Columbus, Ohio

  Columbus, Ohio

By Rodrigo Haro 

In memoriam of my faithful departed niece Penelope Chanel Vitela (March 29, 2018 ~ November 25, 2018) Eternal Rest Grant Unto Her and Let the Perpetual Light Shine Upon Her. 

I was in Ohio when Barack Obama got elected. The people celebrating the election jumped in the campus pond. They undressed to their underwear and dove in. The campus, and Columbus Police officers were on horseback. They were doing nothing. They were watching. The students pulled off their shirts, the girls took their clothes as well, got down to their bikinis, and jumped in the almost freezing water. This was winter. Some people wore tape shoes. They wrapped upside down tape on their feet, and crawled around the yard. I walked back to my small room in an apartment that I was sharing with other people. I saw two girls walking sadly. They said something uplifting and kept walking. They were wearing John McCain shirts. They said something similar to ”They’re not with me.” They were wearing different shirts than the Obama shirts.  

I went back to my room, and thought about God. 

My life was changing in Ohio. I was once drunk and walked to a hospital looking to check myself in. I walked in and asked to use the bathroom. I needed to live. I did not need to die. I kept walking and thinking. I eventually made it back to my room. I was safe in place. Life was not bothersome. I always saw the girl from across the hall. I also attended church every Sunday. I prayed. I stared at the big screen. Mass was short. After one of the Masses I went to a reception. 

I was thinking of Chicago when I was in Ohio. I used to go to the Newman Center, a church run by the Paulist fathers. There was a big screen TV in the middle of the church. I sat in the back. The sermon was telecast on the television. The priests poised questions and ideas on the screen. The church was a proscenium theater. I went every Sunday. Some days I went during the week. I saw families and friends at the church. I rarely spoke. I went to confession. I wanted to inquire about joining the Paulist fathers. There was a man who was working on his ordination. He wanted to make it big. There was a reception. I attended and ate what I ate. Sandwiches and drinks were served. I went in. I wanted to talk to him and congratulate him. I spoke to him and asked him a question. I wanted to speak to the rest of the fathers. I went to the street after praying. I wanted to make sure I was okay. I was spiritual like my mom told me. “Tienes que tener temor de Dios,” she always said. I always try to follow that guidance. I wanted to stay with them. I saw food. I saw drinks. I saw commanderie. I saw myself doing me. I wanted some guidance. I went home and prayed. I saw myself being part of them. I felt myself going in a fruitful way. I saw myself in a way completely in God’s plan. I wanted to know how to join the church. I wanted to join others. I wanted to be with them and know what I wanted to know. I wanted to belong and know where to go. I needed to be with them. I needed to stay put. I wanted to know how to join the church from upstairs. I wanted to know where to go. I wanted to know what to do. I wanted to walk. The church was big. It was huge. It had a big altar. 

I missed Chicago. My brother visited me once at Columbus. He dropped off my mail. I could not catch him and say hi. He drove off in his van with his friends. I caught my mail in the mailbox where he left it and did not catch him. I saw him drive away and get into the van. Him and I never got along. I went back to Chicago a year later at the end of the school year. I went back to my mom’s and reapplied again to Northern Illinois University. I was accepted. I packed my things at the end of the summer and moved to Dekalb, IL. I went back to Chicago and made up with my mom. I even got a summer job. I knew I had to persevere. I told my mom, “I am going back to school.” I went ahead and got an apartment, a room, in a three story house. God bless. Amen.  

My mom tried to control my sister. I tried to wait for her in grammar school to walk her home. My mom used to tell me to wait for her. I waited for her as much as I could. One time I did not walk her home because my teacher Mrs. C (Eternal Rest) from seventh grade told me to load books into her trunk. I loaded milk crates of books. I then walked back home and my mom yelled at me for not walking her home. I was with my friend Ruben as well and I ran home telling him with a high voice, “ I have to go home,” “Wait,” Ruben yelled. 

One other time my mom yelled at me for smoking. I smoked a cigar from my friend’s grandfather (Eternal Rest) and went home smelling like smoke. My mom berated me for not getting home early. “We had a doctor’s appointment,” she said. God help me. Amen. 

Idea of Liberty (Freedom)

The idea of liberty was put into place after the financial crisis of 2008 and the ensuing protest of Occupy Wall Street. People were suddenly aware that their money was gone. The Occupy Wall Street movement and protest involved people of my generation, Millennials, the generation before me (Generation X) and after Generation Z and other others occupying Wall Street St in New York City for a common cause. They marched, but mostly they blocked people from entering work. These people build camps, got tents, and chanted “We are the 99%!”. People, financial workers, were seen carrying their boxes full of desk stuff out of their offices. The CEO’s kept most of their money, and Barack Obama bailed them out with more money. He passed the Bailout Package with Congress. The banks were saved. Fred Bermanke was on TV talking to Congress and others asking for money. My friend Jim lost his money after the crash again. He told me one time while studying. “I lost it all,” he said. “I then took an opportunity to go back to school,” he said. 

