Mass school closings are a brutally vivid example of the disconnected politics of Chicago. This is the status quo that is no longer tolerable.More than 100 people arrested while taking part in mass civil disobedience against Rahm Emanuel's cuts and closures. Gary Younge reports from Chicago. Robert Koehler details impact on urban poor neighborhoods.
Closing 50 of our neighborhood schools is outrageous and no society that claims to care anything about its children can sit back and allow this to happen to them. There is no way people of conscience will stand by and allow these people to shut down nearly a third of our school district without putting up a fight. Most of these campuses are in the Black community. Since 2001 88% of students impacted by CPS School Actions are African-American. And this is by design.
Chicago Teachers Union President Karen Lewis successfully tapped into the wrath of frustrated members and took on Mayor Rahm Emanuel last September when she led the city's first teachers strike in 25 years. On Tuesday, a group of union members said Lewis didn't leverage the strike to get enough from the district — including a guarantee not to close schools — and announced a slate of candidates that will try to unseat Lewis and her team in a regular election set for May
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