If there's one word to know in Chicago politics, it's this: clout. The ability to get things done because of who you know and how much money you have.
It looks like clout hasn't just permeated the walls of City Hall. It's spread to Chicago's public schools, specifically its fanciest and hardest-to-get-in-to selective enrollment high schools.
These top nine high schools in the city of Chicago use a strict score system to admit students based on their grades, attendance, state standardized test scores and school admissions tests. The system is brutal - parents regularly complain about the circus-style hoops their kids have to jump through just to get into a good school. But the system has a back door - principal discretion picks. It's supposed to be used for kids who can argue why they didn't get a higher score - maybe they're not so good on standardized tests - but deserve to go to their school anyway. What is it being used for instead? Clout-ridden favors.
The Chicago Public Schools' Inspector General James Sullivan just released his 2010 report, and it's riddled with eyebrow-raising admissions. Some kids who never even took the school admissions test magically got in. Other kids didn't appear on the first round of admissions, or even get picked with principal discretion, started school in the fall with all the other kids who had gone through the strict admissions process.
In one example, the IG found that a student was admitted because the kid's parent, a local elected official, was good friends with the principal, even though the student never took the selective enrollment test. Then, that student's siblings were also admitted, despite the fact that their scores were way below those of their classmates.
Two principals were cited as having especially egregious records when it comes to picking favorites. While the report leaves out their names, the Chicago Sun-Times identifies them as Joyce Kenner, principal of Chicago's Whitney Young High School and Antoinette Lobosco, principal of Lane Tech College Prep.
What should be done? Well, the inspector general has been recommending that principal discretion be ended for awhile. But, until now, CPS hasn't heeded his advice. The former head of CPS "cracked down" on problems with selective enrollment, but, lo and behold, those problems keep cropping up again.
In fact, the report found that even though CPS' CEO isn't supposed to have anything to do with who gets into these top-notch schools, the CEO's office kept a binder of every politically-connected person who'd requested help getting a kid into a selective enrollment high school.
A lot of Chicago education advocates hate these selective enrollment high schools anyway - saying that too much money and effort is being poured into the best students, while the rest rot in lousy neighborhood schools. But with the system as it is, these high schools are nearly the only places where public school students have access to an excellent education. Do they serve all students fairly? No. But the ones who do get in should get in because of their own hard work - not their family's money, friends or political power.
When principals pick their favorites, it means hard-working regular kids with no fancy political connections get left out. For every clout-connected admission, it means one deserving student who doesn't get the education they'd hoped for. If Chicago Public Schools wants to serve its students, it will make sure those who get in to selective enrollment high schools are those who deserve it - not those whose parents are powerful.
Tell the Chicago Public Schools to do what their own Inspector General is recommending - End Politically-Connected Principal Picks to Chicago's Best High Schools.
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