Chicago Public Schools: an Ever Hotter Mess

This morning teachers, parents, students, and others are (again) rallying outside the Chicago Board of Ed. You can follow the goings-on via the Twitter hashtag #stopCPScuts.

We followed along earlier this year as more than 50 schools were closed, despite hard fighting from, again, the teachers, parents, students, supporters & the Chicago Teachers Union (@CTULocal1). We watched last fall as the CTU, and other teachers in suburban districts nearby, stuck at the beginning of the school year. Now, after another round of layoffs, we are up to more than 3,500 teachers let go since May.

If that’s not class warfare – because you can be sure that no one making these decisions has kids in the effected schools — then I don’t know what is. These are attacks both on the students who attended the now-closed schools, taught by these now-laid off teachers, most of whom are Black & brown, poor & working class. It is an attack on the teachers & their families who have lost jobs and will now have to look for new ones in a shitty economy. And it, along with the push for charter schools & utilization of Teach for America or similar programs (and therefore the exploitation of young college graduates who probably have more education debt than job prospects otherwise [fuck this divide & conquer shit]), is backhanded, union-busting war against the CTU.