With signs emblazoned with slogans like “Our Bodies Will Not Be Enslaved” and “Education Not Incarceration,” approximately 30 high school students, all members of the Chicago Students Union, gathered across from Daley Plaza to voice their dissatisfaction with Mayor Rahm Emanuel, the Chicago Board of Education and the widening funding gap between city high schools.
Gabriel Portillo, a senior at Prosser Career Academy, spoke of using math textbooks published in 1993 and bemoaned inadequate technology for students.
Rosalina Torres, a junior at Whitney Young High School, spoke of how her school has so many resources but sees how her friends who attend other schools must deal with less.
“I see differences in education across the city,” said Torres, who then accused CPS of unevenly distributing funds between Chicago’s more than 600 public schools.
After about 15 minutes of speeches, the students, along with adults who joined the cause, marched east on Washington Street, south on State Street and west on Monroe Street, ending up at CPS headquarters where they continued their protest both on the sidewalk in front of the building and inside the building lobby.
With CPS facing a self-described $862 million deficit, all Chicago public schools will feel a squeeze, but some schools are squeezed more than others. According to a public school budget database compiled by the Chicago Sun-Times, from 2012 – 2013, Kelvyn Park High School, a primarily Hispanic school on the Northwest Side had its budget cut 12.8 percent while Whitney Young, one of the city’s top schools had its budget cut 2.8 percent.
Ross Floyd, one of the founders of the Chicago Students Union and a senior at Jones College Preparatory High School, placed blame for inequality on the school board, which is appointed by the mayor.
“The Board of Education is only accountable to one man, Rahm Emanuel, and that is not right,” he said.
State Rep.-elect Will Guzzardi of the 39th District, which includes Kelvyn Park, attended the rally and echoed Floyd’s sentiment that a democratically elected school board will better represent the voice of all schools, not just the top tier.
“I think one of the most important pieces is that it be truly representative; we would divide the city up into regions and make sure that each of the regions was represented in proportion to population,” said Guzzardi.
CPS is the only school district of the more than 800 statewide that’s not elected.
He said critics of an elected school board are afraid of injecting politics into the classroom, but Guzzardi doesn’t see that as a change.
“It’s already political. It’s already governed by politics. It’s only a question of whose politics we want, right?” asked Guzzardi.
Supporters of a mayoral-appointed school board could not be reached for comment.