Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson once stated he would not remove selective admissions and enrollment policies in the city’s schools but it appears that is the direction his Board of Education is headed.
Chicago Public Schools could move back to a neighborhood school approach, potentially eliminating the selective enrollment and magnet schools currently employed in the Windy City.
“A resolution up for a vote by the board on Thursday lays out a framework for a five-year ‘transformational’ strategic plan that the CPS CEO will present to the board in the summer,” according to the Chicago Sun-Times. “It calls for a ‘transition away from privatization and admissions/enrollment policies and approaches that further stratification and inequity in CPS and drive student enrollment away from neighborhood schools.'”
“The ideas align with the education platform Johnson campaigned on — and, like his campaign material, the framework offers few details,” the outlet continued.
However, an opinion piece written by the editors of the Chicago Tribune noted: “During his campaign for mayor, Brandon Johnson put out a statement saying that he would not get rid of Chicago’s selective-enrollment schools,” adding that the “precise words released by his campaign were, ‘a Johnson administration would not end selective enrollment at CPS schools.'”
“One of the main components of this five-year strategic plan is to disrupt cycles of inequity and bring resources to communities that have been harmed historically and continue to be harmed today,” Rudy Lozano, Jr., Chicago Board of Education member, said.
According to the Chicago Sun-Times:
Some 76% of high school students and 45% of elementary school students do not attend their assigned neighborhood schools. Chicago used to be a neighborhood-based school system, but has moved away from that model over the last 25 years. Just six years ago, CPS officials set up a new application system where they said they wanted every eighth grader to apply for high school, rather than automatically go to their neighborhood school.
Leaders said they don’t foresee dismantling specialty schools such as selective-enrollment, magnet and charter schools, and families will continue to be able to choose those options. Some of the city’s selective schools consistently rank among the top in the state and the country.
“What’s being omitted here is that we really haven’t focused on neighborhood schools. The fact that we are even having a conversation about how we are going to invest in neighborhood schools, that is a blatant admission that we are not focusing on neighborhood schools,” Johnson said.
A new budget system is proposed under the plan which is “based on student need, prioritizing communities most impacted by racial and economic inequity, and structural disinvestment and abandonment.”
“This could be controversial, with the district facing a $670 million deficit starting in 2025. Redistributing funding could mean drastic cuts for some schools while leaving others unscathed, or even getting more,” the Sun-Times noted.
The Chicago Tribune editors focused criticism on Johnson’s apparent backpedaling on what was seen as his campaign promise.
“Some reports Wednesday suggested, without irony, that it was not the administration’s intention to ‘dismantle’ charter or selective-enrollment schools, as if the Chicago Teachers Union had not had those hated charter schools in its sights for years. And we all know who put this mayor in office,” they wrote.
“So who could possibly read that resolution and believe that selective-enrollment high schools now can breathe easy?” they asked, calling out “some spectacularly weaselly words” in the resolution.
They also called out a statement by board President Jianan Shi who told the Chicago Sun-Times that the plan “needs to be guided and informed by the community,” which they blasted as “nonsensical, self-contradictory and disingenuous blather.”
“Johnson’s people can call this resolution a roadmap, or a transition plan, or a framework, or whatever they want. They must have a very low opinion of Chicagoans’ intelligence. People will see what is going on here,” the editors noted.
“Telling kids that everyone is the same and belongs in the same classroom, and then impeding smart kids in some misguided notion of ‘equity,’ only will further harm the city of Chicago, where this administration already has done plenty of damage,” the editorial concluded. “Kids know the truth.”
Writers and editors can be contacted at [email protected] with feedback, tips, or corrections.
Originally from New York, Powers graduated from New York University and eventually made her way to sunny South Florida. Powers also contributes to BizPac Review.
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