Archives for category: Emanuel, Rahm
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Will Mayor Emanuel Close Another 50 Schools in Chicago?

By dianeravitch
November 28, 2017 //
18

Four years ago, Mayor Rahm Emanuel closed 50 public schools in one day, something that has never happened before in American history. Now, with enrollment continuing to decline, reporters Sarah Karp and Becky Vivek ask if he is likely to do it again.

They write:

“Nearly five years after shuttering a record number of under-enrolled schools, Chicago once again confronts the same stark realities: plummeting enrollment and more than 100 half-empty school buildings, most on the city’s South and West sides, according to a WBEZ analysis of school records.

“Chicago Public Schools has lost 32,000 students over the last five years, nearly the same enrollment drop as in the 10-year period leading up to the closures of 50 elementary schools in 2013. Those missing students could fill 53 average-sized Chicago schools.

“This massive enrollment decline comes as a self-imposed five-year moratorium on school closings lifts in 2018. Despite that, political observers and CPS insiders said they are not betting on Mayor Rahm Emanuel closing 50 more schools — at least not all at once.

“They say if Emanuel opts to close more schools, they hope he does it more slowly and over time. In fact, that’s already underway, despite the moratorium. Since 2013, CPS has quietly shuttered more than a dozen schools, many of them charter schools.

“The school system must announce by Dec. 1 any proposed closures for its more than 600 schools. Officials have already indicated they will recommend closing only a handful of schools for next year, the first without the moratorium.”

But they note a curious anomaly: the city has been opening new schools even as it closed existing ones:

“Since 2013, a total of 39 new schools serving 16,000 students have opened, and 29 of them serve high school students. This includes several new charter high schools and 15 alternative high schools for dropouts. Those alternative schools are mostly in neighborhoods with the most severely under-enrolled high schools.”

I asked several of my friends in Chicago what was going on. Why the drops in enrollment? Who was leaving?

Mike Klonsky, community activist, responded.

He wrote:

“Why the loss of enrollment?
“Losing about 10K students/year mostly due to huge out-migration of black and poor families. New state voucher law will only make it worse.

“Where are the kids going?
“Many to inner-ring black suburbs, to neighboring states, or back to the south.

“Is Chicago losing population?
“Yes, I call it ethnic/racial cleansing. Quarter million black people have left Chicago in past few decades. Result of deindustrialization, lack of jobs, educational opportunities, resulting rise in crime and violence, tearing down of public and low-income housing, police brutality, blighted communities. Has led to a weakening in black and progressive political power within the city.

“Which neighborhoods?
“Westside, ie Lawndale and southside,ie. Englewood. Mass school closings, opposed by the communities, plus loss of social services, mental health clinics and other medical facilities, markets, police coverage, have led to further blighting of these neighborhoods, driving out more residents.

“Loss of 100k of poorest and academically challenged students has led CPS leaders to claim statistical bump in test scores and grad rates. City leaders celebrating supposed10% drop in shootings.

“This is why it’s not enough to just oppose more school closings. Must be seen for what it is — the whitenizing of the cities, as I’ve been saying for years.”

Mike added this link about the black exodus from Chicago:

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/why-neighborhood-demographics-are-shifting-in-chicago

Jitu Brown, director of the Journey for Justice Alliance, Read Mike Klonsky’s comment and added this response:

“I agree. This is why independent, clear political leadership is so important. The whitening of Chicago has happened on the watch of a city council that has significant African American representation. This is a national crisis, as we see a similar evacuation in cities like DC, New Orleans, Detroit, Oakland, Los Angeles, Baltimore, Cleveland.

“In the case of Chicago, families are moving to the south suburbs, believe it or not thousands have relocated to the quad cities in Iowa, and as Mike stated, back to the south. The removal of black people is not just limited to the coasts and the Midwest however. The black population in Atlanta has declined in the past 5 years. Troubling is a huge understatement.“

Categories Charter Schools, Chicago, Closing schools, Emanuel, Rahm

Chicago: Emails Suggest Rahm Emanuel is Open to Considering a Voucher Program

By dianeravitch
August 11, 2017 //
39

Rahm Emanuel is considering a voucher program for Chicago.

This may–or may not–seem surprising but when I read this, I remembered the only time I met Rahm Emanuel. I was invited to the White House in 2010 to meet with President Obama’s Domestic Policy Advisor, Melody Barnes, his education advisor, Roberto Rodriguez, and his chief of staff Rahm Emanuel. They wanted to get my reaction to the Common Core standards and their $1 billion proposal for merit pay. I was totally opposed to merit pay because, I told them, it had failed repeatedly for a century. As to the Common Core standards, I suggested that they offer grants to three or five states to try it before imposing it on the entire nation. Find out if it helps narrow the achievement gap or widens it. Learn how it works. They were not interested in my suggestions because they wanted the Common Core in place before the 2012 elections.

