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Don't give cheats a pass
February 7, 2008
Editorial: Chicago Sun-Times
Chicago's public magnet schools are the system's crown jewels.
Thousands of parents clamor to get their children into them each year, many fleeing inferior neighborhood
schools, desperate to give their kid a leg up.
Is it possible some parents might lie on an application to make that happen? Even Mayor Daley admits what we're
capable of.
"Everyone wants to get in magnet schools," he said Tuesday. "Let's be realistic. When a parent wants to make a
decision on their [child's] education, they'll do anything. I mean -- they want their kid to get in this school."
As the Sun-Times reported this week, some parents at one school have even resorted to enlisting "ghost
siblings." At Sabin Magnet in West Town, 12 applicants falsely claimed to have brothers and sisters at the school,
giving them an edge in the admissions process. The principal caught them, and they lost their advantage.
It's hard to believe this is an isolated incident, as Chicago Public Schools officials insist. In fact, the
rumor mill has been spinning for years, undermining the integrity of the whole magnet school system.
Students are supposed to be chosen through a lottery, with no child favored over another, but Chicago is the
town of the "fix" -- and parents have feared for years that the system favors the rich and powerful, as well as the
friends and relatives of employees at these 32 schools.
We need to find out if they're right.
We join the Better Government Association, a government watchdog group, in calling for an audit of the magnet
school application process. With 12 ghost siblings now magically walking about, parents can't feel confident the
system's not rigged. All they know, in many cases, is that their son or daughter got shut out -- and they have to
wonder why. At many schools, more than 1,000 applicants vie for 60 spots.
CPS officials say they get almost no complaints. As recently as Wednesday morning, they said an audit would be a
poor use of limited manpower. But how can parents trust a lottery that goes on behind closed doors?
We appreciate CPS' argument about limited resources, which is why we're advocating a random audit, rather than a
full audit. CPS' inspector general needs to scrutinize the people who get an advantage in the lottery, including
siblings, kids who live near the school and minorities.
And late Wednesday, CPS backed down, telling us of plans for a random audit of applications for next school
year. Staff at several schools will verify each student who claims to have a brother or sister at the school and
each student who claims to live near the school.
We'll expect a public accounting as soon as possible.
But there's still more work to be done. CPS needs to make the entire application process more rigorous. Two
suggestions: help understaffed schools verify student information before the lottery takes place and make parents
"affirm" with a signature that every word on an application is true.
It would also be a good idea to take a look at the 5 percent of admission slots at each magnet school that are
chosen by the principal. That can be a very small number -- as few as two seats -- but these principal picks fuel
much of the suspicion that clout is calling the shots.
Principals are entitled to this discretion and many use it wisely and fairly. They are professionals. But with
that freedom comes a risk of abuse.
There may be nothing here. No fix. No rigging. No clout.
But parents deserve to know for sure.
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