Mayor Daley Endorses School Choice -- Please Don't Tell Him

July 29, 2009

The English language may be too crude a tool to describe the complexities of Mayor Daley’s thoughts on the Chicago Public School system over which he presides (even though he routinely pretends that he doesn’t). I will use my own humble implements to chip away at the Mayor’s linguistic block of marble and reveal the accidental policy masterpiece within.

Yesterday Mayor Daley was asked whether an investigation into Chicago’s elite schools might reveal a clout list similar to the University of Illinois’. His reply: “Thank God people want to get their kids into school. … Usually, they’re fleeing to the suburbs. ... This is unbelievable.”

Here’s what he means: When given a choice, Chicago parents would prefer that their children attend the best schools. But the dearth of top-quality schools in Chicago – or even mediocre schools – has forced many parents to seek them outside Chicago. As parents want the best for their children, this is understandable.

Again, our executive muses: “Years ago, no one even wanted to go to any [Chicago] school. We only had one school. We had Whitney Young … and you had thousands of applicants.”

Could he mean that prior to magnet schools in Chicago, there were only poor-performing public schools operating free from any kind of oversight? When Whitney Young opened its doors in the early 1970s, it demonstrated that competition for entry produces top-quality institutions and top-quality students. If students wanted to get the best education available, they had to study. And it worked. Thousands of students applied to Whitney Young – many times more than there were available slots. This proves that if you offer a better choice, most parents will take it.

The Mayor cites the evidence: “Now, we have Jones. You have North Side Prep. You’ve got Gwendolyn Brooks. We got Walter Payton. And we hope to build four or five more as quickly as possible. … What we have to do is build more magnet schools all over the city.”

Great. The Mayor can name four quality high schools and has plans to “build” a few more. What about the children in CPS’ other 120 high schools? They are in high school now. They don’t have time to wait for the Mayor to build a few more schools that they cannot attend or to build more magnet schools at some point in the indeterminate future. The lack of a sense of urgency about children in failing schools—a point the Mayor effectively concedes—is what is truly “unbelievable”.

Because the demand for good schools is so clear, the Chicago Democrats grudgingly acquiesced and created more, but with all the speed of a pregnant yak.

The magnet and charter schools have produced better results but only 4% of CPS students have that option. If 4% of CPS students deserve this choice which is benefitting them, why don’t the other 96% of CPS students deserve the same choice?

We need to put the resources in the hands of the parents and let families find the best teachers, curriculum, and learning environment for their child.

The teachers’ unions might not like it but perhaps they would like to explain to Chicago families who do not have options how it is that 40% of CPS teachers send their children to private schools.

The teachers’ unions know that CPS is set up for their benefit, not for the purpose of educating children.

The teachers’ unions know that most of CPS’ schools do not stand up to scrutiny.

The teachers’ unions know that, given a choice, Chicago families will choose to send their children to the same schools that wealthy Chicagoans and 40% of CPS teachers send theirs.

So why doesn’t Mayor Daley expand upon his experiment with competition and choice within CPS? Because the Mayor faces a dilemma that no Chicago Democrat can overcome: how do you take money from the Chicago teachers’ unions and also get them to release their stranglehold on the schools?

You can’t. That is why Illinois needs a governor that is not beholden to the teachers’ unions and who will fight for the freedom of children and parents to go to the best school, regardless of their economic means.

This is NOT an attack on teachers. I know enough teachers in CPS and around the state in failing school districts to know that they are at least as frustrated and angry as I am with the school systems and the teachers’ unions. There is a difference between the rank-and-file teachers who are interested in educating children and the educrats running the teachers' unions who are interested in everything but educating children.

Gov. Quinn has on his desk a bill sent to him from the General Assembly that would raise the charter-school cap from 30 to 70. That is a baby step in a journey of a thousand miles for the Chicago Public School system.

As Governor, I would sign this bill on my first day in office, and then push for opportunity scholarships to empower low- to middle-income families in Chicago and throughout Illinois in school districts that are failing to provide a quality education for their children. I urge the governor to sign the bill immediately so we extend the opportunities that should be available to all children to more children as quickly as possible.

Freedom and competition work. School choice works. It is working in Chicago for those who have it.

If you don’t believe me, ask Mayor Daley.