Chicago school board meeting like ‘Groundhog Day’

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Updated: March 24, 2012 9:08AM

When it comes to the debate over public education, little has changed since I covered education in the ’90s.

You would think by now, parents would be up in arms because their children dropped out of school or didn’t learn to read well enough to fill out a job application.

But that isn’t the case.

Parents, activists and teachers are still more outraged over the Chicago Board of Education’s proposal to turn around or close schools.

At the school board meeting on Wednesday, the Rev. Jesse Jackson, a veteran of school wars, stood with the group that is urging the school board to table plans to phase out Walter H. Dyett High School.

And the head of the Chicago Teachers Union pleaded with board members to abandon the school turnaround effort altogether.

Closing a school is an emotional issue, especially in neighborhoods where imaginary boundaries keep kids from going to another school even when it is in walking distance.

But sitting through a school board meeting was like watching the movie “Groundhog Day.”

The faces and titles have changed, but people are having the same arguments over how to improve public education.

Unfortunately, no one has figured that out yet. And distrust has turned every reform effort into a long, ugly siege.

This time around, opponents also are denouncing the board’s proposals as being a form of apartheid.

“The majority of our students, most of whom are black and brown, experience a form of education apartheid,” CTU President Karen Lewis told the board during her emotional remarks.

“Children who need the most resources get the least. Parents who cry out the loudest have their voices drowned. Schools that deserve the most support purposely get little,” she said.

Jackson used a report by Designs for Change, a respected education watchdog group, to argue that “turnaround” schools are ineffective.

Despite the mayor’s claims, the education advocacy group concluded turnaround schools in impoverished neighborhoods do not “outperform” neighborhood schools with similar populations.

Additionally, Jackson pointed out that there are disparities between Payton High and Orr High or between Whitney Young and Marshall.

“This is educational apartheid,” Jackson said.

Things haven’t changed much in terms of behavior, either.

I didn’t expect people to act like they were in church, but some speakers set poor examples for CPS students.

For instance, several speakers were rude to board members and had no respect for protocol. But what does rude behavior teach students? We can’t expect children to follow the rules if we don’t bother.

Understandably, people are frustrated because they want their voices to be heard — and to matter.

But the distrust makes it harder for stakeholders to find common ground.

For instance, on the eve of the big school board showdown, the Crane coalition struck an agreement with CPS that would allow the school to keep its name.

That was no small feat. Crane has been on probation for a decade, and one out of two Crane students do not graduate. It doesn’t get much worst than that.

But because the Crane Coalition was organized and included several prominent members, it was able to come up with a viable plan that at least saves the school’s name.

Late Tuesday, the mayor announced that Crane would not close after all. Instead, a charter school would move in and Crane would become a health sciences high school.

That’s a great outcome for Crane, but in the past, school closings have been contentious because the decisions do not appear to be based on consistent criteria.

This time is no different, and we are 20 years down the road.

Chicago’s kids shouldn’t have to wait 20 more for us to get our act together.