Schools Supt. Ted Kimbrough claims that the school reform movement has been shamed and that there have been ”quibbles” and ”misrepresentations”
about the school budget deficit.
On the contrary. Chicago finally has a well-educated, passionately committed group of people in its local school councils and school reform organizations who are asking for changes in the Board of Education budget process, which has previously been disastrous for the children of Chicago. These groups have presented to the board concrete and thoughtful proposals for deficit reduction which the board has generally ignored.
Mr. Kimbrough objects to characterizing Senate Bill 158 as a
”takeaway.” First, that bill would allow the board to take away the money unspent from the State Chapter I budgets of the past year. In the case of Field School, where I am the LSC chair, this would amount to more than $100,000 unspent by our former principal, who failed to hire staff to fill positions opened by the Field LSC.
Can you call it a takeaway when money which has been taken from disadvantaged children for years by a bloated bureaucracy is returned to them less quickly? No, ”takeaway” is not a strong enough term, it should be called a crime.
