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September 1, 2015

Chicago: Hunger Strike to Save Public School Enters Third Week 
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In Chicago, a group of public school parents, grandmothers and education
activists are entering the third week of a hunger strike to save Dyett
High School, the only remaining open-enrollment public high school left
in the community of Bronzeville. Supporters say the city neglected the
school for years before announcing plans to close it. Under Chicago
mayor and former Obama chief of staff Rahm Emanuel, the city has closed
about 50 schools in predominantly African-American and Latino
neighborhoods as part of what critics say is a push to privatize
education. The hunger strikers have called for Chicago to reopen Dyett
High School as a global leadership and green technology school, and have
submitted a detailed proposal that has yet to be considered by
officials. At least two of the hunger strikers have been hospitalized.
On Monday, local clergy, including Rabbi Brant Rosen, voiced support for
the hunger strikers.

Rabbi Brant Rosen: "We are here to say that in this day and age it is a
shame, it is a shameful reality, that families in a community have to
starve their bodies in order to have a decent school, open-enrollment
school, public school for their families. This is what it has come to in
this city, and this is what it has come to in this country, that our
public institutions, our sacred public institutions, and in particular
our public schools, are increasingly being treated as commodities that
can be bought and sold to the highest bidder. We are here to stand with
the Dyett hunger strikers because they are our moral role models, they
are our teachers, they are showing us what it means to love your
community."

 

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