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Tuesday, October 20, 2015

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Spinning his own legacy while feathering his own nest. Get ready for another Duncan 'miracle'.

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Spinning his own legacy while feathering his own nest. Get ready for another Duncan 'miracle'.:

Spinning his own legacy while feathering his own nest. Get ready for another Duncan 'miracle'.



Just as Arne Duncan was announcing his retirement and his plans to return to Chicago to "spend more time with his family", he dropped another $8M in fed dollars on pal Mike Milke's Noble charter school chain. This on top of another $42.2M coming to IL with the lion's share going to Noble and Lawndale Educational and Regional Network.

Milke says Noble (which I lovingly call the Billionaire's Charter Network) needs the money in order to open 8 new schools to meet the growing demand and shorten it's "waitlist". But the Raise Your Hand parents group just made a few phone calls and found out that at last 5 Noble schools can't fill the seats they have. They wonder, "Where's the waitlist"?

RYH asks some great questions:

Why is the charter community rallying for more schools when there are plenty of openings in existing charter schools across Chicago, including Noble, and CPS’ enrollment has been declining for years, down roughly 14,000 students just since 2012? RYH found last year Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Spinning his own legacy while feathering his own nest. Get ready for another Duncan 'miracle'.: