Wednesday, August 24, 2016

27 children shot in Chicago. But no pics going viral.

Photo of Syrian child, victim of bombings, has gone viral. 
The number of Chicago shooting victims this year is approaching 2,700 after 57 were shot over the weekend. Twenty-seven of the victims have been children, all of them children of color. Since the beginning of June, Chicago has averaged about one child shot each week. So far, no iconic photos of any of them to capture hearts and minds. Why not?

CTU members are marching out in the rain this morning, ahead of school board meeting where the district's $5.4 billion budget will be voted on.


The proposed budget, with massive program cuts, is laden with property tax increases and largely reliant on heavy borrowing against future property tax revenue, as opposed to taxing the wealthy or finding other new sources of revenue.

All this while Gov. Rauner continues to hold the state's school budget hostage.

Also protesting is Access Living, a disability rights group, upset about the new way the district is doling out special education money to schools as a lump sum. That's a departure from past practice, when special education budgets were paid for through the district's central office and CPS distributed teacher and classroom assistant positions to schools based on legal requirements and each building's needs. This will put the district in violation of federal law and leave it open to law suits on the part of parents.  In addition, the district is leaving school principals in the difficult position of deciding what gets cut.

Check out this WaPo story about D.C.'s Ballou High School using restorative justice rather than suspensions, to deal with student infractions. A readers' poll shows 88% favoring restorative justice and 12% favoring out of school suspensions.

3 comments:

  1. Seriously? Are you comparing the plight of hundreds of thousands of children in Syria and truly the millions of displaced people all over the world creating a global refugee crisis and a desperate situation that could become a potential breeding ground for terrorism--you're really wondering why that makes bigger headlines? Your concern for the children of Chicago is moving, truly. But you could have made your point better with a different "iconic image."

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  2. Hey Claire,
    Crack a history book. At least 12.5 million Africans were shipped to the New World. 10.7 million survived the Middle Passage to North America, the Caribbean and South America. Fast forward to 2016 and you have what's going on in Chicago, Detroit, New Orleans and D.C. Black Lives Matter!

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  3. Claire,
    Thanks for making my point even clearer.

    ReplyDelete

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