Local school districts, like Dist. 149 in south-suburban Dolton/Calumet City, IL are facing an all-out assault by the big charter chains. So far they've beaten back the attack but only by diverting much of their energies away from educating children to defending themselves before groups like the IL State Charter Commission. That Commission has the power to override decisions about charter expansion made by local school districts. In other words they can approve a charter school application whether a community wants it or not.
At the upcoming National Charter School Conference at the Mandalay Bay Hotel in Las Vegas, Allison Jack from the Illinois Network of Charter Schools will be presenting on "Inner Ring Suburbs: The Next Frontier of Charter Growth."
It's the next frontier, get it? And who knows what or who these new frontiersmen will find out there?
Sorry to be late to the party, but I fear you are entirely correct, Mike. In fact, I always knew it in my bones when this whole charter school business started. Rest assured, as soon as the one year visual charters moratorium is over, K-12 will be back with a vengeance, breathing down the backs of these very "inner ring" suburbs like quills on a porcupine. Having taught in one myself, I am hoping that the school boards (elected) will stand strong and fend off these bottom-feeders. Hoping, too, that the
ReplyDeletecharter commission's power is watered down should the bill to abolish it not pass. Lee Talley, if you are reading this (I know you read Fred) & you are still in the same community, please help your neighbors successfully fight off the beasts who prey on their children.
Yeah, I figured this was coming. The ethnic cleansing of the city makes it almost inevitable that this will be the next assault.
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