Chicago Students Skip School in Funding Protest
Jenny Song, AP, September 2, 2008
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More than 1,000 Chicago public school students skipped the first day of classes Tuesday to protest unequal education funding, a boycott organizers said would continue through the week with help from retired teachers who will turn office lobbies into impromptu classrooms.
The students took church buses 30 miles north to the wealthy suburb of Northfield, where they filled out applications to enroll in the better-funded New Trier district. The move was largely symbolic because students must pay tuition to attend a school outside their home district.
The turnout fell short of the thousands organizers expected, and was a tiny fraction of the more than 400,000 students who attend Chicago public schools, but protesters and their parents said they’re willing to keep the boycott going as long as it takes to persuade state officials to give their district more money.
{snip}
On Wednesday, boycott organizers will attempt to set up impromptu classrooms at Chicago City Hall and the state’s James R. Thompson Center,as well as in the lobbies of more than a dozen Chicago corporations, including Boeing Co. and Aon Corp., that support Chicago’s bid to host the 2016 Summer Olympics.
{snip}
In Illinois, property taxes account for about 70 percent of school funding, meaning rural and inner-city schools generally end up with less to spend per student than suburban schools in areas with higher property values.
Chicago Public Schools spent $11,300 per student last year. New Trier High School spent $17,500 per student, near the top in the state.
Meeks is pushing for a pilot program that would distribute $120 million to four clusters of schools—high schools and their feeder schools—on Chicago’s West Side, South Side, south suburbs and downstate. The governor and legislative leaders have made no promises.
“I do not believe that a child’s education should be based on where they live,” Meeks said. He compared the issue to apartheid in South Africa and said the situation makes it difficult for children to rise from poverty.
“We undereducated these kids’ parents, we undereducated their grandparents and now we’re in the process of undereducating them,” Meeks said.
{snip}
On the bus ride to the suburban district, volunteers told the children they were taking part in a historic event similar to the bus boycott in Alabama in the 1950s.
{snip}
(Posted on September 3, 2008)
Comments
The money never, ever go to the under served kids. The money as in Africa ends up in corrupt pockets. This is almost 60 years from the fraudulent Supreme Court ruling of Brown v. Board of Education. After billions and billions of dollars, the blacks are regressing rather than progressing in being educated. The latest joke is the No Child Left Behind program. There needs to be selective breeding put in place, merit based in getting a job, admission to schools, etc., etc. There will always be a small percentage of blacks who will be able to stand on their two feet. The rest needs to be contained in their reproducing otherwise crime and poverty will always be a problem for the rest of society. Selective breeding will be mandatory as society becomes more complex.
Posted by at 5:42 PM on September 3
HA HA HA HA
I sent my kids to Chicago public schools and they got ACT test scores of 27, 30 and 32. Imagine that; they scored higher than the average New trier students! These scores ( 27, 30, 32 )are above the average of 17.6 for Chicago Public School students.
There is nothing wrong with Chicago public schools.
What is wrong is the type of students attending.
It’s the old nature VS nurture arguement.
In my opinion, nature trumps.
Posted by Chicago resident at 5:46 PM on September 3
“In Illinois, property taxes account for about 70 percent of school funding, meaning rural and inner-city schools generally end up with less to spend per student than suburban schools in areas with higher property values.”
Perhaps Meeks and company should consider measures to make the neighborhoods these alleged students inhabit something other than worthless, thereby increasing tax revenues.
This absurd thing was all over local media today. It was really an attempt at intimidation and bullying, and was otherwise a textbook example of the sort of slogan-chanting, fist-waving pseudo-riot at which blacks are especially adept. Apparently no responsibility whatsoever resides with ghetto blacks themselves for their miserable academic profile.
Posted by Cassiodorus at 5:49 PM on September 3
“The turnout [of 1000] fell short of the thousands organizers expected, and was a tiny fraction of the more than 400,000 students who attend Chicago public schools…”
Yes, a VERY tiny fraction. 1/400th, to be precise. Only ONE student out of every FOUR HUNDRED thought this was worthwhile.
