The West Side leg of the Chicago Teachers Union's (CTU) three-day march against school closings saw dozens of parents, teachers and education activists blocking
traffic throughout the area's streets Monday, chanting “Save Our Schools!”
“We are marching to keep our schools open,” said
Jesse Sharkey, vice president of the CTU, at the launch of Monday’s
West Side march at Elizabeth Peabody Elementary School, at 1444 West August Blvd.
Peabody is one of 54 schools slated for closure under a CPS proposal to shutter, consolidate and turnaround a record-breaking number of schools at the end of this school year. The district says it is attempting to address a $1 billion deficit and “utilization
crisis” of more than 100,000 empty seats. The proposed plan has incited massive protests and outrage throughout Chicago.
“If some of
these schools don’t come off the closure list, there’s going to be a ton
of outrage and moral indignation from people all across the city,” said
Sharkey in an interview with Progress Illinois. “But how do you do get
your point across to a board that doesn’t really listen? This thing is
being driven by the mayor, and the mayor doesn’t care.”
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Parents and members of the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) stormed the
steps outside the Academy of Urban School Leadership’s (AUSL) office
Thursday and raised concerns over the Chicago Public Schools’ (CPS) plan to
turnaround six schools at the end of the academic year.
In the Woodlawn neighborhood on Chicago's South Side, Cottage Grove
Ave. serves as the dividing line between two violent gang territories, according to area residents.
Property taxpayers in Englewood were furious upon learning at a town
hall meeting Saturday that their tax dollars had contributed at least $44 million to the
Englewood Neighborhood Tax Increment Financing (TIF) District since it
rolled out in 2001. According to data from the CivicLab's TIF Illumination
Project, some $44 million of taxpayer dollars had funneled to the TIF district between 2001 and 2011.
A list kept under former Chicago Public Schools CEO Arne Duncan’s
administration of clout-heavy Chicagoans and public officials looking to
get kids into some of the city’s top schools 