Get Back in School
The idea for the protest started with a group of five high school friends at lunch discussing the financial woes of the Chicago Public Schools. The budget cuts seemed endless, they agreed. Bigger class sizes. No more after-school programs.
"We thought we should do something about it," said organizer David Rojas, a 19-year-old senior at Social Justice High School. "This is a way to empower everybody."
CPS spokeswoman Monique Bond said the district has done everything in its power to avoid cutting core programs but that this year's budget didn't allow many choices.
"While we don't condone students missing a single day of school, we do applaud their efforts in paying attention to the issues that impact their future," she said.
It's getting to the point where someone is going to have to chain the doors, fence the windows and hire someone to put these kids' noses in books to make them learn.
Labels: money questions
posted by SCC at 12:01 AM
26 Comments:
Will that hack from the Tribune call them primadonnas too?
Of COURSE they couldn't conduct this protest on a Saturday. Why do it on your own time, when you can do it on a day you're marked YES for attendance at school?
My dad would've kicked my ass if I'd walked out of school for anything besides a fire.
I have a hard time believing that these 5 students could organize something so well on their own. Especially when their leader is a 19 YR OLD senior. Its good the see the "I want mine" attitude begins at a young age. How about we interview these students after they have been in the real world and pay taxes to see if they still like the idea of unchecked government spending. People who don't pay taxes (47% of American households) love all the free things the government is promising. For them at least, it is free. To the rest of us who actually pay taxes, we know we will be left with the bill.
I am wondering if David Rojas and his family actually pay any taxes ? I don’t know, it just really sort of gets under my skin when tax consumers take to the streets and demand more money be spent on them. However, let’s assume the best in this case.
Rojas and his illiterate peers would not have concerns about budget cuts if the Board of Education wasn’t the festering sore of corruption that it is. We throw way too much money into that bottomless pit we call the public schools as it is.
"Social Justice High School?"
Should rename it "Marx - Lenin Gymnasium."
They've done this shit before. In June of 2007, they bused thousands of them to Soldier Field to take part in a gun control rally. They had them sitting segregated by gang/school affiliation so they could listen to democrats and fake reverends rally against decent people's rights to defend themselves from the rabble.
Mr. Rojas,19 year old senior, likely brought this up after conferring with one or more of his baby mamas. Hey, Shithead, at 19 a lot of guys are humping an M16 or M4 or and trying to secure this country while you are whining about cuts to the education process you are obviously abusing. You have overstayed your welcome in school and that is why there have to be cuts. Get the f*ck out and get a job so someone who might want to learn can take your place.
Morons!
There's another march planned for 13 Apr 10.
My kid attends one of the better public schools. He told me kids walked out of classes just to get out of classes, not for the "spirit" of the issue at hand. I know walking out of classes is supposed to cause heads to spin, but now the test he was supposed to take has been postponed so that everyone can take it.
I will tell you this, they don't need larger classes because of the behaviorial issues in some classes. It will be impossible for a teacher to be burdened to teach more kids. Since these kids can't be whacked across the ass and sent in the cloak room like they did when I was a kid (then you get a whooping when you got home from your dad), it will be impossible to get the daily lesson accross in a 40 minute class. The whole problem with the public school system is the continuous coddling of the unmanagable and behaviorial problem kids. There are plenty of kids of all races who are good kids and want to learn and get ahead. Concentrate on those kids and watch the grades and test scors soar. The disruptive ones should collectively go. Give them a "last chance" in an alternatiave school with armed guards, swift de-programming of the gang mentality, and military-like procedures ALONG with STRICT PARENTAL INPUT - since they bear almost all the responsibility of their gang-banging, unmanagable brat, and if they can't hack that, then expel. They are wasting taxpayer's monies.
..."My dad would've kicked my ass if I'd walked out of school for anything besides a fire."
And YOUR dad and others like him are the reason their kids turned out OK.
They were there and they cared!
It drives me nuts when all these ah-hem, (wayward)kids stories appear on TV and NEVER are mentioned the identity or location of a responsible father.
The fact that they are never around or get involved in a fatherly way is the reason the term "baby's daddy" was invented.
It merely referred to the person that impregnated the mother, with no further involvement.
What a shame.
CPS spokeswoman Monique Bond said the district has done everything in its power to avoid cutting core programs but that this year's budget didn't allow many choices.
++++++++++++++++++
Monique did everything but turn down the 17% raise she got this year, and make Hubberman turn down the 12% raise he gave himself.
"Social Justice High School"??? What do they study there? Karl Marx?
