Mike Klonsky writes in his blog that Mayor Emanuel showed his hand: he will give nothing to the Dyett hunger Strikers. Klonsky says the mayor plans to sell Dyett to real estate developers, for gentrification and profit.
“Like his predecessor Daley, Rahm would sell of every foot of this city’s public space that wasn’t nailed down, if he could. And maybe he can. The erosion of public space and public decision-making has been a hallmark of the regime’s strategy of gentrifying and whitenizing the city. It’s New Orleans without the flood. A quarter-million African-American citizens have left Chicago in the past decades.
“Now it appears that the board’s RFP for a new school at Dyett was a ruse. After 11 days of surviving on liquids and with several of the hunger strikers needing medical treatment (see the warning from local health professionals) , they’ve been told by Board Pres. Frank Clark (former ComEd C.E.O), that the game is up. Rahm, Claypool, Johnson and their gaggle of always-compliant board members, are dumping the new-school proposals from all three groups, the Coalition to Revitalize Dyett (Global Leadership and Green Technology), Little Black Pearl’s contract school, and a late one solicited by the board from former Dyett Principal Charles Campbell.”
Klonsky predicts the mayor will act swiftly now that the hunger strike is getting national media attention.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Isn’t there a moratorium on closing Chicago schools because they closed 50 not that long ago?
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They announced its closure several years ago and are now closed as the last class graduated. I think the residents were supposed to go quietly into the sunset, so Rahm could do what he wanted without any fanfare. Now the challenge will be to keep his true plan front and center.
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Suggestion: Go to pbs.org and view WHY POVERTY? It’s sobering re: GREED. Everything is FOR PROFIT and only the already rich benefit. Then think about Rahm and others like him, as well as NAFTA, TPP.
Spare me and the rest of humanity from the pure selfishness and nepotism of the oligarchy.
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Citizens have to work to change laws in this country. Mayors or governors should have to put the sale of public assets to a public vote. These assets belong to the people, not just whomever the voters elected. This decision should not reside in the hands of a few people that clearly can be bought to do the bidding of billionaires, especially since Citizens United allows unlimited money in politics.
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Thank you for your comment.(semi-retired school counselor (run out by greed~ too old @59!)
The People are too tired from working too many hours (too many jobs) and the educators are trying to keep their jobs (it’s feeling like Nazi Germany before the war ~everyone watching their back).The general public doesn’t understand what’s going on (common core sounds good on the surface all kids will be in the same place academically all over the country,right?).Now that I’ve been run out they can’t shut me up anymore.
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I think Rahm won’t budge. But that will be a message for future strikes. Want lengthy coverage that goes national? Strike against Rahm. It’s not the battle, it’s the war. Hearts and minds count.
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Eric Zorn, the “liberal” columnist for the Chicago Tribune, says that negotiating with the hunger strikers would be like negotiating with hostage takers: https://preaprez.wordpress.com/2015/08/29/eric-zorn-does-it-again-talking-with-the-fightfordyett-hunger-strikers-is-negotiating-with-hostage-takers/#comments
(That’s a link to Fred Klonsky’s blog – I refuse to link directly to the Tribune.)
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What can be done to help the Dyett school and cause other than calling the mayor’s office? Is there a place to send donations? Petitions that can be signed? My kids attend CPS schools but I work in Ohio so I often cannot attend events in Chicago.
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