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 »
The fight over public school closures and consolidations in Chicago came to the
northwest side community of Logan Square this week, as nearly 100
concerned parents and residents filled a classroom in Ames Middle
School in response to a proposed plan to move a military academy into
the building.
Diane Ravitch, who was assistant secretary of education under George
H.W. Bush and then became a national spokeswoman against the
so-called education reform movement, says that Chicago has taken the
lead on education reform – and the revolt against such policies.