Sorry, Chicago, but we have to break up

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Julie Bosker is a parent who lives in Lakeview. Bosker shares her CPS experience and why it’s causing her to lose admiration for the city she loves. Bosker is the director of the First Year Writing Program at DePaul University, and a 2016 Public Voices Fellow of The Oped Project.

Dear Chicago,

Now that Valentine’s Day is past, I’m going to be blunt. I love you but I think we have to break up. It goes back to that morning when I stood on a line for an hour and a half in a cold rain with my 8thgrader and my two younger children to gain the privilege of simply seeing Jones College Prep.

It is unconscionable to make people wait like this simply to get a glimpse of a good public school. I believe this is done on purpose to manufacture frenzy — as if we were waiting to see a new baby dolphin at the Shedd.

That was more than a year ago. I am still outraged over a system that had 16,000 applications from children across the city for 3,200 spots last year. This is emotionally damaging to children and their families. It’s also insulting to the democratic spirit behind public education. According to Crain’s Chicago Business, 15 percent of those who didn’t get a spot left the system entirely. That’s a lot more break-ups.

Read the whole piece over at the Chicago Sun-Times.

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Chicago Unheard