Is a boycott observed by only 0.25% of a population really worth reporting on? It is if you’re today’s MSM… and if the boycotters are black.
Posted by The Incredible Shrinking White Man at 6:00 PM on September 3
Tuesday was probably the most productive day academically speaking in the recent history of the Chicago Public Schools.
Chicago’s district probably gets more money per capita than the districts these parents were seeking to “transfer” their children to.
Posted by Question Diversity at 6:19 PM on September 3
Check out the video of ths ranting and raving Black “Rev” Meeks who is leading this protest movement:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yM2M11BsA3g
I kind of like the fact that America is finally getting some new Black hate Whitey leaders. I was more than bored with Jessie Jackson, Al Sharpton.
Posted by JR at 6:20 PM on September 3
They’ll treat the races any kind of way in order to reduce the gaps. Thus the current establishment is willing to do for real what they accuse white segregationists of doing.
Posted by at 6:20 PM on September 3
Chicago public school students are going to boycott Boeing aircraft maker? I think I’m starting to feel sorry for them for real.
Posted by at 6:23 PM on September 3
And how much you want to bet that the majority of these kids joined the “protest” just to get out of school.
Posted by RHG at 6:25 PM on September 3
The suburb SW of Chicago in which I live/taught spends far, far less per pupil than Chicago schools yet our state test scores are in the upper 5% of all schools in Illinois. And our town is not tennis or polo country, either.
1) Better teachers? I’d like to think so.
2) More interested parents? Yes, and almost all interested in their kids and married, too. How novel!
3) Natively more intelligent students? Absolutely.
I just can’t guess what other factor makes for better achievement out here 35 miles from the Loop. Might it be that our school is 99% White?
Posted by Annoyed In Illinois at 6:34 PM on September 3
“I do not believe that a child’s education should be based on where they live,” Meeks said
Where ever are these people when it comes reckoning time about white schools that receive less funding? And there are many, many schools like this. In some cases, a majority. Could it be because that’s a Nazi-like thing to concern oneself with?
Personally, I’m just a dummie, and I do think schools should be funded equally.
The issue is racism though. In the world today, you ever and only ever hear about racism when it can be claimed to disadvantage people of color.
Posted by I should have taken the blue pill. . . at 6:36 PM on September 3
“Meeks is pushing for a pilot program that would distribute $120 million to four clusters of schools … “
My biggest frustration is they will probably succeed, to some measure, in pulling this stunt off. You have to give them [blacks]credit for fighting for their own ethnic-genetic-interests. When are whites going to stand up and fight for their own EGI?
Posted by at 6:37 PM on September 3
Seriously, why is so much time, attention and money spent on these people? Most of them will drop out or end up in jail anyhow. Get real—the kids who deserve the most are mostly White. They are the ones who will go on to be producers in this country.
Posted by at 6:51 PM on September 3
Until the “Blacks” swarmed into all our major cities following the great Civil “rights” “victories” during the last half of the 20th century, cities had plenty of money to educate students living therein.
Its a lesson that should be well learned. Once the “Blacks” destroy a city, and therefore its tax base, education funds are hard to come by.
Ronald
Posted by Ronald at 7:16 PM on September 3
”’…and now we’re in the process of undereducating them.’”
And also in the process of disrupting the education of others living 30 miles away.
BTW, they used CHURCH buses! It’s high time the IRS looked into the (supposedly non-political) tax exempt status of some of these black churches.
Posted by KonfederateKarl at 7:23 PM on September 3
Low performing students protest by skipping school. Great logical reasoning skills here. And their solution is not to better their own schools but to attend high performing schools which will then become failing schools.
Posted by mf at 8:01 PM on September 3
The comparison to South Africa is actually valid. School boycotts were a favourite tactic of the ANC. Now they see the happy results. I mean, how stupid can you get?