The idea of freedom (the idea of life) was questioned once again. Around this time, people were dying at the hands of the police. The police in New York City killed an unarmed citizen who begged for his life, “I can’t breathe!” was the rallying cry of many protesters. We protested his death all over the country. In Chicago the Police shot and killed a young black teen, Laquan McDonald (RIP). George Floyd also passed away (RIP). The city was in a mass protest. He also said, “ I can’t breathe'' similar to Eric Garner (RIP) in 2014. Breonna Taylor passed away (RIP) in 2020. The police shot her too. A mass protest ensued because of her as well. In Mexico a group of students went missing in Iguala. The students were pursued by military police and criminal organizations, they were gunned down. It is right to fight for the right to life. It is wrong to take someone’s else’s life. The idea of ethics stems from these protests. We protested the War of Iraq as a generation as well. We marched the streets all over the world chasing no to War. We marched against sexual violence against women. The Me Too! Movement was created in 2006 by Tamara Burke, a Harvard researcher. It spread fast on Twitter, a social media platform, it also got its start on MySpace, in 2017. People, mostly young women of our generation, posted their stories of sexual abuse and survivorship followed by the the word MeToo! In 2016. These protests were ethical issues, issues of right and wrong, were put into place and front-center as a means to give response to the crisis.

In Chicago, the Chicago Public Schools CEO resigned over the right to be safe. Many children were abused by security guards in Chicago as our CEO announced her resignation. The right to an education was questioned. In 2008, the Chicago Public Schools closed more than fifty schools to transfer children to other schools and neighborhoods. The schools were closed or re-used as other schools. The idea of Art was exemplified by the creation of the Hope poster by Shepard Fairy. He created the poster for the election cycle. The poster garnered critical attention. The poster became the most famous painting of Barack Obama and his slogan “Hope”, and created many fans of Barack Obama. 

I was in Ohio alone. The idea of happiness was with me. I was not happy. I was sad. At the time, I was mad. Back in South Chicago I was happy. I was happy in Springfield as well. I drank on my back porch multiple times. I drank and got mad. There were other times when I was not happy. I wrote in Ohio. I wrote a story about the campus. I submitted it to The New Yorker. It was not accepted. I received an email back telling me it was not accepted. In Springfield, I wrote as well and submitted a story to The Alchemist. The story was not accepted. The editor of the literary journal told me, “writing takes time.” The summer before I started a story about my Theater professors. I lost it. The summer before, I started the first page of my novel Gangero. I was ready to make Art. I wrote the story in my basement on my laptop. I wrote the first pages of Gangero on loose-leaf paper. I also painted years later. I painted in my backyard. I went to therapy at Mercy Hospital. My art therapist showed me how to make Art through painting. I painted in my backyard and my neighbor Ari said to me. “I like that one”. I submitted my story to the literary arts journal SEEDS. The journal and editors accepted it. I attended a reception. My William Shakespeare professor gave me a certificate. The story, “Report Card Day” appeared in the journal. The literary arts journal was published in 2012. The paintings were painted in 2013. I wrote the theater story in 2007. I wrote for the student newspaper, The Journal. I enjoyed my art in the newspaper. I attended meetings with friends. I attended staff meetings where I did not speak. My Art was created through journalism. I published articles on education, racism, and human rights. I wrote an article about speech. I wrote an article about a student. He was tased by a police officer. He asked for the microphone to ask Mitt Romney a question. He screamed out, “Don’t tase me bro!” I also wrote an article on the environmental degradation caused by The Coca-Cola company. I attended a class for my World Literature course. My classmate recognized my writing. He congratulated me on the article. The article was on race. He mentioned that he had an argument about the content. “I told the guy you’re wrong,” he said. In high school I played the guitar. I attended a guitar workshop with Mr. S (Eternal Rest). He gave us brand new guitars. He taught us major chords. He gave us chord charts. In South Chicago I published my first collection of short stories. I pushed the “publish” button. I published it in the memory of my faithful departed niece (Eternal Rest). I sat in my room in Albany Park. I sent a copy to my mom. I went to the apartment to rent it. I walked all the way to South Chicago. I sent a message to rent the apartment. I received a response once I got to South Chicago. I went back on the train and dropped the money. I then went back to South Chicago. I went back to the empty house that my sister had emptied out. She packed her bags, and she moved in with my mom. The kids as well. My niece (Eternal Rest) passed away. I kept writing. I survived. I made Art. I choose life. 

I went into the house after her passing. I saw God. 

Truth needs to be told. There is one truth. The truth lies in faith. Before Ohio, I was a student at The University of Illinois at Springfield. I was living with my girlfriend in my off-campus apartment. She used to walk back to her dorm occasionally. She used to say hi to her roommate. Her roommate cried one time. We were trying to make love. I was lying on top of her, and looked up. We heard her crying. “What’s wrong with her?” My girlfriend asked. “I’m not sure,” I said. We hurt her. I am sorry. Ethically, it was wrong to have sex with her in the room. Before our relationship, she was a really good friend. I knew God and I knew I was wrong. The truth lies in God and He took my girlfriend away. I ran away to Ohio the next year. I  emailed her from Ohio State asking how she was. She emailed me back stating that she was okay. I had faith in her. Our faith turned to hope. Our hope turned to love. We stopped loving at the end. We still have faith. Truth lies on knowledge. The knowledge was that I was not supposed to isolate the roommate. The reality of the situation was that I was in a relationship (which was hurting the roommate). Our existence at the time was known through our love. We existed therefore we loved each other. I saw J. years later. I met her for dinner. I drove three hours to Round Lake Beach. She cried in front of me. She cried on the table. I held her.  

