Active Defense of Community Schools

The movement against the Board of Education’s attacks on public schools has been very active this past month.

Parents and others camped out all night and held a candlelight vigil in front of Board of Education headquarters on the night of February 24-25.

People gathered in the hundreds inside the Board of Education building as the Board was about to vote on closing 22 schools. Speakers denounced the Board members for not attending public hearings on the matter, and for even thinking about closing the schools and disrupting students’ educations.

Teachers, students, and parents cheered the news that six of these schools would not be closed, but still joined the hundreds who rallied and marched through downtown. They called on the State Legislature to support Rep. Cynthia Soto’s bill to put a moratorium on school closings in Chicago and to have an expert panel of educators study the devastating effects of the arbitrary closings that have been made so far.

Senn High School teachers, students, parents and community residents know well how the people in power (Mayor Daley, backed by big corporations and the military) have been trying for several years to replace general community schools with privatized schools under a program known as Renaissance 2010. They have used the Board of Education and its CEOs, who lack background in education– from Valles to Duncan and now Ron Huberman.

The insertion of the Rickover Naval Academy into the Senn High School Building– over the objection of parents, teachers, students– and the community, has been part of this effort, as well as other attempts to break up Senn High School.

So it is with a great sense of solidarity that we have joined in the outpouring of resistance these past months. We are very happy to see the work of the recently organized Caucus of Rank and File Educators (CORE) in the teachers’ union. We are happy to unite with them and the community organizations in the Grassroots Education Movement (GEM). The Save Senn Coalition has voted to be part of such efforts, and has participated in the forums and demonstrations. Please join us in this effort. Call 250.3335 or reach us through SaveSenn.org And–

Join the Senn Strategic Planning

The Senn Strategic Planning Committee continues to meet and work on the long range plan for Senn High School. This committee projects a growing student enrollment with increased class offerings. It includes stronger student voice and participation, and an ongoing assessment of Senn’s needs to better reach and enrich all students. The Senn Green Initiative is gaining community support and involvement including elected officials, local businesses, Loyola University, the ECC (Edgewater Community Council) and the Art Institute of Chicago.

The next Senn Strategic Planning meeting is Saturday, March 21st at 9am in Room 115. All are welcome. Your voice and vision is needed.

A Professor to the Board of Ed– You’re Closing the Wrong Schools. Close Rickover

I am Kenneth Saltman, Associate Professor of Education Policy at DePaul University. I join with those calling for a moratorium on school closings because there is no scholarship or evidence that makes the case for these closings. Please notice that all of the education policy scholars who have appeared here today have asked for a moratorium.

The other reason I am here today is because I am opposed to CPS continuing its contract with the Pentagon for the operation of the Rickover Naval Academy.

Critics of Rickover and the other military academies have been calling for the closure of these schools because they target kids for military recruitment at a young age, because they target racial and ethnic minorities for military recruitment, because they deny a high quality public education in favor of a military curriculum and model, because the military discriminates based on sexual orientation, because CPS financially subsidizes the Pentagon which is a financial drain on the other CPS schools, and because Rickover has a direct adverse effect on Senn High School by robbing physical space, causing teacher turnover and having a significant unmistakable effect on Senn’s achievment scores.

The investment in Rickover has come at a high cost to the students of Senn, to CPS, and to the ideal of universally-provided quality civilian public schools. Has the high cost been worth the sacrifices? No.

Rickover has demonstrated poor academic performance in traditional terms. Under No Child Left Behind it has failed to make Adequate Yearly Progress in 2008. Test scores are bad with Rickover scoring only 40.3% on all tests in comparison to a district average of 60.4% and a state average of 74.8%.

Apologists for Rickover and the other military academies have contended that the alleged high quality, racial equity, and parental demand justify the sacrifices. Well, despite being selective enrollment Rickover is well below district average. What is more, Rickover’s overall poor scores in reading and math show a vast racial and ethnic achievement gap indicating that the justification of educational access and opportunity falls flat. Parents make choices not in a vacuum but based on other available choices. When community schools are short-changed to fund military academies this is not choice – it is a hostage situation. If student achievement and access are the main concerns then it is time to rethink Rickover and the other military academies and consider closing them and using their physical sites for top quality open enrollment civilian community schools.

You are closing the wrong schools!

The Military Is Not the Way to Go

As the U.S. government continues its illegal and unjust wars, there is a lot of pressure to join up. But, it is important to consider the rights and wrongs of the matter.

Chris Inserra, long-time member of the Save Senn Coalition just lost a dear friend, Peter DeMott, to a fatal accident, and submitted the following to Anchors Away.

Peter was a military veteran who, after graduating from high school, joined the Marine Corps. He spent most of 1969 in Vietnam as a communications specialist.

In a 2005 personal biography, DeMott summed up his experience with words to the wise:

“Upon completing my enlistment in the Marines I joined the Army where I received training as a linguist and an assignment to a NATO post in Ankara, Turkey. My experience in the military convinced me of the futility of war and of the sad misallocation of resources which war making requires….”

Peter then became an activist for peace and justice, with the view that “To the extent that we sit passively by during these challenging times—when the fate of the earth and all its life forms hangs in the balance, to that very extent we give our tacit approval to the forces amassed to destroy us.”

Join in. Rally & March– Demand – On the 6th Anniversary of the U.S. Invasion of Iraq:
–End the occupations NOW! Iraq, Afghanistan, Palestine! –Stop the Government’s War on Immigrants!
You are invited to join in the Chicagoland protest to oppose continuing U.S. wars abroad and war on immigrants at home on Saturday, March 14. Rally at 12 noon at Marshall Boulevard & Cermak Road (2 blocks from the “California” stop on the Pink Line “el”), and then march into the Pilsen area for a rally there. Join in too the weekend of Saturday, March 21 in Washington, DC to march on the Pentagon! Chartered buses will leaving Chicago 5 p.m. Friday, March 20 and return by Sunday morning, March 22. Tickets will be about $105, with money available for those who are short of funds. Call 250.3225 for information.

This entry was posted on May 9th, 2009 and is filed under News and Updates.