Progress Illinois

For months, school reform advocates have confronted Chicago Public Schools officials with a fairly straightforward request: If they're going to continue to close down schools in the name of progress, they should be able to demonstrate what progress is or isn't being made. Parents United for Responsible Education (PURE) director Julie Woestehoff tells us this shouldn't be that difficult.  After all, in 2007 the CPS board adopted a new "Process for School Closings" (PDF) that required annual reports "on the impact school closures have on CPS students."  That policy came as part of an agreement that involved State Rep. Cynthia Soto (D-Chicago) backing off legislation that would have applied more stringent accountability measures.

But typical of the district's ongoing lack of transparency on the matter, CPS has blown off PURE's Freedom of Information Act requests for the documents. On March 24, Woestehoff appealed (PDF) to Attorney General Lisa Madigan for help in pressuring CPS to either hand over the information or confirm her hunch that such a report has yet to be completed. 

In her letter to Madigan, Woestehoff explains why such accountability matters:

We know that students who are moved from school to school can lose academic ground. There may also be emotional and social repercussions from such moves. We need to know what has been happening to our children, some of whom have been subjected to multiple school moves under Mayor Daley's Renaissance 2010 program.Parents, the general public, and the Board itself should have objective information about how school closings have affected children. This is especially pertinent in light of the Board's vote last month to close another eight schools.

If these reports do not exist, the public has a right to know that the Board of Education is making decisions without having any information about the impact those decisions have on children, information that they themselves requested.

Meanwhile, Soto this year reintroduced her proposal (HB 363) calling for a one-year moratorium on school closures until CPS pulls together a clear set of criteria explaining their decisions and their future plans for the school buildings in question. Today, PURE and other groups are ramping up their advocacy efforts in support of the measure. If the legislature fails to take action by Friday, the proposal will die this term.

As we've noted before, there’s no question that some of the targeted schools sit half-empty or have underperformed. But the ongoing unwillingness by CPS -- and ultimately Mayor Daley -- to provide information about how these decisions are made only fuels suspicion that the closures, turn-arounds, and phase-outs are driven more by the desire to outsource schools and weaken the teachers' union than to raise standards for struggling students.

Ironically, through their ongoing lack of transparency, CPS has strengthened the case for why lawmakers ought not allow district officials to drag their feet any longer.