11 Comments - wordslinger - Wednesday, May 22, 13 @ 10:49 am: –..to demand that the General Assembly pass a school closing moratorium bill.– Is that even in the realm of possibility? Even if it’s a p.r. tactic for the cameras, wouldn’t you get better coverage raising Cain at the Thompson Center? - lake county democrat - Wednesday, May 22, 13 @ 11:14 am: That’ll win them a lot of friends. - Wumpus - Wednesday, May 22, 13 @ 11:19 am: aka, job protection bill. - Dirty Red - Wednesday, May 22, 13 @ 11:46 am: A show of hands: how many of the protesters have kids in CPS? - Langhorne - Wednesday, May 22, 13 @ 11:48 am: “Demand GA pass a school closing moratorium bill” Wow. That is utterly astounding in how out of touch this proposal is at all levels. Lets start with “your fight is not my fight.” - chitownmom - Wednesday, May 22, 13 @ 12:19 pm: “your fight is not my fight” Oh really? When the mayor siphons off TIF funding to corporations guess where does some of that now-needed extra education funding come from? Why the state-which means you are all going to pay for that Navy Pier redo-you’re welcome. As for how many protestors have kids in CPS-quite a few. And why does that matter anyway? Education effects everybody who lives in the city to some degree. The whole process has been handled with complete disregard for the communities it effects-people are extremely frustrated and are taking it out any way they can. As for “job protection” some people might say in a time of high unemployment it might be a good idea not to slash jobs that sustain low and moderate income communities. Nearly everything CPS has stated is false, here is a good summary www.wbez.org/news/fact-check-chicago-school-closings-107216 - Anonymous - Wednesday, May 22, 13 @ 1:37 pm: The CPS teacher should first explain while funding per student has risen in the past ten years, student test performance and graduation rates have fallen. When something is not working well is it really time for a moratorium on change? - Formerly Known As... - Wednesday, May 22, 13 @ 2:53 pm: === demand that the General Assembly pass a school closing moratorium bill. === Even after the City of Chicago lost something like 250,000 since the last Census? Seriously? - Arthur Andersen - Wednesday, May 22, 13 @ 3:42 pm: Rahm, CPS, and Co. have not handled the school closing process too smoothly but this group is Amateur Night all the way. Half-empty schools hither and yon and they want a moratorium? Oh, and let’s go tick off the GA and get live on Cap Fax while we’re at it. Jeez. - Shannon - Thursday, May 23, 13 @ 7:48 am: I’m one of the people who sat in front of those doors yesterday (second person from the right) and I appreciate you telling the truth. We were DRAGGED off, not “asked to leave.” For clarification, we weren’t trying to bust through the doors. We sat down right where we meant to sit down. - Shannon - Thursday, May 23, 13 @ 8:00 am: Some of you need to get your facts straight as well. Dirty Red, MANY of the protesters had children in Chicago schools but almost ALL are products of Chicago Public Schools. We have a stake in this regardless of whether or not our children attend schools (I have no kids but graduated from a CPS and my mother was a 37 year teacher in the system). Wumpus, yes, its also to protect the jobs of teachers. WHO DO YOU THINK TEACHES THESE STUDENTS?!? This rhetoric that “its not about the adults” is ridiculous. “Children are not divorced from the adults who take part in their everyday lives.” Our kids deserve to see the same teachers at their schools. They deserve that stability. Anonymous: it is a known FACT that standardized tests are NOT accurate measures of student performance. KNOWN FACT. Go do some research. And show me where student funding has increased. SHOW ME. Finally, has it occurred to you that putting MORE KIDS in already overcrowded schools WON’T HELP the falling graduation rate? Wake up. Formerly known as, we didn’t lose 250,000 STUDENTS. You do realize that number includes ALL Chicagoans, right? Adults, children, public school students, private school students, etc? Have a seat. Arthur Andersen, I suggest you also do some research. Our schools are NOT half empty. When the Board created their “formula” to see if schools were “underutilized” they counted rooms like music and art classrooms as empty because they didn’t have children in them at all times. They also counted rooms that are used for counseling and other necessary tasks as not being utilized. In other words, any room that didn’t have kids in it at all times was considered a room that wasn’t being used. There’s nothing “amateur” about us. We KNOW the truth. We’re here on the ground. You’re just regurgitating what you’ve heard on the news. If you weren’t, you’d know that many of the receiving schools are either more underutilized than the schools that are being closed or already overcrowded. WAKE UP or at least, SHUT UP. I can tell that NONE of you have a stake in this and NONE of you care about our children. And don’t say its because you pay taxes that you think you have a say in this. Did you have a say when UNO (a charter school organization whose schools perform no better than traditional public schools) got 90+ MILLION of your tax dollars and then got in trouble because of EXTREME conflicts of interest? I’m betting none of you even know about that, yet you think you’re so knowledgeable. Sorry, comments for this post are now closed.