Meeks, Blago May Actually Meet Over School Funding

UPDATE
From the AP:

Now that state Senator James Meeks has called off his Chicago school boycott, he and Governor Rod Blagojevich are working out a meeting date to discuss plans to help underfunded schools.

Meeks says the governor's office has suggested Monday or Tuesday as possible dates.

Meeks wants the governor and legislative leaders to agree to a short-term funding plan and to discuss a long-term overhaul of Illinois' education funding system. He wants a special legislative session to pass the short-term plan immediately into law.

Blagojevich spokesman Lucio Guerrero says the governor is happy to talk with Meeks but it's up to the legislature to approve funding.

Meeks staged a school boycott earlier this week, and hundreds of Chicago public school students skipped classes for two days to protest poor funding.

UPDATE

Story continues below

Around 9 p.m. Wednesday, the rev. and state Sen. James Meeks ended the two-day Chicago Public Schools boycott he organized to protest inequitable education funding. The move is a response to Gov. Blagojevich, who refused to discuss school funding with Meeks while students were held out of class.

"We've decided to call the boycott off, to call the governor's bluff and to seek a meeting with him (Thursday) so that our kids can return to school," Meeks said at a late evening news conference at King High School on the South Side, flanked by Chicago ministers.

UPDATE

The boycotting students have made their way to City Hall, Fran Spielman reports in the Sun-Times Wednesday afternoon:

Two circles of Chicago Public School students -- one with 15 students, the other with 10 -- are sitting on the floor outside the mayor's office trying to pay attention to two teachers and ignore the news media around them. [...] Meeks said he took the protest to the mayor's office, and the lobbies of Chicago's most prominent downtown businesses, because Daley has paid only lip service to school funding reform.

Meeks faults Daley for not using his considerable leverage to force the state legislature to alter the method of school funding:

"Concepts don't pass Springfield. Bills do. You can't support the concept of a bill. You have to support the actual bill. You have . . . to pick up the phone and call [House Speaker] Mike Madigan and say, 'I support this bill.' You have to call [Senate President] Emil Jones and Gov. Blagojevich. . . .You have to call other legislators and say, 'Get behind this bill,' "Meeks said.

"Mayor Daley doesn't support the concept of an Olympics. He supports the Olympics. And we need him to support an actual school funding bill, which he has not in six years.

The mayor is a very influential person. But the mayor can't keep supporting just the concept of school funding [reform]. He has to get behind a particular bill . . . then use all of his authority to make it pass."

UPDATE

The Chicago Public School boycott continues Wednesday, shifting its focus from the well-appointed classrooms of suburban New Trier to a "teach-in" in the downtown offices of Chicago corporations.

From the Tribune:

Some of the same students who traveled to New Trier High School's Northfield campus on Tuesday are expected to sit in the lobbies of buildings including the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, City Hall, Boeing Corp. and Aon Insurance, according to a Meeks spokeswoman. Forty educators will deliver four hours of daily instruction during the boycott that's expected to last through Friday.

But unlike the well-prepared New Trier administrators, Meeks told Chicago Public Radio that he only has permission from one of the organizations the group plans to visit.

Listen to Meeks' interview with WBEZ here.
--------

"Hundreds of Chicago Public Schools students skipped the first day of classes Tuesday and attempted to enroll at two North Shore schools in a symbolic move to protest the financial divide in Illinois public education," The Chicago Tribune reports.

Shortly after 11 a.m., buses from Chicago began pulling in to New Trier Township High School's Northfield campus as teachers, administrators and community members were waiting to welcome the 30 buses.

Protesters wearing bright orange T-shirts, saying, "Save Our Schools NOW" were greeted by welcome signs held by New Trier school officials and parents.

Megan Davy, a New Trier parent from Kenilworth, talked to children as they waited to cross the street and walk into New Trier's Northfield campus. When protest organizer state Sen. James Meeks (D-Chicago) stepped off the bus, surrounded by ministers who supported his cause, Davy stepped forward to personally welcome him.

"This is civil disobedience at its finest," Davy said. "I may disagree with some of the methods, but it's so important to open dialogue."

Similarly upbeat takes on the boycott, organized by the Rev. and state Sen. James Meeks, were peppered throughout the Sun-Times' account:

As four buses pulled into New Trier's Northfield campus parking lot, half a dozen parents of former and current New Trier students waved signs. One sign read: "We can all learn something today." Another read: "All kids need good schools."

Students from one arriving bus shouted out of the windows: "We love you, New Trier!"

Though the paper did find one unmoved New Trier student:

One New Trier student, who attends the school's Winnetka campus, described the boycott as "a big publicity stunt."

"They are trying to make it racial," said New Trier senior, Andrew Scherer, 17. "It's a better media story."

