Chicago Students to Skip First Day to Protest School Funding

CHICAGO - Hundreds of Chicago public school students plan to skip the first day of classes Tuesday and instead enroll, at least symbolically, at a wealthy suburban school, in a protest aimed at Illinois' stark funding gap between rich and poor districts.

Organizers say they will bus students from some of the city's poorest schools to the North Shore, where per-pupil spending can run more than twice what Chicago spends.

"We're not asking for anything extra. We're asking for equal," said state Sen. James Meeks, a prominent South Side pastor leading the boycott. "If the state won't fund these children's schools, then these children will go where the funding is."

Chicago spends about $11,300 per student; some suburban districts spend more than $17,000. Illinois relies on local property taxes for most school funding, a formula civil-rights groups have challenged for decades.

The boycott's timing is awkward for the city's Democratic establishment, with the party having just nominated hometown Sen. Barack Obama in Denver. Obama has called education funding inequity "a moral failure" but is not involved in the protest.

School officials urged parents to send children to class, warning that absences hurt the very schools the protest is meant to help, since state aid is partly tied to attendance.

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Associated Press writers contributed to this report.

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