James Meeks - Education Reform Advocate

Education Reform Advocate

Meeks has become an outspoken advocate for school reform. The June 2006 findings of the Education Trust and Illinois Education Research Council showed that Chicago’s worst schools are getting the worst teachers. Meeks believes that this is a civil rights violation of the students and has demanded that the Illinois Attorney General look into the violation. Meeks and a large group of parents also marched on city hall to meet with Mayor Daley in hopes that he could change the teacher hiring system. Meeks has come up with a proposal to solve the teacher inequalities; he says top-notch teachers should be offered a $25,000 signing bonus and an additional $5,000 a year for five years to work in failing schools. The teachers' union has historically been opposed to “hazard pay” because they think all teachers should be paid more.

Meeks has been fighting for equal funding for education since he was elected state senator eight years ago. In fall 2008, he announced a boycott of the Chicago Public Schools, urging his congregants and people from other churches to keep their children home until Chicago inner-city schools received more funding from Springfield. Meeks has pointed out that at New Trier High School in Winnetka, thousands of dollars more are spent on each student, compared to Chicago Public Schools where the population is mostly minorities from low-income homes. Over a thousand students met outside New Trier High School in the suburban North Shore to protest. The boycott ended after two days when governor Rod Blagojevich said he would not with Meeks during a boycott.

In 2009 and 2010, Meeks worked to pass opportunity scholarships for children in Chicago's worst-performing public schools. This effort was supported by a bipartisan coalition of legislators and outside groups such as the Illinois Policy Institute.