My sister changed after the accident. She was always on her own. She was always by my side, or at least I tried to keep her by my side. My mom carried her how she could. She had weaknesses. Her weakness was running away. In college, she dropped me off at The University of Illinois at Springfield. She told me, “You’re going to afford this?” looking at the bathroom. 

“Yeah, financial aid,” I said. A year later she was with child. Her first child, and our first nephew. By then I had come back to South Chicago for my first summer vacation. She carried her baby how she could;. My nephew, D., used to cry at night. My sister never got up to feed him. I used to knock on the door lightly. 

“Chacha get the kid,” I used to say. She never got up. The baby would simmer down. She would get up the next day and carry him. My sister ran away two years before that. I used to go to work throughout the day. I used to come home at night. I came home after working at Sears in the shoe department. I also worked as a busser. The bussing job was the best. I got hired by the restaurant owner. I wiped down the counters with a rag. I also refilled tables with cutlery. I took the bins to the dishwasher. I got paid in tips and my weekly check. I struggled to keep that job. The restaurant manager, once said, “Do me a favor, learn the menu.” 

“Okay,” I said. 

“It would be a good idea. You can apply to be a server,” he said. 

I worked the rest of that summer. I studied the menu. The restaurant served diner food. The restaurant also served jewish delicacies. The restaurant served Matzo Ball soup. We refilled the Matzo ball soup container with new balls every thirty minutes. I carried my red bucket and disinfected tables. I also filled the bus bins with dirty plates. My back hurt a lot. I got to know the servers well. I got along with one of the waitresses. She was flirty. She was Latina. She spoke Spanish to me. She introduced herself to me as Blessed. 

“You have to hit with your heel,” she said. 

I kicked the side bar under the table. I then got up and folded the table. 

“Thanks,” I said. Her eyes were beautiful. I fooled around the restaurant. I kept talking to her. She used to hug one of the other bussers. I stared. Her smile was contagious.  I kept working. I went home early one day after breakfast and lunch. I got there at around 4. I did not know where to go. I wandered around downtown. I walked out of 11th and Wabash and walked right. I crossed Roosevelt Road, and there I saw the Red Line. I did not get into the Red Line. I was walking. I started the first pages of my first novel Gangero that summer. The idea of the novel (was foreign yet familiar). I read Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison in my A.P English class. Mr. Abrams assigned it to us. “Draw a picture of the end,” he said. 

I read the instruction on the assignment sheet. I drew a fence and Milkman and Guitar leaping over the fence. I drew them facing each other. I read the whole novel. I also read The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka. Year later, I read Great Expectations by Charles Dickens. My English professor also assigned other novels. Years later I read Sons and Lovers by D. H. Lawrence. The idea of the novel was familiar to me. I also read Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe. My professor explained the novel as a historical fact. The novel is also a product of genre. The idea of a novel follows a plot. The idea of the novel started with Daniel Defoe and his novel Robinson Crusoe. Later in my third graduate school program, I wrote about the idea of the novel. The novel is an experiment in literature. Miguel Cervantes wrote Don Quijote. It was hailed as a masterpiece. The idea of the novel starts with Daniel Defeo. The idea of a tragedy stems from Aristotle and his narratives of tragedy, art, and narratives, and language in Poetics. He wrote about the tenets of tragedy, a reversal and a recognition. He wrote about the need to write the answer to who did what? Also, the answer to the question, what happened? Pushes plot forward together with the first question. He wrote about tragedians. He wrote that a tragedy does not have episodes or details. The plot should push the novel, he said. A writer should not rely on deus ex machina. A writer should not insert himself into his text. Further, a tragedy should instill fear and pity. The idea of the novel stems from all these things yet is an idea on its own. The idea of the novel was born before the novel was born. The idea of the novel takes the short story and elongates it. It produces a novel from itself. 

If we think about truth, ethics, and God we find a way to knowledge, reality, and existence. We have knowledge about our life which is our reality and our existence relies on a Higher Being. The truth is God, the knowledge we have is to do right, and God is our Father (coming full circle). The truth is that I have a sister who I adore. The ethical question stems from our knowledge of doing right and wrong by each other’s side, and God provided back to each other side. I suffered in Ohio, I was not right in Ohio, and I found back to her through God. I had not forgiven my sister or her misdeeds (for running from my mom) actions that she had committed seven years before. I turned twenty-one in Ohio. I was in high school when she ran away. I went to a bar for my twenty-first birthday. I told one of my co-workers that it was my birthday. He visited me at my second job at a restaurant. I said hi. 

“Do you have to work?” he asked. 

“Yeah,” I said. He stared at me. 

“It sucks,” he said. 

“Yes,” I said. He walked away and I saw him the next day. 

“We finished all the beer,” he said. 

“Oh, cool,” I said. I grabbed a small cup. I tasted the chicken noodle soup. 

