The following is from Jitu Brown, national director of the Journey for Justice Alliance and one of the Dyett Hunger Strikers.
As a CPS parent and long-time community organizer, I am appalled by the actions of Barbara Byrd-Bennett in stealing from Chicago's children to feather her already robust nest. What is more appalling however, is Mayor Rahm Emanuel's effort to isolate her actions as the corruption of an individual; and our acceptance of such nonsense. Corruption and discriminatory actions that disregard the voices of Black and Brown parents is central to the culture of the school privatization movement. While millions of dollars are pumped into selling the public on "school choice", nationwide corporate education interventions have failed to improve the academic outcomes in Black and Brown communities, while a laundry list of "reformers" have been caught violating the public trust.
At a time when minority students comprise over half of the nation's public school students, a new study shows that minority teachers are sorely underrepresented in public elementary and secondary schools in Chicago and several other major U.S. cities.
The Albert Shanker Institute (ASI), a think tank affiliated with the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), took a comprehensive look at teacher diversity in nine U.S. cities -- Boston, Chicago, Cleveland, Los Angeles, New Orleans, New York, Philadelphia, San Francisco and Washington.
On average, about 6 in every 10 teachers in these cities are white, while only 1 in every 10 students is white, the study found.
"As a general rule, there is a serious underrepresentation of minority groups in the teacher workforces in each one of these nine cities," ASI's Executive Director Leo Casey said last week during a press conference about the study. "And that underrepresentation is particularly marked for black and Hispanic teachers."
Chicago Public Schools CEO Barbara Byrd-Bennett is taking a leave of absence while federal prosecutors investigate a $20 million no-bid CPS contract granted to a company for which she previously worked.
A Federal Reserve survey shows the U.S. economy strengthening over the past two months in areas from manufacturing and construction to retail sales and bank lending.
On the heels of the 60th anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court’s Brown v. Board of Education decision, which declared state-mandated public school segregation unconstitutional, dozens of grassroots organizations across the country say the push by education "reformers" to close and privatize schools is having a devastating and disproportionate impact on communities of color. Progress Illinois takes a look at a new report on the matter released by Journey for Justice Alliance, a national network of grassroots community groups.
The following is from Jitu Brown, national director of the Journey for Justice Alliance and one of the Dyett Hunger Strikers.
At a time when minority students comprise over half of the nation's public school students, a 