A new admissions policy for Chicago's magnet and selective enrollment schools should get flack from at least one group at Wednesday's school board meeting.
Parents, advocacy groups and community members who make up the Committee for Fairness in Magnet and Selective Enrollment School Admissions plan on fighting against a new proposal, which they believe will further segregate Chicago Public Schools.
The new admissions policy developed in the fall will use socioeconomic factors as opposed to race to fill seats at the city's coveted schools. The changes were developed over the past two years as school officials anticipated a federal court ruling that freed the district from oversight on school segregation.
The Black Star Project, which is part of the committee fighting the changes, points to a recent study by the Chicago Tribune that showed the new policy would decrease the opportunity for students outside of the magnet and selective schools to enroll. The new policy would restrict opportunities for black students to attend the schools due to new rules that apply to those who live in neighborhoods or already have children in the magnet schools, The Black Star Project Executive Director Phillip Jackson says.
For example, all siblings of existing students at magnet schools will be admitted if there are spots in enrollment available, and the rest of the slots will be prioritized for students living near the schools, according to the new policy.
The problem is that there are so few black students in the magnet schools already, the new policy would deplete the number of seats available to minorities given that the areas in the magnet schools are predominantly white and the enrollment demographics similar, Jackson says.
Jackson believes the policy will revert the school district back several decades and so do some aldermen.
"Black children will have dramatically less access to the best schools in the city of Chicago," Jackson says. "Chicago is a hyper-segregated city. That's why you can't simply depend upon the goodness of a school to say we're really going to take care of these kids."
Jackson and other members of the committee met with school officials to discuss the issue Monday. He expects CPS to stick by its proposal.
"Our intention is to stop them from putting this in front of the board," Jackson says.
The committee wants the school district to scrap its policy, develop a new one with more involvement from parents and community members and commit to improving all schools and not just the magnet or selective enrollment ones, Jackson said.
"We're not upset about the few slots that are up in the magnet schools. We're upset that the rest of the schools are so bad that they force us to compete frantically for the few spots available," Jackson says. "We're saying we want both conversations simultaneously. Keep magnet schools good and get other schools better."
Committee members also want race to be involved in any new policy, because Chicago can't afford to continue placing black students in the city's worst schools, Jackson says.
"Nothing CPS has done is encouraging diversity," Jackson said. "Now you're telling us that the few black children going to the best schools, you're going to dramatically reduce those numbers? We can't have that."
The application deadline for magnet and selective enrollment is Friday. Wednesday's school board meeting will start at 10:30 a.m. on fifth floor of the CPS administration building, 125 S. Clark St.