Rahm Emanuel Hit On School Policy By High Schoolers For Del Valle

A group of Chicago high school students has decided to take Rahm Emanuel to task for his education policy.

Cristina Henriquez, Gerardo Aguilar, and Alexandra Alvarez appear in a YouTube video, uploaded Sunday, entitled "Invest in Our Public Schools." The spot attacks Emanuel for his praise of the city's charter schools, and backs rival candidate Miguel del Valle for supporting neighborhood schools.

"I go to Roger C. Sullivan High School," says Henriquez. "This is not one of the schools Rahm Emanuel cares about."

The students, who wrote the script for the video, according to its description on YouTube, also point out what they describe as a factual inaccuracy in Emanuel's portrayal of the city's charters. "When you take out North Side, and you take out Walter Payton, the seven best-performing high schools are all charters."

"Someone didn't do their homework," the video says, listing the seven top schools as reported by the Chicago Tribune. None of them is a charter school.

The video says it has no connection to any candidate, and judging by the del Valle camp's reaction, they seem to be telling the truth. Spokeswoman Joanna Klonsky didn't know much about the video's origins, except to say that "we didn't orchestrate it."

Watch the students take on Rahm:

Comments

[EinChicago]

11:43 AM on 02/03/2011

If most CPS city schools weren't so dangerous, they'd have a point. As it is, the problem with most CPS schools goes beyond the school and into the actual neighborhood with gang and other systemic problems. New books won't make a difference in a south side school where nobody dare step through the door because of gangbangers. Charters are not a perfect solution, but they are better than nothing.

[TrueChicagoan]

01:58 PM on 02/03/2011

Where do these students state they are against charter schools? Unless you can ensure that every CPS student gets enrolled in a high performing charter school then it is necessary that there is some plan in place to improve neighborhood public schools.

Also charter schools aren't free of gang violence.

[EinChicago]

09:59 AM on 02/04/2011

Unfortunately, no school inside the city is free of gang violence. And I agree there needs to be a plan in place to improve neighborhood schools. But the problem isn't the high schools. By the time students reach that stage, the problem already exists and is ingrained. The problem is the hiome life for some students that are so terrible that by the time they enter middle school, they are already part of the neighborhood weave of drugs, gangs, and crime. No program to improve CPS schools in bad neighborhoods will ever make a lick of difference until the root cause is addressed. Buying new books for kids who are already seasoned criminals by the age fo 13 isn't going to turn things around. Figuring out how to catch the kids at 3-8 years old and prevent the rot from their neighborhood infecting them is the only solution. Focusing on high school age is like applying a band aid to a tumor. Which is sadly why charter schools are necessary, because by that stage, quarantine of the disease is the only real solution left because it wasn't treated early enough and it is now incurable.

[IL-blueStater]

10:52 AM on 02/03/2011

When charter schools want to fully fund themselves then they should be able to make their own enrollment decisions. But in Chicago they are at least partially funded with public tax monies. If they are taking local tax money they should be required to take any and all Chicago students. As is, they are allowed to select which students they want and are allowed to kick out underperforming and problem studuents. Charter schools are giving a few students a better education but they're also making bad Chicago schools even worse and they're doing it with my property taxes. That's wrong.

[gregcurts]

09:06 AM on 02/03/2011

Hate to state the obvious, but those kids are Latino's and they or their Parents if they can vote legally are going to vote along racial lines.

[TrueChicagoan]

01:59 PM on 02/03/2011

So all white folks are voting along racial lines?

[Dimplezzz2002]

11:30 AM on 02/02/2011

Charter schools make their own rules so they can and do expel students who do not conform. They also "coerce" parents to withdraw their child(ren) with the threat of expulsion. Charter students who are expelled are returned to their neighborhood school.

When schools are filled with students interested in academics and who are respectful and have good behavior, the students have good test scores and are successful and the school is deemed a success. Neighborhood schools accept whomever comes.

Remember that the next time you hear someone tout the merits of charters while denigrating the neighborhood schools.

[crookedcountyillinois]

02:23 PM on 02/02/2011

So, you're saying that the public schools should expel more students, when those students do not conform.

That's a good idea. I like it.

Get the troublemakers out of the way, so everyone else can learn.

[Dimplezzz2002]

04:50 AM on 02/03/2011

Rather than having faulty logic, Crookedcountyillinois, I think you deliberately miss the point just to be contentious. Expelling children from school was not the point...but you already know that!

[47th]

11:17 AM on 02/02/2011

Rahm Job would have had an answer for these smart a%# kids, but he had a fundraiser to go to.

[Dimplezzz2002]

10:43 AM on 02/02/2011

Wow! Out of the mouths of babes. I'm extremely proud of these students.

[NickCatal]

05:33 AM on 02/02/2011

I think parents should be able to send their children to whichever school they feel is best and that we should close down schools that have shown poor performance and support and expand on schools that have proven to succeed. No matter if those schools are charter or not or are at all involved in public education.

Increasing funding for schools whose philosophies and teachers whose actions do not result in meaningful improvements in the lives of students is absurd and would never fly in any other sector of our economy.

