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Rahm Emanuel Unveils Plans For Chicago Public Schools

CHICAGO (WBBM) - Rahm Emanuel stuck to his script and refused to answer questions from reporters Sunday as he unveiled his plans for Chicago's public schools should he be elected mayor.

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As Emanuel and his legal and campaign teams prepare for a week that could decide if he remains on the ballot or is bounced because of residency questions, he continued to focus publicly on other issues.

On Sunday, in the gymnasium of the Bethune Elementary School, at 3030 W. Arthington St., Emanuel outlined a multi-faceted plan to improve Chicago's public schools.

"We simply cannot tolerate schools that fail year after year after year," he said.

Emanuel said that, if elected, he would set minimum qualification standards for teachers. He said he would create a pool of the best young teachers, and reward new teachers for excellence by elevating them to top scale pay in as little as eight years.

Emanuel said he would require every principal to sign a five-year contract that is tied to student performance goals.

He said he would expand early childhood education, the class day and the school year, although he did not outline where the resources would be found to make it possible.

Perhaps his most controversial proposal would allow a majority of parents at any Chicago public school to vote to declare the school failed, and give them the right to decide how it should be reconstituted.

Emanuel said that parents would be given access to "report cards" that principals already receive on a school's overall performance.

And he said that parents would be permitted to effect change "through administrative changes, by bringing a new operator in, or by shutting it down and starting over with a charter, a school of excellence or any other model that the parents working with the Chicago Public Schools would choose."

Emanuel said obtaining more active participation from parents would be a priority, and said he would also propose a "contract" between parents and a child's school to set out student goals and parental responsibilities.

"Learning doesn't begin at the schoolhouse door," he said. "It starts at the front door of the home."

The Emanuel plan would create a Chicago Education Innovation Fund that would make available $30 million, raised from private sources, on a yearly basis to entice schools to better achievement and reward those that succeed.

He would try to improve the quality of teachers entering the classroom by doubling the number of teacher training academies so that they could be scaled up over two years to produce 150 new teachers a year at a cost to the system of about $10 million, also providing re-training to current teachers.

He said this funding would come from the system's professional development budget.

Emanuel also said he would change policies so that those who are laid off are the least effective teachers, not the newest -- a proposal that would require a change in the union contract.

In response to Emanuel's education plan, mayoral candidate Sen. James Meeks said, in a statement: "Ideas are one thing, but a record of fighting for those ideas is another. Chicago voters need to see a record along with ideas. That's what I have more than any other candidate - a record and ideas."

Mayoral candidate Gery Chico, who spent six years as president of CPS, called Emanuel's education plan "light as cotton-candy, and contains few details and little substance."

"If Rahm believes this paper-thin approach to education reform will truly help our children, he ought to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with me at one of the debates this week and defend his plan," continued Chico in a statement released Sunday.

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