Chicago Public School students and teachers
have taken to the streets in recent weeks, pleading with state and city
lawmakers to find new revenue to prevent deep cuts to public education.
Parents aren't standing on the sidelines, either. The Raise Your Hand
coalition, a new and growing group of parents representing over 250
schools in Chicago, lobbied hard in Springfield these past two months
to preserve level funding for education in the state's FY 2011 budget.
With
those negotiations now basically completed, the group is turning their attention to the city
budget, which the CPS board will scrutinize during a June 23 meeting. Yesterday, the group
delivered a letter to Mayor Daley's office requesting a meeting to
discuss the district's multi-million dollar deficit. The coalition
even attached a copy of our 2009 article analyzing the amount of TIF money that's diverted each year from schools. Read it below:
The Chicago City Council Zoning Committee is scheduled to vote on a proposed South Side Walmart store on Thursday. The chairman delayed the hearing by a month to give the mega-retailer more time to negotiate with local unions who want to see it raise its base wages. But Walmart officials cancelled a meeting between the parties scheduled for yesterday.
Mayor Daley's criticisms of lawmakers at the state and federal level are always widely reported. His inconsistency and hypocrisy should be part of the story as well.
After an unprecedented meeting with Walmart leadership failed to
produce follow-up discussions, the Chicago Federation of Labor is urging aldermen
to vote against zoning approval for Pullman Park, a giant South Side
development project that would be anchored by the city’s second
Wal-Mart. Jorge
Ramirez, the CFL’s secretary-treasurer, said the officials from the
mega-retailer were "going through the motions" during their meeting on
May
3. The committee is expected to discuss the proposal at its June 2
hearing.
With the threat of layoffs and classroom size increases looming, an estimated 4,000
Chicago Public School teachers rallied outside of district headquarters yesterday afternoon to express their rancor over proposed budget cuts. Facing a $600 million deficit, several teachers called on state lawmakers to pass a responsible budget and city officials to redirect tax increment financing money into schools. Watch it:
While speaking in front of the City Club of Chicago this morning, Mayor Richard Daley made a pledge
not to raise property taxes on local homeowners in this year's city
budget. He added that he does not want to burden the taxpayers while
so many are at risk of foreclosure.
