Mayor Daley, who has been in charge of the Chicago Public Schools since 1995, announced plans to create 100 new small, mostly secondary schools. 1/3 will be charter schools, 1/3 will be contract schools and 1/3 will be reorganized existing schools. This means 2/3 of the new schools will be outside district control. The district has raised 1/2 of the $100 million for start-up expenses. The effort aims at changing urban education on an unprecedented scale by bypassing the forces of status quo that typically impede change in school districts.
