saving students from education reform

Another frustrating example of the attack on teachers and unions as the source of the problems in public schools today. As Sabrina Stevens notes:

Students and schools cannot succeed if the adults in the community don’t work together to make a high-quality public education for all kids a reality. And while Won’t Back Down purportedly supports such a goal, the stereotypes it promotes-- and the agenda it hides-- could threaten that effort if people don’t understand the reality beneath the Hollywood gloss.

You know, I don't expect every high-profile city official to send his or her children to our public schools. But what if they did? Maybe then, they'd have to pay attention to the conditions that the rest of us have to deal with. And maybe they'd start to rethink some of the policies they've shoved down our throats.

What really irks me about Rahm's temper tantrum is that he is so sure about what's right for Chicago Public Schools: standardized testing, security cutbacks, charter schools, turnaround schools, teacher evaluations based on test scores. Yet there's not enough good in the public school system to send his kids there. He is sending them to a school that doesn't emphasize standardized tests, that has a rigorous curriculum that emphasizes critical thinking, that has nearly-unlimited resources. 

Parents at Whittier Elementary in Chicago organized a 43-day sit-in last fall to save their school's community center/ field house, which they would like to turn into a library. At the end of that sit-in, Chicago Public Schools (CPS) agreed to stop the planned demolition, divert TIF funds to renovating the field house, and provide the school with a library.

Now that CPS has a new CEO, they broke their promise: they have started plans to demolish the field house, and they have plans to create a library inside the school (something the parents oppose, since it will not be accessible to the community, and it risks displacing special education students). 

This site is heartwarming and wonderful. ReThink is a partnership between middle school kids and organizations in New Orleans whose purpose is to make sure that kids have a voice in the restructuring of New Orleans schools.

After Hurricane Katrina, many students had to attend school elsewhere--and as they put it, "For the first time most of us saw school bathrooms with toilet paper and soap, libraries with books and hallways with lockers. It made us realize what good schools actually look like."

Horrifying.

The work that ReThink has done looks wonderful--they've come up with a list of recommendations for improving schools (focused on restorative justice, local & fresh food, and renewable energy). They've also written some articles for local newspapers and created a report on school lunches in the area!

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