City Sends Mixed Messages on CPS Proposal

In the ongoing debate over expanding chess programs in CPS, the Mayor's office and CPS have issued public statements suggesting they're not on the same page.

On August 30th and September 24th, the Mayor's office said it supports a strong independent program.  The Mayor said he was supportive of ICA and other providers and on two occasions has  "directed" CPS to meet with chess providers and other “engaged stakeholders” to “explore this potential partnership.”

CPS, however, has been sending different messages through three different spokesmen. 

At a meeting with ICA on July 19th, CPS’ designated chess negotiator wouldn’t consider an independent program and wouldn’t say why.  Instead, he asked ICA to raise funds for a much smaller in-house starter program hatched behind closed doors with one of the city’s private providers.  When ICA tried to expand the discussion to include a more ambitious program, it was told the smaller program was the only item on the agenda.  Because the smaller program was not independent, had little potential to create excellence, and relied on hand-picked private providers rather than a merit–based system, ICA declined to support it.  The CPS negotiator later accused ICA of lacking leadership and being divisive. 

Jeff Joseph, the chair of ICA's finance team, says independence has two primary components: a governance structure outside of CPS and a transparent and open architecture enabling a free-market “vendor-agnostic” system of choosing providers who can deliver value and quality instruction. Independence is essential, Joseph says, because potential donors have signaled they’ll expect it to insure accountability.

Among the other “engaged stakeholders” are the state's Grandmasters, who have the potential to make the city competitive nationally.  They also took up the Mayor's offer to explore a potential partnership, requesting a meeting with the Mayor and CEO Barbara Byrd-Bennett in a letter dated September 18th.   

The reply came not from the Mayor or CEO, but from a second CPS chess spokesman, the Sports Department’s chess consultant.  He purported to construe the Grandmasters’ letter as an offer by them to work as volunteers for his private chess company.  The letter offended the GM’s, who rebuffed the offer through a spokesperson who reiterated the GMs’ willingness to help the city in a way “befitting their status.” 

Statements about a possible new program have also been issued by the CPS press office.  On September 5th, it said, "We do not have the amount of money ICA is seeking to provide the program."  But ICA hasn’t asked the city for money at all.  Joseph’s fund-raising team has offered to raise all that is necessary to support a citywide program.

The same day, the press office also said CPS could not "sign" ICA's proposal because it did not feel the proposal was "in its final stages."  ICA’s proposal, incorporating numerous components requested by CPS officials over the years and taking the best from citywide programs across the nation, runs to 14 single-spaced pages and covers in detail every conceivable aspect of the new program.  The proposal has been public for two years and has been widely disseminated through CPS.

Finally, on September 24^th, the press office said, “"We are willing to consider proposals that provide transparency, clear oversight and a sensible financing plan."  As to transparency, the proposal speaks for itself.  As to oversight, it would start with a nonprofit run by people devoted to kids, not profits, and would include whatever oversight CPS or the Mayor's office would like to provide.  As to a sensible financing plan, as noted, serious members of the financial community have offered to raise the necessary funds. 

In the mayor’s most recent statement, he said the city and CPS were open to further meetings.  If that happens, there’s a lesson to be learned from a “chess summit” attended two years ago by both volunteers from chess non-profits and private providers.  The meeting organizer told participants they would have to be unanimous in supporting a single proposal, and the meeting dissolved in disarray.  The state’s Grandmasters and International Masters later wrote the Mayor and told him the meeting had been doomed at the outset.   “We know these providers well enough,” they said, “to know that unanimity on a new system which changes the status quo will be unattainable.”  

Chess can turn kids’ lives around.  The Wall Street Journal has referred to it as a “survival skill.”  But the city has neither the financial nor human capital to run a strong program on its own.  ICA has said that it will provide the necessary resources to an independent program, and stands ready to collaborate with any mayoral designee ready to break the logjam and move forward.