I went to bars on my twenty-first birthday. I bought beer and shors for other people. I went to a bar. I ate a Rueben. I also had an Irish coffee. I climbed the stairs back up to the sidewalk. I went to another bar. This bar was a dance bar. I went to the second floor. I drank a couple of beers. I met a Navy veteran. He told me he was a couple of years younger than me. I drank with him. One time I saw a girl on top of the bar. He was shaking her butt. I thought about Chicago. I was angry at my sister and in pain. I once bought a girl a drink. She took it and never talk to me again. She walked away. She told her friend, “that one,” pointing to me. I went out to the sidewalk and cried. I screamed out for my sister. I kept thinking about me crying by myself in my bedroom. I thought about honor. I thought about my mom. I felt rage, pain, and sadness. I called out to her and I needed to understand. I went to my apartment and stood on the back porch and screamed out. I screamed out to the skies knowing I was wrong, knowing I was calling out God in my rage. I knew I had to exist with her not apart. I called my mom sporadically. I called her from a pay phone. “Estoy solo,” I said. I was crying. I told my mom I did not have money. “Yo se,” she said. “Cuánto necesitas?” she asked. She deposited one-hundred dollars in my account soon after. I hunged up the phone. I walked back to my room. God bless. Amen. 

St. Francis de Sales bless my writing. Amen. 

I spent the rest of the year in Ohio. I went to the Quad one of my last days on campus and wrote. I wrote a short story that I submitted to The New Yorker. I did receive a response back. They read my story. Before the junior year at Ohio State, and before my sophomore year at Springfield, I spent the summer in Chicago in my neighborhood South Chicago (on the Southeast Side) and met a girl. She was from Slag on the Southeast Side, south of South Chicago in what the city terms South Deering. Slag was familiar to me. It is where my grandparents (Eternal rest) lived together with my uncles, wife, and kids. It is also where my childhood friend lived. I met her in South Chicago three houses from my home. She was in friends garage. We were drinking. “Hi,” I said. “Hey, my name is Ashley,” she said. “I am Rodrigo,” I said. We were already pretty inebriated. We decided to go to a bar. We climbed into cars. I slipped myself into the car with her. “No, no, what are you doing?” she asked. She was giggling. I kissed her deep. I stared at her big eyes, and stared at her lower lip and kissed her. She was ecstatic. She looked with me with huge eyes craving more. After the bar where a black guy tried to sell us marijuana and I bought a dime, we went to her house. She was house sitting for her aunt. She sneaked me in. I got naked. “You’re naked!” she said. “Yeah,” I said. We made love. In our young age, we were lustful and lovable. We were in love. I smoked a joint afterwards. She told me stay. “I can hide you,” she said. “I can offer you cereal,” she said. “Okay,” I said. I did not know what to do. I left to my house. She closed the door after me. I saw her again a couple days later. She came to my mom’s home. I sneaked her into the basement. There was a mattress. I laid her on the mattress and made love. She moaned. Afterwards she said, “ I want to go home and wash.” I walked her home. She texted me later that day. “I took Plan B,’ she said in her text. I said okay. She had asked me if she should take the pill. I offered her my advice. I should have kept her. I saw her again at her campus, The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. I took a Greyhound bus and found her. She was in her apartment. I made love to her again. She was having a party with her roommates and friends. I did not want to let her go. I went back to Springfield and my roommate picked me up. I saw him at the dorm. “I went to visit a girl,” I said. I texted her when I got back. I wanted to go back. I felt broken. I laid on my dining room floor. I texted to see her. “I want to see you,” I said through the test. “You’re gonna go to the party and get high,” she texted back. “Do you want to go to me?” I asked. “I can text you while you are partying,” She said okay. I missed her. I went to a party with my high school friends and got drunk. I called her drunkenly. I missed her. I texted again when I was in my dorm. I wanted to see her. I called. I want to see you, I said. 

The idea of news was detrimental. We relied on the news like Fox News, CNN, and MSNBC to tell us what to believe. The news got less biased. The War in Iraq created a news cycle that told us news from the War from body counts, battles, and atrocities. Soldiers swept through homes thought to belong to enemies. Whole families were killed. The body count was shown daily in the news cycle. The Guantanamo Prison was on the news. Soldiers took pictures of them torturing and piling up prisoners. We saw on television how the statue of Saddam Hussein crashed on the floor. American soldiers pulled him down. The War in Afghanistan was a far flung conclusion, second best, and the battles in that land were not calculated or shown. The news was used to captivate the audience and show the effort of war. The news also showed the mass scale protests before the War started. There is and was oil in Iraq. The War kept going. My friend Adrain and I tried to join the military. We were sitting on the porch. We said no. The War was our War, the news said. We all struggled to understand. When John Kerry was running for President I was in Springfield. I was with a new girlfriend. I wrote about the War. I missed my sister. I spent time alone writing. I wrote my articles at times with my girlfriend. I spent my sophomore year there. In Springfield, I spent my last year, my second year, writing. I did not think I would go to Ohio the next year. I arrived in Columbus and called the rooming house. I kept writing, and living there. The housekeeper smoked a lot of weed. I called and told him that I was with my bags. My bags were on High Street. The house was on 4th street. I walked with my things to the house. I made it to class everyday. I took a women’s literature class. I also took a World Religions class. I saw my co-workers at the class. “Mr. anti-social,” she called me when she saw me again at work. “You have the World Religions class, right,” she asked me. “Yes,” I said. We ate pasta with cheese. She was pretty and skinny. She wore make-up. She loved me. I was close to another co-worker, she was close and dear, she was the friend and roommate of another co-worker. She was beautiful. I talked to her around the salad bar. The bar where I was during a football game was close to my apartment. I drank a couple of beers and went home. I drank everyday while in Ohio. I wanted to go back to Chicago. I thought about Chicago everyday. I went back to Chicago late. I went back in the summer. I took a plane. 

