Senn/Rickover community process

Last week there was a meeting in the neighborhood about the presence of Rickover Naval Academy on the grounds of Senn High School. The Naval Academy, in its second year now, was created without the necessary input from the Local School Council (LSC) or from the community. In fact, when it was first proposed to the LSC, they voted unanimously against it. In this spring's primaries, some of the 48th Ward precincts had a referendum on the ballot calling for a community process dealing with this issue, and it passed with about 70% in favor. Last week's meeting was part of this community process.

I went to the meeting, but I was a little dismayed at some of the things I observed. There was one long-haired, sixtyish man who wore the American flag as a cape and a big, puffy, Uncle Sam hat. The guy got up and started reading from a scrap of paper, rambling in an utterly incoherent manner. Afterward, he sat down next to my representative in the Illinois General Assembly, Harry Osterman, and put his arm around him. Osterman wisely moved to another seat. It worries me a bit that the mostly cogent discourse that went on that evening might be tainted by one man's clownish antics.

They had a woman from the CPS and a guy from the military speak in defense of the Naval Academy. They tried to reassure everyone that the students would not be singled out for recruitment, and that the curriculum would be just like in any other school. But if so, why not make a similar investment in the Senn portion of the school? Why does the Department of Defense have millions of dollars to throw at education (which is not their core mission), but not the Department of Education?