One answer, two words:

School Vouchers.

That is a huge amount of $ per kid. I volunteer to be in charge of educating 10 kids if I can make 170,000 for it.

I’m a little torn with the decision. The message is a good one but I am not sure if the execution is a good one. What happens when Meeks decide this is no longer getting media attention will he stop the bussing. This suburb is not near these neighborhoods, so it will be a far distance for parents to have to take their kids on their own especially when they have to get to work in the morning, it may be in a whole different direction from their usual travel. Yes, the schools are bad, insufficient conditions to learn in, outdated books and curriculum, and the schools are just not providing enough for children to learn and compete in today’s world let along finish and be prepared for a trade or colllege if they so chose to.

Yes, there are vouchers available but as most schools require residency in the district in which the school is located and so does New Trier High School and Sunset Ridge Elementary School. Which I am not sure why New Trier High School and Sunset Ridge Elementary School says they are preparing to take the students. Vouchers are good and all but most schools are unwilling to take kids from other neighborhoods and if parents want to send their kids to private schools then they have to come out of pocket in which they can’t afford. Not only with tuition, uniform, and other fees.

I really do not see an immediate solution happening, especially since they have been going at it for some years now and vocally for the last year. The schools that have low numbers will lose even more funding. I do knowb that students will not be just sitting at home, they will be in someone’s classroom and the next phase is if schools won’t accept the students, they organizers are prepared to set up shop in businesses to teach students.

I'm sure the government is spending that money wisely somewhere else. I wouldn't worry.

citizen for a minute I thought you were telling us that your mother was a princess in Belgium.

lol, how funny. I read that at first too!

please those kids dont give a rip, they just want to be out of school. the parents might care.

i can understand how parents are feeling about the status of the schools and all that - but to keep your child out - when funding is somewhat contingent on attendance - it's adding to the problem vs. solving it. i know that if i had kids i would want to make sure that they were getting the best possible education - and if that meant going to schools elsewhere then that would be a choice that i might have to make.

i hope that this doesn't cause a tidal wave of issues for the chi-town school districts though. and that the kids don't suffer as a result of missing the first few days.

awwwww -- I wanna be a princess

Remember that article on here a while back, about parents in Spain (I think) faking divorces and addresses in order to get their kids into better schools?

I live in Chicago and grew up in the suburbs. I was lucky enough to attend one of the more "affluent" high schools...because of the property taxes that my parents paid to live in the suburb.

Money does get doled out based on academic performance of students, as well as graduation rates and test scores. Perhaps that angle of funding should change, since the 'burbs can afford the difference and people in the suburbs are willing to pay the difference. Some in the city do not have that luxury.

However, boycotting the first day of school works against everything that Illinois educators have worked towards. It completely contridicts the CPS campaign for 100% attendance on the first day of school and gives children an excuse to skip.

Meeks also proposed a $40 million pilot program to funnel more money into schools that receive less funding - the project would cost $40 million, that money would not go into the needy schools.

This is just Illinois politics being played out and kids are in the middle of it. I cannot agree with it and am amazed that adults who are supposed to be responsible for these children support it.

Bella, I could be misreading what you are saying, but I think you are confused as to how vouchers work. Vouchers are used so students can go to private or public schools they can't afford. (Even though school districts are based on residence in the U.S., through school choice, virtually all school districts allow children from outside their district to attend their school for a fee.) So, they would and do help children go to private schools and schools outside of their districts; that is the purpose of vouchers. Vouchers also encourage competition; when schools have to compete for each student (and the funding that comes with that student), they tend to step up their game and produce greater results.

Sorry if you knew all of this and I was just misunderstanding what you were saying!

And school uniforms are typically way cheaper than other clothes! A lot of public schools are starting to require uniforms.

I understand completely lilkimbo but thanks for adding on. Private school uniforms usually cost more than typical uniforms - I know here in Chicago they do. They are usually specialty uniforms and not like the separates you can buy for public school uniforms (i.e. Dockers and white shirts). A private school skirt can cost anywhere from $50-60 dollars for just the shirt. That is the extra cost I was referring to plus any activities. Activities are generally lower at public funded schools than private.

