In the News: Privatization promotes inequality: Panel
The ongoing push for charter schools across the Chicago Public School district may infringe upon the fundamental human right to equal opportunity for education, according to a group of panelists who discussed privatization and education at the University of Chicago Wednesday night, Progress Illinois reports.
SEEKING ANOTHER OPTION: Parents from three schools slated for closure are demanding their children be allowed to attend a Wicker Park magnet school. Meanwhile, Chicago Public Schools announced Thursday that nearly 50 percent of students attending welcoming schools next year have already enrolled for fall. (FOX 32)
MIXED RESULTS: CPS announced on Thursday that half of the students from closing schools have enrolled in new schools and, so far, the vast majority—some 86 percent—are going to the designated receiving schools. But a breakdown of enrollment numbers by school shows wide variation among parents declaring where they will send their children in the fall. (Catalyst)
DIGITAL MEDIA STRIDES: A learning center for teens at the Harold Washington Library demonstrates both the challenges and opportunities of the efforts to exploit technology and digital media, a new report from the University of Chicago
In the News: CPS parents may turn to homeschooling
Some South Side parents, saying they no longer trust Chicago Public Schools to educate their children, are considering homeschooling, according to Progress Illinois. One parent intends to use her church’s fellowship hall to instruct a maximum of 20 students.
ANOTHER LAWSUIT: The Chicago Teachers Union filed a lawsuit Wednesday that seeks to keep 10 schools from being closed down, the third such action aimed at reversing the Board of Education’s approval last week to close 49 elementary schools and a high school program.The lawsuit contends that CPS ignored the recommendations of independent hearing officers who opposed the closings on the grounds that the district did not follow state law or its own guidelines for shutting down schools. (Tribune)
TRUANCY TASK FORCE: State Sen. Jacqueline Y. Collins (D-Chicago) is calling for a task force to study the truancy and absenteeism crisis in Chicago Public Schools. The Senate adopted a resolution creating the group and instructing it to hold public hearings and report its findings to the General Assembly by the end of this year. In 2012, a Chicago Tribune investigation found that nearly 1 in 8 CPS students in grades K-8 missed four or more weeks of class during the 2010-11
