Rahm: Don't Move To The Suburbs For Better Schools
By Chuck Sudo in News on Mar 25, 2012 6:00PM
Mayor Rahm Emanuel was interviewed by the Sun-Times Friday about the reforms he's championing for Chicago Public Schools. During the interview he had a plea for parents.
“Don’t head for the doors when your kid’s in fifth grade or sixth grade — for the suburbs — because the city of Chicago is going to give you a high-quality life with a high-quality education for your children,” said Emanuel, speaking in his office and flanked by Chicago Public Schools CEO Jean-Claude Brizard.“That’s our commitment to the families of the city of Chicago. And we’re well on our way to starting to put that down payment down,” he said.
Emanuel spoke with the Sun-Times on the same day he and CPS CEO Jean-Claude Brizard announced a plan to create 10 new International Baccalaureate (IB) Diploma Programmes in high schools across the city and outlined plans to directly inform parents and community members about the benefits of this college prep program before selecting schools. Emanuel said the plan "allows us to provide students and families from across the city with another option and another opportunity for a high-quality education."
But it also comes as competition to enter the system's nine advanced placement high schools is tougher than ever. For the 2012-13 school year, 14,284 applicants for 3,200 seats, and the Sun-Times obtained data from CPS that showed qualified applicants needed near-perfect scores in order to obtain entry. A recent profile of Emanuel's mayoralty by The Atlantic Monthly's Jonathan Alter also indicates Emanuel wasn't happy with the mess handed to him regarding CPS by Richard M. Daley.
"Rahm is still steaming about the contracts negotiated by Daley and Arne Duncan—who was then running CPS and is now the nation’s education secretary—which gave teachers hefty pay increases and a shorter school year. 'I know what the teachers got, and I know what the politicians got,' he says, meaning no strike. 'But I don’t know what the kids got.'"Since January, only 50 of the city’s 675 schools have voluntarily agreed to the extra time (compliance among charter schools was higher). Critics who should have known better cited Japan as an example of a country that produces high test scores while having a short school day. (They forgot to mention that Japanese students routinely spend afternoons and evenings at “cram schools,” preparing for tests.) Rahm’s view is that a longer school day and year are necessary without being anywhere near sufficient. 'If it were up to me, we’d have year-round schools. I wouldn’t have a summer break for children. I think it’s nuts,' he tells me. 'We lose basically half of the academic year in the summer.'”
Under Emanuel's plan, five new IB schools will go online in the 2013-14 school year, one in each of the school system's regions, and will be available to all comers. CPS currently offers IB programs to approximately 3,500 students throughout the city at 13 high schools, and the program is in 21 elementary schools. Emanuel told the Sun-Times, "We’re going to have good, high-quality high schools that are going to prepare your kids, whether they’re going to junior college, the armed forces or four-year institutions. Your child’s education and your child’s opportunity at a good-quality high school education just improved."