Schools must have democratic oversight from elected, representative school board – the path forward to provide transparency and accountability that protects students from harm, says union.

CHICAGO, IL—The CPS released a report on system-wide failures to protect students from sexual abuse – an appalling example of Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s failed control our schools. CTU Vice President Jesse Sharkey issued the following statement in response to the report’s deeply troubling findings:

“Rahm Emanuel and his hand-picked school bosses have failed repeatedly to protect schoolchildren from harm,” said CTU Vice President Jesse Sharkey. “Emanuel’s hand-picked administrators and board of education have repeatedly rebuffed our efforts to establish an independent task force to address this issue, just as CPS has repeatedly bungled its efforts in re-fingerprinting educators.

“Our primary responsibility as educators is to ensure the safety of our students – a responsibility the mayor has undermined. Instead, Emanuel has closed nearly a hundred schools, slashed school budgets, robbed our school communities of veteran educators and created a dangerous shortage of social workers, clinical psychologists, counselors and certified school nurses. These are exactly the professionals best equipped to train students and staff to be alert to potential abuse, and to identify and address any threats to students. Our teachers, clinicians and paraprofessionals struggle under mayoral control—a school regime that has repeatedly covered up and concealed threats to student safety, whether that is rodent-infested buildings or sexual predators. Our schools and our students are little more than pawns in the mayor’s endless racket to enhance his political stature – a distorted agenda that has created what today’s report calls “costly changes”, and an inconsistent, dangerous culture in our schools that undercuts our students’ very safety and trust in our school communities.

“Rahm Emanuel owns this crisis – and he owns every single crisis our school district has confronted since he took over in 2011. His failed leadership of our schools must end, and the people of this city must be granted what they have repeatedly demanded – an elected, representative school board that is accountable, transparent and committed first, foremost and always to the wellbeing of our students and their school communities, rather than the mayor’s political fortunes.”

From: Chicago Teachers Union

Number of children accessing pre-K has fallen by 18% since Emanuel took office – more than twice the rate of decline of student enrollment in CPS.

CHICAGO, IL — Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel promised today to guarantee early childhood education for Chicago children – a day after damning news that the CPS Inspector General found a wave of contract steering at Chicago Public Schools. Emanuel has repeatedly promised to expand early childhood programming since he took office – even though participation has declined by almost 20%.

Emanuel’s campaign promise comes on the heels of a report a week ago that busted CPS for giving families in the city’s richest neighborhood special priority access to free, all-day preschool services, locking out the children of poorer families from the coveted Montessori program.

“For seven years, Emanuel has issued a stream of misleading press releases about early childhood programs,” said CTU Vice President Jesse Sharkey. ”The real facts are that early childhood education has been in decline since Emanuel took control of CPS – and the remaining programs have been grossly under-resourced.”

In 2014, in the midst of a heated re-election campaign, Emanuel announced a $17 million “social impact” bond program to fund early childhood education, a move that was widely criticized for potentially doubling the return to investors – and the program costs to taxpayers. Loan investors included Goldman Sachs and the Pritzker Family Foundation.

“We need preschool access for ALL of our children – from the earliest ages,” said Sharkey. “But Emanuel has consistently failed to deliver on his endless promises. Instead, under his rule, the number of children receiving pre-school services has nosedived, from almost 24,000 when he took office to fewer than 20,000 today. That drop is more than twice as high as the drop in our overall student body for the same period.”

In 2011, 8,157 three-year-olds and 15,548 four-year-olds were enrolled in pre-k services in CPS. This year, that number fell to 6,670 three-year-olds and 12,771 four-year-olds – with the decline accelerating in the wake of Emanuel’s mass closings of schools in 2013. Many of those closed schools hosted pre-k programs. Overall, the number of children receiving pre-k services has fallen by 18% since Emanuel took office, while the number of students enrolled in CPS schools overall has fallen by 8% during the same time period.

Emanuel has also been criticized by parents and advocates for creating an ‘enrollment’ process that is cumbersome, difficult to navigate and poorly organized, often thwarting parents with older children in a school from registering their little ones in early childhood programs at that same school. Last summer, Emanuel’s CPS administrators moved to lay off almost 40 school workers who helped parents enroll their children in early childhood programs. While over half of those workers have been hired back, many did not return to their responsibilities to facilitate pre-k enrollment.

