Jack Hassard: School Closings in Our Cities: A Deep Ecological Problem
Guest post by Jack Hassard.
Latest Story
In this post I am going to argue that it is a mistake for large school districts such as Chicago, New York, and Atlanta to close schools on the basis of achievement and cost effectiveness. The Chicago School District announced that they plan to close 61 schools which is 13% of the total schools in the district. This will be the largest mass school closings in U.S. history. If you map these schools and their communities, the Chicago school board acts as if these schools are unimportant, and indeed the children and youth that attend these schools, because they are poor, and failing state mandated tests, can be moved about at their whim. According to the president of Chicago Principals and Administrators Association, the decision to close more than 50 schools has been done with no planning.
Deep Ecological Considerations
In their research on what they call "green governance" Burns Weston and David Bollier (2013) offer an insightful analysis of the consequences of the way business enterprises in partnership with government are "fiercely commercializing" many resources that were protected or beyond the reach of such shenanigans. Bollier (2002) calls this a scandal, and refers to it as a "silent theft" and "the private plunder of our common wealth." The
Latest Story
In this post I am going to argue that it is a mistake for large school districts such as Chicago, New York, and Atlanta to close schools on the basis of achievement and cost effectiveness. The Chicago School District announced that they plan to close 61 schools which is 13% of the total schools in the district. This will be the largest mass school closings in U.S. history. If you map these schools and their communities, the Chicago school board acts as if these schools are unimportant, and indeed the children and youth that attend these schools, because they are poor, and failing state mandated tests, can be moved about at their whim. According to the president of Chicago Principals and Administrators Association, the decision to close more than 50 schools has been done with no planning.
Deep Ecological Considerations
In their research on what they call "green governance" Burns Weston and David Bollier (2013) offer an insightful analysis of the consequences of the way business enterprises in partnership with government are "fiercely commercializing" many resources that were protected or beyond the reach of such shenanigans. Bollier (2002) calls this a scandal, and refers to it as a "silent theft" and "the private plunder of our common wealth." The