Rahm Emanuel was rude. He said he had one question for me: Why do Catholic schools perform better than public schools and should we do anything to help them? I tried to explain the differences between private schools and public schools to him. Whatever I said to him didn’t interest him, and he left the meeting early, letting me know that he had better things to do with his time.

That meeting came back to me when I read that he was open to the idea of vouchers. If nothing else happens in Chicago, Emanuel will go down in history as the only mayor in the United States to close 50 public schools in a single day. One thing is certain about Rahm Emanuel: He has no interest in improving public schools and no hesitation closing them and replacing them with private alternatives.

A recently released cache of Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s private emails reveals he had been open to discussing a controversial voucher-like program that could divert millions of taxpayer dollars to private schools.

The release of an April email exchange with Cardinal Blase Cupich about such a program being floated by the Trump administration comes as state lawmakers continue closed-door negotiations over how to fund public schools across the state. The impasse over school funding threatens the delivery of nearly all state education money weeks before the start of a new school year.

WBEZ has learned the discussions among lawmakers include the kind of tax credit scholarship program Cupich had emailed the mayor about this spring. The state-level proposal could divert up to $100 million in state tax revenue to special funds that would help families pay for private school tuition, or help send their children to a public schools outside their home districts.

When asked if the mayor would support an education tax credit program in Illinois, mayoral spokesman Adam Collins said Emanuel “has been clear publicly that his priority is the state’s education funding formula.”

In Cupich’s email exchange with Emanuel, the cardinal referenced U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos’ push to expand private school choice by creating a federal education tax credit program.

The Trump administration hasn’t released specific details, but the idea is to give tax credits to anyone donating to a fund that would allow eligible students to attend a private school of their choosing. The same concept is now being discussed by Illinois lawmakers in the negotiations to overhaul public school funding across the state.

Categories Betsy DeVos, Chicago, Emanuel, Rahm, Vouchers

Mike Klonsky: Rahm Plans to Close Another School

By dianeravitch
July 30, 2017 //
3

Mike Klonsky writes about Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s efforts to close another school. Rahm has left his mark as the Great Destroyer of Public Schools in Chicago.

http://michaelklonsky.blogspot.com/2017/07/fighting-another-rahm-school-closure-at.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed:+mikeklonsky+(SmallTalk)&m=1

Mike and his brother Fred interviewed two members of the elected school council of an elementary school called National Teachers Academy, which they are fighting to save.

“It’s both an inspiring and heart-breaking tale of a school community that has managed to survive and thrive despite district misleadership and the rigors of 15 years of top-down, corporate-style reform, only to find itself on the chopping block. After finally achieving Level 1 status, NTA has been marked for closure. Its students could be moved into an expanded (1,800 students) South Loop Elementary — an elementary school that size is criminal — and NTA turned into a new high school for Chinatown…

“The school was launched in 2002 against the background of gentrification of the South Loop neighborhood, with a fancy misleading title (it was never a national teacher training academy) under the direction of a consortium of 15 school partners including universities who promised to deliver strong professional development for teachers at a neighborhood school.

“Instead, what the school got was a takeover by a private turnaround company, AUSL, leading to teacher firings and principal churn. Since 2006, the school has stabilized, developed a strong teacher residency program in partnership with UIC and has now been declared a Level 1 school, based on its rising test scores. Most of the credit for the gains goes to the school’s teachers and students as well as its two most recent principals, Amy Rome and Isaac Castelaz.

“Niketa and Elisabeth’s story recalled the legacy of then-CEO Arne Duncan’s so-called Renaissance 2010 reform initiative which was launched by Mayor Daley in 2004. It called for the closing of more than 80 schools to be replaced by 100 shiny new charters, contract schools, performance schools, turnaround schools, etc…by the year 2010.

“I still remember Duncan speaking to Dodge Elementary parents who were angry over his handing their school over to AUSL, without any input from the community, and promising them that they would be thrilled with his new Renaissance alternatives. But by 2013, CPS was already closing many of the schools Duncan had created.

“Ren 10 was a disaster on all levels. But it was the manufactured spin of this debacle as a “Chicago Miracle” which paved the way for Duncan’s appointment as head of the Department of Education.

“WBEZ’s Becky Vevea wrote at the time:

“In 2008, Dodge was where then president-elect Barack Obama announced Duncan as his pick for Secretary of Education.

