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Chicago Public Schools
PI Original
by Ellyn Fortino
5:53pm
Wed Dec 12, 2012
1 comment

CTU Holds Education Summit To Push Back Against School Closings, Charters

Education

Hundreds of Chicago Teachers Union members, public school parents and activists began a grassroots education movement Saturday in response to Chicago Public Schools plan to expand charters while closing neighborhood schools at the end of this academic year. Progress Illinois was there to learn more about the movement and their plans.

Quick Hit
by Aricka Flowers
4:09pm
Mon Nov 26, 2012

CPS Proposes Moratorium On School Closings After This Year, CTU Disagrees With Plan

Chicago Public Schools CEO Barbara Byrd-Bennett has proposed a five-year moratorium on school closings starting next school year.

The caveat? That state legislators approve a request to push back the announcement of the schools the district plans to close at the end of this academic year. The district, which should — by law — announce impending school closures by December 1, would like to push back the announcement to March 31, but needs the state legislature to approve the delay. 

Read more »

Quick Hit
by Matthew Blake
7:34pm
Thu Nov 15, 2012

Emanuel Calendar Shows Mayor Holding On To National Profile

Through a public information request, the Chicago Tribune obtained Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s daily calendar between January and August of 2012. The Tribune’s focus on the hundreds of pages of documents is almost identical to the Chicago Reader, which did a two-part review of Emanuel’s public schedule between January and November of 2011. In a nutshell, the publications noted that Emanuel meets a lot with business leaders.

Emanuel’s ties with business are important given his policy record of ramming the Infrastructure Trust through city council in April, a nebulous effort to use private money for public projects, and expanding his own role as chairman of World Business Chicago, which coordinated the NATO summit in May.

But perusing through the calendar, available on the Tribune Web site, reveals other elements of Emanuel’s tenure including his national profile and approach to the Chicago Teachers Union labor dispute. Read more »

Quick Hit
by Matthew Blake
8:28pm
Fri Nov 9, 2012

Springfield May Consider A Chicago Elected School Board

Eighty-seven percent of the 65,763 Chicago voters who weighed in on the matter said ‘yes’ to a non-binding referendum on whether the city should have an elected, instead of mayor-appointed, school board.

An effort by the city council’s progressive caucus this summer, with the support of the Chicago Teachers Union, to get the referendum on ballots across the city failed. So only voters in select polling precincts were asked to consider the measure.

“Can you imagine the whole city of Chicago saying the same thing and the momentum that would have rolled from that,” asked Stacey Davis Gates, legislative policy director for CTU.

But even a citywide referendum would have been purely symbolic because, like so much else that governs the Chicago Public Schools, the selection of school board members is a matter of state, not city, law. Read more »