Dr. King risked his life in the fight to overcome oppression, there are many like him. The fact that he was a minister and connected his religious beliefs to the struggle for justice is similar to my own journey. But in thinking of my work as a community organizer in Chicago, many religious leaders in this time have harmed others (indirectly or otherwise) and avoid addressing larger systematic issues with their lack of involvement or involvement in risky spaces. Now let me be transparent that I am not a religious leader. But I was born to a family of six generations of preachers, do I know their burdens in doing there work, not as much as I could if I were one. My father is a Pastor and we are really close and I talk to him about my frustrations and even address him with issues I have problems within his own work. I would rather tell the truth about the issues so we address them sooner--even to our religious leaders.
Just this past week there was news that a Chicagloand Pastor will potentially be supporting the expansion of a Charter School through his institutions. While the conversation around Charters Schools in Chicago leaves many divided or un-invited, there are elements in the debate that are real, and are problematic, and deserves advocacy around because of the negative impacts Charter School proliferation is having in Chicago... affecting "limited resources", and further dividing social economic class in the City in same cases, favoring the few over many.
The Chicago Public Schools closed 50 schools last year because of budget issues. These school actions have impacted families and students all over the City. No doubt have brought some hardships to families. I know in a school community I work closely with they are still struggling with parent and student tensions, lack of program space because of the enrollment growth, and CPS has no official policy to continue to support welcoming schools with resources after this academic year, while the issues may continue to exist. The issue of "under-utilization", the policy that guided these closures, was problematic. As a member of a statewide group charged to research and work with CPS around facilities, CPS never engaged around joint use development (sharing space inside schools with needed community resources that is cost effective), never altered the formula that determines utilization even though highly criticized and against research around smaller class size and its effectiveness. In addition the district delayed a 10 year long facility plan that could have minimized closures, protected small class size, and supported educational programming in schools. For me the bigger picture of planning to optimize our schools was something that was important to me as a mother who will be in the system longer then 10 years. And now this week CPS will be approving the expansion of Charter Schools, some politically connected, and in communities that do not need overcrowding relief. This goes against what CPS officials have said, and insults the families that have been negatively impacted by school closures for budget reasons.
The public schools that serve so many of our students that need support continue to have actions and policies bestowed upon them that impact some of the City's most vulnerable children, many are my neighbors, friends, but most importantly by own children.The new student based budgeting CPS has designed for this academic year further equalizes Charter School funding with Public Schools funding and can continue to provide more burdens for Public Schools.
This is an issue about equality and justice. And we need religious leaders to support and educate parishioners about the duty to live our beliefs and support changing a system. The work of religious leaders like Dr. King and others in history was not popular, and did not always have a lot of support, but the institutions that were mobilized helped to educate and galvanize critical mass. I can name so many religious leaders in the City that I would hope can start asking the questions to themselves and others:
1. What are the barriers to a quality education for children in low income communities and the public schools they learn in?
2. Why are practices against best practice research being implemented and used consistently in Chicago's public education system?
3. Why are policies and practices allowing political insiders to benefit financially from sacred and "scarce" educational resources such as tax dollars, facility construction, buildings, and educational support programming at the expense of others?
From here we can create real conversations about what is right and what we need to fix. Folks ask the question if King was here what would he say or do. I have no doubt that he would support speaking truth to power and working to change oppressive systems. The state of public education in Chicago needs to be addressed, not folks figuring out how to make small gains in the system, especially that benefit the few.
