Mic Check Chicago Board of Ed Meeting 12-14-2011

On December 14, 2011 Parents, community members, and educators took over the monthly Chicago Board of Education meeting. After years of not being heard, they stood up and took it back.

***The cameraman in this video was harassed, grabbed, and pushed by Chicago Public Schools security. Please contact me with any photo or video you may have of this incident. Here are some pictures of intimidation: http://bit.ly/vo9mIh and http://bit.ly/t7bGVG Please share these pics along with the video. At 1 min, 55 seconds you can hear "I told you twice to move your a**" and the video gets shaky. That is when another guard grabbed and pushed the cameraman ***

Script:


Parents, teachers, students and communities
reject CPS failed reforms.
In 2004,
then-CPS CEO Arne Duncan
introduced the first Renaissance Schools,
soldiering Daley's initiative
to close 60 failing schools
in order to open 100 new schools.
In 2006,
Duncan introduced turnarounds,
as an answer
to communities' outrage
over the displacement of students.
In turnarounds,
students stay in the building
(some of them)
while all adults
have to reapply for their jobs.
Since then,
communities have been thrown into a turmoil
every year
as school closings and turnarounds are announced.
Now Jean-Claude Brizard
continues this tradition,
proposing to turnaround 10 schools,
close 2,
phase out two
and shutter a few more.
But has this approach worked?
The answer is
[together] NO!
We now know
that only 18 percent
of the replacement schools
(those schools
that are located in buildings
where schools have been turned around or closed)
were considered high performing.
Of those schools,
more than half are selective enrollment
or magnet schools
run by CPS.
Nearly 40% are performance level 3,
the lowest rating CPS gives.
The Chicago Tribune reported
that since Renaissance 2010 was initiated,
1/3 of the schools perform better,
1/3 are the same
and 1/3 of the schools are worse
than traditional neighborhood schools.
Mr. Mayor, Mr. Vitale, Mr. Brizard
and the rest of the board;
you should be ashamed of yourselves.
The definition of insanity
is to repeatedly do the same thing
and expect a different result.
You have ignored community voice,
community proposals
and have operated schools
as a foreign institution in our neighborhoods.
You know how
to make good neighborhood schools;
they exist in CPS.
You don't care to.
These are our children, not yours.
Your job is not
to broker the responsibility
of running public schools.
It is a violation of the civil rights
of African American and Latino children
to deny them the same resources,
expectations and opportunity
as children from more affluent communities
within this city.
These are our children, not yours.
We are taking our fight to the mayor!
We are taking our fight to the courts!
We are taking our fight to the schools!
We are taking our fight to the streets!
These are our children,
not corporate product.
These are our children,
not corporate product.
These are our children,
not corporate product!

Category:

People & Blogs

Tags:

• occupy chicago
• chicago
• board of education
• pritzker
• chicago teachers union
• stand up chicago
• seiu
• afscme
• action now
• koco
• chicago public schools
• cps
• ctu
• vitale
• brizard
• 99%
• banksters
• mic check
• protest
• austerity
• emmanuel

[zyxek]

This was really impressive. That chairman really revealed his true colors by saying he hoped the citizens had "gotten out of their systems." No sir, we have not.

[NietzscheMarx]

This whole thing is so inspiring. Ordinary people aren't taking it any more--they're fighting back against a Board of Ed of, by, and for the 1%. We're just getting warmed up!

[283810E]

This was really great! It made me proud to see people doing something.It made me proud to see people speaking up for what they believe in.Hurray for you all.

[tachyonimpulse]

Great Job! Shorter sentences make it easier though.

[atomiclotusbox]

bravo

[bobbygnosis]

He ought to break up his sentences into smaller chunks.

Still, I like the spirit here.

Cheers from Los Angeles.

[yeswecanusa2008]

Say it loud! That is really awesome! My son's public school education was completely inadequate so I ended up home schooling him in tandem to sending him to school.He learned the social skills of being a part of a classroom and got to participate in clubs and extra curricular activities but the only reason he ended up literate and intellectually curious was through the education he recieved at home. All his school cared about was preparing him and his class mates to take standardized exams.

[Fringization]

Fuck this pathetic excuse for a government

[MultiSavings]

Mic check!, Mick check!

Bravo OWS.

[donkuss]

@triflind This guy was fantastic. Look at all that passion. I wouldn't have wanted anybody else to lead.

[rocwitus]

I'm glad to see this. I work in the pervious District that Bizard was super in. He destroyed the Rochester city school District and we caught on and we did the same thing and got him fired. Good for the Parents of chiago continue working and gathering and lets bet these corprate assholes. For the Children of America.

[donkuss]

This is just the beginning. We are going to continue to turn up the heat to white hot.