'No more auction block betrayals'... Mercenaries like Barbara Byrd Bennett have been betraying the Black Community for years
[Editor's note: The following remarks were prepared for delivery to the Chicago's Board of Education's April 24, 2013 meeting and are published here based on the original text prepared by the writer. As Substance has already reported, CPS security were ordered to remove the speaker from the podium after she had completed her remarks and was awaiting an answer to her questions].
On orders of Chicago schools "Chief Executive Officer" Barbara Byrd Bennett (above right, wearing her "What Would Harold Do?" shirt) is removed from the podium after demanding to know whether CPS officials have studied the reports proving that corporate school reform has increased, not decreased, the black-white "achievement gap" in Chicago. Seated behind the security officer ordered to perform the indignity it Jadine Chou, who was appointed from outside CPS to be the latest "Chief Officer for Security and Safety" by the current Board. Substance photo by George N. Schmidt. To: Members of the Chicago Board of Education From: Bonita Robinson
Chicago Board of Education Meeting – April 24, 2013
Thirty Pieces of Silver: The Mercenary Betrayal of African American Children Through Racist Corporate School “Reform”
I, too, like Chicago Public Schools’ CEO Barbara Byrd-Bennett, am a woman of color. However, unlike CEO Byrd-Bennett, who began her recent association with CPS on the heels of the execution of mass school closings in two other major cities, I began a life-long association with the Chicago Public Schools (CPS) upon entering kindergarten in 1956. I find her denial of the racist nature of Chicago’s proposed school closings to be disingenuous and dangerous to the well-being of African American students who deserve excellence and equity from the education that CPS delivers.
With more than a half-century of a direct connection with CPS as a student and educator, I find this current time of “reform” to be the most brutal, deceptive and racist era of all. Even my experiences attending classes in racist “Willis” wagons and in four-hour shifts in overcrowded schools in the 1960s pale in comparison to experiences that African American students today must confront, such as: the diversion of resources followed by the luring of student populations from neighborhood schools to charter schools; the denial of instructional time due to excessive testing practices; the decimation of African American teachers; the widening of the achievement-gap during the past two decades of failed CPS “reforms;” and the life-threatening destabilization of communities due to school closures.
To continue closing schools while cognizant of the havoc that such “reforms” have already wreaked on African American children, in terms of academics and safety, is not only racist, but is the embodiment of the most insidious type of racism that Carter G. Woodson warned about in his classic, The Mis-Education of the Negro. In the words of Dr. Woodson, Ms. Byrd-Bennett and this Board must cease trying to “justify the oppression of the race.”
Dr. Woodson expressed profound disappointment in African American professionals who allowed themselves to be used in the execution of oppressive acts against disenfranchised African Americans; and as one whose thirty-nine year career was dedicated to serving the children of Chicago for the long haul, I am outraged whenever I detect this deplorable ritual being practiced in CPS, by anyone, but especially by those who, like mercenaries, are “just passing through” on their career ladders. It is time to end this modern day Tuskegee Experiment that has been imposed by mayoral control and CPS policies. No school closings.
Question: Regarding the widening of the Black/White achievement gap during CPS school “reform,” did this Board discuss the admonition, given by the Consortium on Chicago School Research, that school closings may be a major contributor to this negative trend? (“Trends in Chicago’s Schools across Three Eras of Reform,” 2011, p18) If “no,” then add negligence to racism. If “yes,” please forward the records for that discussion.
[Bonita Robinson, a recently retired reading specialist was awarded the Illinois Governor’s Master Teacher Award while teaching at the Austin community’s Duke Ellington School during the era of the narrowing of the achievement gap. ]
By: Margaret Wilson
School Closings -- racism and classism
I agree with you that the school closings are racially motivated. There are a number of north side schools that have been on probation for the same period of time as the south side schools but are not being considered for closing or restructuring. This is because the Board knows that the parents wouldn't stand for it and that they would pull their children out of the school and either move to the suburbs or place their children in private schools.
Closing and restructuring is just one more attempt by CPS to do away with public schools and the union. The students in the receiving schools and restructured schools do not, for the most part, show a significant gain in test scores or academic performance so that can't be the reason. It can not be to save money because CPS actually spends more when a school is closed or restructured. I would like CPS to explain how they can say that it isn't a racial move when 95% of the students affected are children of color. The move is also based on classism because the fast majority of the children affected are from low income families. This continued attack needs to be stopped.