Derrion Albert, 16As the student death toll mounts in Chicago, the question remains: Can you really have school reform, let alone a "renaissance" without improving the conditions for public school children and their families outside of school and in the communities?
"My children have to go to this school. I don't have car fare to send them anywhere else," Black said. "They opened this school up and said everything has changed. Nothing has changed," she said... We can't stop the senseless killing until we can reach the young people who are growing up without their own hopes and dreams. (Mary Mitchell, Sun-Times)
Renaissance 2010, Mayor Daley's school (closing) reform plan, shares some of the responsibility for the outbreak of violence at Fenger. That what the mom in the quote above is referring to. Fenger is a "turnaround" school and a school that has had an influx of kids from the recently closed high schools in the neighborhood. Since Ren10 went on its school-closing binge, this has been a recipe for increased violence in the receiver schools.
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