All of the speakers were compelling as they told of their fights against privatization, but it was the young Kellina Mojica who seemed to speak for all the parents and the students in attendance when she demanded, “we have a voice and want to be heard…whether you like it or not.”

Lois Ashford told the crowd about her personal experiences explaining, “”My school was turned around, I got angry, and joined CORE.”

Ashford then went on to introduce the CORE slate for the May union election to a loud round of applause.  Core Presidential nominee Karen Lewis excited the crowd exclaiming, “Teaching is a privilege and learning is a right”

After the keynote addresses, the attendees split into workshops to discuss plans for moving the agenda forward.   The summit achieved has already achieved at least one thing.   The list of school closings was supposed to be announced on the Friday before the summit, but was delayed in an effort to diminish turnout.  Over 400 people raised their voices loudly to let Ron Huberman know it didn’t work.

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GEM mobilized this massive protest against the Chicago Board of Education to end Renaissance 2010. For the first time, 6 schools were saved from phase-out, consolidation, turnaround, and closing.

The struggle is not over. The Board has just voted to push out Pulaski Fine Arts Academy from its own building, despite overwhelming community support for the school. The award-winning De La Cruz was closed down because according to the Board, “the neighborhood doesnt need a school” and then the Board leased the building to Juan Rangel’s UNO for $1.

CORE, along with our community partners at GEM, will continue to fight as long as there is injustice in the Chicago Public Schools. We will make as much video available as possible at COREtube.

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