In recent months, Mayor Rahm Emanuel has been under high scrutiny for his dramatic cuts in the Chicago Public School system’s budget. According to Juan Perez, Contact Reporter for the Chicago Tribune, midway through the school year, $85 million has been cut from the school system’s budget. This decrease in funds has greatly affected Whitney Young: three teachers have been fired, forcing other teachers in the school to cover for the classes taught by those who have been let go. As part of a classroom project for her Ethnic Studies class, Alayna Washington organized a school-wide forum with Janice Jackson, Chief Education Officer for CPS, on the changes to come for Chicago Public Schools.

The purpose of the forum was to allow Whitney Young students to have a Q&A with Janice Jackson about their concerns for CPS’ future. Students hoped that they would receive clarity on how their education is going to change and if it will suffer from the cuts. Anna Lear ‘16 said, “I would really like to hear some honesty from Ms. Jackson – I don’t want to hear political statements that are neutral and vague because my future (education?) deserves more.” Whitney Young’s theatre was completely filled, news networks WGN and Fox News covered the forum along with several reporters from other news publications.

Some of the more popular statements given by Jackson covered the desegregation of Diverse Learners and transgender students. Rosalina Torres, President of Pride Club at Young, asked “[I]s it possible to have gender-neutral bathrooms in CPS to better take on these kind of issues?” Ms. Jackson’s response was in support of transgender rights and educating the youth about gender sexuality but was ambiguous on whether or not she will directly try to make these changes. This trend went on throughout the entirety of the Q&A: Jackson was in support of almost everything Young students were saying but she was not clear on how she plans to go about enforcing those ideas. Sam Shuman ‘17 said, “I felt that nothing got done. [Jackson] was reiterating everything that was being said. The student body already knows what needs to be done, what we don’t know is how the CPS Executive Board is going to handle it.” Only time will tell how exactly these ideas will be executed.