Brady proposes voucher plan for displaced CPS students

The parents of the 30,000 displaced Chicago Public Schools, or CPS, students’ who will be attending new schools this fall are worried about their children’s futures. These fears are reasonable – what parent wouldn’t we be concerned about having their child walk to school along a Safe Passage route that was recently the scene of...

The parents of the 30,000 displaced Chicago Public Schools, or CPS, students’ who will be attending new schools this fall are worried about their children’s futures.

These fears are reasonable – what parent wouldn’t we be concerned about having their child walk to school along a Safe Passage route that was recently the scene of a murder? And what parent wouldn’t be anxious about the quality of the school their child will be attending, especially after they learn that some of the receiving schools showed the smallest gains on the ISAT last year?

One Illinois politician has a proposed a law that would give these parents, instead of CPS, the opportunity to alleviate these fears.

Late last week, state Sen. Bill Brady, a Republican from Bloomington and a 2014 candidate for governor, unveiled the Displaced Student Voucher Act – legislation that would allow CPS students displaced by the school closings to use public money to attend private schools in Chicago.

Speaking outside of the CPS’ central office building, Brady explained his reasoning:

“Closing some schools may be fiscally necessary for the Chicago Board of Education, but I want to give parents another alternative – one that might mean greater safety for students and one that might actually enhance their children’s educations.”

The Illinois Policy Institute has been calling for vouchers to be offered to CPS students for years.

While CPS and Chicago Teachers Union, or CTU, officials face off, parents are largely excluded from the conversation.

Yes – CPS did host town-hall style events to hear parents’ concerns, but it did not make any substantive changes to its school closing plan as a result of them. And  CTU did promote some parents’ message, but only those who embraced the status quo; not those arguing for change.

The city has had plenty of time to improve its dismal student outcomes, but a look at the most recent statistics shows how far it has left to go:

• Only 7.9 percent of its juniors are college-ready
• The district has never met federal benchmarks for student success
• Only 6 percent of its incoming freshman end up earning a four-year college degree by the age of 25 – that number is 3 percent for African Americans and Hispanics
• 45 percent of CPS graduates begin their senior year not doing well enough academically to attend a four-year college – in the fall after graduation, the most common outcome for them was to neither be working nor in school

In places where vouchers have been implemented, student outcomes have improved.

Take Washington, D.C., for example. A 2010 study by the U.S. Department of Education showed that students offered vouchers graduated from high school at a rate 12 percentage points higher than their peers in traditional public schools.

Another study from 2007 out of North Carolina showed that voucher students had reading scores 8 percentile points higher, and math scores seven points higher than students enrolled in traditional public schools.

Chicago parents have been used as pawns by the mayor and the CTU for far too long. It’s time to give them the resources and responsibility to play a crucial role in their children’s educations.