School Closing Victory—The Fight to Save National Teachers Academy
By Candace Moore and Katherine Gladson in the American Bar Association – March 22, 2019
If Chicago Public Schools (CPS) decides to close your school, you get two minutes. Whether you are a parent, a student, or a community member, you only have two minutes to explain all the ways that your school benefits its students and community. Two minutes to explain why CPS should not do this. Two minutes to tell your story. When CPS decided to phase out top-rated National Teachers Academy (NTA) Elementary School, many tried as best they could to tell CPS exactly what was wrong with its plan.
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What Rights Do Students Have in the Charter School Era?
By Jessica Schneider in the American Bar Association – March 30, 2017
“School choice.” It’s a phrase we hear often in today’s education discourse, and the discussion around the nomination for U.S. Secretary of Education has put the issue front and center nationally. As parents and students look for higher performing alternatives to neighborhood schools that often suffer from a lack of resources, charter schools have arisen as one of those alternatives. Charter schools are public schools but are designed to be more innovative and free from constraints. Charters are often referred to as being publicly funded but privately run. Though they do not charge tuition and are open to all students, they can also be thought of as “laboratories” where new and different education policies and practices are tried.
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Advocating for Access to Education: Breaking the School to Prison Pipeline
Written by Staff Attorney Candace Moore in the CBA record
Across the country, schools have increasingly relied on exclusionary discipline, zero-tolerance policies, and law enforcement tactics to address student conduct. This has led to a national crisis commonly referred to as The "School-to-Prison-Pipeline" ("STPP").
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