Friends of the 46th Ward Schools has
posted in the comments: "
There is a community meeting scheduled for 11:00 a.m. this Saturday at Truman College. According to CPS, this meeting will allow communities to provide feedback and input on schools that remain on the potential closure list. This meeting will cover Stockton, Stewart, Brennemann, and Trumbull (at Foster and Ashland). Anyone who is interested in keeping these schools open should attend Saturday's meeting."
We should be celebrating and not mourning or fighting the closing of these poorly performing schools. Look at the test scores and comments from parents posted on greatschools.org.
ReplyDeleteAll children deserve access to the best educational opportunities and these schools are terrible. It's like trying to fight the closing of a hospital in which most patients that were admitted died.
I feel bad for the adults that are going to loose their jobs or be relocated because of the closings but schools are not about jobs for adults; their purpose is to educate children.
If you are part of the group fighting to keep the schools open, please ask yourself if you really are fighting for the children or do you have other motives?
Thank you.
PJChicago - the question to ask is whether closing the schools will improve outcomes for the students or make things worse. I haven't seen evidence that closing three schools in Uptown will suddenly give all Uptown kids "access to the best educational opportunities," as you say.
ReplyDeleteWell, they can't get any worse then they already are.
DeleteCharter school thieves. I expect this to be a fiesty meeting. Parents and students can see through the bull. And it's thick.
ReplyDeleteThe question also is where will these children go... the school isn't the problem, it's the demographic of the kids. Educated parents put their kids in private schools in the city and compromise the entire purpose of the "common school" purpose as outlined by Horace Mann. Poor and wealthy are supposed to be together, help each other out. Teachers are blamed for issues pertaining to socioeconomic status and that's not right. Focus on helping these families out... tutors?
ReplyDeleteYou're right PJChicago...take away all of the support services, curricular support positions, libraries, counselors, etc. in the poorest neighborhoods with violence, hunger, poverty, etc to add on top of the stresses of school and then point to low test scores as an excuse to shut schools down. Let's close all public schools so we can give hundreds of millions of dollars more to UNO so their board of directors can share it with their family members and political allies while getting the same (or lower) scores as the schools they are trying to close.
ReplyDeleteRight on Stockton
ReplyDeleteThese are numbers from another post. $400.000 to improve Stockton, the cheapest of all 3 schools in the proposed closings. Thinking outside the box. Close Stewart and Brenneman. The money saved used to improve Stockton. Transfer students from both closed schools or at least as many as needed to bring the population to capacity from 41 percent. Fire all the teachers and principals from all 3 schools. Allow all the terminated principals and teachers to apply for the positions available at Stockton. Hire the best of those applying. The best being those who have demonstrated by their ability to have the students in their classes succeed. Talking about solutions not just complaining. Maybe just a starting place for some dialog?
ReplyDeleteI don't think all 3 three schools will be closed. You can close Stewart and split the kids between Brenneman and Stockton. Brenneman is the smallest school, so you can close it and send the kids to Stewart. If you close 2 of the schools, won't that make the last one overcrowded? In the end it won't matter, the school buildings that close will be sold to become charter schools. They will offer new programs and bright eyed and bushy tailed teachers. The parents will be scrambling to get their kids in these schools. The remaining cps schools will then become underutilized..lather, rinse, repeat...
ReplyDelete