Education Icons by Duck Files (April, 2013)
In my Policy class we are studying monopoly. We have learned the different laws about monopoly and talked to companies that deal with policies about monopoly. For our project we had to find statistics and data to create a info graph that questions a companies “monopoly”. For my project I chose to focus on Education in Chicago. I looked at it from the angle of Charter schools that are controlled by Chicago Public School’s money as well as rules and regulations. I had fun creating the graph and inserting the numbers and quotes. I’m proud of the way I was able to display a lot of information in a concise way. Below is my info graph along with a brief summary of the information and what it means. Enjoy 🙂
I believe that Chicago Public Schools are monopolist when it comes to Education in Chicago and Charter Schools. Chicago Public Schools have held a tight leash around the neck of Charter Schools. Charter Schools are under the laws and restrictions of the CPS schools. Just to open up a Charter School under CPS is a hassle. In recent years as the number of Charter Schools in Chicago slowly grows it gets more difficult because of CPS limits. There are a certain amount of students that have to attend in order for a charter school to open. It’s usually hard to do that when most parents send their children to CPS schools and the rest to Private school. Now things have changed drastically. After results showing that students in charter schools were 7% more likely to graduate from high school and 11% more likely to enroll in college. Test scores were also used to show some of the positive effects of Charter Schools. As CPS begins to see Charter Schools as competitors they have become more resistant towards opening them. Their hopeful and cheerful expression to them has quickly turned into resentment and hate. This year many schools have closed and will be closed leaving empty school buildings that can’t be used for anything besides schools. CPS CEO Barbara Byrd-Bennett has made it clear that she will not let Charter Schools lease these buildings because that would be abusing the trust of the parents. 68% of Chicago disagrees with her. By doing this she is no longer hurting her competition but she’s leaving 40,000 students without a school next year and 11,000 more with poor education that are waiting for more Charter Schools to open to get the education they deserve. I noticed that CPS spends more money per student yet has less to show for it. While Charter Schools have better classrooms, smaller sizes, nice libraries, and more teachers CPS has more money. I realized that as Charter Schools started to grow and show more data of their positive affects people began to compare them to CPS. Then CPS turned a cold shoulder to Charter Schools holding a magnifying glass up to their system and trying to find ways to break it. Many of the claims against Charter Schools were that they were under performing more than CPS schools but no one ever took into account when those test scores were taken. Of course most of the time it was when the Charter School had just started up and most of their students were coming from schools where their education had been poor. It seems like people had attitude that once the student walks in the door of a Charter School they were just going to be smart. It might take a lot of time to undo the damage of a poor education in a under performing deterring public school in Chicago. I believe that Charters should be able to be free of CPS and compete as Education Providers without having to jump over hurdles and through hoops. I think that CPS should continue to access schools and fix them but they should do it equally accessing Public Schools the same way they do Charters. Quality Education should not be a privilege that a few students have but a right that they all deserve no matter who provides it.
References:
Chicago Tribune “The Thirst for Charter Schools” (April, 2013). https://articles.chicagotribune.com/2013-04-04/news/ct-edit-charter-20130404_1_charter-school-andrew-broy-58-charters
Chicago Tribune “A Promise Worth Breaking” (March, 2013).https://articles.chicagotribune.com/2013-03-12/news/ct-edit-charter-20130312_1_charter-schools-schools-ceo-barbara-byrd-bennett-school-buildings
Hood, Joel Chicago Tribune “Chicago school board delays budget vote” (July 2012). https://articles.chicagotribune.com/2012-07-24/news/ct-met-cps-budget-delay-0724-20120724_1_andrew-broy-charter-school-illinois-network
CPS Press Release “12 new Charter Campuses Proposed” (December 2011) https://www.cps.edu/News/Press_releases/Pages/12_12_2011_PR1.aspx
CPS at a glance “Stats and Facts” (February 2013). https://www.cps.edu/About_CPS/At-a-glance/Pages/Stats_and_facts.aspx