By shaving 30 minutes from his controversial call for a 71/2-hour elementary school day, Mayor Rahm Emanuel gave a nod to growing opposition to his plan while fulfilling a campaign pledge to lengthen one of the shortest school days in the nation.
Emanuel said a seven-hour day for Chicago elementary school students can still accomplish the goals he has set for Chicago Public Schools.
“The goal was not the time,” Emanuel said Tuesday during a news conference at a North Side elementary school. “Time is merely an opportunity and then how do you use it. I would hope now that we’d stop debating about the time and start having a real discussion.”
That may be wishful thinking. Groups opposing Emanuel’s original plan continue to call for a 61/2-hour day, and with another round of budget cuts looming, some question whether CPS has the money to support a seven-hour day.
“I think it’s reckless as a parent and as a taxpayer that they’re extending the day with no clear indication on how they’re going to fund it,” said CPS parent Tracy Baldwin, who co-founded one of the opposition groups, 6.5 to Thrive.
The seven-hour elementary school day is more than an hour longer than the current day in most Chicago schools.
“I think it’s still too long,” said Laura Paris, a parent from the Mount Greenwood neighborhood on the Far Southwest Side. “If you’re going to continue to ram it down my throat, I will continue to fight.”
The district had been pushing since September to launch a 71/2-hour day next year. But CPS chief Jean-Claude Brizard continued to engage parents on the issue as recently as last week. Brizard said CPS needs “parents to know through our actions not just words that we want them as partners in driving change at every school. That’s why today we’re telling parents that we listened to you and are taking action.”
The schools chief said the 30-minute adjustment to the longer day was not connected to the $600 million to $700 million budget deficit forecast for next year. The cost of a longer day hasn’t been publicly projected by the district.
Emanuel put a longer school day at the center of his plan to improve the troubled Chicago public school system. The slight tweak to his plan is another example of how the mayor, long known as more of a political pragmatist than ideologue, has made changes along the margins to win support while still getting nearly all he wants.
During the budget process last fall, for example, Emanuel acquiesced to aldermanic concerns about cutting library hours. Library hours still were cut, but by fewer hours per week, and the City Council approved the budget unanimously.
The mayor changed the proposed hours of operation of his speed cameras in response to critics in Springfield, and the legislation passed.
The longer school day has been controversial from the start. On the first day of school in September, three schools signed waivers to opt out of the teachers contract and lengthen the school day by 90 minutes without consent of the Chicago Teachers Union.
Teachers earned stipends and the schools received $150,000, prompting union leaders to say the district was bribing schools to go along with the plan. Ultimately, 13 non-charter schools agreed to lengthen their school days despite strong union opposition.
CTU President Karen Lewis on Tuesday said Emanuel has to ensure that the extra time includes programs like arts and foreign languages instead of for subjects like reading and math. She indicated she supports the 61/2-hour day backed by many parents.
“Today, the mayor moved his toe a half an inch from the starting line. He needs to do more. He needs to listen with both ears,” Lewis said. “It’s a start in the right direction, but it’s still not a plan. It’s a slogan.”
Under the plan announced Tuesday, the CPS high school day will remain at 71/2 hours, but once a week the school day will be shortened by 75 minutes to give teachers time for professional development.
The mayor said a seven-hour day in elementary schools improves on the existing five-hour, 45-minute day by allowing time for recess and 52 additional minutes for instruction.
Stand for Children, a national group that helped pass the Illinois legislation last year that allowed the mayor to implement a longer day without union approval, said it plans to continue pushing for a 71/2-hour day in elementary schools for the 2013-14 school year.
The seven-hour day “is a step forward, but our parents strongly support 71/2 hours and will hold the mayor accountable,” said Mary Anderson, executive director of Stand for Children.
There was no talk Tuesday about additional compensation for teachers working a longer day, a subject still being negotiated. Under the mayor’s plan, the teacher workday would increase by 85 minutes in elementary schools and 39 minutes in high school.
Criticism of the mayor’s original plan started with the union but grew to include parents from solidly middle- and upper-middle-class communities on the North and Southwest sides.
These parents worried the longer day took away time from family or extracurricular activities. Some parents at the schools that had moved to 71/2-hour days said their children were tired and strained. Parents spoke out against the longer day at CPS board meetings, some threatening to leave the city if they were not heard.
On Monday, some of these parent and community groups announced they had formed a coalition with organizations from around the city to pressure City Hall into repealing the 71/2-hour day, arguing that students would perform better during a school day that was more thoughtfully planned.
Wendy Katten, director of Raise Your Hand, a parent group that brought the coalition together, said the main issue for parents is that students have access to a well-rounded curriculum that includes art, technology, music and physical education.
Emanuel “made a campaign promise, he randomly picked this time and then went on a marketing tour,” Katten said.
“I think he thought it would be really popular. But what we found was that across the city, no one was really happy with the quality of the school day or the resources that exist today. So why would extending that work?”
Tribune reporter Kristen Mack contributed.
