Author: Chicago Unheard

3rd Grader’s Chant “I Must Push Through” After 2016 Election

3rd grade teacher at Mastery Charter School (Philadelphia) Jasmyn Wright recently taught her students a motivational chant in response to the 2016 presidential election results. A diverse setting of black and brown students are seen chanting with Wright “I must push through”, call and response style. “What if you don’t know how to do it?” Wright asks. “I must push…

Don’t Blame Public School Choice For Society’s Failures, says John Legend

Grammy and Academy Award winner John Legend has been using his voice for more than singing these days. The “All of Me” singer recently penned a essay in response to the NAACP’s moratorium on charter public schools. Check out what he had to say. Black kids across the country are being given a raw deal. Slavery ended 150 years ago, but…

Can Arne Duncan Save Chicago?

They called him the Cobra in Australia, where he played pro basketball for four years. Maybe it was the way he would languidly uncoil his 6-foot-5 frame before striking with his jumper. Not even Arne Duncan himself knows why a “crazy announcer” gave him the nickname—and likely never will: “That guy’s dead.” The moniker seems wildly ill fitted to the…

Not “everybody” happy with new teachers’ deal

I didn’t see any reporters hanging around my child’s school in Englewood (or another community) Tuesday morning. If they had been there, they may have discovered something that I know first-hand. Contrary to what a North Side parent wrote in a Sun-Times story Tuesday, not “everybody” is happy with the deal that the Chicago Teachers Union and the Chicago Board of Education…

Ald. Brookins Against Teacher Strike

On October 11, Chicago public school teachers may go on strike for the second time in four years, not including an illegal one-day strike last Spring. Eighty-seven percent of union members voted to support the strike but the vote was criticized for intimidating teachers who might be opposed to the planned walkout. Pro-union politicians, including Alderman Howard Brookins and State Representative LaShawn Ford have publicly discouraged a strike because of…

Chicago Parents Do NOT Want Another Teacher Strike

On September 28, 2016 the Chicago Teachers Union announced their plan to strike on October 11 if a deal isn’t reached. 95% of CTU members are in agreement of the pending strike. However, a group of parents who are members of Chicago Parent Congress doesn’t support CTU’s decision. “I think there are some other alternatives or options available and I…

CPS apologizes for enrollment snafu on charters

Chicago Public Schools apologized Tuesday for releasing incorrect enrollment figures for charter and contract schools during a preliminary count on the district’s 10th day of school, which made charter schools look like they lost a whopping 10 percent of enrollment since last year. CPS typically counts students in its privately managed contract schools along with the charters, but this year it did not, spokeswoman…