While CPS has won over $1 billion in new funds since 2015, mayor continues to bilk taxpayers and deny vital resources to classrooms, students.

CHICAGO, IL—The Illinois legislature passed a new state budget – with CPS scheduled to receive a significant portion of the additional education funding in the bill.

“We’re demanding that Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel put those funds into classrooms and educational needs,” said CTU Vice President Jesse Sharkey. “Those funds must go to support special education and staffing to reduce classroom sizes, CPS’ contractually promised sustainable community schools pilot project that Emanuel has been dragging his heels on implementing, and other critical front-line educational needs. Anything less is a betrayal of our students, their parents and our city.”

CPS has received more than $1 billion in additional annual revenue since the 2015-16 school year. It would cost CPS $10 million – a tiny fraction of its annual budget – to fund the Sustainable Community Schools pilot project it agreed to deploy in its most recent CTU contract, yet Emanuel’s school officials continue to slow-walk implementation. The project is designed to provide under-resourced school communities with trauma supports, wrap-around services, educational programming and community engagement that builds rich learning environments and a pathway to lifelong success for students.

Emanuel’s hand-picked CPS officials said earlier this year that they would provide $60 million to hold schools harmless on budget cuts related to enrollment declines for the coming school year. But schools began reporting big cuts to budgets and staff after CPS issued budgets last month. Emanuel’s school officials have also continued to ignore the very needs that the new state funding formula is designed to remedy – including a dire shortage of counselors, social workers and support for wrap-around services for low-income students, who make up the bulk of Chicago’s public school population.

Emanuel has touted his support for early childhood education since he was elected, and has expanded free, full-day pre-K in the city’s wealthiest neighborhood. But Wednesday, he said it would take 3-4 years to implement his newly announced expansion of early childhood education, which will only serve 4-year-olds. While Emanuel promised to provide $175 million to support that pre-K expansion, he’s failed to identify new revenue to fund his promise. Last month, CPS forked over a $1.1 million payment to Goldman Sachs and its fellow ‘social impact bond’ investors, part of the repayment of a $17 million bond that was supposed to expand early childhood education – particularly for low-income children. The bond could potentially double the return to investors – at taxpayer expense.

But enrollment in pre-K programs has fallen by 18% since Emanuel took office, including a sharp drop in enrollment in the last two years.

Emanuel has closed more than 60 schools, but failed to provide evidence of savings from the closures, while students impacted by those closures suffer from worse educational outcomes. Emanuel has refused to support progressive revenue sources, denied funds for trauma-related services and class size reduction, and purged thousands of veteran Black educators from CPS.

“For seven years, Emanuel has spent precious public education dollars on whatever he wants – including hundreds of millions on private contracts and insider deals that have failed our students and bilked taxpayers,” said Sharkey. “This mayor has consistently rejected the appeals of parents, educators and neighborhood residents for desperately needed support for our students and our schools. Instead, he’s eagerly chased headlines with his endless failed promises, and ignored the harm that his education policies have had on our children. He’s exacerbated education inequality for our schoolchildren, and his failed control of our schools must end. We demand that he put these new funds into our classrooms and our students’ futures. And we demand that he end his obstruction of state legislation that would allow Chicagoans to elect their own school board – a representative school board that can provide our schools with the accountability, transparency and ethical governance that we deserve.”

SPRINGFIELD, IL – With more than 13 million children nationwide living in food insecure homes, a measure supported by state Rep. Mary E. Flowers, D-Chicago, and state Rep. Sonya Harper, D-Chicago, aims to end childhood hunger in schools throughout the state of Illinois.

“Children are the innocent ones in these situations, so none of them deserve to go through their days hungry because their parents are struggling to afford lunch at school,” said Flowers. “If a child were in a home and were hungry from not eating adequately, the parents would immediately be arrested and have the children taken from them. This measure holds both parents and schools accountable for keeping children nourished. It ensures that children have the nutrition needed at school to take on their day, grow and develop to their best selves.”

Harper and Flowers are a chief co-sponsor and co-sponsor of Senate Bill 2428, respectively. The measure creates the “Hunger-Free Students’ Bill of Rights Act.” Under the act, meals are required to be given to children regardless of their ability to pay. This will ensure that children have the nutrition to be successful and focused. The act also prevents food shaming of students who cannot afford lunch to ensure they aren’t alienated.