And what´s the fuss over a private school being a little better stuffed than an inner city public one? Oh, and the “church” buses, for a completely pointless exercise (they admit it is pointless cuz they´d have to pay tuiton).
It´s a classical case of “Moh moolah cracker oh weez gonna riot”.
Disgusting.
Posted by nokangaroos at 8:18 PM on September 3
Gee, I wonder why inner city property taxes are low. Could it be because property values are low?! Gee, I wonder why that is?!
Or could it be because whitey is being OVER TAXED!!!
Posted by Steven at 8:18 PM on September 3
.
All this effort on boycotts would be better spent on homework.
.
Posted by Michael Dean Miller at 8:29 PM on September 3
The reason less money is put into their schools, if that is even the case. Is because blacks pay less taxes. Also any taxes blacks do pay gose to welfare, fighting crime so any money left over then gose to schools. What these 1,000 black “racist” kids are demanding is for white taxs dollars go to them.
Posted by thoughts of anotehr era at 8:41 PM on September 3
Because of the inflex of disruptive blacks and hispanics into their neighborhood schools, White parents are forced to send their kids to private (high-quality) schools. Hence, White parents must pay for both their local public schools (the School District), as well as the private schools. Black communities only need to raise enough money for the public schools, and they can’t even do that. Now, Blacks want whites to pay not only for their local school districts, and the private schools, but to also pay for the public schools in the Black School Districts (by way of state-wide or Federal funds.
Posted by at 9:09 PM on September 3
By all means, give them more money. With the economy in tropuble and looking worse every day, overburdening the tax rolls just might cause their disgusting minority run area to implode.
It’s worth a try.
Posted by Ranger at 9:10 PM on September 3
One again we see the willful ignorance of history on parade among Black agitators. If massive “funding” were a prerequisite for getting a decent education, someone should have told the scores and scores of White children taught in quaint, one-room schoolhouses that went on to become inventors, engineers, medical pioneers, national leaders, etc!
American Blacks possess no sense of shame whatever. They wear their failure on their sleeve, always blaming, always wailing, always making excuses…and never doing a damned constructive thing to better their collective lot - insofar as they can do anything that is.
Posted by HH at 9:42 PM on September 3
You have to ask yourselves, Why aren’t they at work?
Posted by Barfko at 9:59 PM on September 3
If they don’t want to attend school, then why raise additional funding? Why spend alot of extra tax money on kids that are not going to achieve anything? It is time to buckle down and start running the school systems as they were originally intended to be ran. Of course, that would mean you would have to disband the National Teachers Union. And the National Education Association. They are two of the strongest arms of the democratic party. But then, they are a major reason the United States lags so far behind other developed countries on test scores.
Posted by at 10:22 PM on September 3
I bet if you did a survey of the “rural” schools they mentioned in the article that are also underfunded,you would most likely find higher average test scores.You would also find a lower dropout rate,less student assaults,vandalism,skipping school etc,etc,etc.All of this on a lower budget than the “inner city schools”.Our governments’ answer has always been and will always be to ignore the facts,deny the truth and make me(hardworking average Joe taxpayer) foot the bill for these people and their problem children.I don’t know how much longer we are supposed to tolerate this foolishness.Our spineless polititians will give them “mo’ money” out of politicaly correct fear of be labeled racist.It will never stop as long as it works.If you give a spoiled child whatever he wants when he throws a tantrum does he become a better child? I don’t think so.His demands only become larger and more frequent.Then when you say “NO” that child becomes violent.Spare the rod,spoil the child.When will the line be drawn? Like the man said “God help us all”
Posted by MM at 10:23 PM on September 3
How about some monetary contribution from black parents to help pay for white kids to attend private schools. After all, it is their own children that make those schools unfit for whites.
Posted by at 10:32 PM on September 3
“Chicago Public Schools spent $11,300 per student last year.”
They’re already getting more than the US average of $9,138.
If money is the only factor then they should be better than the US average. The District of Columbia, which spends $13,780 per pupil, should be doing better than bother the US average and the Chicago average.