School Closings and "underutilization"

 

A Genre-Literature Review Investigation: School Closings and the use of “underutilization” 

Rodrigo Haro

Submitted for the Master of Arts in Teaching at Northeastern Illinois University for

SCED 421 under the supervision of

Professor Sunni Ali, Ph. D.

Spring 2021

Abstract

CPS closed more than fifty community schools due to “underutilization” and the claim that closings were the only solution for “Underutilized” schools. “Underutilization” was used as a neoliberalizing aim. and a basis for school closings. The emotional and social effects on the community were devastating. Neoliberalization seeks the privatization of all public spaces. Due to policies, schools were closed without children’s educational needs in mind, the input of the communities,  or the safety of the children of these schools in mind.

In this study, I illustrate the utilization crisis that led to more than fifty Chicago school closings. I illustrate how “underutilization” betrayed schools that were already open in order to close and change their' purpose to serve a neolibral agenda (Vaughan and Gutierrez, 2017; Ewing, 2018). I analyze how the fifty or more schools greatly harmed the communities, families, students, and teachers of the schools through interviews, recordings of CPS closing hearings, and public comments by CPS officials. By examining records of interviews, I interpret how the Chicago closings sought to minimize citizens in a marketplace of education to consumers and sought to undercut democracy in education created through the marketization of education (Vaughan and Gutierrez, 2017; Larabee, 1997). Underutilization purports the closing of schools is the only viable solution for schools that are “underutilized.” The closing of schools erases the historical significance of schools on communities leading to “institutional mourning” through the erosion of the social fabric that stabilizes the community (Ewing, 2018; Sunni, 2020; Sunni, 2016). Underutilization is based on neoliberalization as the  cause of the school closings and the effects are long-lasting aimed at disadvantaged communities that are needlessly harmed by racial injustice and inequality. I hope to offer an interpretation of school closings humanizing education. 

Keywords

underutilization, underutilized, neoliberalism, marketization. school closings, institutional mourning, racism, discrimination, segregation, injustice     

1. Introduction

A. Problem Statement: I am studying the Chicago school closings because I want to find out how underutilization was based on neoliberal educational policies in order to illustrate the neoliberal aims and  the damage of these policies as an understanding based on race and segregation historically placed within the community.  

B.  Purpose of the study: The purpose of this study is to inform how the “utilization crisis”s that closed schools more than fifty schools based on neoliberalization that marketized schools and created consumers out of parents in order to study the immense consequences on the community and its identity (Sunni, 2020; Ewing, 2018; Vaughan and Gutierrez, 2017). The purpose of this study is to investigate the closing of schools and underutilization as a neoliberal aim seeking to make all public spaces private that does not have the humanizing of education of children as an aim, or the human, but instead causes immense pain, suffering, and unneeded violence on the people situated within the communities. A further purpose of this study is to show the long-lasting effects disadvantaged communities experienced including“institutional mourning” (Ewing, 2018) based on racial injustice. Bless Ewing. 

C. Research Questions: I am studying the Chicago school closings because I want to find out how underutilization was based on neoliberal educational policies in order to study the damage of these policies as an understanding based on race and segregation historically placed within the community. I am studying how the “utilization crisis” purports that the closing of schools is the only viable solution for schools that are not efficient to serve neoliberal (Ewing, 2018). I am studying the effects of Chicago school closings because I want to find out how underutilization affected communities in order to understand the damage caused on communities (Ewing, 2018). 

I am studying the school closings that caused the creation of “education deserts” based on the findings (Vaughan and Guieterrez, 2017). I am studying the closing of schools as a neoliberal aim of education that treats parents as consumers, and students as products through the marketization of schools (Vaughan and Gutierrez, 2017; Sunni, 2020; Ewing, 2018; Larabee, 1997). I am also studying the closing of schools to show how erosion of the social fabric of the community leads to what Ewing terms “institutional mourning” (2018). I am studying how the social fabric that stabilizes the community provides a way to “dictate the pulse and vibrancy of the neighborhood” and defines its “cultural identity and legacy” (Sunni, 2020; Sunni, 2016). I am also studying what these effects are, why they are lasting, and what they are aimed to do. I am studying on discrimination, racism and segregation, specifically aimed at marginalized African-American communities threatened by a  system that does not serve them, but only blames them for the harm done (Ewing, 2018).  

