Karen Lewis reacts to Chicago school board’s decision:
Karen Lewis Reaction to Chicago Board of Education’s Vote to Close the Largest
Number of Schools in an Urban School District in U.S. History
CHICAGO – Today, Chicago Teachers Union Karen Lewis released the following statement on the largest school closings in U.S. history:
“Today is a day of mourning for the children of Chicago. Their education has been hijacked by an unrepresentative, unelected corporate school board, acting at the behest of a mayor who has no vision for improving the education of our children. Closing schools is not an education plan. It is a scorched earth policy. Evidence shows that the underutilization crisis has been manufactured. Their own evidence also shows the school district will not garner any significant savings from closing these schools.
“This is bad governance. CPS has consistently undermined school communities and sabotaged teachers and parents. Their actions have had a horrible domino effect. More than 40,000 students will lose at least three to six months of learning because of the Board’s actions. Because many of them will now have to travel into new neighborhoods to continue their schooling, some will be victims of bullying, physical assault and other forms of violence. Board members are wishing for a world that does not exist and have ignored the reality of the world we live in today. Who on the Board will be held responsible? Who at City Hall will be held responsible?
“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.
“Our fight for education justice has now moved to the courts, but it must eventually move to the ballot box. The parents are amazing leaders in their school communities and because of this administration’s actions we have all become closer and more united. We must resist this neoliberal savagery masquerading as school reform. We must resist racism in all of its forms as well as the escalating attacks on the working –class and the poor. Our movement will continue.”
“Our fight for education justice has now moved to the courts, but it must eventually move to the ballot box.”
Yes, indeed. Perhaps the most important item on the agenda in Chicago is finding a viable opponent to run against the Rahminator.
Speaking of Rahm and Karen, have you seen the latest Edushyster? http://edushyster.com/?p=2608
“…crushing on Karen Lewis….” Love it!
Karen Lewis, a principled teachers’ union leader, memorializes eloquently the tragedy inflicted on the children of Chicago and prepares her cosntituents for the next fight against the autocratic Board and Mayor. All school districts need a union leader like her to stop the corporate rampage against public education. If she and Chicago’s families succeed, we’ll all be in a stronger position to stop Gates, Rhee, Broad, Bloomberg, Koch, Kopp, Tisch, and Zuckerberg.
““Our fight for education justice has now moved to the courts, but it must eventually move to the ballot box.”
A powerful statement that bears repeating.
I love Karen Lewis.
I don’t understand school closures on this scale. Where are these students going to school next year? There can’t be so much “underutilization” (What does that mean, less than 35 kids in a class?) in other schools to be able to absorb students fom 50 suddenly closed schools.
What is the CPS plan? They close all these schools, and then what?
Eli Broad Superintendent academy has placed superintendents in many urban districts where they begin the plan to privatize public education.
Once in the district they quickly begin the plan and make changes and close schools. This has occurred in DC , Philadelphia,NJ, Chicago, LA.
For more info on Chicago schools: hhttp://www.substancenews.net/articles.php?page=4017
Funding that was not available for the public schools will be found when it is needed to fund charter schools.
I agree that the urban public schools need to be reformed, but not by corporations and billionaires ( Eli Broad, Bill Gates, Koch brothers/ ALEC, Murdock, DeVos, Bradley Foundation, Walton Foundation/ Walmart, Rhee, and Arne Duncan) All who are concerned about making a lot of money.
Google: Eli Broad/ Arne Duncan/ Ed reform
Ed reform needs to done by educational scholars, principals, teachers, and parents. The issues of poverty, violence, per-k, and family problems, along with sufficient funding needs to be addressed.
The media has been silent on this corporate take over.
Are we talking about closing K-6 schools with less than 350 students? If not, Rahm needs to take a chill pill. Where is the love?
When it comes to the people making these decisions, what’s love got to do with it?
It’s just a second hand emotion!
Oakland, California stands in solidarity with Chicago. Our own district has been taken over by corporate reformers and they are quickly dismantling our commons.
From what I’ve seen so far, I love Karen Lewis. Her rhetoric AND actions show great integrity and honor, relatively speaking.
Now there’s a fighter. I wish other unions and entities could help. We all need to respond to Chicago’s closures because we all can be next. On to the courts.
where’s obama??
I’m speechless about these closings.
Only an image comes to mind:
http://thetruthoneducationreform.blogspot.com/2013/01/chicago-teachers-hill-that-well-die-on.html?view=snapshot
Readers in this forum:
PLEASE take a look at this speech given by a nine-year-old boy from Chicago who spoke at a rally against the CPS closings.
