Call to Action - Save our Schools, Don't Close Them!
Uptown resident and Occupier Ryne Patrick at last night's public forum with CPS: "The community feedback is simple, just one sentence: ZERO SCHOOL CLOSINGS!"
After lobbying the state to extend the deadline to release a list of the schools they plan to close, CPS created an 'independent commission' of Mayor Emanuel's political donors to recommend a plan. The community response at those commission hearings was resoundingly opposed to school closings.
Now, the Sun-Times is reporting today the commission is recommending no more than 20 schools be closed when CPS threatened actions over one hundred.
“They haven’t demonstrated to us that they can close 100 or even 50 schools. They don’t have the expertise to accomplish that in such a short time-frame. When they closed down as many as 12 schools, it was a disaster,” said a source close to the commission. (www.suntimes.com/news/education/17858750-418/school-closing-panel-to-advise-20-schools-a-year-limit-source-says.html)
A smaller bad idea based on lies is still a bad idea based on lies and 20 schools is 20 too many to close. One by one, all Mayor 1%'s phony reasons have been exposed:
1. CPS claimed a loss of 100,000 students since 2000 according to the census, supposedly underlying the 'underenrollment crisis'. Proven false by research by WBEZ: www.wbez.org/news/truth-squad-enrollment-down-cps-not-much-104297
2. CPS claims on 'underutilization' are abhorrently skewed, hiding the real overcrowding problem present in the data: http://cpsapples2apples.wordpress.com/2012/12/04/space-utilization-show-your-work-part-1/
3. Finally, CPS claims to have a billion dollar deficit but they actually have a $500 million dollar surplus according to the most comprehensive financial audit: www.ctunet.com/blog/extra-extra-the-curious-tale-of-the-cps-press-release-budget
Even though the facts are all one-sided, CPS created the deception intentionally, so appealing only to logic won't work. We need to pack the CPS hearings, and think of other creative actions to let them know the community will not stand for a single unjust school closing!
See when a CPS school closing hearing is coming to your neighborhood and get the word out: www.ctunet.com/events/stop-school-closings-2013
Below you can access a list of all the hearings on a single page, and also see talking points written for the hearings about TIFs, which have extracted over $2.25 billion from CPS.
After lobbying the state to extend the deadline to release a list of the schools they plan to close, CPS created an 'independent commission' of Mayor Emanuel's political donors to recommend a plan. The community response at those commission hearings was resoundingly opposed to school closings.
Now, the Sun-Times is reporting today the commission is recommending no more than 20 schools be closed when CPS threatened actions over one hundred.
“They haven’t demonstrated to us that they can close 100 or even 50 schools. They don’t have the expertise to accomplish that in such a short time-frame. When they closed down as many as 12 schools, it was a disaster,” said a source close to the commission. (www.suntimes.com/news/education/17858750-418/school-closing-panel-to-advise-20-schools-a-year-limit-source-says.html)
A smaller bad idea based on lies is still a bad idea based on lies and 20 schools is 20 too many to close. One by one, all Mayor 1%'s phony reasons have been exposed:
1. CPS claimed a loss of 100,000 students since 2000 according to the census, supposedly underlying the 'underenrollment crisis'. Proven false by research by WBEZ: www.wbez.org/news/truth-squad-enrollment-down-cps-not-much-104297
2. CPS claims on 'underutilization' are abhorrently skewed, hiding the real overcrowding problem present in the data: http://cpsapples2apples.wordpress.com/2012/12/04/space-utilization-show-your-work-part-1/
3. Finally, CPS claims to have a billion dollar deficit but they actually have a $500 million dollar surplus according to the most comprehensive financial audit: www.ctunet.com/blog/extra-extra-the-curious-tale-of-the-cps-press-release-budget
Even though the facts are all one-sided, CPS created the deception intentionally, so appealing only to logic won't work. We need to pack the CPS hearings, and think of other creative actions to let them know the community will not stand for a single unjust school closing!
See when a CPS school closing hearing is coming to your neighborhood and get the word out: www.ctunet.com/events/stop-school-closings-2013
Below you can access a list of all the hearings on a single page, and also see talking points written for the hearings about TIFs, which have extracted over $2.25 billion from CPS.
cps_school_closing_network_mtgs_jan_feb_2012.doc | |
File Size: | 30 kb |
File Type: | doc |
talking_points_for_cps_closing_hearings_by_tif_alliance.doc | |
File Size: | 15 kb |
File Type: | doc |