Teachers, Students and Parents Fight Chicago School Closures
After the Chicago Board of Education approved a proposal from Mayor Rahm Emanuel (D) to close 50 of the city's public schools , the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) vowed to take legal action to stop the closures and to challenge supporters of the mayor's plan with grassroots mobilization. The closures come despite widespread opposition to the plan and five days of rallies, sit-ins and other efforts.
CTU President Karen Lewis strongly condemned the board's action:
Members of the Board of Education, the school CEO, the mayor and their corporate backers are on the wrong side of history. History will judge them for the tragedy they have inflicted upon our students, and it will not be kind.
Randi Weingarten, president of the AFT , applauded Lewis and the efforts led by the CTU in opposition to the closings:
That is not what the people want and will not help children. Apart from what it means for the continuity and stability of children's schooling, the evidence makes clear these mass closings will destabilize neighborhoods, and it has raised serious safety concerns for children in a city where there is already too much violence.
The closings marked the largest mass school shutdown in American history. An investigation by radio station WBEZ found that most of the claims the mayor and his allies made in supporting the closings were questionable at best.
AFT argued that school closures create more problems than they solve:
When schools are closed, the ramifications run deep. Students are disconnected from the productive, caring relationships they had with school staff. Kids accustomed to walking to school are forced to travel farther—often through dangerous areas—to get there. And neighborhoods often lose an institution that had served as an important community hub.
Among the many speeches given in opposition to the closings, the most rousing was from 9-year-old Asean Johnson , who led a crowd in chants of "education is our right, that is why we have to fight!"
