Charter School News:

Phillip Howard stands in front of the former Good Counsel High School — now the “Chicago International Charter School, Northtown Academy Campus” — at 3900 W. Peterson in Chicago. Substance photo by George N. Schmidt.

Interview: The Real Charter 'Experience'

by Jim Vail

The inside story of a charter school touted by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation as an "urban education model'.

Phillip Howard is a 17-year-old student who now attends Truman Middle College High School. He previously attended the Chicago International Charter School (CICS) Northtown Academy for two years. He spoke to Substance about his experience at the school, including the inexperience of teachers, the harsh discipline methods, and the discouragement of any help among students.

Find out more about the Chicago International Charter School or the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

Convicted child molester served as principal of this Chicago charter school. While the Chicago newspapers were filled recently with page one stories about how a convicted sex offender had just served as an election judge at a Chicago elementary school, the December 2006 child porn guilty plea by Joseph Nurek was reported in the back pages. Nurek had served as principal of the Chicago International Charter School Belden Campus (above) until his 2004 arrest. In addition to the prison time he will receive for his child porn guilty plea, Nurke is still facing charges that he transported a minor across state lines for sex. Deregulated, charter schools do not screen their teachers and administrators as carefully as public schools are required to. (Substance photo by George N. Schmidt).

BUSTED! Substance Puts 6 Charter School Myths to the Test

by Julie Woestehoff

Parental choice rules? Bureaucracy hurts children? Charters work miracles? Puh-leaze! Substance stacks these myths up against the facts and lets you decide!

Pictured at left: Joseph Nurek, the principal of the Chicago Internatonal Charter School Belden Campus pleaded guilty to child pornography charges in December.

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