“He’s shut down failing schools and replaced their entire staffs, even when it was unpopular,” Obama said at the time. “This school right here, Dodge Renaissance Academy, is a perfect example. Since this school was revamped and reopened in 2003, the number of students meeting state standards has more than tripled.”

“But fast forward another five years, Dodge and Williams are closing their doors.

“This story must have a familiar ring to the parents and students at NTA.

“But, as Elisabeth assured us yesterday, “We’re gonna win… We are an army of parents and allies from all over the city. This is not over.”

“I believe her.”

Categories Charter Schools, Chicago, Closing schools, Duncan, Arne, Education Industry, Education Reform, Emanuel, Rahm, Failure, Privatization, Turnaround Schools

Mike Klonsky: Rahm Emanuel Going to D.C. to Boast of His “Success” as a “Reformer”

By dianeravitch
June 20, 2017 //
15

Mike Klonsky writes that it was another horrendous weekend of youth violence and murder in Chicago.

And Rahm Emanuel, the mayor who will go down in history for closing 50 public schools in one day, is going to speak at the National Pres Clob about his punitive plan to withhold high school diplomas from students who can’t produce evidence of college acceptance or a job or enlistment in the military. Those who can’t do so presumably will drop out. Some reformer.

“After a Chicago weekend with 50 more shootings of mostly young people, eight of them fatal, Rahm Emanuel responded symbolically by laying off 50 more Head Start aides on the eve of the last day of school. Then, pirouetting past the graveyard, the mayor boarded a plane to D.C. where he is set to take the stage at the National Press Club, touting his latest plan to make it more difficult for African-American and Latino students to graduate from ravaged Chicago high schools.

“His speech, being billed ironically as “Moving Forward in Chicago,” will detail his plan to require all public high school seniors to provide a college or trade school acceptance letter, proof of military enlistment or a job offer in order to graduate. It’s another one of those “reforms” that would be mocked to death if proposed in the rich white suburban schools Rahm attended or in the private school where he sends his own children.

“Mainly poor, black and Latino Chicago students students will have to comply with the new mandates without the benefit of the hundreds of counselors and school social workers recently fired by CPS.

“The students, having persevered to overcome the devastating instability caused by Rahm’s mass school closings, having been forced to shift from school to school, from teachers who know them to teachers who don’t, having risked increased street violence just to make it to school every morning, will soon have another major bureaucratic hoop to jump through or risk being denied their earned diploma.”

A question for the press conference: Mayor Emanuel, you have consistently underfunded the public schools while your own children attend the University of zchicago Lab School. You have made no effort to provide equality of educational opportunity. How do you sleep at night? Do you think your mass school closings have any bearing on the violence in the streets of your city?

Categories Chicago, Closing schools, Emanuel, Rahm

Chicago: Rahm Emanuel’s Zany Graduation Requirement Draws Mixed Notices

By dianeravitch
June 16, 2017 //
22

Rahm Emanuel has a new plan: instead of funding the Chicago public schools, the Mayor–who controls the school system–has raised graduation requirements. Students cannot graduate unless they can prove they have post-secondary plans. Presumably, they will remain in high school for the rest of their lives if not.

Dare we say it is doomed to fail?

“In a radical policy change being referred to as everything from “forward thinking” to “remarkably silly,” high school seniors in Chicago, starting with the class of 2020, will not be able to graduate unless they present “evidence of a postsecondary plan.”

“The policy — formally known as “Learn.Plan.Succeed” — was announced by Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel in early April and quietly approved by the Chicago Board of Education in late May.

“Under the initiative, allowable evidence of a postsecondary plan can include things such as a college acceptance letter, a military enlistment letter, proof of employment or a job offer. It can also include acceptance into an apprenticeship program, a job program or a “gap year” program. Waivers may be allowed for students with “extenuating circumstances.”

“Emanuel is slated to discuss the new policy and other education initiatives at the National Press Club next week.

“The new graduation requirement — considered the first of its kind in the nation — comes at a time when Illinois finds itself in the midst of a longtime state budget impasse and massive debt, plummeting regional public university enrollment, and at a time when Chicago’s public school system itself had to borrow $389 million just to stay open to finish the 2016-2017 school year.

“It also comes at a time when concerns are being raised anew about concentrated joblessness among Chicago’s Black and Latino youth, who also comprise the vast majority of Chicago’s public school students.

“The new graduation requirement is drawing mixed reviews among youth and education policy experts, some of whom are raising questions about its workability and practicality given Chicago’s joblessness and Illinois’ budget woes.”

Categories Budget Cuts, Chicago, Emanuel, Rahm, Funding, High School Graduation

Chicago: The Devil is in the Details

By dianeravitch
June 2, 2017 //
9

Overwhelming majorities of both houses of the Illinois legislature passed bills to restore an elected board to Chicago.

