Prosser community resists charter invasion

Protest at the site of new Noble Charter school across the street from Prosser High School. 

The community knows the game may be rigged against them. The pro-forma community meetings are a sham with the process being run and controlled by a corporate-funded pro-charter group, Stand For Children. But in the face of all this, school communities and parent groups are determined to roll back the charter invasion and defend their public schools.

The Chicago Tribune reports:

The latest round of charter school expansion in Chicago has been met with a long string of protests by parents and community leaders who question Chicago Public Schools' claims that it is pushing charters primarily for neighborhoods where classrooms are overcrowded.

On Wednesday, the Chicago Board of Education is set to consider 17 new charter campuses. Chicago Public Schools officials won't make public their recommendations on the proposals until the board meeting, district spokesman Joel Hood said. Earlier, 22 new charter proposals were submitted, but charter operators withdrew some of them.

On Monday, a coalition of anti-charter community groups called Communities United for Quality Education protested outside the site of a new charter school proposed by the Noble Network of Charter Schools, a favorite of Mayor Rahm Emanuel's that operates 14 high schools across the city, including one named after his pal, Bruce Rauner.

The proposed school is across the street from Prosser High School on the Northwest Side, and protesters fear the Noble campus would lead to an enrollment decline at the district-run school.

"This is just another indication that the mayor and nonelected school board have an aggressive agenda for charter expansion to a point that CPS will create rationales like overcrowding relief that they will then ignore a few months later," said Demian Kogan of the Albany Park Neighborhood Council. "It's clear they just threw out a rationale that they didn't care to follow."

Kogan's group did a cost analysis that indicates district start-up costs for 17 charter schools would be $21 million next year.

SOUTH SIDE CPS MOM posts her list of 9 Things The Mayor Doesn't Want You to Know About Charter Expansion in Chicago.

What if we stopped believing what we're told about charters? What would happen if CPS parents stopped buying the status quo and started asking questions instead? What if everybody knew the things that Rahm Emanuel doesn't really want you to know?

It's a pretty good list. Check it out.

Another community protest is scheduled this afternoon in the Austin community, organized by Action Now.