Mayor Emanuel: Put Students on a Path to College, Not Prison!

Mayor Rahm Emanuel believes in public education for the few, not the many.

He has called the rapidly expanding Noble Street Charter Network the “secret sauce” to public education in Chicago. But what’s in that “secret sauce”?

$386,745. That’s how much the charter school has made from $5 fines and $280 “behavior classes” imposed on low-income students for behavior like leaning back in your chair, chewing gum, forgetting your belt, and not following the teacher with your eyes at all times. If you can’t pay, your options are limited—be held back a year, or leave the school entirely. Forty percent of all Noble students drop out or transfer before their senior year.

It’s a scenario that’s far too common across Chicago, where Mayor Emanuel is aggressively expanding the use of extreme discipline policies at all schools. The rising use of fines, arrests, and multi-week suspensions for infractions that could better be--and once were--handled by a trip to the principal's office means that more and more students are leaving Chicago schools with a record, not a diploma. Black and Latino students, who are over three times more likely to be arrested for minor offenses than white students, are hurt the most by these policies.

Our tax dollars should be used to put all our students on a path to college, not a path to prison. Instead of defending Noble, Mayor Emanuel needs to end extreme disciplinary practices at all publicly-funded schools. Tell him that we need a common-sense discipline code that works for all Chicago families.