Every time I write about education and schools in this town, I get a lot of responses. As the daughter of a teacher, I know that people are passionate about education. For better or worse, a city’s schools have a huge impact on the town as a whole.
A local group, the Elgin Charter School Initiative (ECSI), is beginning to investigate establishing Elgin’s first charter school, which would be math and science focused.
I honestly don’t know much about how charter schools operate or whether they’re good or bad. But I’m curious to learn. I don’t have children, but I do have a stake in my neighborhood and town.
Join ECSI Monday, September 10 for a discussion and informational meeting beginning at 7:00 PM at the Zion Lutheran Church at 330 Griswold St.
The ECSI will have information on charter schools, and a report on their progress in this initiative. But they’re also looking for community input.
If you’re intrigued but can’t attend, contact ECSI at elgincsi@gmail.com.
Have you had experiences with charter schools? What was your impression?
Adventures of the Former Elginista 
From Heather, a teacher and mother, via Facebook:
Charter schools are great for attentive parents but make the public school systems in bad/poor areas even worse. They aggravate the educational inequalities already present in our system. As a parent, I’d send my kid to a charter school in a millisecond if the local public schools sucked (or at least try to since they’re frequently a lottery-type system), but as a teacher I think charter schools aren’t solving the big problem, just making it worse.
In response to the Elgin Charter School Initiative group that is pursuing a charter school I have this to say.
Part of this charter school group includes Mayor Schock’s wife and Councilman Steffan’s wife Kerry Kelly.
Back in 2004 when Mayor Schock informally proposed hiring the Futterman Law Firm at a cost of 44,000 for possible litigation against his and our OWN school district, Kerry Kelly was quoted in the Daily Herald in an article titled Elgin Won’t Sue U46 as saying –
http://www.isbe.net/news/2004/newsclips/040716.htm#el
“It’s great if the city is on board, but we’re still here if they’re not on board,” said Elgin resident and U-46 parent Kerry Kelly, who is not a potential litigant but supports the parents’ efforts.
I imagine it is second nature for Kerry Kelly to support the parents’ efforts since not only is she an Elgin resident and U-46 parent but also she herself is a practicing attorney. To be fair, I might add that this type of law is not what she practices as far as I can determine.
So not only did she support the parents efforts which we now can see have led to 9 million dollars of tax payer funds going to lawyer pockets for this still ongoing class action law suit but she now is looking for tax payer dollars for a charter school.
Dr. Torres said we have charter schools in Elgin and they are called private schools.
We have had to spend enough tax payer dollars defending a ridiculous class action lawsuit that had the sparks of litigation talk in 2004.
Please Elgin Charter School Initiative don’t put your hands in our tax payer pockets for a charter school.
Please use your OWN dollars for a private school.
Countless parents in Elgin are sacrificing so their children can go to a private school and there is no reason why the Elgin Charter School Initiative cannot sacrifice and form a private school for their OWN purposes.
Common Sense Clarence Hayward
A conservative voice in the Elgin community.
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