Sweeping School Bill Hits Roadblock
A sweeping school bill that reformers lauded as a landmark and that United States Secretary of Education Arne Duncan described as a national model is hitting snags in the Illinois House.
The measure, which the Illinois Senate passed unanimously last month, was the result of months of backdoor negotiations between some of the state’s most powerful interests–teachers unions, business groups and an out-of-state education group bankrolled by some of the country’s wealthiest political contributors.
The bill marked a rare give-and-take between the competing interests. It had the blessing of three labor groups — the Illinois Education Association, Illinois Federation of Teachers and Chicago Teachers Union – along with two reform groups, Advance Illinois and Stand for Children. Business groups signed off. School administrators
New Schools Chief’s Roots Lie in a Brooklyn School
Over a decade ago, before Mayor-elect Rahm Emanuel chose him to run the third-largest school system in the country, Jean-Claude Brizard was a rookie principal with a daunting mandate: Remake a troubled vocational high school in Brooklyn that had been given one last chance to avoid closure.
George Westinghouse High School, described as chaotic by both Brizard and the union chapter leader at the time, was clinging to outdated vocational programs, such as training students for jewelry-making jobs they could no longer find. The hallways were often violent, the site of student fights, while some teachers had checked out long ago, said Louis Esposito, the school’s union leader at the time.
“It needed order, it needed control, and that’s what he did,” Esposito said.
The scrutiny following Brizard’s selection as Chicago Public Schools chief has focused largely on his recent