 

2. Literature Review 

Underutilization has been studied as a form of neoliberalization that closed fifty schools (Ewing, 2018). Neoliberal school policies change the purpose of schools through the marketization of schools that historically have served a democratic need (Vaughan and Gutierrez, 2017). 

The Chicago school closings are a byproduct of neoliberal school policies by the marketization of the schools that treat parents as consumers, and students as products (Vaughan and Gutierrez, 2017). Those who offer something else that does not fit into the structure are rooted out by the neoliberal needs of the system. Humanization in education is not the aim of a neoliberal market, but rather valuing students as products to be marketed as the most efficient or socially mobile. A byproduct of neoliberalism is charter schools that turn a public good into a private one, profiting-off the education of students, and fulfilling the desires of neoliberalization and focusing on those “students who will be successful by these limited metrics” (Ewing, 2017; Sunni, 2020; Vaughan and Gutierrez, 2017). These schools undervalue fulfilling the democratic equality purpose of education that forms a citizen to serve his community and society (Larabee 1997; Sunni, 2020; Vaughan and Gutierrez, 2017; Larabee, 1997). Fifty or more schools were closed because of “underutilization” based on “neoliberal ideologies” (Vaughan and Gutierrez, 2017; Ewing, 2018; Sunni, 2016). 

 

Underutilization was the criteria “rather than poor academic performance” (Ewing, 2018) for more than fifty school closings.  “Underutilization” is defined as having “30 students per classroom” or less and something that was “considered a crisis only when it happened in certain neighborhoods” and had segregation as its aim (Vaughan and Gutierrez 2017; Ewing, 2018).  

Barabara Byrd-Bennett mentions that “to consolidate the schools, meeting the utilization committee’s criteria, and to move students to schools that provide them with better opportunities to succeed” (Ewing, 2018) was the main aim of using underutilization as criteria for the school closings, not taking into account the pattern of segregation policies create. 

In Ewing (2018) Barabara Byrd- Bennett is paraphrased as stating that “low graduation rates, a lack of arts instruction, limited access to nurses and counselors” (p. 160) are caused by “underutilization” of buildings (Ewing, 2018). These factors are presented as problems and school closure as the only solution with “underutilization” as the main culprit of school closings.  

In the current research, underutilization has been shown to be the main cause of school closings and a neoliberalizing school policy to market schools (Ewing, 2018). Underutilization is important to investigate to point out why people care about the closing of schools (Ewing, 2018). If underutilization was the main cause of school closings then studies of underutilization also have to point out how the people involved in these school closings are harmed by these institutions and racist policies (Ewing, 2018). Studies also illustrate how teachers are fighting back against a system that does not appreciate them or value them (Sunni, 2020). Teachers are engaging in culturally relevant curriculums to offset the challenges presented by the neoliberal aims of school closings (Sunni, 2020). 

Vaughan and Guitierrez (2017) argue that neoliberal educational policies in education created9 what the authors term crises by “Berliner and Bindle (1995) as quoted in the text. They argue the educational policies were “manufactured “by powerful people who—despite their protestations—were pursuing a political agenda designed to weaken the nation’s public schools, redistribute support for those schools so that privileged students are favored over needy students, or even abolish those schools all together” (p. 5).  

    

Author: Kelly Vaughan and Rhoda Rae Gutierrez 

Title: "Desire for Democracy: Perspectives of Parents Impacted by 2013 Chicago School Closings."

Publication: Education Policy Analysis Archives 25, no. 57: (June 2017): 1-26,  https://search.proquest.com/scholarly-journals/desire-democracy-perspectives-parents-impacted/docview/1913348639/se-2?accountid=28190. 

Thesis: Vaughan and Gutierrez (2017) examine the historical changes in the purposes of education to show the Chicago school closings are a result of educational policies that serve the market and change their purpose to serve a neoliberal agenda (Vaughan and Gutierrez, 2017; Larabee, 1997). Through a qualitative study, the authors found the school closings harmed the communities, families, and students. The findings also found the school closings aimed to minimize citizens to consumers through the marketization of education. The study illustrates how the closings sought to undercut democracy in education by neoliberalization (Vaughan and Gutierrez, 2017). The authors show that race “is central to these processes as coded racialized meanings of failing or underutilized schools and the communities in which they are housed shape the political and economic policies that have destabilized and segregated communities of color throughout our city (Lipman, 2011, 2015; Stovall, 2013)” (Vaughan and Gutierrez, 2017).  

Antithesis: While the authors found that the school closings oppressed the families of those schools they did not emphasize how. In other words, the school closings harmed the families and communities, but through what means? I offer that the authors needed to focus on the racial injustice behind these outcomes. Further, the authors also found that the parents hoped for a more “transparent” and “democratic” process to close schools (Vaughan and Gutierrez 2017). What the authors found was that the parents did not accept the rationalization for school closings. The authors found parents wanted a “broader” purpose for schools  (Vaughan and Gutierrez, 2017). The authors also concluded that the “closures, combined with the more than one hundred previous school actions, have created public school “deserts” (Vaughan and Gutierrez, 2017). 

