Emanuel: I can’t wait for ‘high-class debate’ on longer school day

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Updated: November 16, 2011 1:30AM

Mayor Rahm Emanuel appealed to Chicago’s newly-created Youth Commission on Tuesday to get behind the education reform he has championed, but not yet found a way to implement: a longer school day and school year.

The mayor told the 25-member advisory group of local high school and college students that the Chicago Public Schools made a “serious offer” with its proposal to give elementary school teachers a 2 percent pay raise for working a 90-minute longer school day.

And Emanuel made it clear that he’s not giving up on the idea, even though the Chicago Teachers Union rejected the offer.

“Every child, every year who’s in the Chicago Public School system is cheated 10,000 minutes compared to the national average. … Just think about that accumulating over time. It compounds itself from first-grade to second-grade, second-grade to third-grade, third-grade to fourth-grade,” the mayor said.

“Every study shows [that] more time in the classroom gets you close to a warranty on improvement educationally. If we stay doing the same thing, we’re gonna get the same results. And I don’t think these results are satisfactory for your future.”

Chicago Teachers Union President Karen Lewis has rejected the 2 percent pay raise offer while arguing for a “better, smarter school day” for students.

Emanuel said he can’t wait for what he called “that high-class debate” on what to do with the extra time.

“Teachers will help design [a longer day]. First-through-fifth-grade doing the basics. Sixth-, seventh- and eighth-grade, more expansive. I mean — whatever anybody thinks is the right thing to do,” he said.

“I cannot wait for a high-class debate and discussion and agreement about, ‘Is it more math? Is it more history?’ Obviously, what a high-school student should be learning is different than what an elementary student should be learning. That is a high-class debate that we should have and a discussion and an agreement.”

The school reform bill that Emanuel helped push through the Illinois General Assembly authorizes a longer school day and school year. But the changes cannot be implemented during the upcoming school year without union consent.

After rescinding a 4 percent pay raise tied to the teachers contract, Schools CEO Jean-Claude Brizard offered to give 2 percent back to elementary school teachers who agreed to work 90 minutes longer each day.

Lewis promptly rejected the offer, arguing that teachers would not be “bullied” by public attempts to push through a slapdash plan.

The union president said she was open to further talks and said the union was crafting ways to add 15 to 60 minutes to the elementary school day.

But she argued that Brizard’s written offer of a longer day starting in January included a “bunch of craziness” that would extend the school year by converting teacher-only attendance days and other holidays to student instructional days.

That’s a model adopted by United Neighborhood Organization (UNO) charter schools that Brizard has said he wants to follow.

In mid-January, Chicago high school students participating in the “Mikva Challenge” painted a bleak picture of the obstacles they face to learning every day as they questioned Emanuel and three other mayoral candidates.

They specifically complained about: fights in school that security guards watch, but don’t break up; bullying inside and outside schools that often target gay and lesbian students; students getting jumped by gang members on the way to school or “harassed” by police; cuts to arts and sports programs; and interminably long and sometimes dangerous commutes.

Chicago’s first-ever Youth Commission was born from that mayoral forum with student meetings with Emanuel now expected to be held four times annually.

At Tuesday’s inaugural meeting at City Hall, reporters were allowed to witness only Emanuel’s opening remarks. The news media was asked to leave before the open dialogue where students made specific suggestions to the mayor.