At Malcolm X College Saturday, hundreds of people stepped forward to demand the the city stop privatizing our schools and end Renaissance 2010 once and for all. The day began with keynote speeches by Lily Gonzalez who helped lead the fight against closing Peabody School last year, Kellina Mojica of Chicago Youth Initiating Change, Lois Ashford and Karen Lewis of CORE, Pauline Lipman from Teachers for Social Justice, and Cheryl Johnson and Marguerite Jacobs from the Committee for Safe Passage, Altgeld Gardens.
All of the speakers were compelling as they told of their fights against privatization, but it was the young Kellina Mojica who seemed to speak for all the parents and the students in attendance when she demanded, “we have a voice and want to be heard…whether you like it or not.”
Lois Ashford told the crowd about her personal experiences explaining, “”My school was turned around, I got angry, and joined CORE.”
Ashford then went on to introduce the CORE slate for the May union election to a loud round of applause. Core Presidential nominee Karen Lewis excited the crowd exclaiming, “Teaching is a privilege and learning is a right”
After the keynote addresses, the attendees split into workshops to discuss plans for moving the agenda forward. The summit achieved has already achieved at least one thing. The list of school closings was supposed to be announced on the Friday before the summit, but was delayed in an effort to diminish turnout. Over 400 people raised their voices loudly to let Ron Huberman know it didn’t work.