That’s not what’s happening though.
NAEP 8th grade scores:
Utah (Per-pupil expenditures: $5,516):
Math: 281 Reading: 262 Science: 154 Writing: 152
Idaho (Per-pupil expenditures: $6,618):
Math: 284 Reading: 265 Science: 158 Writing: 154
South Dakota (Per-pupil expenditures: $7,725):
Math: 288 Reading: 270 Science: 161 Writing: ?
Indiana (Per-pupil expenditures: $9,048):
Math: 285 Reading: 264 Science: 150 Writing: 155
Illinois (Per-pupil expenditures: $9,175):
Math: 280 Reading: 263 Science: 148 Writing: 160
Chicago (Per-pupil expenditures: $11,300):
Math: 260 Reading: 250 Science: 124 (2005) Writing: 146
District of Columbia (Per-pupil expenditures: $13,780):
Math: 248 Reading: 241 Science: 113 (1996) Writing: 128 (2002)
NAEP State profiles:
http://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/states/profile.asp
The Nation’s Report Card: Trial Urban District Assessment Mathematics 2007:
http://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/pubs/dst2007/2008452.asp
The Nation’s Report Card: Trial Urban District Assessment Reading 2007:
http://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/pubs/dst2007/2008465.asp
The Nation’s Report Card: Trial Urban District Assessment Science 2005:
http://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/pdf/dst2005/2007453_7.pdf
The Nation’s Report Card: Trial Urban District Assessment Writing 2007:
http://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/pubs/dst2007/2008471.asp
Chicago has a per pupil expenditure that’s twice as high as Utah but they score lower than Utah students in each of the tested subjects.
DC has a per pupil expenditure that’s twice as high as Utah but they also score lower than Utah students in each of the tested subjects.
Posted by Amren Reader at 10:56 PM on September 3
Maybe they’re so stupid because they skip so much school.
Posted by Darkness at 10:58 PM on September 3
Blacks have never wanted “equality”. Thats why these demands
have gone far beyond anything rational. Blacks want power.
Power to extort, manipulate, con. What others have a hard time seeing, blacks know very well if secretly. They cant make it in a equal world. Equality is the last thing they want.
Posted by at 11:04 PM on September 3
maybe they should show these “students” how much money has to be spent on metal detectors, guards, vandelism, replacement of stolen property etc. then they would understand why they don’t have any money for fancy new porn viewers
Posted by at 12:17 AM on September 4
A better protest would have been to aim for a 100% attendance thereby showing they were serious about getting an education.
Here’s hoping they don’t get what they demand and the protest spreads.
Posted by sbuffalonative at 12:33 AM on September 4
None of this matters because the end remains constant. You have black students who simply cannot be educated on the same level as whites. More money, new equipment, new school districts - you are just moving pieces around because they will still end up with the same poor test scores. A sad analogy would be the belief that once better lighting and new computers were putin place you could finally teach chimpanzees the basics of geometry and physics.
The situation is hopeless, I’m afraid. You can’t hurry evolution - so we are moving to a nation of separate societies where blacks will live essentially in walled-off inner cities to self-destruct because whites will reach a point where tolerance and patience will run out.
Posted by Avignon at 12:46 AM on September 4
“…to protest unequal education funding…”
Were Title I funds factored into the equation?
From Charles Murray’s new book Real Education (p.59):
“….The whole point of Title I is to narrow the test score gap. A 2001 study by the Department of Education revealed that the gap widened rather than diminished since 1984…”
And:
“…no evaluation of Title I from the 1970s onward has found credible evidence of a significant positive impact on student achievement…”
Lastly, this:
“…The program has continued to grow….disposing of 12.7 billion in 2007…”
Obviously, money is shoveled into these ‘high-poverty’ schools with little/no results.
In a sane world, Charles Murray would be lauded and praised for his research and writings; the educational-industrial complex would stop throwing trillions of dollars at a pipe dream.
But we are in a world that is not sane.
