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Call, write or email Representative Soto and tell her THANK YOU for sponsoring  legislation that will place a one year moratorium on school closing in Chicago.  HB4487 Amends the Chicago School District Article of the School Code. Provides that there shall be a moratorium on school closings, consolidations, and phase-outs in the school district in the 2012-2013 school year. Provides that any of these actions that are subsequently appropriate must be carried out no sooner than the end of the 2013-2014 school year, subject to any new set of requirements adopted by the General Assembly. During this moratorium period, requires the district to establish policies that address and remedy the academic performance of schools in which Illinois Standards Achievement Test scores reflect students performing at or below 75%. Requires these policies to establish clear criteria or processes for establishing criteria for making school facility decisions and include clear criteria for setting priorities with respect to school openings, school closings, school consolidations, school turnarounds, school phase-outs, school construction, school repairs, school modernizations, school boundary changes, and other related school facility decisions, including the encouragement of multiple community uses for school space. Effective immediately.

 

Background:

Chicago Public School (CPS) students deserve a moratorium on school actions so stakeholders: parents, students, educators, the Board of Education, and lawmakers can conclude best practices for school actions.  CPS  has not complied with the intent or spirit of Public Act 097-0474 AKA SB630.  The Chicago Educational Facilities Taskforce (CEFTF), created by the Illinois General Assembly, found the final Guidelines for School Actions issued by CPS, in an attempt to comply with Public Act 097-0474, are out of compliance and lack transparency. 

 

  • Public Act 097-0474 requires CPS to provide transparent, evidence-based criteria for each type of school action, so as to answer these essential questions for the public and the affected families, schools and communities.  The CPS guidelines for school actions remain unclear.  

 

  • This year the school closing hearings were marred by protests from “paid protestors” linked to clout-heavy ministers with contracts with CPS. 

 

  • The substantial investments in school actions in Chicago—school closures, phase-outs, or management by outside management companies—have failed to produce substantial student outcomes. 

 

  • The criterion created by CPS fails to explain clearly why one school is selected for “action” and another is not. Education experts estimated anywhere from 47 schools (Chicago Teachers Union analysis) to more than 145 schools that (Catalyst Magazine researchers’ analysis, Nov. 15, 2011) “meet” the academic criteria.

 

  • A report released last fall by the University of Chicago Consortium on Chicago School Research indicated that the opening and closing of schools in the last decade have hurt minority students and widened the achievement gap between white and black students.

 

  • School actions have disproportionately impacted neighborhood schools; the criterion CPS provides for school actions apply to neighborhood schools almost exclusively.

 

  • Are school actions related to cronyism or outcomes: 
    • All of AUSL's turnarounds remain on academic probation, including the two original turnaround projects, Sherman Elementary in 2006 and Harvard Elementary in 2007.
    • CPS has recommended closing many neighborhood schools in recent years because of poor performance or under-utilization; however two-thirds of AUSL's schools remain open at less than 70 percent capacity.