Chicago Charter Schools Face Criticism

By Prescott Carlson in News on Dec 18, 2008 10:50PM

On Tuesday, when President-Elect Obama announced that Chicago Public Schools CEO Arne Duncan was being nominated as Education Secretary, one of the many praises Obama lavished on Duncan was that he "championed good charter schools, even when it was controversial." It appears that charter schools are still controversial, as a group of teachers, parents, and students turned out at a Chicago Board of Education meeting yesterday to express their disappointment with the charter school program and how they are "destroying neighborhood schools."

The main argument against the CPS charter schools is that they cater to the kids that shine on state tests, leaving the lower-scoring kids behind in neighborhood schools. This not only lowers the school's overall assessment score -- which in theory might dissuade good teachers from working there -- but also removes high achieving students for others to model themselves after. Jesse Sharkey, a delegate for the Senn High union, is not fond of the current charter school system because he feels it goes against the meaning of a "public school":

[Sharkey] said that after a fight at a charter school in March, 19 kids showed up at Senn with letters saying they had been "dis-enrolled'' from the school. Charters "are allowed to kick people off the island,'' Sharkey said. "We're supposed to take all children. How is that fair?"

Duncan claimed the CPS would investigate the incident, but as "charters are allowed to create and enforce their own disciplinary code," we're not exactly sure what he's going to find out as they don't seem to be technically in the wrong. Could it be he was just trying to give the issue the brush off until he packs his bag and skips town on January 20?

Photo of Senn High School by Steven Crane