Yesterday the Chicago Public School's Board of Education, along with CEO Barbara Byrd-Bennett, approved just two of the five proposed charter schools. The two, along with previously approved charters, will open in the fall of 2013.
What is different this time around is that a couple of the charters were deferred, something that has never taken place when charters have been proposed in the past. In part the deferred schools were given that status as there are questions about where the schools would be located in additions to other considerations.
One of the more thoughtful comments made about school closings came from 3rd Ward Alderman Pat Dowell who said that "you can't rationalize the closing of neighborhood schools without rationalizing the closing of charter schools." She has a point there considering the mixed results of charters.
If schools need to be closed, due to a shrinking student population, why do they necessarily have to be the traditional neighborhood public schools? Indeed!
What is good to see is that a number of alderman aren't simply interested in rubber-stamping school closings or the opening of new charters.
Dick
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