It is entirely possible that this will result in a small amount of teachers laid off that did nothing wrong. But there are more than enough teachers that were laid off recently who were only fired because they were young and there was not the funding. That. Makes. No. Sense.

[TrueChicagoan]

04:55 PM on 02/02/2011

Did you follow these kids advise and visit www.delvalleformayor.com? You'll like what he has to say on education.

[sue denim]

08:26 PM on 02/01/2011

No doubt written and directed by the teacher unions.

[crookedcountyillinois]

04:30 PM on 02/01/2011

If the kids don't see why we need school choice, then I guess the public schools really are a failure.

[TrueChicagoan]

04:46 PM on 02/01/2011

You should be ashamed of yourself.

[crookedcountyillinois]

10:02 PM on 02/01/2011

I feel pretty good about myself. I paid attention in school, and taught myself when the public system failed me; as it so often does.

Schools should teach people how to think, and not what to think.

And if children think that having less options is a good thing, than I have to question what they're being taught.

[TrueChicagoan]

04:46 PM on 02/01/2011

The point these high schoolers are making is that their academic success shouldn't be based upon them winning some lottery for a charter school.

By the way even if they did get into that charter school there's only a 1 in 3 chance it will raise their test scores (and even then we are talking about a negligible 1 to 2 percentage points).

[crookedcountyillinois]

10:07 PM on 02/01/2011

Their academic success is based on their individual efforts; not on winning any kind of lottery.

Everything you just said, might be true in your implementation of a charter school system.

It's easy to doom something, right from the start, if you don't like it in the first place. But how you do something is often more important than what you do.

[NickCatal]

05:38 AM on 02/02/2011

But at least they had the opportunity. Nobody is going to force-educate our young people but if charter schools give them more opportunities then there is no reason not to put more children into them.

If charter schools don't perform then close those charter schools. Apply the same performance standards on both neighborhood and charter schools and track the progress of students as they go through the system.

[shthar]

04:13 PM on 02/01/2011

Hope those kids wern't looking forward to a city job.

[antonymous]

03:05 PM on 02/01/2011

Ha! Our public schools are pretty bad, but see how they've produced kids that know more than Rahm Emanuel? Good job, kids.

Charter schools are that rare scam only the best educated Americans fall for.

[nacakis1]

02:50 PM on 02/01/2011

Walls for mayor dot com

[XFilesTheTruthIsOutThere]

02:27 PM on 02/01/2011

I'm happy that these kids are standing up for something. But I agree with Emanuel. I left highschool in 1985 and for the past 30 plus years Chicago has tried in vain to improve the Chicago Public School System. A lot of money thrown at the system and nothing to show for it. I grew up on the westside of Chicago and my parents were not to crazy sending me to Crane High school but tried to get me and my brother into Whitney Young.

Parents should have the option to send their kids to any quality schools and not be restricted because of whatever district you live in.

[TrueChicagoan]

03:13 PM on 02/01/2011

Miguel is for parent choice - and under Mayor del Valle parents will continue to have a choice of sending their students to charter schools.

Where Miguel and Rahm differ is what to do with our neighborhood public schools - listening to Rahm talk you would think he's going to shut down all our public schools and send everyone to beautiful new charter schools. That is not only impossible but would not result in improved educational opportunities for our Chicago public school students. And here's why -

First, only 1/3 of charter schools succeed in raising test scores.

Second, because Rahm will not be able to ensure that every child wins a lottery to get into the 1/3 of "succeeding" charter schools this will mean that children will continue attending a two-tier educational system - a select few will win lotteries and be recruited into the selected enrollment schools - the rest will be left to the neighborhood public school. Adding insult to injury Rahm will remind them that their schools suck - I can only imagine what it must be like to be 14 years old and told your school offers you no opportunities.

These children and the 350,000 that attend public schools with them can't afford a Mayor Emanuel. Vote Miguel!

[TrueChicagoan]

03:28 PM on 02/01/2011

I'd also like to point out that the policies that Miguel is supporting to improve our public schools are sound and have been proven to work when implemented in other districts. The problem with CPS is that it's been under the control of Mayor Daley and his rubber stamp school board for too long. Del Valle has pledge to return the school board to the people (and is so doing the democratic accountability we have over our neighborhood schools). Rahm - more school closing and more scam charter schools (where administrators pay themselves handsome salaries for the same results). Please educate yourself about charter schools and why they are a good idea at developing best practices, but not a good idea if you're looking for a real solution to improve our schools.

Oh and by the way, even if you took out ALL the selective enrollment schools the seven top high schools in Chicago would still not be charters - only one would be (Noble). Please inform yourself.

[BVChicago]

02:25 PM on 02/01/2011

I was shocked to hear Emanuel's statement about charter high schools in Chicago - which is not even close to accurate. He really does need to do his homework on this issue. I think charters have their place, but there needs to be equal focus on neighborhood schools. The idea that charters are generally out performing other CPS schools is simply inaccurate. There are some select strong performers - just as there are strong performing neighborhood schools.

[shthar]

04:14 PM on 02/01/2011

How can you say it's not accurate!!!

It's right here on the speech the charter school lobbyists wrote for me!!!

[jedi penguin]

02:13 PM on 02/01/2011

Good for them!