Chicago is the only district in the state that does not elect its board.

The different bills must be reconciled.

However, there’s a trick clause in the Senate bill.

The Senate bill says that the first election would be held in 2023, at the end of Rahm Emanuel’s third term (which he has not yet won.) He is in the middle of his second term.

Categories Chicago, Education Reform, Emanuel, Rahm

Illinois: Despite Opposition of Mayor and Governor, Legislature Approves Return of Elected School Board

By dianeravitch
June 2, 2017 //
11

Despite lobbying by Governor Bruce Rauner and Mayor Rahm Emmanuel, both houses of the legislature voted overwhelmingly to replace mayoral control with an elected school board. The two bills differ in important details, and legislative leaders will have to hammer out a compromise. The bills were approved by veto-proof majorities.

This is great news for Chicagoans who have wanted an elected board that would listen to the public.

Categories Chicago, Democracy, Emanuel, Rahm

Mike Klonsky Had a Nightmare

By dianeravitch
April 24, 2017 //
7

Mike Klonsky, Chicago activist, had a dream that was actually a nightmare.

It involved Arne Duncan running for mayor, Rahm running for president.

A nightmare.

Categories Chicago, Democrats, Duncan, Arne, Emanuel, Rahm

Guess Where Rahm Got the Idea for Make-a-Plan-Or-You-Can’t-Graduate-from-High-School?

By dianeravitch
April 14, 2017 //
20

Thanks to Jennifer Berkshire for tweeting out this article.

Rahm’s big idea about requiring that high school students have a college acceptance or a military enrollment or a specific job or they can’t graduate was not his own. It was suggested to him by…..guess…three guesses….one guess: Arne.

Between the two of them, they have had charge of the Chicago Public Schools for 16 years. How, exactly, have they reformed the schools and made them better for students? Other than closing public schools (Rahm did that to 50 in a single day, which ought to be the first line in his Wikipedia entry) and Arne was first to close public schools for turnarounds (some of his original turnarounds have also been closed), what has changed for most students?

Categories Chicago, Duncan, Arne, Emanuel, Rahm, High School Graduation

Chicago: Rahm Should Drop His Punitive High School Graduation Demands and Fund the Public Schools

By dianeravitch
April 10, 2017 //
18

Miles Kampf-Lassin writes in The Chicago Reader that Rahm Emanuel’s plan to deny high school diplomas to students who don’t have a definite commitment from a college, the military, or a trade school is a farce.

He writes:

On its face, this may seem like just the kind of bold, innovative, and results-driven solution Emanuel has often said is needed to address the city’s pressing problems. But viewed within the context of a school system struggling to stay afloat, in reality it comes off as more of a Swiftian proposal that threatens the very students it’s aimed at serving.

Emanuel and CPS are calling the proposal “Learn. Plan. Succeed.” They tout it as way to get students to focus on their continued education post-high school. “If you change expectations, it’s not hard for kids to adapt,” the mayor said at a press conference Wednesday morning.

What Emanuel left out was that it’s a bit more difficult to adapt when your school is chronically underfunded and under-resourced, as is the case for the more than half of CPS students who live in predominantly African-American and Latino neighborhoods on the south and west sides. This disparity has helped create a massive, 37-point gap in student achievement between black and white students in the city’s public schools.

Nowhere in the new initiate is there a plan to tackle this disparity, or to increase funding for crumbling schools—many of which are in such decrepit shape that principals complain about rat infestations while teachers are forced to buy basic supplies such as text books, pencils, and toilet paper.

And if their schools being mired in poverty isn’t enough motivation for students, there’s also the fact that CPS is now threatening to cut the school year short by three weeks. This follows a continued increase in furlough days in 2016-2017.

For all of the mayor’s self-praise for extending the amount of time students spend in the classroom, he never followed through on adequately funding the added time, which contributed to the growing budget crisis facing CPS. Now the system could be on the brink of taking a huge step backwards by cutting the school year nearly a month short….

While the mayor claims this will serve as motivation, it could also easily drive up drop-out rates by students who don’t have the support system they require to plan for secondary education while still in high school. CPS already has already seen a rise in layoffs of counselors due to budget cuts. Why stay in school if you might not even get a diploma upon graduating anyway?…

The plan is all but sure to be approved by the mayor’s hand picked board, another reason it’s a good idea to push for an elected school board.

But if the mayor really wants to help students succeed, he’d drop this initiative in favor of one that actually strengthens the city’s public schools. That’s something teachers, parents and students could all get behind.

Categories Chicago, Emanuel, Rahm, Funding, High School Graduation
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