School Closings in Chicago: The Fight Continues

Latest

Chicago Public Schools hearing for the community and school closings commission. Three schools in the Pilsen-Little Village Network are on the potential closure list: Pilsen Academy, Jungman and Paderewski
Chicago Public Schools hearing for the community and school closings commission. Three schools in the Pilsen-Little Village Network are on the potential closure list: Pilsen Academy, Jungman and Paderewski. Photo/Sarah Jane Rhee

 
On March 4 the latest round in the war on Chicago public education ended, with the last of the hearings on school closings.
Erica Clark (Parents 4 Teachers) pointed out at a Feb. 13, 2013 press conference: Chicago Public Schools (CPS) wants “. . . to make parents feel they are being engaged while they are being thrown under the bus  . . . they [CPS] don’t want to tell the truth . . . that some time down the line they will hand [closed schools] over to charter schools.”  CPS threatens to close 129 public schools setting one school against another in the hope of remaining open.  Windy Pearson (Herzl School Local School Council) said in the same press conference, the UN Declaration of Human Rights guarantees that education should be free, “not based on venture capitalism whose pockets are being filled by dollars that belong to us.”
Thousands of parents and teachers and students across the city responded with one voice:  “Don’t close my school”!  When given the opportunity, the communities also said “Don’t close any school.”
In a hearings scenario reminiscent of “The Hunger Games,” CPS told the schools that were ripe for closing in each area to have representatives plead their case.  The assumption was that some schools were going to be closed.  Please not me and mine.  A fight to the death around the entire city in every area, nowhere with more concern than in the city’s south and west sides, where most of the 129 schools still on the list are scattered, and where the vast majority of students are Black and Latino/a.  Still, “Zero Schools Closed” emerged as a demand.
CPS must announce how many schools will close, possibly the largest mass school closings in the country thus far, by March 31.  Regardless of their decision, a sleeping giant has awakened. Teachers, parents and students are coming together as the Grassroots Education Movement, which convened a city-wide People’s Board on March 8.
No doubt CPS will claim that any reduced number of schools it will close results from the voices they heard at the hearings.  However, participants in these hearings are learning that CPS has its own script and does not respond to reason. They use the excuse of necessary budget cuts as a cover for turning public education over to private corporations, while guaranteeing the best selective enrollment education for “elite” students.  This conforms to a society built on fewer high tech jobs and a mass of McJobs and Walmart greeters—and a large number of people who will never have a job at all.
March 27 will see a mobilization of Chicagoans—teachers, parents and students alike—to confront the CPS Board of Education’s plan to close schools next year.  What steps Chicago workers are prepared to take to maintain our schools open is not yet clear.  But anger is smoldering over frustrated demands for world class schools, and CPS knows it is taking a chance no matter what it does.

+ Articles by this author

Free to republish but please credit the People's Tribune. Visit us at www.peoplestribune.org, email peoplestribune@gmail.com, or call 773-486-3551.

The People’s Tribune brings you articles written by individuals or organizations, along with our own reporting. Bylined articles reflect the views of the authors. Unsigned articles reflect the views of the editorial board. Please credit the source when sharing: ©2024 peoplestribune.org. Please donate to help us keep bringing you voices of the movement. Click here. We’re all volunteer, no paid staff.

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here

Featured

Students Walk Out Across the Country to Protest Trump’s Election

Read the speech delivered by a student at the student walkout at MSU two days after the Presidential election. Thousands of students nationwide walked out to protest Donald Trump's election and his policies on the same day.

Let’s Join Hands to Resist the Trump Agenda

Thousands of groups and millions of people are beginning to reach out to one another to resist the Trump agenda. Regardless of who we voted for, we the people, have a common interest in seeing to it that all our families are well taken care of, that all children are well educated and have a future, and that we have a society free of climate disaster, racism, bigotry and inequality.

How Democrats Ignoring Gaza Brought Down Their Party

"Many Americans roused to action by their government’s complicity in Gaza’s destruction have no personal connection to Palestine or Israel. Their motive is not ethnic or religious. It is moral."

Undocumented Families Are Fighting for Our Future. Will You Join Us?

'As an undocumented mother, I can’t help but worry for my son’s safety first. As an organizer, my worry turns to resolve.'

Fighting for Climate, Students Walk Out Over Trump

"[The student nationwide] walkouts represent a call to action for both parties," said Sunrise Youth Movement, a group that advocates for political action on climate change.

More from the People's Tribune