Admissions Plan Blasted in Chicago
A new admissions policy for elite Chicago public schools has angered African-American aldermen, who charge it is little more than a plot to free up seats for middle-class white families tired of paying private school tuition, the Chicago Sun-Times reports.
The new policy followed a federal judge’s decision to void a 1980 desegregation consent decree that let CPS use race to decide admissions to the coveted schools. Now, census tracts, neighborhood income levels and other socio-economic indicators will be determining factors.
The Chicago Public Schools’ legal counsel Pat Rocks contends the U.S. Supreme Court tied the system’s hands with a 2007 ruling that prevents using race to select students.
New data show that, by dividing students into four economic tiers based on census tracts, some students will be competing against kids whose families make at least 10 times more than theirs do.
Filed under: K-12 Education News
