Budget-strapped Chicago public schools to implement staggered class schedules

[Hannah Bell]

By Clement Daly and Naomi Spencer
7 April 2009

A consequence of dozens of public school closings in the past few years, suburban Chicago’s Lockport Township High School has introduced a two-shift school day...to alleviate chronic overcrowding...all juniors and seniors will be required to start school at 6:44 a.m....and be eligible to finish the day as early as 11:45 a.m....Freshmen and sophomores will not be able to complete classes until 3:44 p.m....Extracurricular activities and sports have been limited...school assemblies have been scrapped outright.

The challenges facing Lockport are by no means unique to the township; neither is their early-bird and staggered schedule scheme...

The transformation of the school day points to a deepening crisis in the public education system. Urban—and, increasingly, suburban—school districts throughout the US have been subjected to cuts in funding and pressure to replace crumbling public schools with small, privately administered schools. As a result, remaining public school districts like Lockport Township have seen a swelling of their student populations even as their budgets and staffing levels are attacked.

Recent estimates from the Chicago Public Schools (CPS) put the school district’s budget deficit at $475 million for 2010....no further funds from the reserve will be available without affecting the district’s bond rating. Outside of a rise in Chicago property taxes, the burden of the shortfall will be passed on to the district’s teachers, officials, retirees, and students.

...Governor Pat Quinn was advocating “sweeping changes” to cut the education shortfall, including “reducing pension benefits for incoming teachers and requiring existing ones to pay 2 percent more of their paychecks toward retirement.” Illinois teachers already contribute 9.4 percent of their salaries toward the Teachers Retirement System fund. Quinn estimated the change would allow the state to reduce its payments to the pension fund by $443 million next year.

Governor Quinn has also proposed cutting more than 30 grant programs, including after-school tutoring programs and those aimed at reducing class sizes, in order to cut state education costs by $200 million...

...Mayor Richard M. Daley’s Renaissance 2010 initiative...has resulted in the closure and consolidation of dozens of schools since 2004, with 16 more to be affected this coming fall.

What at first appears to be a glaring contradiction between suburban school districts that are overcrowded and under-resourced and the continued drive by the CPS to close and consolidate dozens of city schools for low enrollment and under-performance, is in fact the logical outcome of the same process: the increasing subjugation of social institutions such as education to the profit motive... A survey of 850 administrators across 48 states...suggests that the vast majority of schools are facing swelling class sizes, staff layoffs and program cuts.

...The Obama administration has seized upon this crisis as a pretext for an all-out assault on public education.

The Obama stimulus package will provide about $100 billion for public schools, universities, and early childhood education over the next two years. The figure falls far short of what is needed. Indeed, statements by Education Secretary Arne Duncan make clear that the political establishment sees the desperate state of affairs as an opportunity to enact a vast restructuring of the nation’s public education.

...Duncan has made clear that the funds are contingent on the pursuit of various right-wing reforms, including drastically extending the school day and/or year for disadvantaged children, so-called merit pay programs for teachers, and enforcement of testing standards introduced under the Bush administration. Duncan has also aggressively pushed for increased public funding for privately administered charter schools.

The nature of such reforms indicates who is to be held accountable for the nation’s deteriorating public educational institutions: the teachers, administrators, and students. Duncan warned that the Obama administration will “come down like a ton of bricks” on districts that do not comply with these policy aims.


http://www.wsws.org/articles/2009/apr2009/educ-a07.shtml

[Liberal_in_LA]

1. I wouldn't want to start my work day at 6:44am. I feel sorry for the kids and their parents.

[Liberal_in_LA]

2. another thing... who wants their teen out of school at 11:45am? That's recipe for trouble.