Chicago Public School officials announced March 21 the shuttering of 50 schools in the city. This is the largest number of school closings in one year in Chicago by far, beating the previous record of 12, and the largest mass school shutdown in U.S. history. The majority of these closings target Black and Latino neighborhoods.
“I’m angry. I’m upset. I’m shaking to the core,” said the president of Chicago Principals and Administrators Association, Clarice Berry. Berry told the Chicago Tribune that CPS has made absolutely no plan for the welfare of the students as they watch their schools get boarded up. And CPS has not followed through on its promise to supply libraries and air conditioning units to the schools that are to receive a massive influx of students. (Chicago Tribune, March 21)
While CPS attacks Black and Latino children’s education, millionaire Rahm Emanuel is enjoying himself as he and his family vacation on the ski slopes of Utah.
The Chicago Teachers Union has expressed its outrage over this unprecedented assault on public education in Chicago. City Hall claims that they are closing the schools because of the budget shortfall, but there is absolutely no proof that these closings will save a cent. And the cost of these closings to the children of Black and Latino communities is immeasurable. The city’s assertion that it is only closing “underutilized” schools is a lie.
Various excuses have been made for the mass closings, but the truth must be told: This a grave escalation, using a phony budget crisis as pretext, in Wall Street’s drive to privatize education and set up an apartheid-style education system that assigns underfunded, overcrowded and neglected schools to the poor.
These racist school closings, which aim at pushing classroom levels up to 40 students per class and destroying the quality and accessibility of public education, must be stopped.
Teachers, students, parents, community organizers and progressives are taking to the streets, Wednesday, March 27, 4 p.m., at Daley Plaza on the corner of Clark and Washington in Chicago to stand against these school closings. Unity in struggle against the racist war on public education is the path to victory. Wall Street and its puppets like Emmanuel must be told that the people will not let these schools close without a fight. Stop the racist Chicago Public School closings now!
