Emanuel Ticks Off Education Leaders by Sending Children to Private School
CHICAGO — Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s already contentious relationship with leaders of the city’s public school system may have gotten a bit testier today with news that he and his wife will send their three children private school.
Emanuel, who made improving education a cornerstone of his successful mayoral campaign, has been engaged in a war of words with the union after announcing cost cutting measures for a system that faces a massive deficit. Just last month, he defended a school board decision to cancel raises for teachers, saying that while they have received two kinds of raises in the last eight years, flat test scores and a graduation rate of just over 50 percent suggests students are getting “the shaft.”
Union President Karen Lewis, who angrily reacted to those comments, today issued a sarcasm-laced statement about Emanuel’s decision to send his children to a prestigious private school.
“The new mayor seems to recognize how school funding impacts school quality,” Lewis said in a statement. “We understand why he would choose a school with small class sizes, a broad rich curriculum … a focus on critical thinking and not test-taking, a teacher and an assistant in every elementary classroom, and paid high-quality professional development for their teachers.”
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