There, he said it...

Last week I posed this question: "It's 2010, Mayor Daley. Do you know where your Renaissance 2010 is?" Could it be that my blog post prodded the mayor to finally drag Ren10 out of the closet?

After nearly a year without mentioning the words, "Renaissance 2010", Daley and his Chicago schools manager Ron Huberman informed the media that they will continue the failed school-closing initiative indefinitely.

"We'll always continue," Daley told a group of educators and reporters at a news conference. "I hope there's a chapter two [of Renaissance 2010], a chapter three, a chapter four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, 10."

This despite several major studies and reports, including one by the Civic Committee--architects of Ren10--showing that the so-called "reform" plan has been an "abysmal failure."

Chicago Teachers Union officials and some parents have complained about children being shuffled from school to school, teachers being displaced, and spikes in violence at schools forced to absorb kids from closed schools. Some call the initiative an attempt to "privatize" the system with outside operators and "gentrify" struggling neighborhoods. (Chicago Sun-Times)