Closure of Schools in Chicago May Have Led to Teen Violence

by Mike Smith · 2009-10-07 09:37:00 -0700
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Education Secretary Arne Duncan and Attorney General Eric Holder have been sent by President Obama to Chicago to address teen violence, following the death of a 16-year-old sophomore. The President has also asked for $25 million for crime-prevention. Some fear that the closure of a dozen Chicago schools has exacerbated the gang problem. Arne Duncan responded with cliches: "This is a fork in the road, this is a line in the sand, and we need to get dramatically better."

Jim Horn at Schools Matter has more on the link between the closure of schools and subsequent increase in teen violence. Most worrying is that money has been thrown at this problem before: "$60 million over 2 years for a data system and intervention program to identify and assist 10,000 of over 400,000 Chicago school students."

Photo credit: Doug Siefken

Mike Smith is associate editor at Change.org.
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