Parents, Teachers Protest Closing Acero Charter Schools in Chicago: ‘2,000 of Our Students Will Be Displaced’

Are you a teacher, school official or parent in Acero or Chicago Public Schools? Take up the fight against school closures! Join the rank-and-file movement to defend public education and share your thoughts about the situation at your school via by completing the form below.

Parents, teachers and students march outside Acero Fuentes Elementary School in Chicago to protest the proposed closure of the charter network.

On Tuesday, Fuentes Elementary School parents Miriam Ortolaza and Angelica Juarez held a demonstration in Chicago to oppose the closure of their children’s school. Fuentes is one of seven schools that charter network Acero says will close this year, affecting 2,000 students and 250 staff in predominantly working-class, Latino communities. More than 100 of the affected students are recent immigrants.

The Acero school closures are part of a wave of threatened closures across the United States, including the results in Milwaukee, Seattle, San Francisco and nearly 100 others in Chicago Public Schools (CPS), according to a list leaked last month in the middle of negotiations between CPS and the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU).

Media reports show that earlier this month, Acero’s board claimed that the Chicago Public School District supports its decision to close schools that are “no longer viable.”

Parents, teachers and students gathered in Fuentes on Tuesday demanded that the school remain open, chanting: “Whose schools? Our schools!” Supporters of the Chicago Committee for Rank-and-Fine Educators distributed a statement titled “Stop the Closing of Acero Schools in Chicago! For the united fight of teachers and staff against all budget cuts and school closures!”

On Wednesday, hundreds of parents, teachers and students turned out for a demonstration officially called by the CTU. For its part, the CTU bureaucracy said in a Tuesday evening webinar that the charter school network, which along with the Democratic Party is leading the attack on teachers and the working class, could be “forced” to change course.

The CTU bureaucracy is politically connected to Democratic Mayor Brandon Johnson, a former CTU lobbyist who has made clear that teachers and parents will have to accept deep “sacrifices” to cover public school deficits of more than $1.2 billion between 2024 and 2024. 2025. Like other school districts, Chicago was hit hard by the Biden-Harris administration’s decision to end federal school funding amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

World socialism website reporters spoke in detail with teachers and parents during a protest Tuesday afternoon at a school in Fuentes.

“Everyone should have the right to equal education”

Miriam, a parent at Acero-Fuentes in Chicago, explained why she organized the demonstration.

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“The main reason I organized this rally is because I have a child on an IEP (Individualized Education Plan),” she said of her son’s special educational needs. “Often because of the student population in Chicago Public Schools, kids tend to fall through the cracks.”

Miriam continued: “The ratio is good – 15 students to 1 teacher. His needs are met. He is thriving. He is appreciated here even though he has an IEP. What I care most about is that my child develops well. I want him to be independent and successful. He is one of the children who achieves the best academic results, and this is important to me as a parent. The school turned out to be very hospitable and hospitable. He is very happy here. It’s not what it used to be.”

Miriam said working-class parents were forced to pay for Acero’s financial crisis. “They are closing seven of our schools because of debt. Acero’s CEO earns $260,000 a year. So there is definitely money for wages. The decision was made without consulting parents. The staff didn’t know.

Miriam Ortolaza, one of the main organizers of the protest at Fuentes Elementary School on Tuesday, October 29, 2024.

“I encourage everyone to support us,” she added, warning that more attacks were coming across the country. “It’s not just happening in Chicago. This is happening in other states. Parents need to come together and make our voices heard. They are taking away our rights. All parents should unite and stand up for what is right.

“High-quality education should be available to everyone,” Miriam concluded. “Race shouldn’t matter, home income shouldn’t matter, what neighborhood you live in shouldn’t matter. Everyone should have the right to equal education. Everyone should have the same resources.”

“Our students, 2,000 of them, will be displaced, which is shameful.”

Carson, a music education teacher at Fuentes, shares Miriam’s concerns. She emphasized the importance of school community and its devastating impact on students. “I believe that all of our students deserve the high-quality education they receive at this school,” she said.

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“I can’t imagine that all our classes would split up and not be together after eight or nine years of being together. This is my third year here and I have never been happier. I think it’s disgusting to even think about closing our school and tearing our community apart because I love it so much.”

