Rahm Emanuel is gone. The boosters of privatization are out of power in Chicago. Mayor Lori Lightfoot has committed to improving the public schools that the vast majority of students attend.
No new applications to open charter schools this year in the city of Chicago.
It is a new day in Chicago, with new leadership.
Yana Kunichoff writes in Chalkbeat:
No new charter schools are applying this year to expand or open in Chicago, a sign of the shifting environment for the independently run, publicly funded schools in Chicago and at the state level.
Last summer Illinois abolished the state agency hearing appeals of charter school denials. Chicago schools, both district- and charter-run, are experiencing an ongoing drop in enrollment, leaving schools competing for fewer students.
A charter school operator named Destiny STREAM Academy for Girls Charter School initially applied to open a new charter, focused on math and technology education for girls, but then withdrew its application.
Chicago has more than 120 charter schools; the school district runs more than 500 schools. The number of charter school applications has diminished by half over the past three years, according to a Chalkbeat analysis.
After more than two decades of expansion in Chicago, charter school growth has tapered off.
Last year, the district denied three new charter proposals.
In 2017, nine schools sent in proposals. One was approved, one denied, and seven schools withdrew their applications. In 2016, there were 10 submissions, one of which was incomplete, and the rest were withdrawn.
That’s a wildly different landscape to just a few years before, when more than 16 schools threw their hat in the ring for a new charter or expansion in 2014-2015 school year (the majority later withdrew their proposals).
The district is also recommending that two charter schools be closed: Chicago Virtual Charter School, which offers primarily online classes for elementary and high school grades, and Frazier Preparatory Academy Charter School, a K-8 school in North Lawndale that shares a building with a district-run school.
The virtual school is under investigation by the district’s Office of Inspector General and has “the lowest School Quality Rating Policy score, used to rate how schools are performing, of any charter high school, the lowest Freshman OnTrack rate, and one of the lowest graduation rates in the district,” according to the district. Last year, it received a rating of 2, the second-lowest possible.
Chicago Virtual Charter School has held a charter with the district since 2006. The district renewed its charter in 2015 for five years.
The district is recommending that the board revoke the Frazier Preparatory Academy charter because it hasn’t been able to get off the academic warning list, which is for schools who received a low school rating three years in a row. During the 2017-18 school year the board proposed the school’s charter be renewed for three years, with conditions. The board approved a co-location with Theodore Herzl Elementary School in 2014.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Great! CPS is planning to close 2 “underperforming” (in quotes, because, is this rating due to “standardized” test results-?!), one of them being an onerous Chicago Virtuat Charter Schools (yeah, computers & meet at a bldg., as I recall, 1-2x/week, w/ahuman “teacher”). Surprisingly, CTU has been protesting this, stating something like this being discriminatory to “black & brown children.” !!!! Say WHAT?! C’mon, CTU leaders–how is a Virtual” school. meeting w/a real human being 1-2x/week helpful to **ANY children?!
Of course, that was supposed to say Chicago VirtuaL.
The anthem for Diane Ravitch and public schools – a Tom Petty song in the movie, Dark Waters. The movie about corporate greed by Mark Ruffalo (a Bernie Sanders supporter) features the song after a win by the good guy.
“Well I know what’s right
I got just one life
In a world that keeps pushing me around
But, I’ll stand my ground
and I won’t back down.”
&–in a strange twist–that was the title of the flop movie backed by Walmart–Won’t Back Down–pro-charter fiasco, starring Maggie Gyllenhall & Viola Davis (for shame–Central Falls H.S. grad–remember?).
Love Mark Ruffalo–both for his acting & his principles (esp., his endorsement of Bernie).
IMO- the movie hurt Gyllenhall’s reputation. Her discomfort in an interview at the time, suggested to me that she had begun to see it as a mistake.
Davis should have turned down her part. From a position of power, where her career is now, she might have.
I was very disappointed that Viola Davis participated in this charter propaganda film. When she soon an academy award, she stated that she was a proud graduate of the Central High in Central Falls, RI.
After she filmed “Won’t Back Down,” which was financed by evangelical billionaire Philip Anschutz, she gave money to a charter school in Central Falls. Anschutz also produced”Waiting for Superman.”
Anschutz owns the Broadmoor (a reason not to visit) .
Describing the hotel’s former owner, Anschutz said the guy’s wife made him build a chapel which she donated to a Catholic Church. He added, “one of the first things I did was lease the church back.”
Evidenced by his “blessed” followers, Christ wanted concentrated wealth and social Darwinism.
yes
Note how the chalkbeat reporter describes charter schools as “independently run, publicly financed.” Don’t accept this. Insist on: “privately run, publicly financed.”
Blackwater was a government contractor, a situation similar to charter schools. As propaganda sentry suggests, media didn’t describe Blackwater as “independently run”. The business firm was described as private. Titling as a non profit doesn’t alter the fact that a charter school is a private operation delivering a service that meets government specifications.
Kunichoff’s listed e-mail is ykunichoff@chalkbeat.org
“Mayor Lori Lightfoot has committed to improving the public schools that the vast majority of students attend.”
Could someone please inform the CTU of this? Thanks.
&, it bears repeating, why would CTU leadership defend a VIRTUAL charter school?!
As a retired educator, that is beyond my comprehension…