Spawn of Rahm Not Attending Public School in Fall

AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast

If Chicago Public School teachers were already wary of Mayor Emanuel's plans for the school system, Emanuel's announcement that his children would attend University of Chicago Lab School in the fall must be at least a tacit acknowledgement of what he thinks of the value of a public school education, if not an outright rebuke.

Yes, it's Emanuel's and wife Amy's decision to send daughters Leah and Ilana and son Zach to whatever schools they believe give them the best education. But a large part of Emanuel's mayoral campaign was based on educational reform, which we now see as doubling down on pet Daley initiatives as charter schools. Emanuel said at a news conference a few weeks back, "My children get me as a parent, not as the mayor."

But with labor tensions riding high between CPS and the Chicago Teachers Union, a nice caveat to at least show Emanuel walks the walk would have been to look at placing his kids in a gifted public school, like Disney Magnet.

The teachers and students at the Emanuel's home school, Ravenswood Elementary, a fine arts magnet school with 72.6 percent of its enrollment being low-income and Hispanic, must really be feeling the sting today. And not only does Emanuel opt for a private school - again, his choice - but he decides to shuttle his kids to one of the toniest private schools in the city. At least the Obamas, who sent their daughters to U of C Lab School, lived in the neighborhood.

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By Chuck Sudo in News on July 21, 2011 11:30 AM

Comments [rss]

kdjk5467

He can afford it, why should he drain the taxpayers pockets for something he can afford. Whenever I see a BMW dropping of the kids at the local public school, I can'y help but to think that I helped pay for that by paying for part of their tuition. Only those that can not afford it should be given free education. And then it should be with vouchers. BAM, I just saved the city millions.

irritablevowel

Did anyone think Rahm was going to send his kids to public school? I assumed they were going to private school already and always had. This always comes up when a politician makes a stink about education. Like we as the public should be outraged! Outraged I tell you! Well, the thing is I doubt you'll hear much from the teachers union because Rahm isn't the only one associated with CPS sending his kids to private school. More than a few teachers do as well, for various reasons. Parents do what they need to do for their children.

Durwood

Quite simply, Rahm can send his kids to the Lab School because he can afford to do so. The problem I have with politicians like Rahm (as well as Obama, Clinton and Al Gore) is that they almost universally oppose providing any financial assistance that would enable people of normal financial means to send their kids to good private schools. The only choice that most Chicagoans have is to to send their children to substandard Chicago public schools, or leave the city (as most of my contemporaries with families have) for the suburbs. Many Chicagoans really have no choice at all, as they don't have the financial means to move.
....and please don't lecture me about we just need to shower CPS with more resources, pay teachers more, etc. The school system has stunk for decades, and even if the "neighborhood" schools started to improve now, no children that enter the system now would have much of a chance to benefit.

Mimihaha

If these thousands and thousands of parents would own up to the stake they have in their kids' futures, the schools wouldn't suck.

Navin_Johnson

Yeah thousands and thousands of kids can just be bussed out to New Trier everyday..........how backwards.

Mimihaha

If I had children at Ravenswood I would be applauding this decision. Who would want their kids to be caught up in the security nightmare that would come from having the Mayor's kids at your school? Send them to a private school, especially someplace like Labs, where they have the $$ and experience to deal with it.

TheUltimateCurmudgeon

Wasn't one of Rahm's priorities to improve the schools? That shows acknowledgment that they may not be all that great. Should he be faulted for wanting something better than the current CPS schools for his kids? Would you fault that of anyone else, and say they're wrong for sending their kids to a private school?

Personally, this isn't any of my business. I mean, great, his dick works and he helped make children. That's about as much as I need to know about his family.

Navin_Johnson

That shows acknowledgment that they may not be all that great.

No it doesn't. That's kind of like the Republican way of always complaining about *government* while at the same time always working to undermine it.

ChicagoD

Easy to say about other people's kids. Wait until you sit in a meeting with a principal who tells you that since the school is at full enrollment they are not interested in parental feedback or allowing parents to undertake some work on behalf of the school. I have had that experience, and it cuts through all ideology and makes clear that there are some bad people in good jobs.

Navin_Johnson

Then they should work to mirror the world's most successful school systems, where teachers are treated as national treasures and educators and teachers form the policy, not CEOs and hobbyist billionaires looking to experiment with your kid's futures.

ChicagoD

Step one: become a small, wealthy, homogeneous country. Step two: spend centuries being batted between the Swedes and Russians and in dire poverty. Step three: have political and social culture created by steps one and two.

OK, where do we start?

Navin_Johnson

Swedish system is better too....

Navin_Johnson

Yeah "become" because socially democratic policy just happens by "magic"......

We could highlight all of Scandinavia and a host of other Western countries to if you don't like it. The U.S. is full of profit and privatize mania, and there's a fortune involved in demonizing teachers and public education while at the same time dismantling it.

*excuses*. No sane leadership would place billionaire bank fraudsters on school boards. We're unique in our right wing/backwards approach to things.

Actually Finland reformed its education system in the '70s and here's an article that addresses every criticism you made: http://www.salon.com/news/davi...

ChicagoD

So, you really didn't identify step one. Also, you brought Finland up, so you should probably stick with Finland. As far as it goes, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, and Finland (not technically Scandinavian, but Nordic) have about 25 million people. The U.S. has roughly 300 million. The largest minority in Sweden (the largest Nordic country) is Finns. Also in the top ten are Germans, Danes and Norwegians. It looks like there are fewer than 350,000 people in Sweden who have immigrated from places outside Northern Europe.

It's basically the same as the USA. What have we been doing all these years?

Navin_Johnson

Addresses those common criticisms:

http://www.salon.com/news/davi...

The U.S. is a wealthier country than Finland, we've just enacted policies that send the wealth concentrating up to the top.

