CTU offers up a real plan for longer school day

Univ. of Chicago Lab School

Based on the Lab School

“What the best and wisest parent wants for his own child, that must the community want for all of its children.”-- John Dewey, founder of University of Chicago Laboratory School

Lab is where the mayor sends his kids to school at $22,000 a pop. It's where Arne Duncan went to school and where the president sent his kids. The Chicago Teachers Union has now crafted has crafted a proposed schedule, based on Lab's that adds 75 minutes to the typical public elementary school student’s day. The CTU plan offers students an enriched academic program -- something the mayor's plan failed to do. 

Just like at what U of C kids often call “the Lab School,’’ the CTU proposal offers a well-rounded curriculum featuring far more art, music, physical education and other extras than most CPS kids now get and even includes the study of a second language.-- Ros Rossi, Chicago Sun-Times

Rossi quotes Potter:

"The University of Chicago Lab School has the reputation of being one of the best schools in the country, not just Chicago,’’ said Jackson Potter, chief of staff to CTU President Karen Lewis. “And obviously, the mayor sends his children there. The president [Barack Obama] sent his children there. So it’s highly regarded by people who make education policy. That seems a good method for determining how this district should operate.

Now we'll see if this is all really about a longer school day or rather an attempt by the mayor to neuter the CTU by going around the contract and thus limiting teachers' collective-bargaining rights. After all, could this whole crisis and latest round of the war on teachers have been about 15 minutes of seat time?

More on this at Chicago Magazine which also gives me a mention.
Thanks also to Eric Zorn at the Chicago Trib for posting clip from Small Talk.