Video: Chicago Backs Of "Ultra Long" 7.5 Hour Day

On Tuesday, Chicago mayor Rahm Emanuel stepped back a bit from his 18-month insistence on a 7.5 hour school day.   Pretty amazing to watch Rahm claim not to have caved (and to seem to believe himself) and also to see parents arguing against having their kids in school for longer.  The clincher seemed to be loud expressions of concerns from white, middle-class parents whose >10 percent participation in the public school system the city hopes to increase (Longer school day plan cut by 30 minutes Tribune).   But the compromise may have been too early to make much difference, and ironically takes pressure off the city and state to increase funding for the school system.  Even the Tribune editorial page, known to praise pretty much every idea coming out of City Hall, notes that the Mayor hurt himself by being too rushed & too specific on a particular number of minutes (Rahm Emanuel blinks).