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Thousands of Students Rally for Funding

Thousands of Chicago Public Schools students gathered in Soldier Field this morning to support more state funding for education.

I'm standing at the south entrance of Soldier Field right now where students are filing in by the thousands. Some are just a couple feet tall. Others have their school uniforms on and some teachers and chaperones are wearing shirts that say, "Shout Out for Schools."

DUNCAN: Please give yourselves a huge round of applause for your committment to excellence, your committment to peace, and your committment to your own educations.

District CEO Arne Duncan was one of several key speakers, also Mayor Richard Daley and Reverend Jesse Jackson. And there was entertainment...

ambi: "That's cool, me too..."

But the crowd seemed largely disengaged. During several speeches, students did the wave. The issue of school violence seemed to resonate more with them. Some put a circle of empty chairs out on the field to memorialize their fallen peers. A district spokesperson would not say how much the event cost.