Chicago teachers marched past Marshall High School during the strike.
Anne and I took two cars to Peets this morning.
After my latte and bagel I headed off to Marshall High School on Chicago’s west side.
The CTU and other community and parent groups are meeting all day today to talk about the next steps. They are calling it an education summit.
There are issues of funding, curriculum, school closings and charters. And, of course, an elected school board.
The summit began in the beautiful auditorium of Marshall. The building is an architectural gem.
As CTU VP Jesse Sharkey pointed out in his opening speech that Marshall’s well-maintained building stands as a model of what public management of public institutions can do. He compared it to the failure of private and privatized services to the surrounding neighborhood of empty residential lots and fresh food shopping deserts.
There were more inspirational words from KOCO’s Jitu Brown who pointed out that those in the auditorium, a room full of school activists, showed what regular people can do, as he gave a history lesson on the past 20 years of struggle.
Of asking the question: Whose schools?
And giving the answer: Our schools!
And I got to see old friends.
And made some new ones.
Fred Klonsky 