Emmet Elementary School by Jessica Rodrigue

The haunting photograph above by Jessica Rodrigue captures and embodies disinvestment and institutional violence. Emmet Elementary school is located on the Westside of Chicago. Today, as students return to school across the city, Emmet stands padlocked and empty. It is one of the 49 schools that were closed by CPS.

I am anxious and unsettled. I’m worried about this school year. Already, I am hearing from teacher friends that they have class rosters with 35 and 38 students. The mother of Asean Johnson, a 9 year old who came to national attention this Spring during protests against school closings, appeared on television this weekend to say that while her son’s school was saved from closing, he’ll have over 35 peers in his 4th grade classroom. This is in no way conducive to a quality education. Anyone who has spent ten minutes in a classroom can tell you this. Frankly, anyone who has been around two children for any length of time can attest to the difficulty of keeping them engaged and on task for an hour, let alone seven…

I fear that CPS is consigning a significant number of our young people to the trash bin; treating them as disposable.

Bontemps Elementary by Bill Healy (WBEZ)

So I am anxious and unsettled.

I don’t trust the Chicago Public Schools. They are incompetent and yet we are expected to rely on them to keep children safe through the biggest upheaval that our schools have ever experienced. In a rush job, CPS has contracted with community groups to hire “Safe Passage” workers. I understand that the process has been chaotic and that as school begins many workers have still not had their background checks approved. Additionally, as WBEZ reported last week, some of the safe passage routes are plagued by violence.

So I am anxious and unsettled.

Overton Elementary by Isis Ferguson (taken yesterday 8/25/13)

I know who will be blamed when the violence flares and the test scores plummet. It won’t be the corporate elites and the craven elected officials who set this travesty in motion. It will be the ones who are always blamed for systemic failures: the people most harmed by them. Those people are the poor, the black & brown, and the already marginalized in our city.

So I am anxious and unsettled.

Overton Elementary by Isis Ferguson (taken yesterday 8/25/13)

I write and think a lot about the school-to-prison pipeline (STPP). People sometimes have difficulty understanding the concept. But it is really a simple one to grasp. What’s currently happening in Chicago, Philadelphia, New York, and so many other places provides an illustration of the HOW of the STPP. What are the systemic forces that contribute to pushing children out of schools and into our criminal legal system? The current school closure binge and its attendant budget cuts ARE those forces.

So I am anxious and unsettled.

Parkman Elementary by Bill Healy (WBEZ)

On the eve of the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, we have before us a set of challenges that remain unresolved. We have an opportunity in our generation to fight for true education and economic justice. I’ve been privileged to live in a city where people continue to resist the forces of neoliberalism that insist on privatizing all of the commons. We understand that without struggle, there can be no progress. So we keep on struggling even in the face of tough odds. We don’t give up. We fight. Because if we do not fight, we cannot win.

Join us on August 28th on Education as a Human Right Day as we rally against CPS school closings and budget cuts and demand education justice.