The Kenwood Oakland community organization on
Chicago’s South Side joined with education activists across the country
at a press conference yesterday in downtown Chicago to contend that
so-called education reform policies violate their civil rights by
marginalizing the voices of minority parents and students.
Plaintiffs
from Boston, Chicago, Detroit, New York, Washington, D.C. as well as
Wichita, Kansas and Eureka, Mississippi announced that they plan to file
seven separate complaints with the U.S. Department of Education stating
that their respective city’s education policies violate the Civil
Rights Act.
“Since we pay taxes we should have the right to have
input in these schools,” said Jitu Brown, an organizer with Kenwood
Oakland. “The common denominator in all these city policies is that we
don’t.” Read more »
The Chicago Teachers Union House of Delegates voted today to suspend
the first teachers' strike in the Windy City since 1987 and the first educator
walkout in a major American city since the one in Detroit back in 2006. Classes will
resume tomorrow for the first time since September 7. Seven classroom days will now have be made up as a result of the strike.
The Chicago Teachers Union strike could have a national impact in at
least two key ways. It could reshape an increasingly confrontational
relationship between elected officials and public employees. And the
walkout could alter education policy, either disrupting the movement
toward charter schools and test-based teacher evaluations – or ending
concerted opposition to these programs. 
Advocacy groups across Chicago mobilized today in support of the
Chicago Teachers Union strike, setting up “freedom camps” and scheduling
events for the next two weeks including a “freedom ride” to Washington,
D.C.
The clock is ticking on a new contract agreement between the Chicago
Teachers Union and Chicago Public Schools after both the CTU House of
Delegates and Board of Education swiftly and unanimously rejected a
third party fact finder's report this afternoon.
