KENWOOD — Nearly 100 students, teachers and Chicago Teachers Union administrators endured frigid weather to rally against budget cuts and teacher layoffs outside King College Prep, 4445 S. Drexel Blvd., Friday morning.
Wielding signs and chanting slogans like "We need teachers, we need books, we need the money that Rahm took," the group circled the front entrance of the school as students trickled in for morning classes.
Acting union President Jesse Sharkey joined the protest, telling the crowd not to settle for what he warned could be a 10 percent overall pay cut for Chicago Public Schools staff over the next three years.
"The funny thing about that number is that it's in sharp distinction with the people at the top of our society," Sharkey said. "People in Chicago are doing really well — all you have to do is go downtown and look up."
High-profile developments like the upcoming DePaul Arena, Sharkey said, are "built with school tax dollars. And right now, we're just fighting so that people who work in our schools can make a decent living."
Protesters handed out fliers to passing students and parents, offering alternative ideas to fill the district's $1 billion budget deficit, including tax-increment financing reform and new taxes on financial transactions.
Instead of pursuing those kinds of strategies, King senior Moustapha Mbaye said, Mayor Rahm Emanuel and other city leaders have been "putting higher taxes on the backs of families, instead of those who can afford them."
"I ask of Rahm: Are we not human beings?" Mbaye told the crowd. "Do we not deserve to grow up and thrive and be successful? We need our teachers to have what they need."
Students didn't reserve their criticism for city officials. Some, like senior Dariel Charles, challenged Gov. Bruce Rauner to share some of his impressive wealth with the teachers he claims to support.
State budget cuts "have shown that there is no compassion, no empathy and no comprehension of how education works," Charles said. "We need social workers, psychologists and nurses here every day."
For the students involved, King social studies teacher James Staros said, the protest doubled as a lesson in civics.
"In my class I'm always advocating the power of group action to get stuff done," said Staros, who helped organize the protest. "I was literally teaching that lesson as this stuff started happening at the University of Missouri, and my students were like 'Oh, OK. This kind of thing works.'"
Sharkey said the union would hold a larger, district-wide rally at Grant Park on Monday.
"It'll be colder than it is now, but I say bring it," Sharkey said. "If Rahm and the Board of Education think we're gonna punk out because it's getting a little cold, they've got an entirely different thing coming."
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