This kid will ELECTRIFY you !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
When you see scenes like this, it’s as if you were given IronMan’s suit, put it on, and took off with charged up faith, confidence, and power.
The child will lead us adults. . . .
Take a look:
I was so crushed after hearing this and wondering how will Chicago ever recover from this or even move forward, but again this blog rejuvenates hope.
Thank you for sharing this with us. ALL of our children deserve to receive a quality education.
Thank goodness Chicago has the wise and articulate professional, Karen Lewis, at the helm. She is so right. We have the numbers and, ultimately, it’s our one person one vote democracy that will be our saving grace. Low-income and working class people are rising up against neo-liberal capitalists who have been purchasing their way to power by buying-off politicians, government officials, public policies and public services, including public education, passing off profiteering as education “reform” –and at the expense of our neediest children.
Finally, truth telling journalists are emerging and influential supporters are mounting every day. This absolutely horrendous news of CPS voting to close 50 schools may be only slightly tempered by the good news today that another David, Monica Ratliff, slayed the corporate sponsored Goliath at the LA school board ballot box. But today’s message is very clear: the 99% truly can triumph over moneyed interests and lackeys of the 1% through democracy.
When is Karen Lewis going to appear on MSNBC? Oh, I forgot
NYC ought to be watching this very closely, as our next Mayor may head up similar actions, following in the footsteps of Mayor Bloomberg and Mayor Emanual. If we do not wish to continue in this same trend, we need to be vigilant and aware today.
With apologies to EduShyster Karen Lewis had me at “full tilt Bozo” too.
“Because many of them will now have to travel into new neighborhoods to continue their schooling, some will be victims of bullying, physical assault and other forms of violence.”
I failed to see the logic leading up to this particular conclusion. Has there been any study that supports this?
No research, just examples…
Derrion Albert, an honors student was murdered when he inadvertenly got swept into a brawl between two groups of students when he was walking from school to a bus stop. One of the groups of students was from “The Ville,” a neighborhood near Fenger High School, and the other was from the Altgeld Gardens public housing complex farther away who’d been enrolled into Fenger after their old school was turned into a military academy.
See
http://www.chicagodefender.com/index.php/news/city/16599-after-derrion-albert-s-death-his-notorious-high-school-made-turnaround
Yes there has. Here ‘s a good place to start: http://www.createchicago.org/2013/05/child-mental-health-experts-raise.html
More here: http://pureparents.org/?p=20665
This is s travesty and most unjust! In fact, it’s called ABUSE!
Maybe this is less about kids and more about real estate. As the cities are reconstructed to suit the sophisticated tastes and desirable living conditions wanted and needed by the younger wealthier generations who are now chosing city life, moving or displacing those no one wants to take the time or money with could be reason for the current push out the door. A reclaiming of the cities and property values and making them huge gated communities. Maybe everyone is looking too close to education and not enough at the ever changing landscape in transition. Just sayin!!
Corporate thinkers are focused to the best buy for the buck and no wasted dollars.
Social services and lifting the poor out of poverty may not be their concern, except when a tax write-off can benefit their bottom line or charity eases the mind and heart. Corporate cities, not too different from the company cities of the past, can cater to their profit and sltreamline their workforce. The disparity between the rich and poor is widening by the second and that will change the way in which our children will live and for some survive quite well, and others/most substandard existence. History does not change very much. Look over your shoulder and you will see this creeping up. We need business as a crucial part of our existence but the technology and pharma industries seem to believe this is all we are about and all we should focus too. The world is greater then that and opportunity needs to be widened beyond the narrow focus of robotics or slow that inevitability or is it too big too fail? We are millions and millions of people without a voice, how can this be?
A lot of it is very definitely about real estate. I was on part of the three-day march and we went through the area that used to be Cabrini Green (old public housing development). The old high-rises are long gone and most of the area is very gentrified (now one of the highest-rent districts in the city), but there is still a pocket of row houses and old apartment buildings where many of the public housing residents were relocated. At one point I noted the irony (cruelty?) of a beat-up old apartment building right across the street from a swanky new pet massage place. The powers that be would like nothing better than to get rid of that last pocket of pesky poor people, and clearly the best way to do that is to close their schools. Unfortunately for TPTB, that particular school (Manierre) was one of the very few spared.
Other closing schools are in areas where there is already a lot of open land and abandoned buildings. If you close the school and allow the whole area to become completely blighted, then of course the mayor has to ride to the rescue to come clean out the last of the “riff-raff” and then you have a huge open swath ready for redevelopment to be sold to the mayor’s best buddies at fire sale prices. In a few years’ time, much of the south and west sides will be completely gentrified and most rich white folks will be congratulating the mayor for “beautifying” the city.
