PHOTO/BOB SIMPSON
CHICAGO, IL — Budget uncertainties continue to engulf Chicago Public Schools (CPS), as school opening approaches this fall. After a full year squabbling about funding, the Illinois legislature passed a partial spending plan to carry the state through the November elections. Part of the plan is to provide some help to CPS, including pension relief. Finally in mid July CPS released inadequate budgets to the individual schools. With all this uncertainty, we can’t know what programs will be chopped and what learning and working conditions will be like. We can’t even know how many teachers will lose their jobs. Over 50 principals have resigned, many citing the budget cuts and chaos forced by CPS.
The city and the state have been pointing the finger of blame at each other. Thereby each eludes its responsibilities. The Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) pointed out what Springfield could do to relieve the pressure (e.g. fund Chicago equally with other school districts, change the law to initiate a progressive income tax on the wealthy), the union also increased the heat on the city. The CTU showed that CPS could raise hundreds of millions of dollars without going to Springfield. In CTU’s words, the city is “broke on purpose.” A July 2 rally in Chicago called on legislators to tax the rich to resolve the problems the schools and other public services face.
Chicago mayor Rahm Emanuel has long been known for robbing from school coffers by using Tax Increment Financing dollars to support corporate development. He has recently offered city legislation to tax Airbnb. This would have the effect of increasing rents, gentrifying neighborhoods, and forcing out the homeless (e.g from a tent city viaduct in rapidly gentrifying Uptown). Emanuel promoted a bond to fund the Lucas Star Wars “Museum” (the failed bid to house a billionaire’s collection of exotica) in contrast to his borrowing for city services at usurious rates, which placed city communities deeply in hock to the banks.
CTU continues to gear up for a possible strike in September. Step by step the union finds itself in a potentially no-win situation that stems from limitations in public funding as well as turning public funds over to private corporations. The CTU endorsed the Bernie Sanders campaign in part because he argued for free public education through the University level (the national AFT endorsed Hillary Clinton in October, 2015).
The federal government could actually guarantee public education for all. Unlike “common core,” which is a boondoggle for private capital, the government could make public the private property that produces our “public” education: for example, the testing companies, publishing companies, janitorial corporations, food preparation, technological industries and private consultants that all steal from our public schools. The battle around education is proving to be a “school” for moving from scattered economic struggles toward a single political struggle.
Come meet distributors of The People’s Tribune August 13, who will be on hand again this year at the picnic in Washington Park following the 87th back to school Bud Billiken Parade. The theme of the parade is “Uniting the Community Through Education for 87 years.”