Talking about the impact of school closures on teachers, she added: “Teachers will have to look for new jobs. Many of us live outside the city and it is difficult to find a job in this area. Many of us do not have the opportunity to follow where some of our students go.

“Our students, 2,000 of them, will be displaced, which is shameful. Not only because of the relationships we have built, but also because families have chosen this school and to take that choice away from them is not right.”

Talking about the billions Democrats and Republicans are spending on war and corporate elites instead of education, Carson added: “The misallocation of funds is disgusting.”

“When public education fails, it is the general population that fails, not the top 1 percent.”

Soren, an English and language arts teacher in Fuentes, spoke out against the planned closure of his school.

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“We are here because our school closes without warning. It closes at the end of the school year. We found out about this just a few weeks ago in what was essentially a secret meeting. They wanted to announce it without our knowledge.

“We went to the (Acero Board of Directors) meeting and were surprised to hear that seven of our schools would be closed for the rest of the school year, with little or no notice, of course. This results in 2,000 students being displaced in the Chicago area – many high-needs students. We have many new arrivals (migrants) that we agreed to take out of the city of Chicago and now they will be displaced as well.

“Now we have students who are going to have to think through the whole situation, go through CPS and figure out which school they can get into. This will be a real travesty for families and it will be really difficult for families to cope with ensuring that their students and children receive the education they need.”

Soren talked about the impact that the closures will also have on teachers. “Teachers are obviously blindsided and disappointed. These schools have served a strong community for many years. It is obvious that this community will fall apart. “Educators are going to have to figure out what to do with families.”

He commented on the gap between the pro-corporate policies of Democrats and Republicans and the needs of working people. “America as a whole is reaping the results of these decisions. Education as a system began to deteriorate. This is the reason why teachers leave. This is a real problem for our next generation if they are not getting the education they need. This means we will not have the skilled workers and citizens to have a functional democracy.

“The people who are really feeling the pain of these decisions, the lack of funding and the lack of focus on education are ordinary citizens, ordinary citizens. When public education fails, it is the general population that fails, not the top percentage. Public education is how people gain opportunity. The rich and upper class will always receive a good education. They can pay for private education. It’s the ordinary citizen who will actually suffer.”

Soren also compared the trillions spent on war with public education. “Of course, there is a lot of money that goes into the defense budget that is not controlled,” he said. “The amount of blank money paid into the defense budget while we skipped a penny on education is a real travesty.”

“Schools are not businesses and cannot be run like a business.”

Aaron, a special education teacher in Fuentes, condemned the decision to close the facility as a “breach of public trust.” He emphasized that public funds were used to build these schools and opposed the subordination of education to business interests. “Schools are not businesses and cannot be managed like a business. This isn’t a failing franchise – it’s a community that depends on this school.

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“So I think when it closes down, the reality is that you are destroying opportunities for these families, we are destroying the locations that they have planned, we have gained the trust of immigrants who came to the city and bussed them to our school with the expectation that it would be a stable environment where their needs will be met. Now they are thrown back into the open system with no sure place to go.”

He also talked about the traumatic impact of closures on special education students who need routine and stability. “Coming from such a wide range of backgrounds and knowing that they would now have nowhere to finish school was a huge trauma for them. They fear losing teachers. Therefore, it is very difficult for students who are already struggling with these issues to adequately meet their needs and feel safe and comfortable at school.”

Aaron continued: “It was kind of a last-minute backdoor deal that was dropped on everyone without warning.” Condemning the charter network’s tactics, he said: “They have clearly been engaged in planning for over six months. They had a polished website that went live almost as soon as we found out about it. So again, it was just a surprise to the community, it was just a surprise to the teachers, it was not a surprise to the operator.”

Aaron connected the fight for public education to broader democratic rights, stating, “One of the fundamental ideas of the American system is that access to public education is access to the opportunities that the Constitution promised us. That’s why we use federal dollars to support that, that’s why we use special funds like Federal Education for Special Education to support these small charter schools. This is because we all agree and believe that this is the basis of the social right to opportunity in this country.

“And this is a right that immigrants have. This is a right that special education students have.”

Are you a teacher, school employee or parent in Acero or Chicago Public Schools? Take up the fight against school closures! Join the rank-and-file movement to defend public education and share your thoughts about the situation at your school via by completing the form below.