“…When are whites going to stand up and fight for their own EGI?…”
Posted by at 6:37 PM on September 3
When the government stops prosecuting (and persecuting) us for doing so.
Bon
Posted by BonBon at 12:54 AM on September 4
The problem isn’t the school they’re going to, it’s THEM.
Posted by at 1:28 AM on September 4
Makes one wonder how America ever survived since they used to attend one room shack schools. I think they need to do a billion dollar study on how much money it requires to make these protesters smart. Another great idea home schooling for blacks, and Hispanics, cheaper by far and they would learn equally as much. Nothing!
Posted by at 1:36 AM on September 4
We Chicagians are baffled by this. The meeks plan collects all the state money and distributes this equally to all students in the state. If this is done, there will be less money available to each chicago student!
Chicago schools have stricter graduation requirments than suburban schools. If you complete these requirements you have an 80% chance of graduating from college. In my day, public school students were considered better than the catholic schools, and the public schools have improved since!
Like all black leaders, Meeks have lost touch with reality.
Posted by flyingtiger at 1:43 AM on September 4
White neighborhoods in Chicago pay incredible amounts of tax for schools too violent to send their own kids too.
Posted by at 2:45 AM on September 4
90% of education is self acquired. A great teacher and motivator may prime the pump, but from there out its curiousity and the public library. And oh, a quiet place to read without hip hop on the CD player.
Posted by at 3:41 AM on September 4
How many of these kids were cherry-picked for this protest? This isn’t a new tactic; the NAACP (or whoever is behind this) will go out and find relatively smart blacks (out of those that haven’t run away from their own people) to start doing their bidding. The MSM will bleat on forever about funding inequities. This is a power shakedown and I’m sure that the powers that be who live in the Northfield area will pony up some money to make these people go away. I’ll bet even John Stossel isn’t brave enough to talk about the IQ inequities that can’t be fixed by all of the money in the world.
There were small scale versions of this in Southern public schools in the 1960’s. Once they let a few kids in, the blacks will screw up the performance of the group overall. More than a few teachers of that era saw the handwriting on the wall and left teaching or moved to lily-white private schools. We moved to an all white school district for a reason. Although I wonder if there is pressure on the community to build some section 8 housing. In the all day kindergarten (read: short bus and head start kids) at my kids elementary school, there are a couple of distinctly black names. Idaho is looking better every day.
The talented 10th will make their way in the world, although many get free rides due to affirmative action. When you see a person of any color in combat, company operations or a few other areas, AA goes right out the window. Let’s have a show on TV about inequitable distribution of race in the air traffic control tower or at the local nuclear power plant. Or, if you really wanted to expose the fraud of AA, mandate that professional sports have teams that match the community demographically.
Posted by Howard W. Campbell at 5:34 AM on September 4
I urge all AmRen readers click on the YouTube link graciously provided by JR (posted at 6:20 PM, September 3).
Nothing in the printed article suggests Meeks’ real temperament. But video footage of his ranting speaks volumes.
Meeks is another white-hater like Jeremiah Wright and an alarming number of other black “activist preachers.” Were the whites of New Trier/Northfield aware of his mean rhetoric and sinister ideology, they should have run him and his truant entourage out of town rather than accommodate their “symbolic” disruption.
How far must we move away from these pests in order to be free of them?
Posted by KonfederateKarl at 12:36 PM on September 4
Actually, I found out that the Chicago Public Schools gets $10,400 per student per year, and the district they wanted to “transfer” their children to spends over $17,000 a year. But — as late as ten years ago, some districts in rural Missouri only had $2,500 per year per student. I bet they got higher test scores than Chicagograd.
Posted by Question Diversity at 12:41 PM on September 4
“I do not believe that a child’s education should be based on where they live”.
Of course it doesn’t. Education is not like ice cream that you can simply dish out equally: it’s a process that goes on in a student’s mind and this process is helped or hindered by a lot of factors not the least of which is the quality of the student – i.e., the level of his or her determination and self discipline, IQ, the quality of the staff, etc. Funding does not matter nearly as much as they would like believe, and probably don’t believe.
