CHICAGO—Close to 100 students, teachers, community leaders, education advocates and their supporters protested at Overton Elementary School in Bronzeville and a nearby construction site for a new Walmart store at 4701 S. Cottage Grove Ave. today against the Walton family’s efforts to undermine Chicago’s public schools. The Walton Family Foundation, a big charter school booster, facilitated all of the recent school closing hearings which pitted thousands of people against the city’s drastic and unproven school reform measures.
Marchers gathered at Overton Elementary School, one of 53 elementary schools on the list of proposed closings by the mayor's office and CPS, for a short program led by Susan Hurley, executive director of grassroots labor group Jobs With Justice. Protestors then proceeded to the Walmart construction site, where speakers including Overton parents and Walmart workers called on the Walton family to stop funding efforts to close Chicago’s public schools. Numerous drivers passing by honked their horns in support.
"In the past few months, we've seen more than 20,000 parents come out to hearing, protesting these closings," said CTU Financial Secretary Kristine Mayle. "Why does Walmart and the Walton family, who don't live in Chicago, get more voice than the parents of Chicago, the students and the teachers of Chicago, the people that live in these communities and work in these communities?"
"Why? Because they have the same agenda as the mayor," Mayle said. "He'd rather close the schools than resource them."
"If the school is closed, it will be against the wishes of the parents, the students, and the stakeholders of our community," said Dawn Dawson, current Overton teacher and a CPS educator for 27 years. "Our students and our teachers are being asked to sacrifice to help fix Chicago Public Schools' budget."
The Walton family, the richest family in America and heirs to the Walmart fortune, have given millions of dollars to initiatives which strip money from public schools, including nearly half a million dollars in support of Chicago Public Schools’ proposed school closures. Meanwhile, in 2012, the family spent $3.8 million—more money than they spent in any other city—opening new charter schools. The vast majority of the schools closing in Chicago serve low-income neighborhoods and communities of color, leaving many of these areas without neighborhood schools.
Walmart has eight stores in Chicago and two more under construction. Walmart workers earn low wages and benefits and often lack access to affordable, quality healthcare. Meanwhile, warehouse workers who supply Walmart goods have called on Walmart to safe workplaces and fair treatment. In addition, the company is notorious for finding ways to finance its operations on the backs of taxpayers; to help build new stores in Chicago, Walmart is leaning on a tax scheme that diverts money to developers and away from schools and other critical services.
"Walmart does not belong in Chicago helping close schools," Hurley said. "Walmart needs to do a far sight better by its workers before it starts telling people how to run their schools and their city."