Planned school closings in Chicago spark major protests

Thousands of people have taken to the streets in Chicago to protest against plans to close down over 50 public schools in African-American and Hispanic neighborhoods of the US city.

The demonstration on Wednesday was organized by the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) in busy downtown streets to protest the controversial decision by City Mayor Rahm Emanuel, former White House chief of staff for President Barack Obama, an Israeli citizen and a top Democratic Party fundraiser.

Thousands of activists, union leaders, teachers, parents, and students participated in the protest.

The Chicago Central District released a list of 54 elementary and middle schools to be closed before the next school year. The Chicago Board of Education is planning to vote on the closures in May.

City officials say that the closures are needed in order to deal with a one-billion-dollar annual deficit.

According to local press reports, police detained about 150 protesters that locked arms and staged sit-ins near the city’s major financial district and near the City Hall.

The closures involve the highest number of schools to be closed down in a single year in any city in the United States.

“We intend to use whatever nonviolent protest actions we have in this fight for education justice,” said Karen Lewis, the president of Chicago Teachers Union, adding that the closures were based on the racial makeup of the schools and “their zip codes.”

The plan will shift about 30,000 students to different schools, while threatening the careers of more than 1,000 teachers.

Meanwhile, Mayor Emanuel has defended the plan by saying that he does not want to see children trapped in schools with no future.

Over the past decade, at least 70 cities in the US have closed down schools.