BRIGHTON PARK — Takia Lee went to private schools before enrolling at Curie High School in Archer Heights.
Lee's time at Curie has changed her perception of the city's public schools and has even sparked her passion in life: Lee said she wants to be a principal.
Lee and dozens of other students are teaming up with parents and community leaders to form a group to advocate on behalf of Curie and other Chicago public schools on the Southwest Side.
The group was needed, Lee and others said, because the schools are under threat by budget cuts and charter school expansion in the area.
"I was told so my many rumors" about public schools, said Lee, 17. "I learned more at a public high school than anywhere. It's such a great place."
The group began to take shape in July, when the Brighton Park Neighborhood Council began more formal protests against charter school organization Noble's plans to build a high school near 47th Street and California Avenue.
Residents voiced their opposition in acts like a student walk-out at Kelly High School and a rally at Gage Park High School. Noble's Brighton Park proposal was one of two new charters approved by the Chicago Board of Education in October.
Kelly High School students walked in in October to protest plans to build a charter school less than a mile from Kelly. [DNAinfo/Joe Ward]
When their efforts weren't enough to thwart charter school expansion in the area, the neighborhood council decided more time and resources were needed on the issue, said Olivia Abrecht, community organizer for the Brighton Park Neighborhood Council.
"We realized this was going to be a long struggle and a new, more formal coalition was needed to fight for local schools on the Southwest Side," she said.
Neighbors then formed the Southwest Chicago Public School Coalition To Fight For Education Equity.
The coalition is an advocacy group as well as resource coordinator of sorts for local schools, Abrecht said. Their two biggest goals are fighting against further charter expansion and creating an "education plan" to protect their 14 local public schools from further cuts and other downgrades, she said.
A 1,100 student-capacity charter high school in the area could drain schools like Kelly and Curie of students and the funding that comes with them, not to mention the schools could lose skilled teachers and dedicated families to the new charter school, advocates said.
Any of those outcomes could devastate the local schools, which already are dealing with budget cuts imposed by Chicago Public Schools, they said.
The area's 14 public schools that are part of the coalition lost $3.3 million in CPS budgets cuts in March, according to the coalition. Parents, students an elected leaders like Cook County Commissioner Jesus "Chuy" Garcia (D-Chicago) demonstrated outside Curie in early April to demand the funds be reinstated.
"Every student, every family on the Southwest Side has a right to a high-quality neighborhood school," Abrecht said. The schools "need the resources to do that."
Noble has said its Brighton Park school is needed because area schools are already overcrowded and that the Noble system already serves 2,400 students from the Southwest Side at charters throughout the city.
The group has also held a rally at Curie to showcase the good things that happen at the local schools. Students performed something like a talent show while demonstrating the skills and knowledge they've picked up at their schools.
Lee said that her dance and other fine arts classes at Curie could be scaled back due to budget cuts. She said students will a meeting this week to discuss the cuts, what they mean for students and what they might be able to do to help.
Lee said the budget cuts to programs like dance make her wonder if school and elected officials want to see city kids succeed.
"We say, 'We want to be scholars,'" Lee said. "It makes me second question if you believe in me."
For more neighborhood news, listen to DNAinfo Radio here:
