In the mouths of any Chicagoan, the name Rahm Emanuel evokes little else but an exclamation of disgust. A poll released in December 2015 states that 51% of Chicagoans think he should resign. As a former Chicago Public School student, I learned quickly after his election that Mayor Emanuel's name is one of the names that the students and faculties of CPS have frequently elicited the response, "F**k that guy." (Former Secretary of Education and Former CEO of CPS Arne Duncan is another).
Little wonder, as the Chicago Mayor has, throughout his tenure, made public schools in working class neighborhoods his enemy.
In 2012, the Chicago Teachers Union began their first strike against the city of Chicago since 1987, due to outrage from Emanuel's proposed teacher assessment and merit pay policies, which relied too heavily on standardized test scores. Additionally, Emanuel had expressed his interest in expanding the public charter school system, a system that does not benefit teachers or communities, but privately run corporations.
In May 2013, as reported by the Chicago Reader, Emanuel began a process of using $55 million in property tax dollars – taken from public schools, among many other state organizations, as part of Chicago's TIF program – to fund a new stadium for DePaul University. In the end, the money was redirected to only be paying for the land, and not for the stadium itself, but it still remains a reckless waste of taxpayer dollars designed to fund projects that will benefit the public.
Not a week later, Emanuel and the School Board announced the expected closures of fifty-four Chicago public schools, almost all of them in working class neighborhoods of color. The claims from Chicago Public Schools and Emanuel were that the city could save at the very least $43 million per year and ensure that students were attending the best possible schools. Of course, this did not account for job loss, safety issues while commuting, underfunding of the schools designed to receive students from the closed schools, class size and a host of other problems that one might think would be foreseeable.
To soften the blow, CPS put out a press statement that promised iPads for all students in grades 3-8 in Receiving schools.
They did follow through with that, to their credit, although the effects on students' lives more or less cancelled out the palpable excitement of fancy gadgets.
A 2014 study from the Chicago Teachers Unionshowed that of the 49 schools that were eventually shuttered.
1. About 90% had a majority Black student population and 71% had a majority Black teaching staff.
2. 38% of Receiving schools had a working Librarian on their staff.
3. 56% of receiving schools had no special education teacher, which did not help the fact that 59% of the schools being closed had a higher special education student body than average.
"They've been closing schools for the past 12 years here," a Chicago Teachers Union member said to CBS Chicago. "It hasn’t improved instruction. It hasn’t solved the budget deficits, but it has weakened communities."
All right, fine. The students and teachers were screwed. But this is Rahm Emanuel we're talking about, the guy who wanted to make a museum for George Lucas. He clearly is a money man, so what about the financial benefits?
Well, although CPS and Emanuel claimed that the closures would save a minimum of $43 million per year from not having to deal with these schools, according to the aforementioned study from the Chicago Teachers Union, "CPS has spent a minimum of $285 million on costs related to these school closings."
When a selective enrollment public schools' expansion projects cost Chicago over $114 million and I was a student at the old Jones College Prep, so we were all following this pretty damn closely.
The TIF program dollars can be diverted to give private Jesuit universities a new stadium, it's hard for the people of Chicago to buy that there isn't any money to invest into the schools that CPS loves to dismissively deem "underperforming."
And the war on public schools didn't stop there.
In January 2016, Emanuel appointed Jaime Guzman, a member of the Illinois Charter School Commission and a former member of the infamous Teach for America, to chief executive office of the Chicago Board of Education. The blatant bias against public schools in favor of charters is absolutely astounding, and truly emblematic of the corporate greed and disregard for Chicago's working class that has become a staple the Emanuel administration and CPS.
Just recently on December 4, 2016 amidst threats of classroom cuts, Governor Rauner and CPS announced a slew of new construction projects, with the maximum construction budget totaling about $938 million.
However, despite harsh blowback from establishment politicians in Chicago, families of public school students can take solace in victories won by the Chicago Teachers Union, such as the recent contract agreement of October 2016 that helped Chicago avoid yet another teachers strike.
"What we have is a credibility crisis," Chicago Teachers Union President Kim Lewis said in the wake of the school closings, as reported by the Washington Post. "CPS continues to peddle half-truths, lies and misinformation in order to justify its campaign to wipe out our schools and carry out this corporate-driven school reform nonsense."
Chicagoans are desperately awaiting the next chance to oust Emanuel from his golden tower. Meanwhile, the war against the privatization of Chicago's schools, a battle that nobody should have to be fighting, continues.
