CHICAGO — Spending a night on the street during a Chicago winter is never an inviting task, but about a dozen Chicago Teachers Union members and supporters did just that Jan. 21 in a vigil at Chicago Public Schools headquarters.

Their mission, as the temperatures dropped into the single digits, was to stop the proliferation of charter schools in Chicago, something the group said promotes Chicago cronyism, graft and greed.

“The board just slashed the budgets of our neighborhood schools, and now they’re proposing opening these charter schools. It doesn’t make much sense,” said Kristine Mayle, CTU member, as she prepared to hunker down for the night on the sidewalk in front of CPS headquarters, 125 S. Clark.

“It’s come down to this. We’ve got to freeze to hope we’ll melt the icy hearts of the board of education,” said CTU member Jackson Potter.

“Up to this point, they refused to listen to the overwhelming outrage and concern of parents and students throughout the city,” Potter explained.

Nate Rasmussen, CTU teacher was bundled up tight as he stood protesting under the watchful eye of a Chicago Police Department cruiser, who expelled the group at 7 a.m. the next morning.

“We’re fighting these ridiculous measures — supposedly enrollment is down, then why are we proposing opening these new charter schools? It’s obvious their agenda is to privatize the whole school system,” Rasmussen said.

The Chicago Board of Education ended up approving Jan. 22 proposals for seven new charter schools to open in the next two years. There were eight proposals on the table for 17 separate schools.

The decision came less than a year after the same board voted to close 49 public schools in the city. A CTU press release said the “Board vote lacks logic, reason and common sense.”

Pat Barcas/staff photographer
CTU member Jackson Potter does his best to stay warm Jan. 21 as he demonstrates overnight outside CPS’s headquarters. He’s upset at the Chicago Board of Education’s decision to open charter schools, while 49 public schools have been closed.

CTU President Karen Lewis said the illusion of choice for parents with charter schools is thin.

“Freedom to choose is at the bedrock of our society,” Lewis said in a release, “But choice should be based on fact and data. What is being presented is a false choice. Knowledge is the basis for real choice. What parents and the public are being presented with is a predetermined path that leads to the undermining of our neighborhood schools and the privatization of public education.”

She also decried the double standard of charter schools.

“The insider deals, the lack of transparency and accountability in many of these operations illustrate a double standard,” said Lewis.

“Behavior that would get an administrator fired in CPS, gets their charter counterparts bonuses via the largess of the taxpayers.”

Lewis said one solution to the problem is overhauling Illinois law so as not to allow charters to circumvent the district.

“The CTU offered to work with the board to address the shortcomings in the existing charter law that gave unprecedented authority to an authorizing agency.

“The CTU has solutions to augment the current law and we believe our proposals will allow the district to spend tax payer money more efficiently, transparently and have real accountability not simply based on test scores,” she added.