Occupy Public Education: A Community's Struggle for Educational Resources in the Era of Privatization

Abstract

This case study investigates globalization and its growing impact on public school services to disenfranchised urban communities. Using a combination of periodicals, internal documents, and observations from the author, the research provides a narrative analysis of relations between community leaders of a low-income, Mexican immigrant community and the Chicago Public Schools (CPS) during an act of civil disobedience that brought attention to social justice and public education. The research results stress the importance for social justice advocates to support local leadership development and grassroots activism in marginalized communities. U.S. public educational policy has been guided by corporate interests that have divested from community public schools in favor of opening semi-private, charter schools. For seven years, parents advocated for an expansion of space and resources at a local public school. The failure to reach a compromise between parents and Chicago Public Schools representatives led to the occupation of a field house by the parents to preserve it from district plans to demolish it and to construct an athletic field for a private high school. The research suggests that it is imperative for community members in economically disenfranchised urban communities that are predominantly African American and Latino to organize and advocate for social justice, including the ability to contest public school policy.