City Budget Notes

It is City Budget time. And this year the City government really must make some hard choices. Both expense cuts and revenues increases are required. It is a double whammy. Mayor Emanuel included both, so that is a good start.

Now come the moral choices… what will we sacrifice? One topic for non-profits is free water. Non-profits like Chicago Commons have been getting free water for years. In good times, our city could afford this nice benefit. However, times are tough and we may need to pay our own way now. Does Commons like it? Of course not. Are we going to advocate against it? No. Sacrifices must be made.

Are we against anything in the Mayor’s budget? Yes. Two budget cuts are really bad ideas:

1. Cutting library hours. The library is a singularly important place in our neighborhoods. One of the few safe places where true learning can happen. It allows residents to pursue whatever it is they are after. We need more library hours, not less! The new West Humboldt library is seeing over 800 people per day and growing.

2. Cutting free tax services. There is a tiny amount of money in budget for free tax preparation services. It is cut by over half. However, for low-income families this is an absolute godsend. Most low-income working families with kids get a big tax refund thanks to Earned Income Tax Credit. Cutting this benefit means many families will not even do their taxes or could be gouged by a private preparer. This city-funded service injects way more money into the pockets of low-income families than it costs us.

A United Approach

At the recent CPS Board Meeting, a CPS official said “ it could [be] that our parents are voting with their feet,” by way of explaining why enrollment is declining at some under-performing schools. At Commons we have also seen more of our pre-school graduates going to schools outside the neighborhood, BUT the majority of our students still go to their local school.

Someone recently pointed out to me that the schools with declining enrollment are also in neighborhoods where foreclosure rates are off the charts. So it is important not to get caught up in the rhetoric. There are several reasons for declining enrollment in underperforming schools, and it is not only parents voting with their feet.

The bottom line: We do need to strengthen school management and that takes the right people and resources. And we, the community neighbors, must lend a hand to the school managers and teachers by engaging parents to be supportive of the school and students. It must be a unified effort.

One School At A Time

Remember the Morgan Stanley slogan… “one client at a time”?

Looks like CPS is adopting the "one school at a time" approach toward a longer school day.

I always found the Morgan Stanley ad campaign annoying, but the CPS strategy could hold a lot of promise.

So far teachers at four schools have voted to extend their school day unilaterally, not waiting for the teacher union – CPS negotiation to play out. In return CPS will provide each school and teachers with added funding.

Two of the schools are magnet or selective public schools. And two are majority low-income students, where arguably the extended day may be needed the most.

Will more schools take up the vote?

One thing we know for sure, extended school day by itself will not turn around a school. But -- most important -- an engaged group of teachers and parents definitely is a foundation for a better school. If the “one school at a time” approach encourages teachers and parents to organize and take local action, that’s good enough for us. Waiting for the high level political battles to play out is a recipe for the status quo and we don’t want that.

Turn up the heat!

Margaret Mead would be proud:

A first in education reform today... a small, vocal Local School Council on the South Side voted to turn its own school into a charter.

PREDICTION: No charter school operator will take up this call to action. If one does, they deserve big time praise.

WHY am I so negative? As the FoxNews story shows below, there is actually little parent involvement at this school despite the small, vocal Council. It is quite hard to inherit a neighborhood school with poor history of parent involvement. Charter school operators prefer to start a brand new school, attracting only engaged parents who take the time to apply for their child.

But that should not discourage this small, vocal group in Pullman. Even if they don't become a charter, they have laid down the gauntlet. Something must change! If they persist, it is sure to have a positive effect on the neighborhood and improve options for students. We at Commons are really interested to see how this plays out.

And it encourages us to redouble our effort in our own neighborhoods -- to support parents and community residents to take up the fight for better education, to support all educators who are pushing for excellence.

Community Demands Change for Wendell Smith Elementary: MyFoxCHICAGO.com

Labeling Of Schools

The schools in our target neighborhoods continue to struggle to achieve high rates of student success. There is progress, but a long way to go.

This summer we are applying for new federal funding to support several of our school partners. We have learned the confusing taxonomy used to categorize schools. A lot of this taxonomy began with the “No Child Left Behind Act” under Bush and has continued with “Race to the Top” under Obama.

For example, some funding is directed to “Persistently Low Achieving” schools (definition is bedtime reading). Turns out three schools in West Humboldt Park are “Persistently Low Achieving”, but others are not. Yet these other schools seem to have similar challenges. In fact, Orr High School is not on the list due to a technicality, but everyone knows it has been an under-performing high school.

We are thinking hard about the value of school labeling. Ultimately, it feels like a label on the staff, teachers and students at these schools. Accountability is absolutely needed, but sometimes the current accountability regime feels shallow. It seems like schools are being managed like a production line, complete with an all-knowing “Inspector 12”.

I recently came across a You Tube video from a recent rally in Washington.. it is an impassioned speech by a School Superintendant who has dedicated his life to improving education for students of greatest need. I can’t say that he has all the answers, but it is clear that his work is his “calling”. These are the types of people we need in the schools.. passionate folks willing to make it their life work. When I see someone like this indicting today’s accountability system, I think it should make us think twice.

A Better CPS!

Chicago Public Schools has become known nationwide as one of the more innovative big city school districts. This is mostly due to CPS' aggressive expansion of new charter schools, selective enrollment schools and school "turnarounds". Most of CPS' attention, naturally, has been focused on improving quality of teachers and school management. A final leg of the stool remains -- creating long-lasting, close partnerships with parents and the community. If this can be done well -- CPS would truly cement the experiments of the past few years.

Let's hope that CPS CEO, Jean Claude Brizard, gets this. He is creating a new position to oversee CPS strategy with parents and neighborhoods. Hopefully CPS will build upon the "Community Action Councils" formed last year... we have found that to be a very productive forum. Really glad to see the Sun Times weigh in on this today!

Power of Parents

More on Mayor Emanuel's Transition Plan:

Initiative #34 focuses on engaging parents to help improve education.

We could not agree more.

And it is particularly good to see that the Transition Team chose to highlight ideas focused on building long-term relationships, such as requiring parent-teacher agreements. This is something that has long been a practice at Chicago Commons.

And it is equally notable what is absent. During the Mayoral campaign, it was reported that Emanuel was considering a "parent trigger” approach that would allow parents to vote to shut-down and re-open schools. A parent trigger approach could cast a political shadow over the parent-school relationship. Glad to see this idea was left out of the transition plan.