Editorial: ‘Rent-a-protesters’ take school battles to new low

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Updated: February 27, 2012 9:48AM

Outrageous.

There is no other way to describe the practice, revealed by the Sun-Times and other media, of ministers hiring “rent-a-protesters” to advocate for proposed Chicago public school closures.

Reporter Rosalind Rossi on Tuesday told the story of two men who said they were offered $25 to $50 to support the closures of two schools. Both men said they were asked to attend two separate closure hearings this month after they showed up to apply for financial help with their energy bills at the Englewood office of the HOPE Organization.

The Rev. Roosevelt Watkins III, who runs the group, denies they were paid to protest, saying the money paid was for training. The facts say otherwise, including testimony by many who watched the so-called protesters, many of whom switched from pro-closure to anti-closure by the end of the hearings, along with the container of envelopes filled with cash seen at the HOPE office after the hearings. WBEZ profiled a third protester allegedly paid by HOPE and a fourth who said she was among a busload of rent-a-protesters paid at a different hearing by another church.

We hope the outing of these rent-a-protesters will be enough to kill the practice.

It makes a mockery of democracy and is all the more galling because it comes at a time when honest public debate is needed more than ever. The Chicago school system is at a critical juncture, debating whether to take the dramatic step of closing or turning around 14 schools, as well as significantly lengthening the school day.

Thus far, the debate has been mostly shrill, fueled by a flame-throwing Chicago Teachers Union and by a CPS public relations machine singularly focused on its agenda, particularly nothing less than a 7œ-hour school day.

It was encouraging at Wednesday’s monthly Board of Education meeting to detect a noticeable cooling off. Board members seemed more open to listening to parents and teachers, while the CTU and its allies made their points in a more reasoned manner, checking the vitriol at the door.