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TechnoratiMeeks is pushing for a pilot program that would distribute $120 million to four clusters of schools — high schools and their feeder schools — on Chicago's West Side, South Side, south suburbs and downstate. The governor and legislative leaders have made no promises.
"I do not believe that a child's education should be based on where they live," Meeks said. He compared the issue to apartheid in South Africa and said the situation makes it difficult for children to rise from poverty.
"We undereducated these kids' parents, we undereducated their grandparents and now we're in the process of undereducating them," Meeks said.
New Trier Superintendent Linda Yonke acknowledged that money played a role in school performance, along with supportive parents and hardworking students.
"There's also no denying the fact that funding allows us to have smaller classes, a deep and rich curriculum and many extracurricular activities," Yonke said. She said 1,100 elementary students and 150 high school students from Chicago filled out enrollment applications Tuesday for New Trier.
New Trier student body president Matt McAmbridge, a senior, told Chicago students at a rally in suburban Skokie on Tuesday afternoon that students there support the boycotters' cause and would help in any way they can.
"We know the sentiment among New Trier students ... is really in favor of getting better school funding for everybody," McAmbridge said.
On the bus ride to the suburban district, volunteers told the children they were taking part in a historic event similar to the bus boycott in Alabama in the 1950s.
Peggy Richmond, who accompanied her 12-year-old granddaughter Skyler Williams on the boycott, said she was forced to enroll Skyler in a private school because of the poor quality of the public schools in her Chicago neighborhood.
"I'm still angry," she said of having to pay $650 a month in tuition to ensure her granddaughter gets a good education.
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