Chicago Public Schools' decision to shutter 53 public elementary schools and relocate thousands of schoolchildren will have a devastating impact on many of the city's low-income neighborhoods and minority families. This abrogation of the district's responsibility clearly sets an example that low-income, African-American children are disposable.

Sadly, this has long been the Chicago way.

Some of the ever-shifting criteria CPS has offered for this year's upheaval are: a $1 billion press release budget deficit, and underutilization in schools due to massive population loss on the South and West sides. But let's not be fooled into thinking that African-American families are willingly exiting the city in droves. Many of the schools on CPS' hit list are in neighborhoods that were once home to massive public housing units, one of Chicago's most infamous failed experiments, alongside past school closures.

Now, CPS will subject thousands of our children to another experiment with promises of a "quality, 21st century education." This is a gamble — a rolling of the dice — and CPS has no track record of being able to successfully implement change on this large a scale. The Chicago Tribune reported in January that the Commission on School Utilization, appointed by the Chicago Board of Education itself, felt that CPS was incapable of closing a large number of schools without causing mass chaos and disruption.

I believe 50 schools, however, was Mayor Rahm Emanuel's target all along. It was textbook shock and awe. Start with a large number and slowly dial back until reaching the desired figure under the guise of listening to the community — a page right out of the unaccredited Broad Superintendents Academy. Close public schools named for deceased African-American heroes — Marcus Garvey, Mahalia Jackson, Benjamin Banneker, Garrett Morgan — and open charter schools named for living billionaires with no ties or accountability to the people they serve.

During the civil rights movement in the 1960s, schools were built to provide a fundamental, essential resource in overcrowded African-American neighborhoods. Now, schools will be dismantled, along with the continued destruction of families, public housing, social services and employment opportunities. Based on recent Tribune editorials and the Joyce Foundation-Chicago Tribune poll, the crux of this issue seems to be a need for more charter schools based on an unsubstantiated, discredited "waiting list" of 19,000 students, and the removal of low-performing teachers.

The idea that the Tribune uses its biggest stage — the Sunday edition after the announcement of the largest mass school closing in U.S. history — to trumpet a loaded poll that blames teachers for problems in schools is unfortunate. Let's start with the poll's validity. A little more than half of the individuals polled are CPS parents. The total poll sample breaks down as roughly 37 percent white, 31 percent African-American and 26 percent Hispanic. The population of students in CPS, however, is 8.8 percent white, 41.6 African-American and 44 percent Hispanic, according to the CPS Racial Ethnic Survey for fiscal year 2013.

Approximately half of those polled have annual household incomes of $50,000 or more, but approximately 85 percent of families in CPS qualify for free or reduced lunch, according to CPS data, so almost all of those household incomes would fall well below $50,000.

Simply put, the poll isn't representative of the true population. It's a shame that such an august body as the Joyce Foundation would work hand in hand with the Tribune to make decisions that affect so many children's lives. We see whose voice counts more: those with opinions about what's best for other people's children. This disappointing narrative has been trotted out for eons. What you have done is reduce education reform to a referendum on teachers — a very convenient scapegoat. It is unfortunate that respondents to this poll were never asked whether they want their children to be taught by teachers who are demoralized, frightened and on constant edge. But nearly half of the respondents to this poll do not have children in CPS.

The Chicago Teachers Union will continue to challenge the status quo of keeping poor children poor and the purposeful and willful under-resourcing of schools. There is zero evidence that CPS has the capacity or the integrity to implement such massive changes, so stop throwing our children and neighborhoods into chaos and calling it reform.

I suggest the Tribune and the Joyce Foundation take a closer look at some of the truth in their data. The evidence shows that most people like and trust their teachers — much more so than journalists, lawyers and politicians.

Karen Lewis is president of the Chicago Teachers Union.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/ct-perspec-0329-union-qqq-20130329,0,1147415.story