Charter operators took over DuSable High School in Bronzeville.

Now that two charter schools, Betty Shabazz Leadership Academy at DuSable and Mirta Ramirez Computer Science High School, run by ASPIRA, are on Byrd-Bennett's [s]hit list for poor performance, watch the charter operators scream "unfair" and ask local pols to intervene. I agree, it is unfair that the survival of any school is based mainly on student test scores. Those scores correlate much more closely with poverty than anything going on inside the classroom.

But they should have thought of that before they became cheerleaders for the closing of neighborhood schools for the same reason and before taking their public funds and resources moving into the facilities that they once occupied. It reminds me Martin Niemöller's old adage, "First they came for the..."

The latest round of proposed closings will lead to even further destabilization in the lives of children and their families, including more violence and possible killings.

Ralph Ellison charter

Bryan Lowry has a good piece in Medill Reports,"Measuring Up: How Should Charter School Success Be Measured" in which he takes a look at Chicago International's Ralph Ellison campus. Ellison is another charter, like Shabazz, with revolving-door leadership. Its test scores are abysmal. Only 15 percent of the school’s students met state standards on the Prairie State Achievement Examination in 2012 compared to the CPS average of 31.5 percent. Who could blame public school parents and teachers on the south and west side, for asking, why is this school allowed to stay open while BBB is closing ours?

Chicago International, the district's biggest charter operator, has a contract with CPS, but the school is actually run Civitas Schools, a for-profit management company. CI and Civitas have been the most ruthless when it comes to keeping their teachers from unionizing. They have even gone so far as to claim that their charters are not public schools, since Civitas signs the teachers pay checks, and therefore aren't subject to ILRB rules governing union elections.

Last week, Baltimore's school board revoked the charter of Civitas Middle/High School.