RAINBOW PUSH OPENS CONVENTION WITH TOWN HALL MEETING
ON EDUCATION AND POVERTY AND JOBS
{Chicago Thursday June 26, 2014}
Rainbow PUSH will
open its 2014 convention with a Town Hall meeting on education to
announce its action
plan to provide a high quality public education for every student.
The town hall
meeting is a response, in part, to today’s announcement by the Chicago Board
of
Education of the
layoff of more than 1,100 teachers and school support staff. This
decision
follows the
Board’s previous actions of more than 5,000 layoffs in 2013. Within the last
90
days, the Chicago
Public Schools announced its decision to turnaround three more schools,
in
addition to the 50
schools that were closed in 2013.
“Laying off
teachers, hiring more police, locking up our youth en masse is a tragic reactive
circle
of circumstance
that must be broken,” said Rev. Jesse L. Jackson, Sr., founder and CEO of
the
Rainbow PUSH
Coalition. “There must be some plan of reconstruction, which by
necessity
involves more
schools, hiring more teachers, and graduating more students,” added
Jackson.
According to the
Chicago Teacher's Union this latest round of layoffs is the fourth incident in
the
past five years. Of
the 1,150 layoffs announced today, 550 are teachers and 600 are
Educational
Support Personnel
(ESP). The layoffs stem from the low level of per-pupil funding which
CPS
Central Office set
for schools, said CTU.
The Illinois
General Assembly's Chicago Educational Facilities Task Force has indicated
that
this decade of
school closures and other actions has not produced any documented or
sustained
academic benefit
for children.
“We encourage
every teacher, teacher assistants, librarians, educational support
personnel,
paraprofessionals
and school-related personnel, technology coordinators and instructional
aides
to join us at the
Town Hall Meeting at Rainbow PUSH National headquarters, 930 E. 50th
Street,
Friday, June 27,
2014 at 6:00 pm,” said Rev. Jackson.
Media Contact/ Inquiries:
Michael Peery, 312-217-2260
pressdepartment@rainbowpush.org
DuSomething!