I'll just wait to hear a good argument for privatization of the public school system.

ChicagoD

But we already have small enclaves with highly-trained teachers (which collectively look more like Finland than America generally does). The schools in those enclaves perform tremendously well. Better than the Swedes and Finns combined. It's just that unlike Finland or Sweden, we also have the west side and the south side and some rural areas etc. etc.

The argument is not that privatization is the right answer, it is that Finland has a good model for Finland, not necessarily for a large, diverse country.

You can't see that though, can you? You'll just keep chucking the strawman of privatization in there until I go home for the night. Oh well. I haven't given you this much of my time in months and I won't again for months.

Navin_Johnson

Let's just trust the CEOs and subprime bankers (like Penny Pritzker and Rahm) to run education policy. That's the American way, and they have such a good track record. Funnel more tax dollars into corporations this time, go private schools. How crazy I am to suggest looking to educations systems that actually work!

Navin_Johnson

Actually they perform better than similar demographics. See the article's comparison of Minnesota.

You keep complaining but you haven't had the cajones to put forth any ideas of your own. At least I'll say what I believe in. More excuses and more selfish NIMBY-ism. "I got mine!"

Navin_Johnson

The forever sad and damaged Reverend slappy must be posting from his sailboat or the yacht club bar. "Public school rabble, *sniff* tut-tut..not for my little "Hudson" and "Madison"... We'll take the Mackinaw next year boys...

ReverendSlappy

Typical. [rolls eyes]

JAW

I have four kids in CPS and my oldest graduated from Lane Tech and made the Dean's List at Uof I last year. We are very happy with the Chicago schools and would think that Rahm's kids would also truly benefit from a diverse educational environment with some bright kids around them. It's a great start to life, IMHO.

BlueFairlane

I also am a parent of Lane graduates, and I, too, was happy with my personal experience with Chicago Public Schools. This owes more to the fact that I was dealing with Lane rather than any of the vast majority of other schools in the system than it does to the system itself. The system itself is broken.

ChicagoD

Yes, Lane and its graduates are clearly utterly, totally, and completely fantastic. Wherever you go, whatever you do, remember the honor of Lane.

Navin_Johnson

You seem like you have a personal axe to grind that's clouding your judgement.

ChicagoD

I went to Lane. The post was slightly tongue-in-cheek (partly teasing Chuck, who is also a Lane grad). I have zero ax to grind with Lane. I also recognize that Blue is right that it is one of a very few jewels in the system. It also assumes you successfully got something out of grade school.

Navin_Johnson

Fair enough. I didn't know it was an inside joke. It seemed pretty left field and harsh without knowing the context.

2centsUptown

Actually, Ravenswood takes kids in its neighborhood boundaries first - it doesn't operate as a true district-wide magnet.

Tafter

Is that specifically the magnet program? I know that some schools have two (or more) tracks: the "normal" where attendance is based heavily on the attendance boundaries, and the "magnet" or "gifted" program which is lottery or academically based.

Is there more than one program or track at Ravenswood?

ChicagoD

This question also highlights what is broken at CPS. The level of complexity is absurd and the rules change literally every year.

ChicagoD

This is a fundamental broken element in the system. Rahm's kids have no more advantage than any other kid at the magnets. They apply. There is a lottery, weighted by certain broad geographic factors, and kids are admitted on that basis alone. Thus, you don't "place" your kid at a decent school, you hope the lottery comes out right for you.

Rahm could not have conceivably won by entering this system. If his kids get into a magnet of their choice people will go ape about how THEIR kids did not get in, and Rahm's did, and how it's all crooked. If they struck out (like so many people do) and opted to not go to the geographic school they'd get hammered for that.

For those of us unlikely to be criticized for alleged "clout" if our kids get into a good CPS school we apply and have our private back-ups in place. Rahm really doesn't have that option.

Navin_Johnson

Given the high profile of higher level politicians, I've never really cared if they send their kids to private schools to keep them out of the public eye. Conservatives loved that Obama sends his kids to private schools so that they could say he was a hypocrite for not sending his kids to public. I mean really though, he's the POTUS, his kids need to be safe. Apart from that it was such a hilariously poor "gotcha" point considering that both him and Rahm are big boosters of privatization/corporatization of public schools, and are actually very in line with right wing views when it comes to education.

ChicagoD

The thing about ideology and sending your kids somewhere is this: they have one chance to go to school. They make friends, have experiences, gain and lose insights etc. based largely on their school. Every aspect of the decision negates other aspects. And your kid needs to fit in and be able to thrive . . . It is just too important a decision, with too many moving parts to make based on ideology.

From my perspective the ideological point is giving as many people in society the ability to actually have a school option they can be comfortable with. Some people say that means making the public schools better, some say privatizing, etc. etc., but I am not willing to force my kid to be the lab rat to see that something didn't work, and Rahm doesn't seem to be either.

Navin_Johnson

Of course Rahm doesn't. He's a privatization ideologue. Undermining public schools serves that purpose very well. His kids will be fine, all the others will have to fend for themselves in the only schools that will end up taking them: Public schools.

ReverendSlappy

Spot-on. For people in the public eye -- particularly those in politics -- it's one whole helluva lot more complicated than "walk the walk."

ChicagoD

The only walk-the-walk issue I see here is how he gets his kids there. In the Daley years Daley's city car with city-paid drivers and police protection would have taken the kids literally across half the city to go to school. How Rahm gets his kids there will be interesting.

2centsUptown

Actually, Ravenswood is required to take kids from the neighborhood first - it's not a true district-wide magnet.

ChicagoD

http://www.ravenswoodelementar...
You are exactly right. Of course, that also means it is not a "magnet" in any meaningful sense. Of course, this is born out by the fact that their ISAT scores are pretty abysmal.