Chicago Budget Hearing at Malcolm X College... Rahm Emanuel dodges key questions while Forrest Claypool asks for more 'more time' regarding Dyett High School...
Part of the crowd at the city's budget hearing at Malcolm X College on August 31, 2015.A tumultuous crowd of more than 700 people were in attendance at the first of three City of Chicago budget hearings. The hearing was held at Malcolm X College on August 31, 2015, and featured Mayor Emanuel and several of his financial people, as well as Chicago Public Schools CEO Forrest Claypool and Board of Education Vice President Jesse Ruiz.
The audience was volatile breaking out in chants and at time making it difficult for the hearing to go on. A large number of people in the audience were supporters of the Dyett High School hunger strikers, some of whom were also there. They were concerned about the hunger strikers and demanded that the mayor stop stalling on the approval of the proposal to create the global citizenship high school at Dyett.
The mayor and his education aides agreed to meet with the people from Dyett after the budget hearing, but according to late reports the mayor and his team have continued stalling despite the fact that the Dyett situation has been developing since Emanuel took office in May 2011 and the hunger strikers are now going into their 15th day.
Rham Emanuel listened to complaints and referred people to "staff" that were present. The mayor also seemed to listen more than usual and answered some (not all) of the questions.
Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel (above right) on stage during the first of three budget forums, held at Malcolm X College on August 31, 2015. The hunger strikers arrived from Operation PUSH and talked with the Mayor, School CEO Forrest Claypool and Board of Education Vice President Jesse Ruiz.
The Mayor said that he had "been listening at meeting with them at Bret Hart School when they agreed to go through the application process."
Claypool kept telling the group that CPS needed "more time," despite the fact that the Dyett proposal had been around for more than four years.The strikers were told that CPS should have a decision by Thursday, September 3 (this week). During the discussion, Ann, one of the hunger strikers fainted and an ambulance was called.
One woman, in a pink dress told Mayor Emanuel that he has done "nothing" to help the her ward in Chicago. Several people voiced the same opinion.
Although the mayor held similar budget forums in the summer of 2011, he had not done so during 2012, 2013 or 2014. Many of those who spoke out against the mayor's budget priorities were teachers, parents, and PSRPs from the city's public schools.
Activists from Action Now and other groups reminded the Malcolm X budget hearing that both Chicago and the Chicago Board of Eduction had lost hundreds of millions of dollars to the world's largest banks because of the "toxic swaps." (Chicago Teachers Union photo).At least one observer noted that the mayor and his aides continue to dominate the narrative by focusing all of the attention on their two main talking points: that the solution has to come from "Springfield" and that there is a massive "pension crisis" (that also needs to be solved in Springfield). The City of Chicago budget presentation, like the Chicago Board of Education's budget presentations on August 18 (the budget hearings) and August 26 (the Board of Education meeting that approved the "Final Budget") both leave out the biggest piece of revenue for Chicago and Chicago's public schools -- local property taxes. In both forums, city and school officials have so far been allowed to talk about the Chicago budget as if Chicago's own property taxes had no possible role to play in resolving the issues everyone was addressing.
The hearings continue on Wednesday and Thursday. Some are predicting larger turnouts than the one that began the process at Malcolm X.