“No child across Illinois should go to school on an empty stomach,” said Harper. “If our children are our future, then they deserve to be well-nourished and taken care of by their parents, teachers and schools to reach their full potential. Providing them with school meals they need will make students more productive and focused on doing the best they can each day.”

Flowers represents the 31st District, which includes portions of the Auburn-Gresham community in Chicago, Oak Lawn, Chicago Ridge, Countryside and others. For more information, please contact Rep. Flowers’ constituent service office at 773-471-5200 or email her at maryeflowers@ilga.gov.

By Jesse Sharkey
Vice President, Chicago Teachers Union

Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel and his deep pocketed allies are sinking big bucks into a public relations campaign that attempts to rewrite the awful truth about his failed leadership of Chicago’s public schools. We’ve countered with a video of our own, #SameOldRahm, as part of our campaign to set the record straight on Emanuel’s deplorable education record. Check it out, share it and help get out the word that Rahm can’t run from his disgraceful record.

Emanuel also promised Tuesday to guarantee early childhood education for Chicago children – a day after damning news dropped about contract steering and corruption at CPS. Pre-K participation has actually nosedived by almost 20% since Rahm took office, and remaining programs have been grossly under-resourced — so we’ve taken aim at him for his pre-K double-talk, as well — including his new registration system that undermined parents’ attempts to enroll their kids.

Emanuel’s pre-K spin comes on the heels of a report that busted CPS for giving families in the city’s richest neighborhood special priority access to free, all-day preschool services, locking out children of poorer families. And he handed out over $1.1 million last month alone to Goldman Sacks and the other investors in his 2014 “social impact” bond deal to fund early childhood education, a move that could more than double investors’ dollars – and the costs to taxpayers.

To be blunt, we have a very bad boss. Yet we’ve held the line on his school privatization schemes, joined with allies and reporters to expose his fiscal and policy crimes, effectively challenged his despicable special education cuts, and are mounting strong contract actions and fightbacks across CPS. That’s a testament to our collective hard work, tireless advocacy and unity. Together, we can strengthen our fight to win the working conditions and the schools that our students and our members deserve — especially as we gear up for a contract fight this summer.

Jesse Sharkey
Vice President, Chicago Teachers Union

SPRINGFIELD, IL – Illinois State Rep. Sonya M. Harper, D-Chicago, is seeking to foster greater communication and understanding between students and school resource officers in neighborhood schools through training courses.

“Students should feel safe when they go to school, and parents should also have a sense of relief when their students are there. School resource officers can be a tremendous tool in fostering positive relationships between law enforcement and young people,” said Harper. “It’s time for local school resource officers to receive uniform training to best equip them to address restorative justice techniques, de-escalation best practices, crisis intervention, implicit bias and other techniques to help them best address the needs of every student who walks through those doors.”

Harper’s Senate Bill 2925 holds hold school resource officers to higher standards and requires the Enforcement Training Standard Board develop training courses for resources officers to better treat students with mental health issues, child abuse, adolescent developmental issues and more.

“Students face numerous struggles, especially those students who face the threats of school closures and may not live in healthy home environments,” said Harper. “The adults at school, at a minimum, need to be trained to be better caretakers and offer constructive guidance as students navigate personal and social challenges at a young age.”

Harper represents the 6th District, which includes all or portions of Armour Square, Bridgeport, Chicago Lawn, Englewood, Gage Park, Back of the Yards, Canaryville, New City, West Englewood, and Marquette Park. To stay up to date with upcoming events, legislation and neighborhood news, please contact Rep. Harper’s office at repsonyaharper@gmail.com.

CTU: Emanuel has imposed separate and unequal educational policies on the backs of our schoolchildren in defiance of Brown v. Board of Education.

CHICAGO, IL — CTU Vice President Jesse Sharkey issued the following statement today on the anniversary of the historic Supreme Court Brown v. Board of Education ruling:

“64 years ago today, the Supreme Court declared segregation in public education to be ‘inherently unequal’. Yet while Brown opened the door for generations of legal and social challenges to de facto racism in our public schools, in Chicago we still struggle with a school system that is profoundly separate and unequal. And the man who controls our schools and appoints their rulers – Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel – has escalated the inequality in our public education system.

