PHOTO/SARAH JANE RHEE
CHICAGO, IL — August 28, two days after school opened and on the 50th anniversary of the 1963 March on Washington, students, teachers, and parents marched outside the Chicago Public Schools (CPS) Board of Education. They declared that the dream Martin Luther King held 50 years earlier, had not yet been fulfilled in Chicago. They boycotted and demonstrated for an elected school board, for libraries in every school, for the restoration of art and music classes, for the use of hidden tax moneys (TIFs) to fully fund the schools now.
Chicago schools opened with anxiety and anger in the communities affected. An historic number of schools closed, and those remaining open were hit with devastating budget cuts. The city created “safe passage” zones to compensate for situations where children were forced to walk across unsafe territory to get to school. Hundreds of volunteers and new-hires were deployed, and hundreds of police officers were diverted to the appropriate corners.
In every major city in the country the Chicago story is being repeated: education is being restructured to fit an economy that no longer can provide jobs.
The Chicago demonstration was one of many organized around the country under the name Journey for Justice. Most of the schools closed in Chicago were in communities where African-Americans are concentrated, a fact replicated around the U.S. Chicago activists have long argued that the school actions disproportionately attack low-income, Black and Latino communities. Rousemary Vega, whose three children attended the now closed, award winning Lafayette elementary school, told the crowd outside the CPS headquarters: “Fifty years ago they marched for justice and freedom, today we boycott to remind them, if we don’t get no justice, then they don’t get no freedom.” (www.progressillinois.com)
That Chicago’s response echoed across the country shows that we need a national solution to a capitalist system in crisis.
Students have actively resisted the Chicago school “reform” program. From the student walkout at Social Justice High School last September to the occupation of Lafayette, student voices opposed educational destruction; and at the Free Minds Free People conference held in July in Chicago’s Uptown, students proposed a student bill of rights nationally. On August 7, the newly formed Chicago Students Union, held a public meeting. They demanded collective bargaining rights with CPS. Students echoed comments reverberating across the city, that the unelected school board and the elected mayor do not listen when community issues are raised to them.
Once again the school board did not listen to the community. They passed the budget with all its cuts. Some parents were worried about how it would affect their children’s school record; for others a day off work was not an option. While CSU students plan to reach their goal of reaching every CPS student, a visible protest was made here and, according to Alliance for Education Justice organizer Mustafa Sullivan, in Alabama, Atlanta, Philly, NYC, Mississippi, New Orleans, Baltimore, Boston, Kansas, Kentucky. Were they successful? “I think they were. They were of different sizes and were symbolic, i.e. showing that on this 50th we are still oppressed, school closings are still happening” Sullivan said.
One of the reasons for the push for an elected, representative school board is the underlying recognition that our political “leaders” must be held accountable for their actions. The fight for education for all is emerging as a leading fight for democracy.
I support equal public education for all, as the benchmark of a free and democratic society!!