Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson may have temporarily paused his crusade against selective enrollment schools, but there is still a long way to go to secure education options in Illinois.
Last month, Johnson succeeded in getting Illinois Senate President Don Harmon to stop a bill that would have stripped the Chicago Board of Education of its ability to close schools, including charters and selective enrollment public schools. Although Johnson reversed his and his allies’ prior statements in pledging not to touch selective enrollment schools until a fully elected school board assumes power in 2027, charters are still at risk.
These alternatives to neighborhood schools have long been a lifeline for high-achieving students, especially those whose home addresses would otherwise trap them in failing schools. The mayor’s pledge to keep selective enrollment schools is welcome. However, the continued risk to charter schools and the fact that the issue reached the state legislature in the first place highlight a bigger-picture problem for Chicago: Leaders regularly side with progressive dogma over the well-being of their young residents.
Charters and selective enrollment high schools have consistently outperformed the average among Chicago Public Schools. In the 2022-23 academic year, the district had a graduation rate of 85%. Of the city’s 42 charter schools, 28 beat the districtwide graduation rate, as did 10 out of 11 selective enrollment schools, according to the University of Chicago’s To&Through Project. Additionally, every selective enrollment school had a higher college enrollment rate than the citywide average.
Unsurprisingly, students who get into schools with higher admissions standards also have better academic outcomes. However, these schools’ resources and more challenging academics can prepare talented students from disadvantaged neighborhoods for longer-term success in ways that some neighborhood schools cannot. Cutting back on charters and selective enrollment schools would reduce options for parents concerned about the quality of their kids’ education.
Instead of mimicking doctrinaire progressive talking points or yielding to the demands of the Chicago Teachers Union, Chicago policymakers should learn from cities that have successfully tackled similar education challenges, even in progressive political environments.
Austin, Texas, has implemented specialized programs for high-achieving students and magnet schools for specific interests such as science, technology, engineering and math, or STEM, and the arts. These serve a similar role to selective enrollment and charters in Chicago, matching students to more challenging coursework and a wider range of resources than are available in neighborhood schools. Some of these even allow students to earn college credits while still in high school, increasing college readiness and reducing future costs.
The Austin district’s emphasis on innovative models yielded a 96.3% graduation rate in 2021, putting Chicago’s graduation rate to shame. Further, inequality along racial lines was strikingly low in Austin: The lowest graduation rate for any group was 95.2% for Hispanic students. On the other hand, in Chicago, where traditional schools dominate, Black students lag the district graduation rate by nearly 5%. For all the talk from Chicago politicians about closing achievement gaps, Austin’s innovative schools are actually doing it, and Chicago should heed its example.
Since the early 2000s, Denver — also known for its progressive politics — has been an innovator in using charter schools to provide more options to families. Charters, then and now, have performed better than state and local averages. In 2023, a study by the University of Arkansas found stronger educational outcomes in both reading and math in Denver’s charter schools for a lower cost per pupil than traditional public schools. Looking at students’ lifetime earnings, the study estimated that charter school graduates had a 58% higher return on the cost of their education than traditional public school students.
These more recent successes come in spite of the Denver school board’s vote to impose various district and teachers union rules on charters. Nevertheless, the schools’ academic independence has worked out in students’ favor, even with the district’s interference in bureaucratic matters. Chicago’s own education bureaucracy and teachers union are themselves forces to be reckoned with, but Denver is proof that educational innovation can overcome those obstacles.
Johnson’s reluctant pledge may take nontraditional schools out of the crosshairs briefly. However, this won’t last in the long term unless Chicago learns to put the party line aside and explore the effective education methods that have served other cities well — even progressive ones.
Mike Viola is a state beat fellow at Young Voices.
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