NEWS ADVISORY
IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Stephanie Gadlin
May 26, 2015 312-329-6250
CTU to lead picket before Chicago Board of Education meeting calling for halt to charter school expansion
CHICAGO—The Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) has organized a picket line before the Chicago Board of Education meeting on Wednesday, May 27, to highlight the hypocrisy of the district’s insistence on expanding charter operations throughout the city while claiming a $1 billion budget deficit. The financial “crisis” for Chicago Public Schools is the result of the district’s own fiscal irresponsibility—hundreds of millions of dollars mired in scandal, swap deals and failed, privatized outsourcing. By allowing the unchecked growth of charter schools, including some into closed neighborhood school buildings, CPS continues its plan to weaken communities by creating a culture of chaos that the district will use to justify cutting school budgets, closing schools and laying off thousands of CPS educators and education support staff.
Four Points of CPS Charter Hypocrisy
· Lying to the Illinois General Assembly that there would be no charter schools placed into any school building that was part of the mass school closings in 2013. CPS is “selling” the Peabody Elementary School building—closed in 2013—and putting Rowe Charter into that building.
· Expanding charter operations—a Noble Street charter school moving into the Uptown neighborhood; Rowe moving into the Peabody building; a Perspectives charter school moving to 85th & Lafayette—as the district claims a massive budget deficit
· Ignoring community opposition to place a Noble Street charter school into a community that has voiced outrage over the proposal. “They told my mom what she wanted to hear to get me and my brother to go there, but she realized after a few years of struggle, that the school doesn’t live up to its promise,” said a former Noble Street student who is now attending a neighborhood high school in Uptown. Another student added: “Noble schools don’t work with kids to do better—they just kick them out to their neighborhood schools.”
· Rewarding an ally of Mayor Rahm Emanuel and Alderman Howard Brookins with the lucrative placement of a Perspectives charter school into the Rev. Charles Jenkins’ Legacy Project development, with no disclosure of how the project is being financed.
WHO:
CTU teachers, community partners and allies
WHAT:
Picket line before the Chicago Board of Education meeting
WHEN:
Wednesday, May 27, 2015, at 6:30 a.m.
WHERE:
Chicago Board of Education
42 W. Madison St.
Chicago
Diane Ravitch's blog 
As someone who just months ago was an enthusiastic supporter of charters I am beginning to see their downside. Alternatives are good but regulation is a necessity to insure children are receiving fair and equal treatment. A separate body or association must be instituted for charters to establish an agreed upon code of ethics and dedication to financial transparency. It is an evolving animal that needs to be tamed, not eliminated just tamed and contained.
Unfortunately, this is now a money-making industry, just like standardized testing (where there is also no oversight, no regulation).
I strongly recommend reading Diane’s earlier post about the interview w/David Brain, enterpreneur, who sees charters as big dollar signs…and “other people’s children” as worth less than cents.
Don’t see it happening, roxanne.
Sounds like CTU continues to be a leader in speaking truth to power. Thank you.
I’m actually surprised they’re reneging on the promise not to replace public schools with charter schools.
They don’t seem to care about trust or credibility at all. Maybe politicians don’t need it anymore. They can just ram this stuff thru, do a brief public service stint and head off to the lucrative private sector job once it’s all in place.
This is the kind of push back that is absolutely essential if public schools are to be saved in my judgment.
but
there must be hundreds of other school districts with the same kind of courage, resolution, and understanding of how to win community support to change the direction. I have seen this disintegration of public school education for decades beginning with “A Nation at Risk”. The public has been sold a bill of goods and the media has been instrumental in this misinformation.
A few months ago the Columbia Journalism Review lead article was
“Who Cares if it is True”.
Without quality journalism democratic governance cannot happen. The media which has let us down in so many ways has castigated the public schools since that “Nation at Risk” came out a few decades ago.
The Constitution gave them specific powers granted to few if anyone else.
Media has castigated public schools but has not really done THEIR job.
What the answer is I do not know. Media must educate as well as schools and if they promote false or incomplete information as was the case before we invaded Iraq the consequences are enormous.
We cannot change the media but we can and must fight for quality education.