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CHICAGO PUBLIC SCHOOL PROTEST SAYS 'SAVE OUR SCHOOLS, OR CHOP THE TOP'(published in the People's Tribune, June, 2010.)
ReplyDeleteBy Todd Alan Price
On the corner of Washington and Clark, a throng of teachers, principals, parents, children, and others marched together, shutting down an entire Chicago city block during rush hour, sending the
message to Mayor Daley and his appointee, Ron Hubermann, the Chief Executive Officer of the Chicago Public Schools district (CPS): Save our schools, or Chop the Top. One of the teams of veteran teachers on the march described the tension and substance of this sprawling rally on May 25th, 2010, succinctly: "Save our schools, too many cuts. Hubermann needs to go. He wants to cut everyone from the bottom."
Many onlookers honked in support, as yellow school busses dropped off streams of supporters in front of city hall. One pedestrian, however,
exchanged words, with a CPS student, asserting the rally was just a big show. The student explained that these weren't just teachers, but
parents of CPS students, to which the "man in the suit" (as the student referred to him) became irate:
Man in the suit: "All of the people earning a paycheck from the private sector, they got to pay for all this stuff."
Someone from the crowd joined in: "We all pay taxes!"
Another cried: "Tax the corporations! (A recent study indicated that for the top corporate executives, barely 15% of their income goes to taxes!)
A union representative spoke about who would really be hurt given the budget cuts: "It directly affects the kids. We need to work together to really fund human capital and the kids who go along with it."
And hearing from the parents, the concerns mirrored one another. This from one parent, hoisting her child on her shoulders above the crowd: "We don't want to see 37 to 1 ratio. Teachers do a great job, and we support them!" And from another parent: "We're from East School. The children should be the priority in this country . . . they're trying to put 35 students per classroom!
I asked the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) President, Marilyn Stewart, for the union's position on Hubermann's plan: "Small class sizes are better for students, especially minority students. When you have larger class sizes, teachers cannot give students the individualized
attention. Our schools need smaller class sizes to be effective."
Stewart took a shot at the CPS leadership: "They have administrators who aren't even educators running our schools, it's absurd." She was
followed by Leroy Smith, Chicago CTA full time bus driver, representing the displaced Chicago Transit Authority (CTA), who joined the march, shouting "Save our ride, save our schools!" He made these observations: "We are laid off CTA workers. We're out here joining forces with teachers and fighting their fight. First we lost
parking, then we lost meters. Now you take the rides from us, now you take the kids' teachers from us. You are tearing the city down. Ron
Hubermann cut and changed the routes, now instead of doing one street, you're doing two or three streets. He came in and turned around just like he did with the Chicago public schools. From CTA to CPS!"
Stewart returned with: "I have this button that says Chop the Top . . . it's from 1987! And it's still appropriate today?!
Teachers, youth and unions have had enough of the corporate driven budget cuts that do ultimately affect us all. What will it take to make public education a priority? An election to throw out the Mayor and his entourage? More protests? A general strike? One thing is for sure, when public education is under attack, what do we do
. . . Act up, fight back!