Jan Resseger reminded me of this moving paragraph in Eve Ewing’s profound book Ghosts in the Schoolyard: Racism and School Closings on Chicago’s South Side:
Understanding these tropes of death and mourning as they pertain not to the people we love, but to the places where we loved them, has a particular gravity during a time when the deaths of black people at the hands of the state—through such mechanisms as police violence and mass incarceration—are receiving renewed attention. As the people of Bronzeville understand, the death of a school and the death of a person at the barrel of a gun are not the same thing, but they also are the same thing. The people of Bronzeville understand that a school is more than a school. A school is the site of a history and a pillar of black pride in a racist city. A school is a safe place to be. A school is a place where you find family. A school is a home. So when they come for your schools, they’re coming for you. And after you’re gone, they’d prefer you be forgotten. (Ghosts in the Schoolyard, pp. 155-156)
I am pleased to announce that Eve Ewing has been chosen to speak this fall in the annual Diane Silvers Ravitch Lecture Series at Wellesley College. The event is open to the public and admission is free.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Thank you for sharing this. I wish that the politicians in Michigan that are looking to close Benton Harbor High School would understand this!
Sincerely, Joe Harmsen Professional Music Educator MSU Grad Student
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I understand those feeling of loss when I read about the decimation of the Philadelphia public schools. Privatization preys on poor neighborhoods and communities of color. Often the targeted areas are those near the CBD that will provide gentrifying profit for developers. Gentrification should not be entangled with education. Education should be about providing service to a community, not about making money for special interests. Both Chicago and Philly have closed public schools and ignored the needs of minority students while they have enabled promotion of privately contracted education as a unequal substitute for legitimate public education. These cities complicit in undermining the stability of mostly minority communities when they should be serving them. If better schools are needed, build them. If students require additional services, pay for them. Taxes should be used to serve the needs of the public, not developers or other commercial interests.
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Sorry for the errors. I’m working from a strange laptop.
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I cried when I read this book, just as when I read Savage Inequalities.
It is a must-read. You must attend the lecture series & hear Eve Ewing in person; have seen her, living near Chicago. Stunning.
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I worked in the area that Eve Ewing focuses on in Ghosts in the Schoolyard and it rings true. She did her research and discusses the issue of loss and grieving that seems to be forgotten too often re school closings. It is not a long book and well written –everyone please read it!
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grieving, and then living with a strain of ongoing PTSD
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There was precious little thought given to the many ramifications involving the closing of so many schools at one time. The students, parents, and neighborhoods in general were nothing more than an afterthought in the minds of those in power who set the wheels in motion.
Going on two decades of this madness.
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I don’t think Mayor Lightfoot will engage in any of that awful behavior.
That having been said, I wish that she & CTU would have a truce (they’re threatening to strike at the end of Sept.). Reportedly (or so it is thought) she holds a “grudge,” because they endorsed her opponent, who was a Chicago teacher quite a while back. On the other hand,
the CTU leadership (I’m fairly certain that if Karen Lewis were still at the helm, this wouldn’t be the case) is very critical, saying she’s welched on campaign “promises” (e.g., elected school board, which failed–& was meant to, courtesy of the bill’s sponsor for an elected school board in Chicago–21 members {!}, & not to take effect until 2021 or 22-?!). In the meantime, what was Lightfoot supposed to do, leave Rahm’s school board in place? No, she appointed some really good people &, thus far, they’ve changed the (previously rotten) course of how S.B. meetings (particularly public comment) are conducted.
Again I say, CTU leaders, give the mayor a chance!
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