It’s sad to read the misinformed comments on the Chicago Tribune website. Many talk about “they” , “they want this, they want that” . What has come of people? And meanwhile all the billions of TIF money sits…..
Every union leader should follow her lead!!
For too long folks in this country have idly gone along with “hero worship” representative democracy and look where it’s gotten them. We don’t need “old school democracy.” We need deliberative/participatory democracy in which individuals take daily action and responsibility for the democracy they wish to have on an informed basis. And how many folks are well-informed today in Chicago, or the nation, to take on that role? Let’s be honest. An FB friend commented to me that the current CTU stance “sounds like people who are trying to demegouge the issue of schools will pimp this “crisis” as a means to seek elective office? How is that an improvement?” Misspelling aside, not only is this a sound argument, but it is quite compelling in fact. Are we simply turning away from one tyranny to a populist/authoritarian control, void of authentic democracy by the current CTU initiative to take over the ballot box? Are we witnessing a land grab one one side and a power grab on the other? Perhaps. But it seems that the current CTU “leadership” has been playing a bad hand since they first came on. I don’t deny their good intentions. I don’t deny the “leadership’s” love for educators and education overall. But good intentions do not translate into effective strategies/tactics. And the evident populist route here that has been taken by the CTU’s CORE leadership has obscured/dismissed many of the fundamental problems within its own organization that has not been dealt with adequately and has partly led it to its own weakened state: i.e., deliverance of its own power by voting for SB-7, a re-negotiated contract that many Chicago teachers, independent of putting on a “united front”, see as terrible, a strike that did not deliver, and subsequent marches/populist drives that have created mass appeal but have done little to stop those concrete measures that the corporate-state education reform agenda (CSERA) continues with unabated and have not prepared its teachers and students with the sort of preparation needed for what was inevitable: mass closings. Instead we have the slogan of “fight, fight, fight.” Pretty words and chest-pumping is fine. But does that deliver on the “bread and butter” issues? No. It seems to me and many others that the current CTU is not as a diverse of a body in terms of thinkers as it needs to be, but more of a homogenous populist ideological-driven organization. And as such, it has limited itself as an organization to handle the complexities of the corporate-state education reform agenda. Folks who could have helped were not hired when the transition from the “old guard” to a “new guard” came about. In fact, a new guard was never really brought aboard from both my understanding, research and private conversations with those on the “inside.” It was just another guard. But complex problems need creative thinkers/problem-solvers that think and understand things outside of the box and who can act without reserve in an well-rounded/diverse environment. And this diversity does not mean along “color lines,” sexual orientation or any of the superficial notions of diversity. That is not the current state of the CTU. Without divulging names, I know of one active and leading member/worker at the CTU who is currently frustrated by the “burrocracy” there. (That person’s words, not mine.) That is not without surprise. And what does that “burrocracy” entail? Well, the current CTU “leadership” has many things to answer for. How and why did it drop the ball on supporting a viable alternative candidate in the last mayoral election, Miguel del Valle, when it had all the time and opportunity to do so? They’ve blamed a blizzard for that. Can you believe that? How and why has it allowed (and allows) complicity with activities of the corporate-state education reform agenda and deny any transparency on the issues: e.g., https://www.facebook.com/events/534263536616106/?ref=22 when the CTU not only had the chance to correct this horrific practice of the city’s “rubber rooms” but also could have used it as way to purge its own organization of facilitators to CSERA? For all the talk to “resist racism in all its forms,” how and why has that activity not been handled fairly with the true hand of social justice? I would have to agree with what another FB friend, Stephen Perkins, states, “I would start by asking that given how controversial Emanuel’s policies why he has been able to accomplish many of his objectives. The groundswell of opposition here (in Chicago) necessary to prevent him from doing so simply has not materialized to the extent that the opposition would have you believe. As a result, their tactics have not been very effective. Also, the broader opposition to Emanuel both in general and even within the CTU is by no means as united as they would like to believe. There are many issues that have been swept under the rug and not addressed.”
Keep fighting Karen–if there is anything we can do to help–we are here for you–your brothers and sisters in New Haven, CT at NHFT Local 933—Good Luck–Tom Burns VP
Thank you for sharing this speech. It’s horrible to see authority figures closing down so many schools for whatever reason! It’s sending a bad message about what our ideals are. In doing this, they are saying that having proper space to educate our children is not a huge priority, when it should be the first priority!