This week, the Charter Blog will follow the National School Choice Week whistle stop tour—profiling public charter school facts along the tour route (see Kansas/Missouri here). Chicago is one of 14 stops along the National School Choice Week’s (NSCW) coast-to-coast, whistle-stop train tour to promote school choice. The Illinois Network of Charter Schools (INCS) is hosting an event today to celebrate NSCW and kick off the Same Student | Same Funding campaign, which aims to correct the unequal “per pupil” funding ratios in Illinois. You can follow the conversation on twitter through hash tag #samefunding.
Chicago has been a central focus point for charter school policy the past year. A two-week long strike by the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) in September left 350,000 students in the traditional Chicago Public Schools out of school. During that time, Chicago public charter schools continued to operate, serving 52,000 students. Chicago has the fifth largest public charter school student enrollment according to our 2012 annual market share report. The strike, combined with Illinois charter school performance, increased the demand for more public charter schools. Illinois ranks 27th out of 43 on our 2013 model law rankings. The strike brought the importance of choice—both for parents in selecting a school with a culture and curricular focus and that fits their child’s needs, and for teachers’ ability to opt to work at a school that appeals to their educational philosophy—to the forefront of policy and political discussions. The power of choice continues to take center stage in the Windy City celebrations of NSCW.
Menu
