Chicago Students Skip School in Funding Protest

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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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