From Chinatown: We Can All Have Our Schools
The piece is written by Debbie Liu, a CPS alum, community activist in Greater Chinatown, and a resident of South Loop.
Today, the Chicago Board of Education (BOE) will vote on the controversial proposal to convert the New Teacher Academy (NTA), a high performing elementary school serving many young students from the South Side of Chicago, into a high school that will serve the South Loop area and parts of Chinatown.
As a Chinese American who grew up in Greater Chinatown area, the City of Chicago has given me a false choice between supporting an action that shuts down a successful elementary school that serves a majority Black student population and an opportunity for a school for my community. But I know this is not true. All over Chicago, communities are urging the City to build new schools and to keep schools open, including protests against plans to shut down high schools in Englewood. At the same time as our neighborhoods are fighting over resources, the Mayor announced plans to raise $95 million dollars to build a police academy and has already allocated $10 million of the Tax Increment Financing (TIF) money to purchase the land.
For many years, residents in the Chinatown community have advocated for a nearby high school to call their own that would serve students in Chinatown, Armour Square, Bridgeport, and the surrounding neighborhoods where there is an influx of Asian Americans. However, in the last year the City, the Chicago Public School (CPS), and the BOE have caused tension between communities with a proposal to shut down the NTA to convert the school into a South Loop High School, which will serve a part of Chinatown.
The boundary reassignment of NTA and the eventual conversion will displace hundreds of elementary school students and the city would lose a high-performing school that serves minorities, potentially setting a precedent for other schools in the future. I have seen how parents and students in and around Chinatown are also conflicted by the proposal. Those parents and students have listened in multiple community meetings with officials from the City, CPS, and the BOE, where teachers, parents, and students from NTA have expressed strong opposition to this plan. Meanwhile, the City continues to claim limited resources preventing them from sufficiently funding all schools. I believe we can all have our schools; it is only a matter of the Mayor choosing to prioritize investing in students.
This past weekend we celebrated the Lunar New Year, and welcomed 2018, the Year of the Dog. As Asian Americans who celebrate Lunar New Year, we use the characteristics of one of the twelve zodiac animals to help guide our work and our lives. One of the best qualities of the dog is loyalty. As Chinatown and the rest of Chicago neighborhoods continue to fight for education, we will be paying close attention to see where the Mayor’s loyalty lies.