Regardless of politics, Lewis should be in city’s thoughts, prayers

As a cancerous brain tumor survivor, I was quite shocked to see the front page about Karen Lewis on Tuesday. Regardless of political and personal views of Ms. Lewis, we need to keep her and her family in our thoughts and prayers.

Julie Miklos, Clearing

Charter study flawed

A story in Monday’s Sun- Times presents a misleading picture of research on charters. The study cited was produced by the Institute for Metropolitan Studies, a liberal advocacy group, and was not published in a referred academic journal. The Institute has been making the same argument for years about charters in various cities. It has been criticized for misinterpreting research showing the superiority of some charters. The fact is that some charters, like Kipp, outperform public schools, despite receiving far less money per pupil, and some do not. This is pretty much what you would expect in a free market and that is the essence of the argument in favor of charters. It’s not that they are always better, it’s that they provide a choice for parents. It’s a choice that poor people can make, and it’s the same choice available to the limousine liberals who routinely bash charters but send their kids to private schools. My kids go to Chicago public schools, and have had a great experience there. That does not mean that all children are best off at their neighborhood public school. Metropolitan Studies presents no information that contradicts this view. They start out with the statist assumption that local politicians know better than you what’s good for your kids, and the conclusion of all of their reports follows from that assumption. Richard A. Crane,

Lincoln Park

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