RESOLUTION CALLING FOR IMMEDIATE HEARINGS REGARDING DEFUNDING OF PRESCHOOL PROGRAMS PROVIDED BY COMMUNITY-BASED ORGANIZATIONS
WHEREAS, as of December 1, 2019, the City of Chicago stands to lose a minimum of 102 birth-to-five classrooms and 363 staff in more than 35 neighborhoods throughout the city provided by trusted community-based organizations that have served these neighborhoods for decades; and
WHEREAS, should this loss occur as scheduled, it would not only impact these agencies and organizations financially but also will result in denying access for children and families to a 10-hour full day of high quality, comprehensive early learning opportunities primarily concentrated in the neighborhoods of Englewood, Austin, and Back ofthe Yards who are already some ofthe most vulnerable, highest-need communities in this city; and
WHEREAS, during an overlap of two mayoral administrations, this imbroglio was created partly as a result of an extremely opaque evaluation imposed on a flawed RFP process after it was already impeded by a 10-week delay and a complex addendum published only 13 days prior to the due date. Information about the rubrics developed for this "scoring process" has been denied to the individual applicants as has their actual score. Graduate students were employed to be the primary reviewers who scored the RFPs. No further information has been provided about their qualifications or their knowledge of the communities involved; and
WHEREAS, this global issue affects all Chicago neighborhoods. If this disaster is not immediately ameliorated, the entire early childhood ecosystem will be destabilized and dismantled throughout this city, now therefore
BE IT RESOLVED that we, the undersigned members of the City of Chicago City Council gathered this 18'" Day of September, 2019 AD, do hereby direct the Committee on Health & Human Relations to expeditiously convene a public hearing to solicit testimony from the Commissioner of the Department of Family a...
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