The turnout, which was expected to be near 2,000, is a matter of debate. Meeks refused to estimate a total:

When Pioneer Press asked him how many student boycotters there were today he avoided the question saying "you have cameras" and gestured behind him to his crowd of selected supporters.

When Pioneer Press asked him to estimate and asked him where it fell on a scale of 100-500, he would not answer. "You print 100 and I will say 3,000 and we will see who is right," he said. One woman in his crowd yelled, "One hundred thousand!"

CBS 2's Dorothy Tucker pegged the total around 700 students and 300 parents:

Mayor Daley blasted Meeks as "selfish" for staging the protest on the first day of school:

"Why don't you do it in June? Why don't you do it in July when they're out? Why do you tell them not to go to school today? It's very selfish," Daley told reporters after ringing the ceremonial bell at the new Sir Miles Davis Academy, 6740 S. Paulina.

"You can get frustrated. But you cannot use children in any capacity to get some political decision made."

But Meeks countered that he was "following in the mayor's footsteps" after Daley, Chicago Public Schools CEO Arne Duncan and School Board President Rufus Williams sanctioned the absence of 30,000 CPS students for a school day rally at Soldier Field on June 10.

Read New Trier Supt. Linda Yonke's email to parents in advance of the protest here.

Comments

[rwe]

you gotta think if Meeks really wanted to make an impression by bussing the Kids to a suburban school , he should have at least gotten them there on time for first period instead of 11am

[obamaisdukakis]

Obama's training ground. Children suffer for political gain. sad

[easarsfield]

I think the issue here really involves more than just educating CPS students.

What about the environments these kids come from? The impoverished neighborhoods of Chicago are rife with drugs, gangs, violence, teen pregnancies, etc. School should be an escape from all of this, an outlet that encourages children to seek a better life for themselves.

I hear an awful lot about what is wrong with these schools, but I don't hear a whole lot about what needs to be done to fix them. Are teachers ill equipped in the classroom; do students need better books, more up to date technology, more arts and afterschool programs??

What are we doing to hold these parents accountable for the education of their children? What about the kids that don't have parents at home, pushing them to study and do their homework?

The failure of these students is a community problem, and it is going to take their communities to solve them.

[cheferic]

I read the email message that was sent to parents (the link is at the bottom of the article). How can someone be referred to as the ' Reverend and state senator ' doesn't one title have to be left at home to be able to use the other ? Does The reverend preach in church as 'state senator ' ?;because it seems like he is governing ('senatoring ' isn't a word according to my spell check -maybe ' representing' is the word )
the people, as a reverend. So if Al Sharpton were president it would be "Reverend President "?.

[endtyranny]

I feel so bad for these kids, every day I see the headlines about the disastrous situation at CPS. The sad part is that they're not asking for New Trier standards, but an improvement in they're current situation (which is deplorable).

[rjmiller]

Speaking as a New Trier alumn, I agree that there is a problem with the Illinois method of education funding based off local property taxes. However, the reason that there exists such a difference in funding between suburban schools and inner city schools is not so simple (although it accounts for a lot).

The New Trier district residents have repeatedly passed referendums to increase their taxes to pay for local schools. These highly rated public schools are the biggest draw for people moving to these suburbs. Therefore it is in the interest of local residents to make the schools as good as possible, with the end result that their property values rise more than their taxes.

[easarsfield]

The Chicago Public School system could use a total overhaul.

But there are some great points to the system. They've got some wonderful charter schools, where entry is based on meeting a level of high academic standards. They've got schools for the performing arts, etc.

I think the big problem is parents are not demanding more from the CPS. A lot of them do not pay attention to their children's academic performance. I think that has a direct correlation with the drop out rate.

I guess I don't understand why these kids are being bused up to a school that is located in a SUBURB of Chicago.

Are there obscene differences in the quality of education in wealthy burbs vs. the city of chicago? yes. I grew up in Orland Park, the public schools there are fantastic. But the tax dollars of Orland Park fund the awesome education that is offered to it's residents. The City of Chicago needs to step it up and do the same for theirs.

[shelsay]

The state of Illinois and CPS are only committed to educating a small percentage of the chicago public school students. The magnet schools are excellent...but they can only educate so many kids...so only those kids are getting a good education.

I grew up in the city and went to a private school and it was expensive then, but now it's like paying for college. New Trier students get an education worth roughly $20G. CPS students get an education worth half that. Our city has too much wealth (and planning to spend billions on the Olympics) for this to be the case. Illinois is ranked 48th in funding for education.

[Thirdpower]

So explain why the state average is LESS THAN what CPS receives yet no district except CPS has drop out rates of 50% .

[rwe]

Hey , pay attention,,,, Chicago education has been run by Democrats and Teachers uniions for perpetuity.... and stinks , why should we think Barack will do anything on a national basis when he has done nothing in his 8 years here.

[Eric8869]

If you're still a Republican after the last 8 years you need your head examined.