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Education Mon Mar 26 2012
General Assembly To Consider Banning Noble Street's Fining Policies
State Senator Willie Delgado has introduced legislation banning the stringent fining practices used by charter network Noble Street. There was an uproar against the ticky-tacky fines imposed by Noble Street for infractions such as "not tracking the teacher with your eyes" and "running a pencil along the edge of the desk." A freedom of information act request by a student organization and a parents organization found that the school system had raised nearly $400,000 from these fines.
To protest the fines, students self-organized a protest and press conference, wearing chef's hats and aprons, mocking Mayor Rahm Emanuel's statement that Noble had a "secret sauce" that led to be better behaved students.
Senator Delgado's legislation is meant to prohibit nominally public schools like Noble Street from imposing fines (which the schools call "fees") as a disciplinary measure. Noble Street's rationale for the fees, according to Catalyst Magazine's Jim Broadway's coverage, is to increase parental involvement and make sure only those kids using disciplinary resources (e.g., after-school detention requiring staff time) have to pay for them. Of course, this is precisely the type of thing public schools cannot do and which give charter schools a comparative advantage that powers what little greater efficacy they have over public schools.
