CHARTERS CRUSH UNION-CONTROLLED SCHOOLS IN CHICAGO: The ludicrous kook Karen Lewis hardest hit

As if you needed more proof -- aside from parents begging to get their kids into charter schools -- that teachers unions are destroying public education, please consider this report from Illinois Policy:

...In 2012, charter schools held the top nine spots for open-enrollment, non-selective public high schools in Chicago. Another charter school ended up in a three-way tie for tenth. The Noble Network of Charter Schools led the pack, with a total of nine schools in the top 10, one of which was included in the tie. The average ACT score for charter schools in the top 10 was 20.6, with Noble Network’s UIC College Prep campus scoring 21.9 – the highest-ever average at an open-enrollment, non-selective CPS high school.

Not only are charter schools outperforming their peers on the ACT, a comparison of Chicago’s top 10 charter high schools to the top 10 open-enrollment, non-selective, traditional public high schools shows that charter schools’ pace of improvement is significantly greater. Since 2007, top charter school scores have increased by 17 percent, while the top traditional schools have gained nearly 5 percent.

Charter school students, like other students in CPS, primarily come from low-income backgrounds (91 percent qualify for free or reduced lunch), represent mostly racial minorities (60 percent African-American, 35 percent Hispanic), and must overcome a range of challenges (9 percent English Language Learners, 12 percent special needs). They are not untouched by the violence plaguing many of the city’s neighborhoods. And, yet, despite all of these obstacles, they are succeeding.

Let me repeat: charter schools are succeeding, despite unceasing attacks by useless, illiterate hacks like Karen Lewis and the rest of the Obama-SEIU-AFT-NEA apologists.

The solution is obvious: public sector unions must be abolished. They are a disease, infecting inner-cities with institutionalized apathy and ignorance. And competition in the form of vouchers is the only known cure.