Chicago’s Board of Education votes today on closing an unprecedented number of elementary schools. WBEZ reporters asked Chicagoans to tell us in their own words what would be lost if their school closes.
The biggest reason Chicago’s school district says it’s closing 53 grammar schools is to give students a better education. But how “better” is defined has become a point of contention in a heated debate.
Two things seem to be on the minds of most parents whose kids attend Chicago Public Schools: A longer school day and school closings; both of which came up at Wednesday's school board meeting. The meeting was much more subdued than last month's, which was taken over by Occupy protestors.
Chicago Public Schools will hold hearings just about every night this week on a slate of schools the district wants to close or phase out. School closings are controversial every year. And this year has been no different--but there have been some new twists to the controversy.
This year Chicago Public Schools announced plans to close, turnaround or phase out over 15 schools. If the latest round is approved, Chicago will have shut down or turned around more than 100 schools over the last decade.
Every month WBEZ education reporter Linda Lutton joins Eight Forty-Eight for Cheat Sheet - the unofficial, irreverent guide to Chicago’s Board of Education meetings.Parents and teachers sounded off on the district’s newest list of school closings.
