From The “No Good Deed Goes Unpunished” File
A teacher-parent coalition expanded its fight over Chicago classrooms to corporate boardrooms Saturday, picketing a downtown McDonald’s restaurant and nearby Walgreens store to protest corporate funding of Renaissance 2010.
Opponents of Mayor Daley’s plan to close 70 troubled schools by 2010 and open 100 new ones say the closings will displace many low-income students in favor of more-affluent ones.
About 50 protesters picketed the McDonald’s at 600 N. Clark before moving to Walgreens at 641 N. Clark.
McDonald’s Corp. and Ronald McDonald House Charities paid $1 million to $2 million to the nonprofit Renaissance School Fund between 2004 and 2008. Walgreens gave the fund $250,000 to $500,000 during the same period.
“We want them to see these parents, students and teachers that are being affected by the policies McDonald’s has been supporting and Walgreens has been supporting,” teacher Jackson Potter said.