We’re joined this week by Lauren FitzPatrick, education reporter for the Chicago Sun-Times, and Sarah Karp, education reporter at WBEZ. They discuss yesterday’s announcement by Mayor Emanuel that he intends to bring four-year pre-K classes to every CPS elementary school in the next several years, and the free pre-K that already exists at Oscar Mayer school, which serves some of Chicago’s wealthiest residents. They also discuss the recent report by the University of Chicago on the aftermath of CPS’ closure of almost 50 elementary schools in 2013. The report concludes that the process “caused large disruptions without clear benefits for students.” Lauren FitzPatrick brings us up-to-date on her report about filthy conditions in the schools since the hiring of two private contractors, and Sarah Karp explains her ongoing reporting about cuts in Special Education, a story that resulted in the state taking control over the management of the program.

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You can listen to the audio of this show here on SoundCloud

and you can read a full transcript of the show here. CN transcript May 31 2018