Mayor Emanuel Answers Questions on Education in Facebook Town Hall

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Wanting technology to be an “empowering tool,” Mayor Rahm Emanuel participated in a second Facebook town hall meeting on Monday Jan. 23, answering the public’s questions on education.

Prior to the town hall, Mayor Emanuel asked the public to submit their questions about education on AskChicago.org. Over 150 questions were submitted and the most popular were chosen for the mayor to answer on a Facebook live stream.

Questions and topics ranged from the new CPS full school day, turnaround school proposals, parent involvement and overcrowding.

In answering a question about his motives for implementing a full school day, he explained he did not want CPS children to get cheated from attaining an adequate education. “Michael Jordan never got great without practicing. Derrick Rose never got great without practicing. The basic time in class is to ensure the kids throughout the city get the richness of math, reading, writing, science, languages, arts, recess, etc.,” he said.

While Mayor Emanuel answered most questions without hesitation, a question asking the reasoning behind not having the CPS website in Spanish to include Latino parents who are interested in becoming involved in their children’s education, seemed to stump him.

“I don’t know the answer to that,” he said. He promised to put it on his mayor’s to do list and pass along the message to CPS CEO Jean-Claude Brizard.

The town hall lasted approximately 45 minutes and concluded with hopes of more town hall meetings to come.

“I hope I gave people the sense on things we have to work on,” said Mayor Emanuel. “We will pick other topics and we’ll do more town halls.”