This is really about depriving whitey of having it so good somewhere. Even if public school funding in Illinois were tomorrow made equal, as they claim they wish, with the same pot of money, the funding for these majority black schools would increase very little (since there is not enough highly funded school districts) and the education there would not improve but the funding of New Trier High School would drop drastically. I suspect even these black “reverend” protesters know this. Essentially, the taxed community associated with New Trier High School would be sending a large part of their money elsewhere for no appreciable benefit to anyone. This is just nonsense and I hope the Governor has the sense and courage not to be bullied by this anti-white vindictiveness.
Posted by Chessplayer at 1:20 PM on September 4
This is so funny. I went to a small private high school and my tuition was $210 a month - no state or federal subsidies either! That’s right - I was educated for less than $2000 a year. And guess what? We all scored WAAAAY higher on the ACT and SAT than the local or state average.
You don’t need lots of money to learn - you just need students who want to learn.
The only thing I really think needs to be changed about this big city schools is the mere size of the high schools. They’re way too big. Teenagers need a more intimate setting.
Posted by at 3:08 PM on September 4
Hi KonfederateKarl;
I interviewed for a position in Billings, Montana a few years ago. Although I was not offered the job, I found Billings to be a charming city. There are about 100,000 people and it takes 10 minutes to drive across town. It is something of a culture shock to visit a state with fewer people than the county where I lived at the time. Montana has little to no professional sports infrastructure for the taxpayers to maintain. There were very few blacks and a few asian’s; however there is a Crow Indian reservation 30 miles down the road. These are the local problem child minorities. A reader from Billings would be more informed about this, but the way it was explained to me was that the Billings Police Department would run the drunk bus every night to the usual places and then call the reservation in the morning to let the leaders know who spent the night drying out. Hope this helps.
Posted by Howard W. Campbell at 7:21 PM on September 4
New Trier deserves more money because they make better use of it. It’s also their money that they’ve worked for. I propose an affirmative-action tax on all upper-income blacks that will go to black schools. Blacks schools richly supported by black money would be given the chance to be just like New Trier - (I suppress my laughter).
Posted by HideouslyWhite at 7:41 PM on September 4
I live in a tiny white area on the south side of Chicago and I teach in an all black school. All of my black co-workers think Reverend Meeks is a fool who is just out for media attention. None of the parents at my school kept their children home. Meeks is extreme and most of the black people I know do not support him.
The other day, I ran into this hippie Marxist white woman I know from a long time ago and she was in total support of the boycott. She does not live in my neighborhood but lives in an all white affluent suburb.
Interesting.
Posted by ex-liberal at 7:45 PM on September 4
“but protesters and their parents said they’re willing to keep the boycott going as long as it takes to persuade state officials to give their district more money.”
These parents need to get a grip on reality…the government is not the one responsible for your childs education, and second more taxpayers money is not going the solve the crisis in the public school system. The problem is the mindset of the people in charge of the school system (unions) and the parents who want somebodyelse to do what they should be doing for their children….
Posted by Lisette at 8:59 PM on September 4
I have been trying to convince my liberal sister that the amount of $ spent per pupil is not necessarily an indication that the child is well-educated or privileged. I believe she has begun to see the light.
Posted by Cindy at 1:46 PM on September 5
I live 10 miles away from this and I am horrified. How dare these blacks try and extort us. If they want better schools, they, as parents, need to get involved in their local schools.
Why is New Trier a good high school? Because whites get good jobs, pay high taxes, and get involved in the Parent Teacher Association (PTA). Blacks want all the benefits, but how will black parents be involved in a school 20 miles away? They will leverage off of the white parents who are involved in New Trier’s PTA. Norway is looking really good right now.
Posted by Lygeia at 2:19 PM on September 5
M.E.E.K.S.= “Mere Extortion Effects Knowledge/Skills?”
Posted by White is Beautiful Robert at 10:03 PM on September 5