BOARDWATCH: Student testimony at CPS meeting... 'We are the children. We are the future....'
[Editor's Note: A large number of CPS students showed up to speak at the July 24, 2013 meeting of the Chicago Board of Education. The following are the remarks made by one of those students who attended the July 24 meeting. Our report on the meeting also quotes them, although not at such length.]
Beatrice Ebijimi speaking to the Chicago Board of Education on July 24, 2013. Substance photo by George N. Schmidt."You know me as 40675744, but today I am more than an I.D. Number. I am the state of education. I am the future. I am a student and I need you to listen to me.
As students, the weight of education and its bearing on our lives is continuously echoed. The message is clear. Education is important. Not only is it key to a greater fate as individuals, but also a greater fate as a society. We are the children. We are the future. Our education now affects all that is to come hereafter.
As students, we ask, if our education is so significant, so monumental in gravity as to decide the fate of the world as we know it, why is CPS attempting to take it away?
You, the unelected school board, claim you want better greater literacy, higher graduation rates, and an all around better education for us students. I mean your board meeting stickers even say "Children First", but your actions truly say otherwise.
Do you expect us students to gain a better education when your $90 million budget cuts take away our books, our classes, our resources, 1,077 of our support staff, 1,036 of our teachers, and even our toilet paper? Do you expect us students to believe you care about us when you close 48 of our elementary schools and force 5-14 year old children to cross gang lines just to learn? Or do you expect us students to be hopeful when you privatize our schools and reject all responsibility for our futures? CPS, do you expect us to climb to success, when you are cutting us off at the knees?
You are disinvesting, disinteresting, and dismissing us students.
Appointed board members, CPS, Rahm Emanuel, I am pleading to your intelligence and to your hearts. Take the people's taxes, their tifs, the people's money and pay it back. Make our education your personal business. Invest in our schools. Not stadiums, not hotdogs. Invest in our public schools. By doing so, you will not only be investing us, the students, but also our communities, our city, and our future as a whole.
Are you listening to me now?"
- Beatrice: I was unable to finish my speech because I broke down when listing the injustices students face at the hand of CPS. Below is more:
"I am a student. You may know me as 39979160.
I come today not to speak to you about issues that are not in your control or about issues that you have no interest in changing. Instead, I will speak about issues that you can choose to change in this exact same meeting. In the past, CPS held their board meetings in the community where parking was readily available. Speakers were chosen at on first come first serve basis. On top of that, the meetings were held in the evening when people were available to come. Not only have the voices of speakers been reduced, but also the voices of all members of the public. Not only is there a reduced limit to the amount of people that can stand in solidarity with a speaker, but also the opportunity to stand in solidarity with more than one person before being kicked out. So I ask you, how is it that what is supposed to be a public forum is being held during work and school hours? Are you scared of large crowds? How is it that in the last board meeting during the public speaker section, where people register online over a week in advance, only half of the speakers could miss work or school in order to actually speak?
This undemocratic system that you have created has only proven to students, parents, teachers, and all citizens alike that you are scared of what the public has to say. If that is not the case humor us and hold your meetings at a reasonable time where the general public can actually attend. Then change the speaker selection process to something that cant be infiltrated like your online process. Finally once you're comfortable with those changes, try leaving your comfy seats and actually go into the communities and interact with us as you always say you do. Until then, all I can ask is are you listening to us now?"
