Teachers, union to commemorate Dr. King with march against turnaround at Marquette Elementary School
Led by the Chicago Teachers Union and CTU President Karen Lewis, teachers, parents, students and community leaders plan to commemorate the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. holiday on Monday, January 16, 2012, with a march at rally against school turnarounds at Marquette Elementary School, 6550 S. Richmond in Chicago. The event is scheduled to begin at 10:30 a.m. on the day, which is a school holiday.
The union also denounced the turnaround proposals and Chicago Public Schools executives who are promoting closings and turnarounds this year.
THE FOLLOWING PRESS RELEASE WAS ISSUED BY THE CTU ON JANUARY 13, 2012
Parents, teachers and students to commemorate MLK Holiday with March to Save Marquette School. CTU President Karen Lewis says “education justice is the civil rights issue of our day”
CHICAGO- Hundreds of parents, teachers, students and community residents are expected to participate in a march for education justice on Jan. 16th in honor of the Martin Luther King, Jr. National Holiday. Demonstrators, including Chicago Teachers Union President Karen GJ Lewis, will assemble at 10:30 a.m. at Marquette Elementary School, 6550 S. Richmond Street. Marquette Elementary is targeted by the Chicago Public Schools (CPS) for its controversial “turnaround” model.
“Education justice is the civil rights issue of our day,” said Lewis. “I am pleased to join these parents, teachers and their students in the fight to save Marquette school from takeover by the Academy of Urban School Leadership (AUSL). This unproven turnaround model is disruptive not only to the staff but also the children who are kept in under-resourced schools. Imagine the leaps in student academic performance and the increased retention of qualified teachers if CPS invested in the transformation of schools rather than destroying them. Fifteen years of failed experiments by CPS have had a devastating impact on our students and neighborhoods.”
For the past several weeks Marquette parents and educators have led the charge to protect their school from takeover by AUSL. Nearly $25 million will be directed to elementary schools targeted for turnaround managed by the program. The teachers union has questioned potential conflicts of interests given the current Board president, David Vitale, and CPS’s chief administrative officer, Tim Cawley, are closely affiliated with the group.
Recently Cawley came under fire for admitting CPS deliberately starves struggling schools for up to a decade before the District recommends drastic measures. Saying the District believed in getting “more bang for (its)… buck,” Cawley said, “If we think there’s a chance that a building is going to be closed in the next five to 10 years… we’re not going to invest in that building.” Parents across the city universally denounced his remarks as appalling.
The CTU maintains that all students deserve access to quality schools that include smaller class sizes; a robust, comprehensive curriculum, in-school services that address their social, emotional, intellectual and health needs; and professional teachers who are treated as such, in fully resourced school buildings that welcome both parents and community.
Comments:
By: Kimberly Bowsky
Honoring MLK & Civil Rights Fights
Right on, Brother John. As we think about the impact of MLK's words, we have to ask the opponents of the Chicago Teachers' Union and public education: Do you know you're on the wrong side of history? MLK marched FOR the rights of poor and minority children to have equal access to quality PUBLIC school education, and for DESEGREGATION. Charter schools, neighborhood closings, dishonoring deseg orders, and turnarounds REsegregate our children and cut them off from the dream of the slave...
By: John Whitfield
10 famous Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. quotes
1. Hate cannot drive out hate.
2. The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort or convenience,but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy
3. I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality. That is why right, temporarily defeated, is stronger than evil triumphant.” –
4. 'Hatred paralyzes life'
“Hatred paralyzes life; love releases it. Hatred confuses life; love harmonizes it. Hatred darkens life; love illum'Let no man pull you low...'
5. “Let no man pull you low enough to hate him
6. 'Injustice anywhere...'
“In justice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” –
7. 'Highest respect for the law'
“I submit that an individual who breaks a law that conscience tells him is unjust, and who willingly accepts the penalty of imprisonment in order to arouse the conscience of the community over its injustice, is in reality expressing the highest respect for the law.” –
8. Something he will die for...'
“I submit to you that if a man hasn't discovered something he will die for, he isn't fit to live.” –Detroit
9. 'Brothers'
“The good neighbor looks beyond the external accidents and discerns those inner qualities that make all men human and, therefore, brothers." –Strength to Love
10. 'Cruel irony'
“We have been repeatedly faced with a cruel irony of watching Negro and white boys on TV screens as they kill and die together for a nation that has been unable to seat them together in the same school room.” –Why I Am Opposed to the War in Vietnam
for a more comprehensive commentary of these famous ten quotes, I went to Rev. Dr, Martin Luther King Jr.'s famous quotes, and the above came up under Christian Science Monitor
with detailed descriptions of each of the ten.
Thank you sister Norine, and CTU staff for this great event planned at Marquette School.