The Chicago Board of Education voted in favor of a resolution Thursday that could limit the opportunity for students to test into Chicago Public School’s (CPS) selective high schools in the name of “equity,” according to NBC 5 News.
The resolution recommends a “transition away from privatization and admissions/enrollment policies and approaches that further stratification and inequity in CPS and drive student enrollment away from neighborhood schools,” according to the Chicago Sun-Times. CPS intends to codify the five-year plan and put it into place by the summer of 2024, according to NBC 5. (RELATED: They Tanked His School Choice Agenda. Now This Republican Governor Is Coming After Them)
“While the strategic plan will be developed in partnership with our entire CPS community, we are centering equity and students furthest from opportunity.,” Chicago Board of Education President Jianan Shi said in a Thursday statement.
CHICAGO, ILLINOIS – JUNE 05: Mayor of Chicago, Brandon Johnson speaks onstage at the 2023 James Beard Restaurant And Chef Awards at Lyric Opera Of Chicago on June 05, 2023 in Chicago, Illinois. (Photo by Jeff Schear/Getty Images for The James Beard Foundation)
“Though selective enrollment was originally designed to desegregate the school district, instead it has contributed to more segregation since a consent decree mandating racial diversity ended a decade ago,” the Chicago Teachers Union said in a statement Wednesday.
The resolution will create a model that focuses on neighborhood schools by “investing in and acknowledging them as institutional anchors in our communities, and by prioritizing communities most impacted by past and ongoing racial and economic inequity and structural disinvestment,” the CPS statement reads.
Democratic Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson said during his campaign he “would not end selective enrollment at CPS schools,” according to the Chicago Tribune.
Nearly 76% of high school students and 45% of elementary school students don’t attend their assigned schools, according to the Chicago Sun-Times. CPS officials set up an application process six years ago, for eighth graders to apply for high schools instead of immediately going to their neighborhood schools.
Chicago’s selective schools “meet the needs of Chicago’s most academically advanced students,” according to Selective Prep.
The creation of selective schools sought to provide an alternative to the city’s low-performing schools. Nearly 75% of CPS students can’t read at grade level and nearly 83% aren’t proficient at math, according to Illinois Policy, a nonpartisan research agency.
Chicago leaders said families will still be able to choose the options of selective-enrollment, magnet and charter schools, according to the Chicago Sun-Times. Officials said they plan to hold meetings for the public to say if they want to transition away from those types of schools or not.
At least one parent interviewed didn’t like the idea of moving away from selective schools, according to NBC 5.
“The selective enrollment schools are one of the shining stars of CPS. They are actually something that CPS has done right,” Katie Milewski, a CPS mother, told NBC 5. “And it needs to be supported.”
Some left-wing school districts around the U.S. have been axing honors classes in the name of equity.
Several school districts in California have eliminated honors classes. Culver City High School in California recently eliminated honors classes after failing to enroll enough black and Latino students, and Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District in California made a similar shift to their honors classes.
Johnson and the Chicago Board of Education did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.
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