In Chicago, officials plan to shutter 54 schools they say are under-utilized. The closings are expected to save the city millions of dollars, but many are angry and upset. Students from the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University examine the impact at two schools in a heavily Latino neighborhood on the west side. Paige Sutherland, Tanya Basu, Ananth Baliga and Lisa Carter report.
Image courtesy of Flickr/chicagopublicradio.
Tanya Basu is a graduate student at the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University, where she focuses on economic reporting.
Lisa Carter is a journalism graduate student at Northwestern University. She is a native Texan who has written for publications in Chicago, Las Vegas, New York City, Austin and San Antonio.
Ananth Baliga is from Mumbai, India and he is currently studying public policy reporting at the Medill School of Journalism. He began to study software engineering, but switched careers to follow his interest in political and public policy reporting. He previously worked in New Delhi Television, a national news channel in New Delhi, India, as an intern reporter.
Paige Sutherland is a graduate student at the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University, where she focuses on urban reporting. She is originally from Boston, MA and received her bachelor’s degree from the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, MA.
As someone expecting the CPS board vote to go against us today, I want to thank you for bringing the demise of traditional public education to the attention of the public. It is unfortunate that the expansion of charters by the current and past mayors, continues to be at the expense of traditional public education. Charter is the flavor of the year. They have the luxury to pick and choose their students. Despite this advantage, their academic achievement has not proven to be better than that of traditional schools. CPS has intentionally fed a lot of misinformation about our schools, and use that misinformation to justify and validate the closings. The entire CPS system is in a tail spin. Unfortunately, our very real children, parents and staff are the casualties of the traditional versus charter school war! I agree with the concept of choice for parents. What I don’t agree with is that any choice be at the demise of our traditional public schools. CPS could never repair the damage already done at our school. Thank You!
Annie Camacho Ed.D.
Assistant Principal
Peabody School (until June 30, 2013)