A decade since Rahm closed the schools. A historic failure of public policy.
This summer marks ten years since former Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel and his hand picked Chicago Public School board of education closed 50 public schools.
The schools that were closed served families in Chicago’s Black and Brown communities.
Nobody had ever closed that many Black and Brown public schools.
Ever.
Not even in the south during the worst of the Jim Crow era.
Since 2013 and Emanuel school closings, CPS has lost over 81,000 students.
Emanuel justified the closings as being an answer to buildings that were underutilized.
According to a Sun-Times report, that situation is now worse than ever.
Most of the shuttered schools remain empty, a drag on already underserved and under invested in communities.
And while many in the media and politicians have talked about so-called learning loss as a result of remote learning and the pandemic, there has appeared to be less concern with the learning and teaching disruptions that Chicago’s school closings caused.
In response to Emanuel’s disastrous policy a moratorium on school closings was enacted.
But that moratorium ends in 2025.
Mayor Johnson, who was a union organizer and leader of the movement against school closings in 2013, has declared he is opposed to any new closings when the moratorium ends.
It may not be his decision to make.
Chicago will soon have an elected school board.
The first school board elections are scheduled for Nov. 5, 2024.
That’s when 10 members will be elected and 10 members and a school board president will be appointed by the mayor.
But in 2026 the remaining 11 appointed seats will switch to being elected.