Barack Obamacan haveArne Duncan. We need Ronnie Mosley.
Mosley is a senior at Simeon Career Academy and the leader of nine student representatives to Chicago's school board. He's also the student representative on Simeon's local school council. And he knows what's what.
"Students attending schools on the city’s South and West Sides don’t necessarily receive the same high-quality education as students in the district’s elite North Side schools, says Ronnie Mosley," Hope Evanswrites in her interview of Mosley appearing in Catalyst Chicago.
Students aren't stupid.
"[CPS] needs student input," Mosley says. "We need a student’s voice directly, instead of having to use scenarios that may not necessarily be true to students’ lives. My voice is valuable, not just because it’s my voice, but because I represent all of the students across the city."
Mosley and the rest of the student board will present their own ideas on improving Chicago schools to the board at the end of the year.
Last year Mosley won a teen entrepreneurship business plan competition with his idea for Legendz Clothing.
Slogan: "Anyone can look good, but our goal is to make you look great. We will come to you. At Legendz Clothing we bring out the legend in you.”
Last spring, in the wake of the shooting death of a classmate, Mosley spoke at an anti-gun rally in the Loop that included appearances by Gov. Rod Blagojevich and Mayor Daley.
"We have come to a point where we're fed up that we can't go to school and not be protected," he said.
His role at the rally was praised by Arne Duncan."I truly believe our students are going to rise up and create a safer and saner future," Duncan said. "The social revolution of the 1960s was led by young people, and I see that same passion and energy in the face and hear it in the voice of Ronnie Mosley."
