A Just Chicago

Preface
In 2012, the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) published
The Schools Chicago’s Students Deserve
(Caref & Jankov, 2012), a call for Chicago Public
Schools (CPS) to implement research-based
changes to school policies and begin to level the
playing field for CPS students. The report was
CTU’s response to the growing attacks on public
education: more testing, more punitive accountability,
smaller budgets, and diminished learning
opportunities. The Schools Chicago’s Students
Deserve exposed major problems in CPS: large
class sizes, bare-bones test-driven curricula,
lack of staff stability and diversity, limited social
service supports, and inadequate funding.
Institutional racism, poverty, systematic underfunding
of education, and their effects lie at
the heart of problems in education. Yet, there is
a complete lack of political will to even discuss,
much less begin to solve, these fundamental issues.
Instead, city leaders continue to privilege
a small select group, while ignoring community
voice and needs. The results are aggressive
downsizing of city assets and services, major
giveaways to connected bankers and corporate
leaders, and implementation of destructive
school policies that will take years to reverse.
A Just Chicago: Fighting for the City Our Students
Deserve details the intimate connection of
health, housing, jobs, segregation, and funding
to education. This report describes city policies
that negatively impact CPS students, their families,
and communities. Contrary to Mayor Rahm
Emanuel’s destructive narrative and approach
to education policies, CTU demonstrates that
challenges in housing, employment, justice, and
healthcare relate directly to education; solutions
require a narrowing of the opportunity gap
brought on by poverty, racism, and segregation.
Institutional racism,
poverty, systematic
underfunding of
education, and their
effects lie at the heart of
problems in education.
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