Rahm Emanuel wrote an article in the Washington Post a few days ago, defending school choice (and putting him in the same camp as Betsy DeVos and Donald Trump). He gave the example of charter schools in Chicago to support his claim.
But a recent analysis of charter school performance in Chicago says that they do not measure up to the public schools, even though they get to choose their students and benefit from the extra money of philanthropists and hedge fund managers.
Here is the abstract of the study, by Myron Orfield and Thomas Luce.
Charter schools have become the cornerstone of school reform in Chicago and in many other large cities. Enrollments in Chicago charters increased by more than ten times between 2000 and 2014 and, with strong support from the current mayor and his administration, the system continues to grow. Indeed, although state law limits charter schools in Chicago to 75 schools, proponents have used a loophole that allows multiple campuses for some charters to bypass the limit and there are now more than 140 individual charter campuses in Chicago. This study uses comprehensive data for the 2012-13 and 2013-14 school years to show that, after controlling for the mix of students and challenges faced by individual schools, Chicago’s charter schools underperform their traditional counterparts in most measurable ways. Reading and math pass rates, reading and math growth rates, graduation rates, and average ACT scores (in one of the two years) are lower in charters all else equal, than in traditional neighborhood schools. The results for the two years also imply that the gap between charters and traditionals widened in the second year for most of the measures. The findings are strengthened by the fact that self-selection by parents and students into the charter system biases the results in favor of charter schools.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Public schools are unfashionable in the circles Rahm Emanuel runs around in. No one would be caught dead advocating for those horrible “government” schools.
The Best and Brightest have moved on from “traditional” schools. So stodgy and old fashioned! They’re simply not interested. Plus all those icky, low class labor union members. It’s like socializing with… welders or something. Yuck.
Great study.
But it doesn’t matter.
Rahm will never read it or be swayed by it, the public never will read it, and the reform side of things will never read it. Oh and no politicians will read it.
We must take our fight out and beyond articles, position pieces, and smarty-pants stuff as into old school narrative building.
Articles like this are important but we can’t think that being verifiably right is what will win things for us. Wrong ideas win and thrive every day.
True enough, NYS Teacher, but I can do only what I can do. Maybe reporters will see this post and follow up.
The emperor has no clothes and we tell whoever will listen.
With all the fact-based research outside of the control of the corporate education reform movement industry (CERMI), it is clearly obvious that privatization of the schools is not about the children or their education but about privatization for profit and power. For Donald Trump, with his small appendages, and his cadaverous, thin skin, it’s also about the 3 P’s.
P = Privatization
P = Power
P = Profit
Another charter school advocate lies. There is no surprise here at all as “reform” is full of lies, bias, suppression of facts and false equivalencies.
Rahm is the worst mayor the city of Chicago has ever had and the people of the once great windy city are suffering under this mayor. Many times the people tried to oust this guy Rahm out of office but were unable to. Rahm is a good friend of obama and so connect the dots and now everyone knows why Rahm is still in Chicago. However, the city of Chicago has become the murder capital of the US and the education there is a mess with the teachers union having to strike several times. Rahm has destroyed this once great city and hopefully the people can get him out of there soon
Part of the reason for the murder spike in Chicago may be caused by closing local community schools, which are often the anchor of the neighborhood. Charters located in other areas may require students to travel into other gang territories. This can be perceived as a breach of the turf rule and violence ensues. Emanuel has tried to use charters to gentrify Chicago neighborhoods which has resulted in many “anchorless” poor young people.
Hear, hear. Such horrendous truth here, but so little advocacy for the children caught in this deadly trap. Just more of that dog-whistle publicity about a ubiquitous “black-on-black violence.”
Time to bring back any and all news-articles/posts about the Obama/Emanuel vision for bringing a glorious re-gentrification to the “blighted” areas of town….(hear that dog whistle?)
Wonder what kind of perks and paybacks Rahm got/is getting?
Rham is wrong about public schools. There are many very successful public schools in Chicago. Than should spend 2 full days in a successful n a struggling school and learn that public schools that need help have different students n parent support at home. He would help one struggling school, if he would listen to teachers, parents and school leaders n give them the resources they need. Improving schools is not different from improving a patient’s health. It takes consistent intervention, some trial n error to learn what works with each child and parent, and the right support staff, collaboration and continuous training. Transferring patients to a new hospital is a stupid approach Shen there is no evidence that the new hospital has better equipment, better prepared staff or greater success. Same for schools. Taking funds from public schools to give them to charter, choice, or voucher schools only weakens the public schools.