Bureaucracy holding back wildly successful Urban Prep Academy
The Chicago Board of Education recently voted not to renew the charters of two all-male Urban Prep Academy campuses. Alfonso Carmona, Chicago Public Schools’ chief portfolio officer, said the recommendation was not based on campus-level performance but was a response to management by the Urban Prep Academies board of directors.
The Tribune reported that officials at the school and community members could not comprehend this decision since the schools are wildly successful, producing a 100% college acceptance rate for seniors for the past 13 years. One student cited in the article said that because of the schoo he changed from someone who engaged in “immature behavior” to a school leader.
These school officials and community leaders believe that they should be praised, not condemned, for producing results: educated young men on the way to college. They are naive. The problem with Urban Prep Academy is not that it is too bad. Its problem is that it is too good.
It embarrassed the CPS bureaucracy.
I have been dealing with bureaucracies in Chicago, Cook County and Illinois since I graduated from law school over half a century ago. It seems only occasionally do bureaucracies actually serve those they were created to assist. Too often its leadership perpetuates the internal needs of keeping the bureaucracy uncontested, undisturbed, undistinguished, unimaginative and uninspired. Bureaucracy expeditiously moves to crush those who embarrass or challenge it.
Or, as author Oscar Wilde succinctly put it, “The bureaucracy is expanding to meet the needs of the expanding bureaucracy.”
But let me get more personal. As a judge now and previously as Cook County public guardian, I have repeatedly encountered young men of various racial and ethnic backgrounds who strove to succeed while battling burdens beyond their control: poverty discrimination and a lack of male role models. Our public schools seem to be a one-size-fits-all conundrum.
These kids I once represented, and now try to assist, too often feel shoved aside. And they are. Because they learn differently or because of their backgrounds, they do not learn efficiently, or they are inconvenient. They are ignored. So they drop out. Ultimately, many lead bleak lives. Enormous potential is wasted.
While CPS bureaucracy may not be very good at educating very poor boys, it is quite astute at glossing over its inefficiencies. In the last couple of years, I have seen a number of cases in which city schools keep passing children from grade to grade who either do not attend or rarely attend school and whose report cards reflect complete failures. The bureaucracy can crow about its success while the patient dies.
The most depressing aspect of representing very poor children and, as a judge, trying to assist them is knowing they are slowly being crushed by circumstances well beyond their control. Most have the ability to become productive citizens, to lead satisfying lives, to enjoy the fruits of a bountiful society. But I fear many will not.
The leadership at Urban Prep seems to understand our responsibility as a society to stick by and work with these young men. Is that leadership perfect? I suspect not. In my long life, I have never met with a perfect, or even close to it, individual or institution. But despite their alleged bureaucratic idiosyncrasies, they are succeeding.
Too well. Too much.
My advice to the leadership at Urban Prep is: Forget it. Your problem is that you are concerned with challenging these young men to live up to their potential. To become productive members of society. This is not relevant to Board of Education bureaucrats.