Sep 12, 2008 11:23 am US/Central
Meeks Tries To Steer Meeting To Education Funding
Business Leaders Were Meeting For Talk On 2016 Olympic Bid
CHICAGO (CBS) ―
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Chicago 2016 Olympic chairman Patrick Ryan talks with State Sen. Rev. James Meeks about education funding.
CBS
A major pitch Friday for Chicago to host the 2016 Summer Olympics was nearly interrupted by an activist minister and State Sen. James Meeks, who found his way onto the agenda to draw attention to his education funding.
As CBS 2's Joanie Lum reports, more than 1,000 of Chicago's top business executives gathered at the Fairmont Hotel, 200 N. Columbus Dr., to listen to an overview of the city's bid for the 2016 Olympic and Paralympic Games. Chicago 2016 Olympic chairman Patrick Ryan was the keynote speaker at the breakfast meeting.
Chicago is a finalist to host the 2016 Olympics along with Rio de Janiero, Brazil, Tokyo and Madrid.
But Meeks wanted the business community to focus on school funding.
"I think if we are trying to bring world-class Olympics to the city of Chicago, then we should also be discussing world-class education," Meeks told reporters outside the event.
Meeks had a ticket to the Executive Club breakfast, but when he arrived, he asked to be put on an agenda so he could talk about public school funding. But the organization instead had him write down a question for Ryan.
In his own speech, Ryan said the effort to bring the 2016 Olympics to Chicago is a completely privately funded project. He did answer Meeks' question about funding for schools.
"The big part of our legacy for youth is to really influence, in fact, youth around education," Ryan said, "and we all know that if you help to develop the character of the students at a young age, likely you're going to have better students."
Meeks seemed satisfied with Ryan's response.
"He's very passionate about the subject, and he understands that there's a crisis, and we've agreed to talk about it," Meeks said.
Meeks said he did not intend to be disruptive. He and Ryan both said they have meet in the future and talk about what the business community can to do help public schools.
Meeks also says he has a meeting set for Monday with Gov. Rod Blagojevich about his education demands.
For the first two days of the school year, Meeks held a student boycott to protest the education funding system in Illinois.
CBS 2's Joanie Lum and the Associated Press contributed to this report.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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