buildings and clear large swaths of land for brand-spanking new developments that urban “pioneers” (white people) will move into. The area then gentrifies and creates a nice tax base. It’s a win-win all around, at least as far as the people who count (rich white folks).
Oh my! This is barbaric and horrifying. Shows how much DISrespect and even hatred the entitled have for the rest of society. CPS has shown its cards over and over again and they still get away with horrific doings. I ask again, “Cui bono?’ Answer: The so-called ELITE.
How to Regenerate Our Cities by Wall Street
Pass laws to enable charter schools.
“Starve” regular public school programs.
Shut schools that are “under enrolled”.
Create more over-crowded poorly performing public schools.
Make attending out of the neighborhood public schools difficult for poor families.
Create more charters to further reduce the public school population and its middle class union salaries.
Close more neighborhood public schools.
Increase credit ratings so city and school district can issue more tax-empt bonds at a cheaper cost.
Provide inner-city land to developers who will build charter schools, upscale housing and shopping facilities.
This used to be called Urban Renewal in the 60s and 70s. But condemning land and moving poor people out of inner cities became politically incorrect.
Now it’s done quietly and called “improving our schools”.
The good news is that it is now 50 not 129 schools being closed. Now for the rest and to stop the corporate privatizers. I suggest that all involved in stopping them read first the Stanford Credo Report on charter schools. Next read the latest, Sept. 2012, Federal DOE OIG report on the total lack of accountability of charter schools in Florida, Arizona and California. This report is DOE-OIG/A02L0002. I am willing to bet that this report is the story in your state also. These two reports are the crusher to charter schools and their fantasy stories of success. Then add what I call the “Correction Factor” and they are dead in reality. The “Correction Factor” allows for the special priviledges of charter schools such as not following ed code and most local regulations, cherry picking parents and students, not dealing with ESL, behavior problems and special education. When this is thrown into the mix they look real bad unless you really like total lack of performance. Do you really think any of these “Titans of Industry” would operate their own operations in this manner?
George, you make a good point in your first sentence. Originally, I believe they were looking at something like 300+. However, due to ENORMOUS community push back, the number kept getting smaller & smaller. However, 50 is 50 too many, especially given the safety issues in the neighborhoods involving gang territory crossings. Chicago, want more child murders? With this plan, you’ve got ’em! That having been said, there’s MORE push back to come–this Wed., March 27th, 4 PM, Daley Plaza–rally–“Close Our Schools, We’ll Shut Down the City.”
I think that was by design. They knew all along how many and which schools they were going to close, they just started with an even more outrageous number to make a “mere” 50 seem reasonable.