Word: chicago
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Paul Perry is fed up with Chicago's public schools. So much so that he's transferring his 13-year-old daughter, Knighta Jane, to a school in a nearby suburb where her mother lives. He worries that Knighta Jane will be missing out if she stays put in her neighborhood school. "How can we expect our kids to compete on an equal playing field with kids at suburban schools?" the animal-care technician asks, pointing to public schools like those in nearby Winnetka, an affluent suburb that spends as much as 70% more per pupil than Chicago does...
...Thousands of Chicago parents will soon follow Perry's lead, at least temporarily. More than 3,000 families have pledged to keep their kids out of class on Sept. 2, the first day of school. Instead, on that day many of the students and some parents will board a fleet of 100 school buses bound for Winnetka, about 25 miles north of downtown, to try to enroll in its public schools, some of the best in the nation. Others are planning to protest outside prominent office buildings in Chicago, including the landmark Mercantile Exchange. In doing so, all involved will...
...most daunting challenges facing American public schools: how to resolve the ever-widening gap in funding - and performance - between poor and wealthy districts. In Illinois, local property tax revenues fund a neighborhood school system, leading to vast differences in the education dollars one district receives compared to another. Chicago each year spends just $10,000 per pupil whereas suburbs like Winnetka can spend as much as $17,000. "Public education is supposed to be the great equalizer," says Arne Duncan, CEO of Chicago's public-school district. "But the fact that the amount of money spent on education is determined...
...this time around, Chicago's schoolchildren have as their champion the Rev. James Meeks, one of the city's most influential pastors and head of Illinois' legislative black caucus. In February, Meeks introduced a bill that would raise state income tax from 3% to 5% and ensure that a portion of the increased tax revenue goes directly to schools. Not surprisingly, the bill never gained traction, with few legislators willing to push for a tax hike. So now Meeks is spearheading the Sept. 2 protests. "This was the next step," he says. Last week, a group of Meeks supporters also...
...more even-handed funds help keep more kids in school, let alone guarantee a quality education for all? In 2007, the most recent year for which data is available, only 55% of Chicago's public school students graduated high school compared to 100% at Winnetka's New Trier High School. And just half of Chicago students go on to college versus a staggering 98% at New Trier. "If we had a little bit of the resources of the districts five miles from us, we could close the gap that much quicker," says Duncan, who has taken a publicly neutral stance...