Democrats Blast Rauner For Comparing Chicago Schools To 'Crumbling Prisons'
CHICAGO (CBS) -- Some Democratic state lawmakers visited a Chicago public school on Thursday, to show Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner's heated rhetoric about the district's funding is wrong on several counts.
Continuing the pressure over the governor likening some public schools in Chicago to "crumbling prisons," Rep. Will Guzzardi (D-Chicago) brought three other lawmakers to the old, but bright and successful Brentano Math & Science Academy in Logan Square to make a point.
Guzzardi admitted not every school looks and feels as good as Brentano, but he said if Rauner truly wants all schools to be in such good shape, he should stop opposing proposals to increase state funding for the Chicago Public Schools.
"Yes, there are CPS schools that are struggling, but if you feel so strongly about it, how dare you, governor, stand in the way of these children getting the resources that they deserve?" he said. "The only education funding proposal that Governor Rauner has put forth has more money for the richest districts in the state, and a $75 million cut for Chicago Public Schools. It's, frankly, unconscionable."
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Rep. Jaime Andrade Jr. (D-Chicago) said, if past mismanagement and financial misdirection created the financial crisis at CPS as Rauner has said, today's children should not be held hostage because of previous adult mistakes.
Ironically, the school Democratic lawmakers chose to contrast the governor's claims about CPS was one of more than a dozen schools that have tested positive for elevated levels of lead in the drinking water, as officials a district-wide check of Chicago schools. As of Thursday afternoon, Brentano was one of 14 where elevated levels of lead were found in the water.
