By George N. Schmidt

If the majority of the members of the Chicago City Council hold their purpose, by the end of June there will be a major showdown over the Chicago Board of Education’s unprecedented attack on public schools via its widely opposed school closing activities. By the end of May, more than 40 aldermen out of 50 had signed on in support of a resolution that will, in effect, place a moratorium on school closings in Chicago. A vote is scheduled for the June 28 City Council meeting. June 28 is also the day of the next Chicago Board of Education meeting.

Four years ago, the Chicago Board of Education began an unprecedented attack on the city’s public schools beginningwhat has become the largest number of public school closings in American history. Although thousands of parents, teachers, students and their supporters have protested since the program of school closings was launched by schools CEO Arne Duncan in April 2002, by March 2006 the Chicago Board of Education had closed more than 30 of the city’s public schools, leaving the teachers and other people who worked in them jobless and the students facing a major — and in some cases insurmountable — disruption in their lives.

In March 2006, after another round of futile attempts to persuade the city’s school board to halt the closings (this time, directed at Morse, Frazier and Farren elementary schools and Collins High School), opponents of the closings joined with 24th Ward Alderman Michael Chandler in support of a City Council resolution to halt any future closings until a thorough study was made of their impact on all the children from the closed schools. To date, all CPS has provided has been a dishonest and truncated “study” which even the leaders of CPS have refused to answer detailed questions about. As usual, despite repeated requests schools CEO Arne Duncan refused to be interviewed for this article.

Grady C. Jordan (above) continued his opposition to the school closings, telling the City Council hearing on March 8 that Collins had, in effect, been sabotaged by the Duncan administration during the four years prior to the Collins closing announcement. Collins had been denied the right to select its own principal, and Duncan’s appointees had lacked high school experience. 

Flanked by Alderman Michael Chandler (24th) and Ed Smith (28th), Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 73 vice president Cynthia Rodriguez  told the March 8 press conference that the school closings were hurting children, many of whom were the children of SEIU members. SEIU Local 73, which represents more than 5,000 school custodians, bus aides, security workers, and others in the massive public school system, was (along with the 35,000-member Chicago Teachers Union) one of the major unions representing Chicago public school workers that have helped organize in support of the Chandler resolution. When schools are closed, children’s education is disrupted and the lives of school workers are sometimes destroyed. Ms. Rodriguez also testified during the day’s Education Committee hearings. Substance photos by George N. Schmidt.

Showing some of the anger of many community leaders, Jitu Brown (above) of the Kenwood Oakland Community Organization (KOCO) outlined for the City Council how his organization began confronting the school closings in 2002. Brown, who has testified at dozens of hearings over four years, noted that he had showed how the closings hurt the children they were supposed to help while being ignored by CPS.