Meeks wants vouchers for 50,000 students
BY FRAN SPIELMAN City Hall Reporter/fspielman@suntimes.com Dec 15, 2010 5:52PM
12-15-10 the Chicago Board of Elections hearing on whether Rahm Emanuel's name should be on the ballot resumes with Lori Halpin, who with her husband Rob Halpin, rented Emanuel’s house from him after he went to Washington to work for the president. Halpin was called to testify....Rich Hein/Sun-Times
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Arguing that Chicago Public Schools are “broken’’ and that parents deserve a “choice,’’ mayoral challenger James Meeks said Wednesday he would offer $4,500-a-year vouchers to 50,000 low-and-middle-income Chicago families to use toward private school tuition.
If he is elected mayor, Meeks said he would also offer full-day kindergarten and character education in all Chicago Public Schools and double the time spent on reading and math in first through third grades. Full-day kindergarten would be financed in part by cutting bonus pay for teachers with master’s degrees.
The 90 minutes of daily reading time — up from 45 minutes currently — is designed to make certain that students read at a third-grade level by the time they finish third-grade.
The Chicago Teachers Union would be given one year to develop a policy “with teeth” to “identify and dismiss” teachers who are not performing. If the union cannot or refuses to meet that deadline, Meeks said he would ask