Thursday, February 25, 2010 – 6:08 pm
Today eight Chicago Public Schools were closed or “turned around” by a secret Board of Education vote. Abandoning past practice, the Board did not have a public roll call vote. Mary Richardson-Lowry, the new Board President, simply ordered to “record the last positive vote,” not even mentioning the schools by name, but referred coldly to [...]
Wednesday, February 24, 2010 – 4:26 pm
An impressive crowd including Deneen students and parents, Jonathan Jackson and some Operation PUSH members, and about a dozen CORE members took to the streets on February 23rd to protest CPS’s plan to turn Deneen school over to AUSL for their turnaround experimentation. AUSL remains the turnover agency of choice in CPS despite new studies [...]
Monday, January 11, 2010 – 5:54 pm
At Malcolm X College Saturday, hundreds of people stepped forward to demand the the city stop privatizing our schools and end Renaissance 2010 once and for all. The day began with keynote speeches by Lily Gonzalez who helped lead the fight against closing Peabody School last year, Kellina Mojica of Chicago Youth Initiating Change, Lois [...]
Wednesday, January 6, 2010 – 9:34 pm
CTA management is threatening to lay off 1,000 bus drivers on February 7th. CPS plans to close or turnaround another 25-30 schools, displacing hundreds of teachers, PSRPs, and career service workers. With unemployment at a 30 year high and families more dependent on food stamps and medicaid than ever, caseworkers have unworkable caseloads of up [...]
Tuesday, December 22, 2009 – 11:53 am
Tickets are now available for Master Harold and the Boys at Timeline Theatre on February 11, 7:30 p.m. This award-winning play which was banned in South Africa when it was first produced in 1982, is now being made into a film in that country. The work of author Athol Fugard is distinguised for conveying strong [...]
Monday, December 14, 2009 – 5:35 pm
Last January, history was made when over 500 parents, students, and activists turned out at Malcolm X College to protest Renaissance 2010 and Chicago’s turnaround school policy. Shortly after, CPS changed their mind on 6 schools that were slated for closing. Unfortunately, since 2004 over 70 CPS sch0ols have been closed and over 10 percent [...]
Sunday, November 22, 2009 – 9:51 pm
With school book budgets severely cut this year, many classrooms are looking for books. One source of books often overlooked by teachers struggling to find required texts for their classroom is the Illinois Textbook Relocation Program. Download one of the spreadsheets below, contact the schools, and the books will be ready for pick-up. Recently, CORE [...]
Tuesday, November 17, 2009 – 4:55 pm
Close elections seem to breed recounts, so it was no surprise when pension board incumbent Nancy Williams (UPC) demanded a recount after the first pension election results showed her losing to Lois Ashford (CORE) by 43 votes for the final teacher trustee spot. The other pension board vacancy was also won by CORE with Jay [...]
Sunday, November 15, 2009 – 3:09 pm
In response to the tragic news of Chicago Board of Education President Michael Scott’s death, the co-chairs of the Caucus of Rank-and-file Educators (CORE), whose members have testified at each Board of Education monthly meeting for the past 18 months, often engaging Mr. Scott in a dialogue on improving Chicago’s schools, issued the following statement. [...]
