CHICAGO – Chicago Public School officials are looking for new charter school operators for certain parts of the city where overcrowding is becoming an issue, and are requesting proposals that will add different types of schools to the district’s menu.

CPS issued a request for proposals this week from charter school operators who would like to set up schools on the southwest and northeast sides of the city where growth has led to overcrowded classrooms in traditional public schools, Chicago Public Radio reports.

The move is a departure from previous years in which district officials requested proposals that targeted areas that lacked high performing schools, like Chicago’s west and south side neighborhoods. Andrew Broy, president of the Indiana Network of Charter Schools, also pointed out this year’s request for proposals is the first time the district specified preference for specific types of charter schools, according to CPR.

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CPS specified it’s most interested in schools that blend online and classroom instruction, as well as “arts integration” and “dual language” charters.

The southwest and northeast Chicago neighborhoods are home to a growing Latino population.

“Eight or nine years ago the focus was getting options schools in places that weren’t served well – traditional west and south side neighborhoods – and certainly some of the charter school growth in those areas was a result of that focus,” Broy told the radio station.

“Now we see a focus that shifts a little bit to different parts of the city where overcrowding has been a real issue going back 10, 12, 15 years.”

CPS officials recently closed 50 of the city’s traditional schools that were underutilized. District spokeswoman Becky Carroll told CPR the reasoning behind the request for more charter schools in other parts of the city is simple.

“While there were significant population declines in some parts of the city, there were also increases in other parts of the city,” she said. “There are many schools that are overcrowded or are facing overcrowding and we need to address that issue as we do any other.”

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The explanation certainly seems logical, but that didn’t stop the Chicago Teachers Union from using the district’s request for proposals to play politics.

CPS has requested proposals for new charter schools each year for more than a decade, but CTU President Karen Lewis wants the public to believe the closures and this year’s request for proposals are the product of nefarious political motivations.

“We are not surprised at all by this,” Lewis told CPR. “We were called conspiracy theorists, and then here is the absolute proof of what the intentions are … The district has clearly made the decision that they want to push privatization of our public schools.”

We think Lewis is full of hot air. But even if she is right, what does it matter?

The only folks who would suffer from a more extensive relationship between the city school system and private charter operators are teacher union officials, since employees in charter schools are rarely unionized and therefore do not pay union dues.

They will survive either way. It’s the children who require better educational options at the moment, and the city is correct to provide them.