By Ben Joravsky
“We’re confused about it too–it doesn’t make any sense,” says Loida Mojica, a parent with a child at a Belmont-Cragin school. “Why would you bring more kids into a neighborhood that’s already overcrowded? Why would you take a problem and make it worse? Where are we going to put all these kids? What about the kids we already have?”
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Charter schools can design their own curricula, hire their own staff, and choose their own specialties (African-American culture, say, or the arts). Most important, they don’t have to honor many union-negotiated rules. If, for instance, a charter school can find teachers willing to sacrifice tenure rights and work for minimum wage–well, sign them up. Charter schools will have more financial and educational leeway than ordinary public schools, and their teachers will be under greater pressure to produce higher test scores (which is how academic success is measured these days).
There’s one law the Chicago charters must abide by: they can’t restrict enrollment. Students from any neighborhood are eligible to apply; if there are more applicants than vacancies, a school must select its students by lottery.
For the last decade or so, Belmont-Cragin’s demographics have been changing, with many of the older Polish and Italian homeowners selling their property to Hispanic families. For the most part the transition has been peaceful.
Most residents disagree. “How can you tell me that these charters have such freedom, but in this one matter–the one matter we care about the most–they have none?” says Idame. “What! They have the freedom to pay teachers less, but not to ease overcrowding?”
For the record, Vallas has not taken a public stance on the matter. But he’s assigned a top aide, Greg Richmond, to act as a liaison between SABIS and the community. “We’re doing other things to address the problem of overcrowding in this area,” says Richmond. “We plan to build annexes at other schools. There’s going to be another 1,500 seats created under our capital program.”