Hey, when you go to "Social Justice High School", walking out on classes (civil disobedience) and organizing a protest (putting truth to power) is gonna make you the f'n valedictorian.
Even if you're unemployable.
My little girl, a sophmore involved student government is concerned about the budget but thought the protest was not in good form. I am proud of the way she looks at things and hope she changes the World; just not with a badge and gun. (She thinks Huberman is a "Tool", her words.)
I'm glad to see these kids trying to take a stand against the BS Chicago/Crook County/Illinois political machine at an early age. Now all we need is for all the mindless adults out there to get off the Kool-aide.
Signed,
A PO struggling to keep the faith???
Does that mean the city wants us to march around City Hall if we get a crappy contact? It does impact our future.
Great posting today at Chicago Public League Sports Blog. http://bit.ly/d0nqb2
He's been on this subject regularly.
Real vs. Misguided Protests
Kudos to the Whitney Young boys Basketball team for wearing Save Our Sports Warm-Ups in the state championship basketball game. ChicagoNow photo
Nobody likes the CPS cutting sophomore sports.
Students at Lane decided to stage a protest in front of their school. Whitney Young wore Save our Sports warm-ups for the state championship basketball game. Those were real students protesting a real issue (cutting sophomore sports).
However, I am bothered by manufactured protests and misguided protests. A politically motivated group called PURE staged a misguided protest on April 8th.
I call it misguided because what they are asking for is completely ludicrous, off target, and will if implemented be more destructive then helpful.
They are asking for:
More government and more state spending in education for the CPS - does anyone really believe that having more CPS programs and the accompanying CPS bureaucrats will really help the budget deficit? We need less bureaucracy in an already bloated system not more.
Raise corporate taxes - how many of you want to pay more taxes? I don't want to pay more when I goto McDonald's nor do I want to pay more for parking meters (yes that is a tax). Nor do I want my parents to be taxed more. You see, if you raise taxes to corporations, everyone will have to pay more.
No vouchers to students - this group is against a bill that would give students a voucher to attend a private school instead of attending a low performance school like Fenger. Apparently, this group is against choices for parents and students. Fenger is a school with lot's of good kids but the environment they go to at Fenger is not the most suitable for education. The students there need more choices to go to a school with a safer environment if they choose to.
My point is that groups like PURE do not reflect the interest of all CPS kids parents. It is a group that in my opinion is trying to advance a political ideology that does more harm than help. more government and more taxes are not the solution. It is the problem. Rampant and wasteful spending led us to this problem. The financial problems are happening all over the country. If they really cared for the kids, they would be for less bureaucracy, cutting of wasteful spending, and giving parents more choices.
America in general doesn't have a "budget problem", "fiscal problem", but a spending problem. We spend more money than we have on every category: defense/military, entitlement spending, education, social welfare, corporate welfare, etc... And now the chickens are coming home to roost.
When the little "darlins" at Kennedy couldn't get permission to leave school, they pulled the Fire Alarm to get outta the doors.
What the heck happened to Monique Bond? She used to be much sharper when she was at the airport. Her spirit has been broken. Must be too much KOOL-AID. My suggestion to Hubie, before he runs another business into the ground, is to bring some of the
Catholic nuns and priest out of retirement and teach these children
what they should have learned in grammar school.
Suggest Mr. Rojas do us all a favor and take the GED exam so he may get out into the real world and
learn some life lessons. Parents
stop coddling your children. It's disrepectful to all our forfathers who built this once great city with their sweat equity. I'm sick of the whining. You are either part of the solution or part of
the problem. You decide!
It is impossible to teach the unteachable.
social justice high school??
R U fucking kidding me?
math taught by the aclu
history taught by the peoples law office
holy shit...sorry i best leave out religion
Who said anything about nuns teaching religion. I'm talking about reading, writing and math.
Unlike any other teaching professions, nuns do not have a
pension. I'm sure they would be happy to have the extra income.
My CPS educated son was in his second year of college when he was 19.
WOW. Googled my name and this came up!
If you're wondering, it's David here. That 19 year old senior, you know nothing about.
Most of the comments on this blog carry lot of privilege and ignorance.
I was a 19 year old senior because the public school system failed me, not because I was "unteachable". The reality is, we must not ask, are you smart? The better question is, how are you smart? It was until Social Justice High School, that I learned the true value of being an American Citizen and the power I have.
I ended up graduating from Social Justice high school, receiving a BA at a NESCAC school and now pursuing a masters--on route to a ph.d....no need to fight in a war, or work at an dead-end job. That protest wasn't misguided. It was Youth-Lead. We rose, when we were given less than what we deserve.
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