Synthesis: The authors offer an understanding of the school closing through a neoliberal lens that dignified the parents, teachers, and students. A new understanding of underutilization would necessitate analyzing the purposes of schools through the neoliberalizing aims of the school closings and the segregation aims of underutilization.    

Author:  Eve. L. Ewing 

Title: Ghosts in the Schoolyard: Racism and School Closings in the Schoolyard.

Publication: Chicago: University of Chicago: 2018. 

Thesis: In Ghosts in the Schoolyard (2018) Eve L. Ewing asks why “do people care about ‘failing’ schools?” (Ewing, 2018). Ewing explains that people who care about the schools do not view them as failing because the “consequences of the closure are emotionally devastating” (Ewing, 2018). Ewing (2018) illustrates her field observations of the community fighting back with rallies and a “month-long hunger strike.” Ewing also puts forward the biography of Walter H Dyett (Ewing, 2018). Ewing examines why public schools in Bronzeville are defined as “underutilized” through historical analyses (Ewing, 2018). The author also engages in a discourse analysis of “audio files” of hearings to understand how people “fought to keep their schools open” (Ewing, 2018). Ewing engages in a theoretical response to the interviews examining the perspectives of those individuals through “institutional mourning” (Ewing, 2018). Ewing pronounces that “underutilization” leads to segregation through the closing of schools. Pronounced in her findings of underutilization is a direct correlation between neoliberal policies and the racial discrimination and suffering experienced by the communities of closed schools. 

 

Antithesis: Ewing (2018) illustrate the racial discrimination “underutilization” caused in order to show community members, teachers, and families fighting back. Ewing (2018) pronounces the “institutional mourning” the individuals are experiencing showing the brutal consequences of closing school using “underutilization.” This view provides useful interpretations for “underutilization” and is clarified as a racist concept betraying the schools they are supposed to serve. The author notes that the system fails to “take responsibility for creating the conditions of that social instability” (Ewing, 2018). I hope Larabee’s (1997) purposes of schools would have been used to interpret underutilization. Ewing’s “underutilization” interpretation provides means to interpret my own understanding of the underutilization crisis. While Ewing mentions that “neoliberalism pushes schools to focus on the ‘winners’ those exceptional students who will be successful” (Ewing, 2018) she does not mention the three purposes of schools as defined by David Larabee (1997) (democratic equality, social efficiency, social mobility). Specifically, the social mobility purpose of schools  aims to serve the neoliberal agenda.     

Synthesis: Ewing’s (2018) interpretation of the utilization crisis shows how people cared about their schools and tried to keep them open by attending hearings, participating in interviews, and protesting in various ways. She also shows how people are ultimately hurt by decisions based on circumstances that they have not created but are ultimately blamed for (Ewing, 2018). Ewing (2018) provides a strong, if not the best, understanding of the utilization crisis. Ewing (2018) finds underutilization as a neoliberal cause without ascertaining. Further understandings of how and why underutilization was used to close down schools to serve neoliberalization would take into account Larabee’s (1997) purposes of schools together with her theoretical research of “institutional mourning.” Ewing (2018) writes to the City and CPS officials to point out their racism but does not include their response to her findings.  

Author: Ali Sunni 

Title: Lessons Learned: Critical Conversation in Hip-Hop & Social Justice.

Publication: Chicago: African American Images: 2020. 

Thesis: Sunni in his book Lessons Learned: Critical Conversation in Hip-Hop & Social Justice (2020), illustrates how teachers are “shifting how society chooses to value, control, and commodify their professions'' in response to neoliberal policies in education (p. 83). Educators are making strides to advance “culturally responsive practices'' in their profession (Sunni, 2020). Sunni (2020) mentions that black teachers and “a segment of the teaching workforce remains viewed as inferior, failed professionals'' (Sunni, 2020). The author shows how a “new set of urban schools emerged that displaced'' these educators in order to show how neoliberal policies and their supporters argue “welfare, poor policy planning” and misappropriation are to blame for a lack of resources for public schools (Sunni, 2020). The opponents of public welfare argue that the communities themselves are the cause of their discrimination (Sunni, 2020). Sunni (2020) writes for other researchers and educators interested in neoliberal policy.   

Antithesis:  While Sunni approaches the neoliberal educational policies through the actions teachers are performing to counter these policies, he does not address “underutilization” or the utilization crisis directly. The author does approach the underfunding of schools through a “funding formula” relying on taxes (Sunni, 2020).     

Synthesis: A new understanding of the school closings would take into account how teachers are responding to neoliberal policies, and interpret school closings through underutilization and the harm caused by the racist aims behind this policy. 

2. Method 

I plan to study the effects of underutilization using a review of previous sources, document document examination, and a Genre-Based study. I study and engage with the transcripts and audio files of previous community hearings, and interviews. I will also analyze and review historical analyses, official reports of CPS and City officials. I analyze publicly held data to further my understanding of the effects that underutilization caused on communities and schools. I analyze neoliberalization through primary and secondary sources to show the racism behind underutilization causes through the use of this policy to close schools. 

