Barbara Byrd-Bennett
Forty-eight of the 50 elementary schools the Chicago Public Schools board of education voted to close Wednesday will be shuttered in June. The other two will get short reprieves. For all but one of the schools the vote was unanimous. Most of the 27,000 students affected are black and Latino and all live in poor neighborhoods.
As they have for months, protesters objected to the closings Wednesday and tried to sit in at the meeting of the six-member school board. But security officers ushered them out. They aren't done with their protests yet, but they are readjusting their tactics:
A day after school officials approved shutting down 50 schools, the Chicago Teachers Union and community activists say they'll hold a voter registration and education campaign. The union is agitated that Mayor Rahm Emanuel, school board members and some lawmakers failed to listen to parents, teachers and others who called for the schools to remain open. [...]
Sonya Williams, a parent who had come to testify in defense of her school, said she understood the passion and the outbursts.
"It's just like going to a long funeral and no one will close the casket yet," she said. "The fate of your position, the fate of your job, the fate of your children are up in the air, and they're based on a few people making a decision."
The shutdown was the outcome pushed by the $250,000-a-year CPS CEO Barbara Byrd-Bennett. She was hand-picked seven months ago for the post by Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, who has had a contentious relationship with the city's unions and especially the teachers union, which went on strike last September. Since 1995, Chicago mayors have appointed school board members.
Byrd-Bennett was a controversial choice to replace the previous CEO. She had a hand in closing schools in Cleveland and in Detroit, a district where charter schools now make up 29 percent of the total. She also has served as "executive coach" for the "Broad Superintendent’s Academy." Founded by billionaire Eli Broad, the academy is part of a nationwide effort to privatize schools and bust teachers' unions.
The rationale for the Chicago closures, which have been hotly debated at numerous hearings and generated street protests, is the dwindling population of children of elementary school age. But, even though that population has fallen 145,000 in the past decade, only 30,000 fewer students are enrolled. The problem, said the mayor, the school board and Byrd-Bennett is underutilization of the elementary schools and a billion-dollar budget deficit.
Last week, parents filed two lawsuits that claimed that the closings violate the federal Americans With Disabilities Act and violate Illinois civil rights law by disproportionately harming minorities.