PSAT for 4-9-13: Fax the IL Leg
I just faxed this message to the Illinois House and Senate Education Committees. For Public Schools Action Tuesday, why not share this message with your Reps and Senators, too?
RE: Support school closing moratorium bills SB 1571 and HB 3283
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This week's updates on school closing issues:
11% of students lost in last year's CPS closings: From Catalyst:“In 2012, CPS closed only four small elementary schools that altogether enrolled about 500 students. In June, 467 kindergarten through 7th-grade students were at the closed schools. Of those, it’s unclear what happened with 51 children. CPS officials acknowledge that they don’t know where 23 of those students ended up and did not provide definitive information for another 28…” (http://tinyurl.com/bu9x7ty)Inflated charter school waiting list numbers: WBEZ reported that charter school waiting list figure cited by charter advocates “significantly overstates demand” and that “the 19,000 figure counts applications, not students, meaning if a student applies to four schools, he or she is counted four times. It includes kids who have turned down charter seats and are now enrolled in other schools. Perhaps the most startling finding is that a significant chunk–about 3,000–are high school dropouts applying for alternative schools. What’s more, saying that 19,000 students are on waiting lists to get into charter schools ignores another figure: there are between 3,000 and 5,000 available seats in charter schools right now, according to charter advocates.” (http://tinyurl.com/cpdyzd5)
Closings of “underutilized schools” may result in overcrowding: