Crane is not a school; it’s voluntary daytime detainment for youth.  It can’t die soon enough.  If only parents had a real choice of schools they would never send their children to Crane.  But some refuse to let it die.

A coalition of Crane teachers, students, parents and Near West Side community activists unveiled a plan Friday night to turn around the 109-year-old high school at 2245 W. Jackson Blvd., focusing on adding programming and services to the school.  …

After an hour of testimony in support of keeping the school open from neighbors, teachers and students (including the basketball team), the Crane coalition took the stage with a rap music video created by Crane students in an After School Matters program in 2010.

Then they showed off their plan. To improve Crane, they said, programs need to be added to make it more appealing. Add an International Baccalaureate program, add trade-focused classes like cosmetology and video game programming, and reach out more to Crane’s feeder schools.

via Chicago Journal.

Video game programming?  Do these people have any idea of what  kind of education it takes to program video game?  Knowledge of vector graphics.  Understanding of electronic inputs and outputs.  The ability to develop very complex logical structures.  And yet:

In addition, since 26 percent of Crane’s students have special needs, and 87 percent of Crane students are from low-income households, more outreach programs are needed, they said. Solutions, they said, should include mentoring, tutoring and social services.

An IB program?  Ok, will someone get a bus and drive these people straight to the men with the white suits.  Medication is not going to be enough, they need to be admitted.

Also worth mentioning, one day I get a chance to write about the locals who are collection millions from the city for after school programs.  They have a financial self interest to be served; this has nothing to do with saving the children.

If we really want to help our children we’ll inject some competition into the education marketplace and give parents a real choice of where to send their children.  Right now CPS (a/k/a CTU) has a monopoly on public education and it’s failing miserably.