A crazy quote...
Thanks to a blog dedicated to the Chicago Public Schools a story from the Tribune about a Principal who decided not to take in any more students and allow class sizes that will ballon to over 40 students. On the Southwest side of Chicago thanks to the growth of the Hispanic community that way the schools that way are getting very crowded and this principal or actually interim principal, Martin McGreal, basically put his foot down and took a stand. Well it got him terminated.
He's only 37 years old and was once upon a time one of 12 teachers from Curie High School the system's CASE examined which was opposed by many teachers because it was thought to be confusing and not reflective of curriculum. CPS decided not to administer this exam.
Well in any event this was a crazy quote that Mr. McGreal said about what a demographic planner said to him about not worrying about a large freshman class...
McGreal proposed that some students and teachers use part of Lindblom College Prep High School, a selective enrollment high school about a mile to the east that is under capacity.
McGreal said he was appalled when one demographic planner told him not to worry about a large freshman class since many of the teens would not show up or drop out.
"He told me that we would probably lose about half the kids anyway," McGreal said. "That's the kind of mentality we're fighting."
Is that person serious???
1 comments:
I couldn't believe the Tribune story when I read it. Not surprising its made their list of the Top Five most e-mailed stories.
While Sen. Meeks is busy manufacturing news to make his case against Daley in the lead-up to the mayoral elections, the City of Chicago is handing Meeks this story on a silver platter.
There is something very wrong with a school system that orders principals to overcrowd their classrooms to the point where not even the best teachers could teach and the best students expect to learn. And then fires principals for refusing to turn our classrooms into warehouses.
Kids dropping out of overcrowded classrooms is a self-fullfilling prophecy.
Meanwhile, for all of his public handwringing, Daley hasn't picked up the phone once to insist that Governor Blagojevich do something about the $445 million a year shortfall in funding for Chicago public schools. Which parallels a $245 million a year shortfall for suburban Cook schools, $401 million shortfall for the Collar counties, and whopping $668 million that Illinois is shortchanging downstate schools.
All in all, Rod Blagojevich is shortchanging public school kids across the state by $1.8 billion a year, ranking Illinois 47th out of 50th in state funding for education.
Rod said he wanted to consolidate his hold over the State Board of Education so that the Governor's office could be held accountable for the performance of our schools.
November 7th should be the day of reckoning.
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