Protestors Fight Proposed School Turnarounds
The chants were loud and the message was clear. Protestors joined the Chicago Teachers Union Dec. 12 to call for an end to school closures and turnarounds by Chicago Public Schools (CPS).
In a show of solidarity, dozens of parents, educators, union leaders and workers and others picketed outside CPS headquarters, 125 S. Clark St., on the chilly Tuesday night.
There was plenty of blame and frustration circulating and the protestors anger was palpable as they hoisted signs urging no more shuttering schools and forcing kids out of their neighborhoods to attend schools far from home.
The protestors werent buying CPS leaderships claims of low performance as a reason for proposing turnaround. They consider it a meticulous plot that undermines minorities, their respective communities and schools attended predominately by minorities.
Speakers kept the crowd fired up.
These people have obviously declared war on our kids and our schools. We are not going to sit idly by and let them (trample) on our rights and most of all, (trample) on our children, said University of Illinois-Chicago Professor Bill Watkins. Weve had enough in Chicago were here to fight back.
The angst is centered on CPS announcement of a proposal for 10 schools to be closed or begin a phase-out starting at the end of this school year.
Karen Lewis, head of the Chicago Teachers Union, which organized Tuesdays protest, has blasted Mayor Rahm Emanuel, public schools CEO Jean Claude Brizard and the Board of Education on the proposed changes.
This is a huge fight for the soul of public education. We have seen these policies fail our communities and in the end, we cannot continue to go down a path that doesnt work, Lewis said at the rally. We need to tell the truth about things that dont work, taking public funds and giving them to private organizations.
CTU pointed out that since CPS began closing, turning around and otherwise shaking up the citys public school system, minority communities, students and schools have been the most affected.
A study of the school changes over the last 10 years by WBEZ and Catalyst magazine revealed that, The closings and turnarounds have disproportionately affected African American schools on the South Sides. Humboldt Park and the Near West Side, followed by Grand Boulevard, have been the locations of the most school actions. Closings are also clustered around former CHA (Chicago Housing Authority) developments.
Brizard told Chicago Citizen he is working to be as transparent with schools and communities as possible, leading up to the boards vote in February on the proposed changes. He explained that change has to come to some of the citys worst performing schools in order to help ease and eventually closethe education gap.
Its about the transformation, its about turnaround, and its not about closure. Just about every school that were taking action on is a turnaround, Brizard said.
We are focusing on helping kids who have not been educated for a very, very long time, he said. Were trying to actually fix a wrong thats been done to parts of our community for a very, very long time. Whats unfortunate is that a lot of the gap tends to be in most African American communities and poor communities. Thats the travesty. Thats what were trying to fix. No ones targeted, but were targeting failure; to make it better.
But at the rally, one teacher whose high school may be up for turnaround said the citys public school system is now the worst form of segregation since Brown v. The Board of Education, she said. Chicago is separating children based on academic abilities, based on socio-economic issues.
The result, the teacher explained, is a student body contending with a number of issues that inhibit their education and schools that are unjustly compared to other schools that have greater support systems and resources. She did not want to be identified for fear of backlash from the school district.
Kitesha Reggs was picketing Tuesday in protest of her daughters high school closing.
Reggs said Dyett high school has come a long way. We want to save Dyett.
Her daughter is a junior at the school and doing well, the mother toldChicago Citizen. The daughter is on the honor roll and in a robotics program and her son, who graduated last year, received several college scholarship offers.
She moved her family from the North Side where she was part of a coalition of parents and community members that stepped in and saved a few local schools slated to close. Now a South Side resident, Reggs said there should be more talk of saving Dyett than of closing it.
They funded those schools, great teachers came in, and all the resources came in. We need the same equal opportunity at Dyett. Give them a chance, she said. We have to continue to fight because we need the same resources (as saved North Side schools received). Save our school, put the resources in our community and we will be fine.
Lewis told the crowd that poor families are being socked all over.
Dont hit our children two and three times. Dont close down libraries and clinics and all these other things, and expect schools to do a job by themselves, she said.
I believe our kids deserve a full, broad education, she told Chicago Citizen after addressing the crowd. Theres this mentality that theres only one way to do this.
By Rhonda Gillespie
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