Parents, students from other cities join Chicagoans in claiming school ‘reforms’ violate minority students’ rights
BY ROSALIND ROSSI Education Reporter/rrossi@suntimes.com June 21, 2012 1:08PM
Jitu Brown, of the Kenwood-Oakland Community Organization, calls Thursday for a meeting with U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan. | Rich Hein~Sun-Times
ARTICLE EXTRAS
Updated: June 22, 2012 2:24AM
Parents and students from seven cities are joining those in Chicago in filing civil rights complaints against school closings, phase-outs and other “rampantly horrible” reform upheavals they contend have disproportionately victimized minority communities, school activists said Thursday.
The group called for a “national moratorium’’ on the kind of school reform shakeups that they say began in Chicago under former Schools CEO Paul Vallas; ramped up under his successor, Arne Duncan, and have spread nationwide during Duncan’s tenure as U.S. Education Secretary.
“This is the birthplace of all this mess,” said Jitu