I plan to analyze interviews from previously published sources in "Desire for Democracy: Perspectives of Parents Impacted by 2013 Chicago School Closings” by Vaughan and Gutierrez (2017) and conducted by Eve L. Ewing (2018) and published in Ghost in the Schoolyard. I study understandings of underutilization and neoliberal policies in sources by educational researchers including Sunni Ali in Lessons Learned: Critical Conversation in Hip-Hop & Social Justice (2016) and My Schoolhouse is a Ghost Town: A Teacher's Story Through Reform (2020). I also analyze publicly available data available on Apples to Apples and other sources. I use David Larabee’s (1997) “Public goods, private goods: The American struggle over educational goals” to study the three purposes of schools and analyze how the purpose of schools changed during the closings to interpret neoliberalization.    

 

3. Theory

The main theory in my study is “institutional mourning” coined by Eve L. Ewing (2018).  “Institutional mourning” is defined as “social and emotional experience undergone by individuals and communities facing the loss of a shared institution they are affiliated with” (Ewing, 2018). I analyze “institutional mourning” (Ewing, 2018) to amplify my research of parents and their answers to interviews. I study “Institutional mourning” Ewing (2018) to interpret the emotional turmoil, backlash, and pushback by parents described in transcripts of interviews and audio files of CPS hearings of the closings (Ewing, 2018). I am using Ewing (2018) to understand Sunni’s (2020) study of neoliberal school policies in Lessons Learned: Critical Conversation in Hip-Hop & Social Justice (2018) and his main thesis illustrating what teachers are doing to counter those policies. Sunni’s (2020) study adequately portrays “why people fight so fiercely for their schools'' (Ewing, 2018).  

The main theory I investigate in my study is neoliberalism. I use Ewing’s main theory in Ghosts in the Schoolyard (2018) to analyze neoliberalism through a humanistic perspective. 

 

I interpret neoliberalization through Larabee’s (1997) purposes of education. According to his article democratic equality, social efficiency, and social mobility in schools focus on “preparing citizens, “training workers,” and “preparing individuals to compete for social positions” (Larabee, 1997). Larabbee (1997) illustrates that these are the educational goals of the citizen, taxpayer, and consumer. (p. 39). I study underutilization as a neoliberal model that focuses on the social mobility purpose of education that ignores the democratic equality goal of education. Neoliberalization provided a way to bypass the democratic and social needs of society.  

I also engage in critical discourse analysis to study the interviews and speeches in my study. Critical discourse analysis is a method for research analyzing speech acts through “the social conditions that produce those acts” (Ewing, 2018). I engage in critical discourse analysis through the review of documents in my secondary sources. I interpret the transcript of interviews, audio files of CPS community hearings, and public speaking made by CPS officials at press conferences. I use these transcripts of public speaking to determine how protesters we’ re rsponding to the discriminatory, and racist aims of CPS officials, producing a narrative of discrimination and pushback by community members. I analyze these narratives through the rhetoric of underutilization made by CPS officials to show the effects school closings have on communities. I use the transcripts of protesting speech acts to show why underutilization was based on racism and what was at stake. I use these speech acts to base my findings of racial discrimination as the main aim of using neoliberal school policies like underutilization.   

4. Conclusion (Expected Findings) 

I believe my study understands the consequences of using underutilization to close schools and the effects of the school closings on the community, students, and parents. My study will reveal neoliberal educational policies had a great effect on the communities of the school closings. My study will show how parent interviews, public school hearings, teacher interviews, and press conferences illustrate the school closings were not based on a democratic process fulfilling the public’s need, but rather a private enterprise predetermined to close schools at all costs to appease the neoliberal aims and the neoliberal agenda behind these closings. I will study findings that will show public schools do not belong to the public anymore, but are private institutions serving the neoliberalizing needs of society. This data will show that communities were not heard,  and that CPS put children’s lives at danger and their education at risk in order to fulfill and appease their own interest.   

5. References (APA)

Ali, Sunni (2020). Lessons Learned: Critical Conversation in Hip-Hop & Social Justice. Chicago: 

African American Images.  

Ali, Sunni. (2016).  “Can You Stand The Rain.” My Schoolhouse is a Ghost Town: A Teacher's Story 

Through Reform. 2016. Bloomington: AuthorHouse.  

Ali, Sunni. “Dissed: The Removal of Black Educators from the American Schoolhouse.” World

 Journal of Social Science Research Vol. 8, No. 1, 2021. 

CPS Apples 2 Apples (2012). Space Utilization. “Show Your Work”  

https://cpsapples2apples.com/2012/12/04/space-utilization-show-your-work-part-1/ 

Ewing, Eve. L. (2018). Ghosts in the Schoolyard: Racism and School Closings in the Schoolyard. 

Chicago: University of Chicago.  

Labaree, D. F. (1997). “Public goods, private goods: The American struggle over educational goals.” 

American Educational Research Journal 34 (1), 39-81.https://doi.org/10.3102/00028312034001039 

Vaughan, Kelly and Rhoda Rae Gutierrez (2017). "Desire for Democracy: Perspectives of Parents 

Impacted by 2013 Chicago School Closings." Education Policy Analysis Archives 25, no. 57 (June):1-26,  https://search.proquest.com/scholarly-journals/desire-democracy-perspectives-parents-impacted/docview/1913348639/se-2?accountid=28190.