Communities brace for impact of historic Chicago school closures

Hope is fading for Chicago trying to stall the city's budget-driven closure of 49 public school closures, that will displace thousands of students.  

Late Wednesday afternoon, a judge denied a motion by the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) to keep open ten of the targeted schools . CTU President Karen Lewis reacted to the decision by saying Chicago Public Schools (CPS) was using the law to disenfranchise children and families.

One of the schools slated for closure, Betsy Ross Elementary on Chicago's South Side, is at present being used as a warehouse for beat-up district furniture. 

"They're making a good school, a safe school, now a warehouse," Rev. Andre Smith, who lives across the street from the school, told Al Jazeera. Although the school had been showing signs of improvement after 17 years on academic probation, it fell under the axe as the city sought to make up a $1 billion budget shortfall. 

Since June, nearly 3,000 teachers and staffers have been let go. At least three lawsuits have been filed to block the shutdown and one group, the Midwest Coalition for Human Rights, has even asked the United Nations to declare the closure a human rights violation.

A key reason for the community outrage over the plan to close Betsy Ross has been concerns that making children walk new routes to school exposes them to greater risk of gang violence.
 
But the school board  justified its decision by pointing to the fact that the school's enrollment was barely one third of its 930-student capacity.

The city hopes to calm its critics by expanding a "safe-passage" program, which places uniformed adults on key routes to and from schools.
 
City workers have also spent the summer cleaning up the routes, towing nearly 400 abandoned vehicles,  mowing more than 5,700 vacant lots and completing more than 4,300 rodent abatements.  

Steven Criss, who was a 5th grader at Betsy Ross, is one of the 30,000 students now being displaced from an environment he knew.
 
"I was hoping after summer vacation I could come back and see the teacher I had last year and probably still go to his classroom," Criss said.

In the coming school year, Criss will commute nearly two miles to get to his new school.
 
"It’s gonna be an earlier wakeup, later evenings, cause he has to travel at least 30 minutes to get to school, in each direction -- so that's an extra hour per day," says Criss’ grandfather, Ray.
 
Across the city new desks and chairs are being brought in as part of improvements underway at schools which will receive the displaced students. But thousands of students are bracing for extra challenges when Chicago's school  bells inaugurate a new semester on August 26.

Al Jazeera