Chicago Board of Education says new strategic plan won't close selective enrollment schools
CHICAGO (CBS) – The Chicago Board of Education took a key vote on Thursday that could alter the future of schools in the city.
The resolution moves away from school choice in favor of "elevating" neighborhood schools.
It is designed to guide engagement and development of the Chicago Public Schools' five-year plan. CPS said it "outlines parameters that emphasize strengthening all neighborhood schools as a critical step toward supporting students and closing opportunity gaps."
"This resolution declares a new chapter in CPS," Chicago Board of Education President Jianan Shi said in a news release. "While the strategic plan will be developed in partnership with our entire CPS community, we are centering equity and students furthest from opportunity. As such, this moment requires a transformational plan that shifts away from a model that emphasizes school choice to one that elevates our neighborhood schools to ensure each and every student has access to a high-quality educational experience."
As described by Chalkbeat, the current system of school choice has families applying for selective-enrollment programs. Mayor Brandon Johnson had called the school choice program a "Hunger games scenario" while campaigning, Chalkbeat noted.
CPS noted the resolution calls for "a model that centers neighborhood schools by investing in and acknowledging them as institutional anchors in our communities, and by prioritizing communities most impacted by past and ongoing racial and economic inequity and structural disinvestment."
The release said Shi and CPS Chief Executive Officer Pedro Martinez are emphasizing that the resolution does not amount to a vote to close selective-enrollment, magnet, or charter schools.
"The Board has committed to working in partnership with our CPS communities to ensure the new plan helps develop high-quality PreK-12 pathways in neighborhood schools, prioritizing our most under-resourced communities," the release said.
But some parents fear the closure of selective-enrollment schools is exactly what will happen.
Before the resolution was adopted Thursday, the Chicago Teachers Union issued a statement calling the move away from selective enrollment schools in favor of improving neighborhood schools "a step in the right direction."
"Whether it be the neighborhoods of Roseland or West Garfield Park, most CPS students attend neighborhood schools that lack the classroom resources for their school communities to thrive," the union wrote. "This lack of focus on resourcing our classrooms is a tragic failure, or what our late President Emerita Karen Lewis called 'educational apartheid,' policies put in place to uplift the few and usher in inequities to the many."
The CTU also noted that selective-enrollment programs were originally intended to desegregate the CPS system, but have ended up having the opposite effect. The union noted that court order mandating racial diversity ended back in 2009.
"The Metropolitan Planning Council found that in 2000, Black students made up 24% of the enrollment at the top 5 selective enrollment high schools, and White students 27%," the CTU wrote. "In the 2023-2024 school year, CPS data shows a deep inequity for Black students, who now make up just 10% of the enrollment at those five schools, while White students make up about 30%. This is especially concerning when white students make up less than 10% of students enrolled in the district."