On our Facebook page, a subscriber named Marc recently asked, "Can low income African American parents transform their neighborhood school like the parents of the Nettelhorst school?" He included a link to a 13-minute video (posted on YouTube) that describes how local parents helped improve the North Side's Nettelhorst Elementary School, at Broadway and Belmont.

My reaction: If they had similar resources, maybe.

The video features Jacqueline Edelberg, a mother in the neighborhood of Nettelhorst who sought a school to which she could eventually send her young kids. She and another mom toured the nearby Nettelhorst, but found it lacking.

Speaking in the video of what led her to organize local parents to help improve Nettelhorst, Edelberg recalls, "My husband said, 'You're not working now, go make yourself useful.' "

That comment underlines what's clear from the video: Edelberg—as well as the parents she helped organize—have spouses, stable income, and good education. I don't think this holds true for many parents of Chicago's public-school students.

Among those who've written about this disparity of resources is the Chicago Reader's Steve Bogira, particularly in his recent, multi-part series on the inequities of Chicago public schools.

In an article titled "Three families tell us why they ditched CPS" that appeared on Sept. 26, 2013, Bogira writes, "Middle-class parents tend to be zealous advocates. They're more likely to know an alderman or a reporter, and make noise about a problem their children's school is facing."

Bogira's article features parents who, like many others, spurned Chicago for the suburbs so their kids could go to good schools. In the article, a parent named Sue opines about the challenges faced by the parents in her former North Park neighborhood, which is populated by many low-income Asian immigrants: "You really didn't get those ethnic groups to participate [in their children's schools], because they're out of their comfort zone, or they're out working numerous jobs, or they don't understand English."

In an earlier article, Bogira quotes from an essay by Richard Kahlenberg that appeared in the journal American Educator. In middle-class schools, Kahlenberg wrote, parents volunteer more often "and know how to hold school officials accountable when things go wrong."

I don't mean to imply that one can't mobilize parents who live in poverty, have a low level of education, and/or lead stressful lives. In fact, such efforts exist—like the Parent Mentor Program of the Logan Square Neighborhood Association, which specifically targets parents in low-income communities.

But you can't just show low-income parents a video by their middle-class counterparts and say, "Go do this."

The city estimates a surplus this year (half of which goes to the schools) may yield only $10 million for CPS, but it could be larger. It all depends on how carefully the city scrubs each TIF—determining how many dollars are already spoken for and how many aren’t—and what percentage is counted as surplus. The city currently uses 20 percent.

The city uses 20 percent of what, for what?

The answer came in another Sun-Times editorial, this one on 8/4/13 ("A small lifeline for our schools"):

. . . the city historically allows only 20 percent of uncommitted cash to count as surplus. City Budget Director Alex Holt told us last week that 20 percent was "probably the starting point" this year.

In other words: Of each year's budget surplus for which the city has no plans, the city's been able but unwilling to spend four-fifths of it.

The following update on the Wolf Point development appears on the Web site of Alderman Brendan Reilly (42nd).

JESSE RUIZ: Typically, [charters] were put in areas where . . . these were level 3 schools, where some of these charters went into, where we felt, they were just . . . We ourselves, and frankly, it's, CPS's acknowledgment that we are failing to provide this community with a level 1 school. And they deserve it. Every child deserves that opportunity.

KEN DAVIS: This kind of gets right to the heart of this issue of all of you guys who were appointed by Mayor Emanuel when he came in. And there was a broad perception that you were very much pro- . . . at least [pro-]charter, some would say [pro-]privatization, you wanna sell the school system.

JR: I wouldn't put myself in that category . . .

KD: You wanna sell parts off to . . .

JR: We're pro-quality schools, and I think we all are, but I—speaking for myself—I'm neutral on the type of school it is. I'm just pro-providing good options.

KD: But can you address this incredible tension you feel in the air, of people saying, "Yeah, well, if you had just put some money into this traditional school, you wouldn't have to be putting these charters in."

JR: Then you have to contend with the folks who say, "You keep throwing good money after bad." Then you do this, and the results just aren't produced. And then you provide some of those funds to some operators. Noble Street: very good operator in the city. And they're getting the results that, frankly, we weren't able to figure out ourselves. And so I think we owe it to our students to look at every option, and every type of school, be it international baccalaureate—we're bringing more of those programs into the city this year and next—to magnets, to selective enrollment. That's what we've been trying to do.

Chicago Public Schools is the third-largest school district in the U.S., with eight "cabinet-level" divisions—education, accountability, talent, administrative, network supports, portfolio, community affairs, communications (see the accompanying chart)—that include about 5,000 non-teacher staff.

According to Ruiz, CPS staff "weren't able to figure out" what it takes to have a school provide a good education. Really? CPS can't model its well-performing, traditional, neighborhood schools? Then what are we paying these 5,000 people to do? Does it seem obvious to anyone but me that a large, urban public education system should know something about, well, educating? Why do smaller Chicagoland public school systems (with comparatively tiny central offices) provide consistently high-quality schools—without using charters?

Audio:

In this 9/27/12 audio broadcast of Chicago Newsroom, host Ken Davis leads a concise discussion on Chicago's public housing—and how the Chicago Housing Authority has handled (or not) combining mixed, market-rate, and low-income units. Length 30 minutes.

Audio:

Earlier this week, on Cliff Kelley's radio show on WVON, the head of the African American Police League wondered how well Mayor Emanuel vetted Garry McCarthy, Emanuel's pick for Chicago police superintendent. 

Pat Hill, executive director of the league, said that the National Latino Officers Association successfully sued McCarthy and other police officials for discrimination when McCarthy served as deputy commissioner in New York City's police department.

Further, the Latino officers opposed McCarthy's appointment to head the Newark police.

Interview with the Chicago Reader's Ben Joravsky on what Mick Dumke brought to the Reader and Joravsky's articles, and more.

Interview with the Chicago Reader's Ben Joravsky on the firing of chief editor Alison True.

Interview with the Chicago Reader's Ben Joravsky on the Reader's future, and more.