“To Emanuel’s hand-picked school bureaucrats, our Black and Brown schoolchildren are inconvenient entries in an accounting ledger who deserve to be policed rather than educated – and at as little cost as possible. The infamous Willis wagons may be gone, but our overwhelmingly non-white, low-income students work from schoolbooks that are tattered and out of date, in schools that are filthy. Three-quarters of those schools lack libraries – and librarians. Our students are denied services to which they have a legal right, from special education supports to school nurses and social workers.

“To Emanuel, our Black and Brown students’ parents are a pesky impediment to gentrification schemes that are purging working class families of color from our city. He has hardened the lines of segregation by expanding magnet and selective enrollment schools, undermining the right that every community has to sustainable neighborhood public schools. He treats children as little more than a test score to advance his re-election campaigns, rather than as human beings with rights and dignity. He has snuffed out thriving school communities in Black and Brown neighborhoods over the righteous objections of parents and students, and shunted those students to the control of private charter operators who put the size of their paychecks over the needs of their students. He has purged Black educators from our schools – particularly veteran Black female educators deeply committed to the communities they serve. And he has insisted on maintaining a racist school funding formula that reinforces inequality instead of equitably funding our children’s needs as the state’s school funding formula demands.

“For the last seven years, Emanuel has imposed apartheid-like, separate and unequal educational policies on the backs of our schoolchildren and their families – in defiance of the Supreme Court’s Brown v. Board of Education ruling more than six decades ago. He may publicly criticize Trump and Rauner, but his actions dovetail perfectly with their racist agendas – and reinforce in our schools what Brown v. Board of Education sought to overturn. It’s time for Chicagoans to reject this racist inequality and give our residents what they have demanded for years: the right to democratically elect our school board rather than suffer under the tyranny of a mayor who reinforces our children’s bondage and thwarts their opportunities.”

350 teen problem-solvers from 60 schools will gather to present solutions to Chicago’s toughest issues at Mikva’s Action Civics Showcase

CHICAGO, IL – Following a school year of action, Chicago youth will gather to showcase their year-long activism effort to better their schools and neighborhoods at Chicago’s 16th Annual Action Civics Showcase on May 22, 2018 at The Bridgeport Art Center. Mikva Challenge will host the showcase in partnership with the Chicago Public Schools’ Department of Social Science and Civic Engagement. The morning will begin with a competition, inspired by the Aspen Challenge, for select projects with participants competing for a trip for their team to the nation’s capital.

To better understand and support refugee families in their community, youth leaders at Dever Elementary created an awareness campaign, organizing efforts with CPS, and raising funds for local organizations. To increase STEM education opportunities in their community, youth from Camelot Excel Academy of Southwest created prototype chargers to also power local businesses and community members. To address water access from school facilities, youth from Morgan Park High School secured grant funding to fix a water fountain in their building. Interested in immigration advocacy and civic action, students at Juarez hosted a voter education and registration events; lobbied in Washington, DC for a clean Dream Act; and had 140 students participate in an early voting field trip. To tackle the issues of gun violence and gun control, students at Farragut Career Academy hosted conversations with their state representatives–they met with Senator Sandoval, Representative Hernandez, and will meet with Representative Taberes in June.

“By working on a project to support refugee populations with my students, we’re learning that we don’t have to be constrained by the 4 walls of our school–we can act outside the classroom,” said Jane Leyderman from Dever Elementary.

Many of the projects to be presented at the Showcase received mini-grants from the Allstate Insurance Company. The Showcase is also being supported by the Bezos Family Foundation, Crown Family Philanthropies, Polk Bros Foundation, the Chicago Teachers Union Foundation and the Chicago Bar Foundation. Our classroom-based youth action teams are supported by Blue Cross Blue Shield of Illinois, the Brinson Foundation and the Augustana Henze Endowment.

When: Tuesday, May 22, 2018 from 4pm-6pm

Where: The Bridgeport Art Center, 1200 W 35th St, Chicago, IL 60609

Visuals: Over 350 young people will have their projects on display at the event. There will also be elected officials, teachers and community leaders at the event.

Action Civics Showcase 2018 – Project Highlights

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8,000 young people from 115 schools across Chicagoland participate in Mikva Challenge programs annually.  Named after Abner and Zoe Mikva, the Mikva Challenge is a non-partisan, nonprofit that develops youth to be informed, and active citizens and community leaders. We do this by engaging youth in action civics, an authentic and transformative learning process built on youth voice and youth expertise.

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