Parents And Aldermen Demand CPS To Avoid Early End To School Year
CHICAGO (CBS) -- Parents and some Chicago Aldermen are demanding that the city and public school officials do everything possible to avoid a threatened early end to the school year.
Chicago Public Schools CEO Forrest Claypool said the schools may have to close weeks early because of a lack of state funding. But Andrea Ortiz, with the Brighton Park Neighborhood Council said Claypool is dead wrong to suggest the City is without options. WBBM Political Editor Craig Dellimore reports from City Hall.
"If Chicago can provide TIF money to millionaires to build luxury condos and downtown renovations, then they have money to keep our schools open," Ortiz said.
Alderman George Cardenas has sponsored an ordinance to give excess TIF development money to the schools.
"We own the problem, we own the solution. I just want my colleagues to understand that," Ald. Cardenas said.
And Alderman Carlos Ramirez Rosa wants to revive a corporate head tax proposal.
"It's time that as a city we decide who we will prioritize," Ald. Rosa said. "The large and big corporations in downtown or the black and brown children in our public schools?"
They're calling for major public pressure to get those bills out of council committees where they have been languishing.