City Room™ - Education - CPS Wants New Schools, But Fewer

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City RoomTM Public Affairs coverage from our award-winning staff

CPS Wants New Schools, But Fewer
Produced by Linda Lutton on Wednesday, November 04, 2009

Chicago Public Schools wants to open six new schools as part of its Renaissance 2010 initiative. One of those would serve kids from Altgeld Gardens.

Chicago International Charter School will open a 6th through 12th grade school near Altgeld, where parents have clamored for a neighborhood high school in the wake of Derrion Albert’s death.

PURVIS: I think what this tragedy did is make us all even more aware of the urgency that we have to create safe places for our kids to learn.

Beth Purvis is head of Chicago International. The group started an elementary school in Altgeld this fall.

Charter schools typically enroll students from the entire city, but CPS can decide to prioritize admission for neighborhood kids.

Some Altgeld residents have blamed Renaissance 2010 for provoking school closings and spurring more youth violence as kids travel to other neighborhoods for school.

The Board of Education will vote on the new schools later this month. It’s considering far fewer. In the past, CPS has recommended approving more than 20 new schools in a year.

Related: Chicago to Add Six New Renaissance 2010 Schools

Rolf Goehler, Schaumburg // Thursday, November 05, 2009 @ 5:59 PM

It is not the buildings that will improve the education in this area. It is the introduction of credible hiring, evaluation and reward policies for teachers that perform. Until we get off the present tenure system, the education system will continue to decline. Stop the politics and start addressing the needs of the students because we are wasting generations of productive and innovative youth in our present system and it is all because the politics prevent real change!

whoever, chicago // Thursday, November 05, 2009 @ 8:45 PM

Opening "safer" schools is not the answer. Having parents be more involved in their childrens lives and having the community fight back against violence is what makes the difference.

Jaycr, Lincoln Square // Friday, November 06, 2009 @ 4:56 PM

Privatizing another school will not solve or even help solve the problem. The continued movement toward charter schools mirrors the idea of privatizing our parking meters. Ultimately, the short term "savings" lead to long term costs. In the case of children, opening a new school costs children instructional learning time and the citizenry money (which Board of Ed CEO Huberman claims the Board does not have.) Despite studies which indicate turning over the public trust to private interests has done nothing to help the children of Chicago, CPS continues to spend money on schemes rather than real solutions. The solution to creating quality schools for our children begins by creating a stable learning environment, through the slow but time tested process of developing a positive, stable learning environment with a mixture of new and veteran teachers. Such environments can not be created over night, although they can and have been destroyed in that length of time. Those who claim that disrupting a learning environment can somehow serve students in the long run are selling snake oil to the citizens of Chicago, and profiting from such false promises. (The charter school proponents' argument is akin to the absurd Viet Nam era argument that "In order to save a village, it has to be destroyed."

Sean, Pilsen // Saturday, November 07, 2009 @ 11:24 AM

Well put, Jayer!

julia, chicago // Thursday, November 12, 2009 @ 3:37 PM

We have a problem when we graduate a large proportion of minorities (Latinos and African Americans) hardly prepared to enter college or the labor force. What do our system allows this to continue? It is a disservice to promote and graduate people who are prepared. We need higher standards, higher expectations and less bureaucracy when it comes to firing less than qualified teachers.