State Rep. Monique Davis compares school closings to Nazi actions

During a contentious hearing on the Chicago school closings and turnarounds, Rep. Monique Davis compared actions of the CPS board to those during the "German whatever" (referring to the Nazi regime that closed Jewish businesses and schools in the 30s).

by Michael Wille

Last month following a contentious 7 hour hearing, the Chicago Board of Education voted unanimously to close down 7 failing schools and turn around 10 others. These schools had been on Academic Warning Status for the last decade and had not shown significant improvements despite being given increased amounts of aid and resources. The Chicago Teachers Union vowed to fight the measure and took their case to the General Assembly in Springfield. Yesterday, a more than two hour subject matter hearing was held by the Elementary and Secondary Education Committee. In attendance as witnesses were five members of the Chicago Public Schools administration including CEO Jean-Claude Brizard. The committee members raised a number of issues surrounding the school closings that appeared to be legitimate concerns. However, about an hour in to the hearing, the following exchange took place between Rep. Monique Davis and CEO Brizard:

Rep. Monique Davis: They have to understand more than statistical data. They have to understand cultural relevance. They have to understand what a school means in this particular community. They have to understand relationship between church and community. They have to understand names of schools and the importance of it. During the German whatever, part of the regime’s effort was to remove institutional memory, and they did it by destroying and closing buildings. They wanted to remove the people from any- what would you call it-relationship to what they used to have. But we’ll move on. AUSL, how much are they getting to turn these schools around?

CPS CEO Jean-Claude Brizard: So representative before we move on, give me a chance to respond to the comment. My 26 years in education has focused on exactly what you are talking about. I see the world through a social justice lens because of my experience and that of my parent’s experience. You know, I grew up in a country with a dictator. My parents had to escape and were exiled from my country. My grandfather spent years-

Rep. Monique Davis: [Interrupting] But it’s not about you Mr. Brizard. It’s about the system. It’s not about you.

Chairwoman Martinez: Please we need to be respectful of everyone here. We are going to hear from a parent group and from Coco as well.

Rep. Monique Davis: I have a couple more questions as well. I have to ask this, why is so much money being spent once it’s a turnaround school and not before? Why is there a lot of capital money spent? Why do we come up and spruce everything up? Why do we put big dollars in those schools once it’s a turnaround school and not before?

CPS CEO Jean-Claude Brizard: So representative, I’d like- I don’t know if you have a copy of that. This was a misperception, perhaps misinformation that we don’t invest in schools prior to school action. The fact is it happens before. It happens after. The fact is there was a memo given-

CPS Official: You should have a memo in the packet that was handed out that lists all the supports that were given to the schools over the last several years before these actions were proposed.

Rep. Monique Davis: (Sigh). Well, the paper that I have shows that huge dollars were spent after the schools were closed were turn around schools or they were being turned over to a charter school. And a large amount of capital dollars were being spent that were not spent before. I mean one of your gentlemen even said they weren’t going to spend dollars on schools that were so-called failing.

CPS CEO Jean-Claude Brizard: That was not an accurate statement in all honesty. And in fact, we can prove the opposite that a lot has gone into these schools. The reason I am going to argue that it is about me [is] because I lead the district. I am responsible for what is going on. I carry the shoulder. I will never allow anyone not to invest in our schools. The dollars that we get from the state, from the city, from the federal government has to be closest to the kids. The people who are closest to our children have to make those decisions about what is best, the best way to invest those dollars. That was not an accurate statement that was given to the press.  And I can prove and show you that we will make investments, we have made investments

Rep. Monique Davis: I’ll take your word for it that you are disputing what your person said.