CPS Can't (Or Won't) Back Up Its Case For A Longer School Day
By Chuck Sudo in News on Feb 19, 2013 10:25PM
If we could list all the reasons why parents, teachers and students don’t trust Chicago Public Schools or the Chicago School Board, we’d run out of server space. So let’s focus on one reason, for now.
The Reader’s Ben Joravsky wrote a story of a parent who has been fighting a largely futile battle with CPS to obtain documents backing the school system’s claim that its school day was markedly shorter than other school systems in major American cities. Glenn Krell responded to a letter sent to parents by former CPS CEO Jean-Claude Brizard last February asking them to support the district’s call for a longer school day, specifically noting that students in CPS schools received “22 percent less instruction time than their peers across the country.”
Krell wanted to know how Brizard and CPS came to that conclusion and submitted a Freedom of Information Act request asking for documents supporting Brizard’s statement. What followed was an epic case of stonewalling. CPS’ FOIA officer responded to Krell’s request, claiming that those documents didn’t exist. Krell persisted and wrote a letter to Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan’s office about his plight, asking they assist him in obtaining the documents he requested. Madigan’s office agreed with Krell and notified CPS that further inquiry was warranted.
CPS responded to Madigan’s office last April and claimed it only has to keep records it has to “under state law,” and the documents Krell requested in his FOIA submission didn’t qualify. Krell has not given up the proverbial ghost and told Joravsky he sent an email to Assistant Attorney General Sara Gadola Gallagher to stay on the case, or at least have CPS list the section of the state law that allows them to destroy official documents.
Joravsky (perhaps half-jokingly) suggests CPS never had the documents to prove how their students’ average school day is shorter than those of other school districts. One would think they would have information as to how they came to that determination, since the call for a longer school day was one of the main points of contention that led to last year’s teachers’ strike. If a parent can’t get information that shows something as simple as how a CPS student’s school day is shorter than in other school districts, then why should parents and teachers trust the school district as it continues to hold meetings across Chicago about possible school closures?