Chicago youth organizers are set to protest outside Mayor Rahm Emanuel's office Tuesday morning in support of the Dyett hunger strikers and against school privatization.
Health professionals are urging Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel to intervene in the controversy over Dyett High School so the hunger strike over the school's future can end.
Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner signed legislation Monday that will prohibit Illinois public schools, including charters, from using "zero tolerance" discipline policies, unless otherwise required by law.
Twelve supporters of revitalizing Chicago's Dyett High School campus began a hunger strike Monday morning as they continue their call for the Chicago Public Schools (CPS) system to adopt a long-proposed community plan to turn Dyett into a "global leadership and green technology" high school.
The Coalition to Revitalize Dyett High School, which created the plan to re-open Dyett as a global leadership and green technology school, spearheaded the hunger strike. The 12 hunger strikers, including community and faith leaders, education activists and public school parents, held their protest outside the now-closed school, located in the Washington Park neighborhood at 555 E. 51st St.
"We are tired of our voices not being heard," said hunger striker Jitu Brown with the Kenwood Oakland Community Organization, one of many groups behind the Coalition to Revitalize Dyett High School. "There has to be accountability to the public for the destabilizing of schools in our community and the sabotage of our children's education."
Chicagoans interested in the future of the Dyett High School campus will have to wait another month for the school district's public hearing on the issue.
Three groups have submitted competing proposals to the Chicago Public Schools (CPS) to open a new high school at the now-closed Dyett site, located at 555 E. 51st St.
CPS' public hearing on Dyett's proposals was supposed to be held at the start of this week. However, the district announced on Friday that the hearing was pushed back to September 15.
During a Friday morning protest, education and worker activists demanded that Urban Prep Academies "do the right thing" and reinstate the 16 teachers who claim they were fired in retaliation for joining a union.
The State Innovation Exchange (SiX), a group working with state legislators to advance progressive policies across the country, compiled the list. SiX was formed in an effort to counter the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), a group that crafts and pushes conservative, corporate-friendly state legislation.
According to SiX's review, the top 10 state-level progressive measures approved thus far in 2015 involve the following: closing the wage gap for women and minorities; accommodating pregnant workers; implementing earned sick leave; expanding access to higher education; tackling the student debt crisis; reducing carbon emissions; modernizing voter registration; repealing the death penalty; increasing police accountability and public safety; and preventing abusers and stalkers from obtaining guns.
"We are convinced that progressives are right on the issues and the SiX review of the states bears that out. From advancing the economic security of working families to improving access to voting we saw that even in a map that is deeply red, progressives were able to achieve some important policy victories in 2015," SiX Executive DirectorNick Rathod said in a statement. "I'm confident that as SiX grows and is able to better resource, train and organize legislators around the country, we can help to see that progressives are able to achieve more of the types of policy victories like those that made the list this year."
A Chicago Public Schools advisory council has determined that the district and Intrinsic Schools should withdraw a proposal to open a North Side charter school.
Twelve supporters of revitalizing Chicago's Dyett High School campus began a hunger strike Monday morning as they continue their call for the Chicago Public Schools (CPS) system to adopt a long-proposed community plan to turn Dyett into a "global leadership and green technology" high school.
Chicagoans interested in the future of the Dyett High School campus will have to wait another month for the school district's public hearing on the issue.
Illinois got a nod in 