Tag Archives: Chicago School Board

Invest in Education? Nope, the Chicago Public School Board Invests in Policing

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Recently the CPS Board of Education had a chance to actually be different than the appointed school boards of the past and do right by kids. They were asked to vote on a plan to give the Chicago Police Department $33 Million more dollars for employing police in schools. Out of the school board members 5 decided that investing in CPD was a good idea.

$33 Million more will given to policing. $33 Million more given to one of the most corrupt police departments in the country. The Chicago Police Department cost the city $118 Million in police misconduct cases just last year. CPD police misconduct has cost the city over half of a Billion dollars in just the last 8 years. CPD is responsible for codes of silence, black sites, sexual assaults, trauma, torture, and far too many murders.

It’s been researched and proven that having police in schools does NOT make kids safe. It allows the trauma that the police caused on the streets and in the neighborhoods to continue in our school buildings.

Many educators talk and teach their students about ending the school to prison pipeline. But the CPS Board has decided to ignore all of that. Work to end the school to prison pipeline? Nope, the School Board invested $33 Million more in it, ignoring research and student testimony from student organizations such as Good Kids Mad City and Voyces of Youth in Chicago Education.

It was reported just this summer that police in CPS had no oversight. So CPD, after being called out, “promised” to fix it. Our city already gives $4 million every day to CPD. The Justice Department called out Chicago’s Police Department and listed 100 issues within the Chicago Police Department.

Yet a group of people who claim they care about kids, ignored all of that and decided to once again invest in policing over education.

CPS teachers are in the midst of a contract negotiation. We want, in writing, things that will actually benefit our schools and students. We want, in writing, more nurses and social workers. We want counselors NOT cops in our schools. We want a librarian in every building. We want real limits on class size. We want true protections for students with special needs. Our students deserve so much more.
But at the bare minimum every student should feel safe in their school. A Chicago Police Officer does not do that.
We can make kids feel safe in schools by actually having time to work with, counsel, and educate them.

The CPS Board had a chance to change the status quo this week, but instead it decided to ignore students, community, and research. The Board backed the blue and invested in policing over education.

This is just another reason why I will be voting yes to authorize the Chicago Teachers Union to strike.

To read the the piece on Chicago Now click here

An “Ode”: To the Appointed Chicago School Board Members

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Let’s just get the following truths about the Chicago School Board out of the way:

  • It is appointed by the mayor and not elected by the people of Chicago.
  • It is the only school board in the entire state of Illinois that is not elected.
  • It closed the most schools in the history of the United States.
  • It allows our neighborhood schools to be criminally underfunded.
  • It has opened excessive amounts of new charter schools and allowed them to take public school money even though they do no better and often worse.
  • It allows banks to make millions off our students through toxic loans that the Board agreed to and refuses to renegotiate on.
  • It allows our kids to be in the most militarized school system in the country. As if our streets weren’t already violent enough, let’s give the military access to all of our kids as well. Yes, that seems logical.
  • It has board members on it like Quazzo who uses her role to cut deals and give CPS contracts to her friends.

Let’s move on to things we maybe don’t know about this board.

They are very afraid of losing their power. Yes, they will claim that they are just “volunteers” on the school board, who are dedicated to helping all students. They act is if they are volunteering to serve on this board, because no one else wants the responsibility. Well news flash:  David Vitale, Jesse Ruiz, Carlos Azcoitia, Henry Bienen, Mahalia Hines, Deborah Quazzo, and Andrea Zopp….Your appointed days are numbered.

Chicago will get an elected school board in the near future. Those of you on the school board are just essentially clinging to the “good ole days” when you could do what you want and not have much scrutiny.

The scrutiny is here School Board. But good for you, you do have some options:

  • You can fight tooth and nail for your “volunteer” positions. This is the path you seem to have chosen, unfortunately.
  • The better option, you can quit and then encourage your dear friend Rahm Emanuel to realize an elected board is coming, whether any of you like it or not.

The truth is regardless of whomever ends up being our next mayor in a few weeks (please, please, please, Chicagoans let it be Garcia or Fioretti) the days of the appointed school board are over.

Sadly, history has had far too many people clinging to power in fear, and not letting Democracy actually be carried out. These people who clung to power and refused to even give Democracy a chance are now often referred to in an unflattering light in the history books I use with my students. And yes, school board members you might be sitting there on your high and mighty throne thinking things like “I don’t care if people disagree with my decisions, because I am doing what is best for the kids” blah blah blah.

How can you do what is best for the kids, if you won’t even allow their parents to have a say in what is best for them? By not letting parents or anyone else in this city vote for the people on the school board you are playing the role of someone who thinks they know what is best for all of us. This action is attached to historical words like Paternalistic, Racist, or Privileged to name just a few.

The model you are following is one used by people who colonized other countries and forced the people in those colonized places to believe religions, creeds, and values that were not their own. This was all done with the idea that, “We know what is best for you, because we are better than you”. Don’t you see it School Board? This is the role you are playing.

You DON’T know what is best for the people of Chicago. Only the voters do, but here in lies the problem…you won’t let the people vote!

There will be a movement to oust you. It is coming, actually it has already started. Alderman in Chicago are taking notice, parents and the community have already noticed and are speaking out. Count your days, because they are becoming fewer.

Sure it will be embarrassing briefly if you just stepped down from your “volunteer” role.

But believe me it will be even more embarrassing when you are forced off your throne, by Democracy.

And believe me Democracy is coming.

Article Published on Gapers Block

http://gapersblock.com/mechanics/2015/02/11/an-ode-to-the-appointed-chicago-school-board-members/

Article on Huffington Post Chicago
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dave-stieber/an-ode-to-the-appointed-c_b_6655690.html