I dare you to watch this without tearing up.
Student after student on Wednesday took to the podium at a public board meeting of the Chicago Public Schools (CPS) to deliver a unified message against efforts by Mayor Rahm Emanuel which they say are systematically dismantling the public education in the city.
Their immediate demand: Listen to us. Their rallying cry: 'Whose Schools? Our Schools!' And their revolutionary threat: Abandon the corporate-fueled model of education reform in Chicago or face a student-led and community-powered revolt.
Led by twenty members of Chicago Students Organizing to Save Our Schools, a student-led educational activism organization, each speaker offered prepared remarks that covered the gamut of student and community concerns regarding the policies set forth by the CPS board and Mayor Emanuel in recent years, including the impact of school closings, teacher layoffs, privatization, and the rise of for-profit charter schools.