Hmm...It is so interesting to see how things are different in different areas. I know the private schools in the Cleveland/Akron area offered really cheap uniforms. (around $10 for a polo shirt) And I know a lot of them offered free activities, too. I guess it all depends on which area you are in.

lilkimbo, the prices you quote would be here a public school uniform (some public schools have uniforms); however, if someone goes to a Catholic private school, military, etc. there are special uniforms for every grade. So if you come in as a frosh in 08 you may have a uniform but then when you become a junior you get a new uniform.

This is a horrible idea!! The kids are the ones suffering. And Rev. Meeks is turning this whole thing into a race issue, which gets me even more mad. It's NOT about race. There are white kids that go to those schools too. The funding sucks because the schools aren't performing how they should be. It's not because there are black, Hispanic, Asian, etc. kids there. End of story.

Interesting. I always thought uniforms were very inexpensive at the private schools in Akron and Cleveland. Some of them didn't require as strict a uniform, either. A lot of them just went with the basic blue or white polo, khakis or khaki skirt, etc.

Some of these private schools here have a plain white polo shirt for a top but on the collar they have the schools initials or logo. It really depends which school you go to here.

I can understand why parent are frustrated.
We really have no good options. School administrators couldn't care less what we think about anything. The only way to get their attention is to impact their finances.

Jude: A friend of mine here in Los Angeles a few years ago faked a separation from her husband and even rented and furnished an apartment in a better area to get her son out of Los Angeles Unified.

I tried to get both of my kids into an adjacent district, without success, even appealing it up to the County Office of Education for the second kid.

while i wouldn't necessarily call a boycott of grade school or high school students the correct way to make a point about the failing school system, i can definitely understand where they're coming from. if they needed media attention, they sure got it. in terms of people taking action, i think that sometimes they reach their limits-especially parents who have to watch their children attend second or third rate schools year after year. as a product of the cps system i can recall a time when i felt that sense of helplessness and frustration that nothing was being done about this failing system.

though the focus of this demonstration may be a funding issue there are larger problems that need to be addressed such as parent involvement, student and administration accountability, racism and classicism in schools. we need bigger plans and larger reforms but people have to start somewhere. whether right or wrong, at least it shows that there are people paying attention and looking for change and i can't criticize people for trying to make a stand.

I'm not sure I think the mass absentee move is the wisest, but sometimes it takes a big action to make the state government pay attention.

"Packed classrooms, old textbooks, and a dearth of technology tips the scale between schools who have and schools who ain't got it." Can I get a witness!

I don't blame them. Rather than just stay home though I would have had them sit outside and refuse to enter their schools. That's much more dramatic than having everyone think your kids are just home playing video games. If you're going to protest put your back into it.

Okay, the children are not staying home. They are being enrolled in another school who is willing to except them in a better neighborhood. They are enrolling today at the school.

While these students are being enrolled into schools, these schools are not the same city, and they have to pay the difference between the cost of the city school and the suburban school.

That is why vouchers are such a good idea. Make the schools compete for business. Competition breeds excellence.

I KNEW THIS WAS A LIBERTY BLOG BY THE TITLE.

IF IT WASN'T FOR LIBERTY'S WONDERFUL BLOGS, THERE WOULDN'T BE ANYTHING WORTH A MINUTE OF MY TIME.

MAYBE THE 2ND DAY OF SCHOOL WOULD HAVE BEEN BETTER, THE SITTING OUTSIDE INSTEAD OF STAYING HOME WAS ALSO A GOOD IDEA. HITTING THEM IN POCKETBOOKS IS A GOOD METHOD OF PROTEST.

WHOOPS, I WAS WRONG, GOOD JOB CITIZEN, I COULD SWEAR IT HAD LIBERTY'S LOGO AT THE TOP WHEN I READ IT. STRANGE

SEE, NOW LIBERTY'S PIC IS BACK, NEXT TIME, REGARDLESS THE PIC, I WILL BE SURE TO READ THE BYLINE.

It broke my heart yesterday, to see the children on the news talking about New Trier High School and Sunset Ridge Elementary School. They were so happy that the school had books, music, the school was clean, and they felt safe. So, heartbreaking. I still don't think it was right but it was heartbreaking that now they will think and have this mentality why aren't we able to have these things in school without understanding the real reasons.