Staff from Wendell Smith Elementary fear their students won’t receive proper care if the school is changed to a charter school. They expressed their concern during last week’s Chicago Public Schools board meeting. Wendell Smith Elementary School, on the far South Side, educates approximately 350 students, ranging from preschool to eighth grade. As of...
Read on...

The controversial issue of unions in charter schools will have to be tackled by the newly elected Chicago city council another day, after a council education committee failed to have enough members present on Friday. The full committee did not attend the meeting, and so the pro-union resolution sponsored by Ald. Ricardo Munoz, (22nd Ward) and...
Read on...

Local school councils are out, Renaissance 2010 is in, and the fight against the machine has only begun. Activists and experts have taken a stand to bring back public schools and public involvement in education; they said they are fighting for their voice. Pauline Lipman, policy studies professor at the University of Illinois at...
Read on...

Sharon Morgan sits at her desk surrounded by piles of paperwork and a cup of Dunkin Donuts coffee. As she shuffles through the paperwork, she marks her calendar on the day where she plans to speak to her 7th and 8th grade students about completing applications for the best high schools in the city....
Read on...

Local officials in Austin say if Chicago Public School leaders don’t create more high school seats in the West Side neighborhood, more youth will end up in the streets of Chicago’s toughest areas. But CPS officials say Austin residents will have to be content with their three Renaissance 2010 high schools. Austin High School,...
Read on...

Story by: Christopher Brinckerhoff April 21, 2009 – On inauguration day, Wanda Hopkins was moved to tears at her daughter’s school as the youngsters of many races and backgrounds joined together in a prayer with the pastor onscreen. “To see every child in that room reciting that prayer; it was just awesome,” Hopkins said. “I...
Read on...