Boycott backlash
Parents say Meeks' plan for Chicago Public Schools' kids to skip 1st day of classes isn't answer to funding woes

Erica Green & Mary Wisniewski:

Parents at a Humboldt Park back-to-school festival Saturday said "no thanks" to the Rev. James Meeks' planned student boycott of the Chicago Public Schools' opening day of class Tuesday.

"The boycott is not good," said Maybeline Juarez, who makes sure her 13-year-old daughter always attends school. "My daughter is in special education classes, and she needs all the help she can get. Colleges look at that."

Angelo Valentin, who has five children in Chicago Public Schools, agreed that a boycott isn't the answer to the schools' money problems.

"The schools should get their money, but it shouldn't be in the lap of the children," said Valentin. "You can't use them as pawns."

Meeks, a state senator and pastor of the South Side Salem Baptist megachurch, wants to bus 2,000 students to wealthy Winnetka to protest school-funding inequities in Illinois. The children will try to register at New Trier High School's Northfield Campus.

Posted by Jim Zellmer at August 31, 2008 4:33 PM
Subscribe to this site via RSS/Atom: Newsletter signup | Send us your ideas