tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-133521035538248322.post5747624493759715173..comments2023-12-24T05:39:44.753-06:00Comments on Mike Klonsky's Blog: I found some of the disappeared school-closing kidsMike Klonskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02017021676773731024noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-133521035538248322.post-19057027743889452952013-10-18T11:39:29.019-05:002013-10-18T11:39:29.019-05:00Anonymous (Why?)
I'll grant you that black fa...Anonymous (Why?)<br /><br />I'll grant you that black families have been pushed out of Chicago for decades. But I don't agree that this "has very little to do with Rahm's education policies and everything to do with gang violence." <br /><br />First, much of the first black exodus had to do with the demolition of public housing and the lack of Section 8 replacement housing in the city. <br /><br />Second, as I reported above, I met some of the displaced students yesterday in a south suburban elementary school. I was told by a school administrator exactly which ones had transferred from Chicago's closed schools and that the recent influx was a big factor in the swelling of class sizes. <br /><br />Yes, Chicago's pandemic gun violence has driven some families out of the city. But we can't cleanly separate that violence from Rahm's school closings, the shuttering of clinics, devastating budget cuts to social services, and the increasing blighting of many south and westside neighborhoods. It's no accident that gun violence jumped 40% in Rahm's first year in office and continues in alarming numbers.<br /><br />As living conditions for millions of Chicagoans continue to decline, as the lives of young people continue to be disrupted and destabilized, and as gang violence continues to be treated mainly as a policing/jailing issue, we can expect the problem to continue. <br /><br />To say that gang violence explains "everything" explains nothing. Mike Klonskyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02017021676773731024noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-133521035538248322.post-51300035954213956332013-10-18T10:21:52.397-05:002013-10-18T10:21:52.397-05:00Mike: the migration of black families from crime-r...Mike: the migration of black families from crime-ridden Chicago neighborhoods to nearby, safer black suburbs has been going on for two decades, hence the overall decline of black population in the city. This has very little to do with Rahm's education policies and everything to do with gang violence. This trend widens the gap between the white "haves" and the black "have nots" as the black middle class leaves the city in droves, resulting in Chicago's poor black public school system. Notable exceptions are selective enrollment schools, a.k.a. life rafts of excellence adrift in an ocean of poverty and dispair. Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-133521035538248322.post-58675297892005889802013-10-17T10:02:03.721-05:002013-10-17T10:02:03.721-05:00I have read that UNO has a debt per student at aro...I have read that UNO has a debt per student at around $12,000.00, but wasn't able to verify the sources or get to the original research. For UNO, that means to support the debt load they will need to expand and open more schools, although that will also simultaneously increase costs. Does anyone know more about that? Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com