By: Ted Dabrowski and John Klingner
For decades a duopoly of power has run the Chicago Public Schools: District administrators control all the schools, and the Chicago Teachers Union controls all the teachers. Together they make all the big decisions on how to spend billions annually. Admins and union members come first. Parents and kids come last.
Well, starting next year, that all begins to change, at least in theory. Chicagoans will finally get to vote for school board members when the Board will go from seven members appointed by the mayor to a 21-member board, with ten members elected by the public and 11 appointed by the mayor. It’s hard to predict whether the change will matter. Chicagoans kicked out the unpopular Mayor Lori Lightfoot last year only to watch the CTU still put its guy in the mayor’s seat.
Nevertheless, many Chicagoans finally have what they want – a chance to influence decisions at CPS. They should be all over it. As we’ve written about in great detail, there needs to be wholesale reconstitution of the district. To wipe out the sexual abuse. To bring back discipline. To get away from measuring success by how much money is spent. To roll back the unreal powers of the teachers union. And perhaps most importantly, to bring back literacy and numeracy. The overwhelming majority of kids at CPS can’t read and many are years behind.
To help Chicagoans understand how schools are performing in their district, we’ve put together a report card for each of the ten new districts in which Chicagoans will vote this November. Wirepoints has calculated student outcome and accountability measures for each of the ten districts and we’ve listed each district’s schools, along with their outcomes.
Student outcomes vary widely across the city. In District 3, which encompasses parts of Chicago’s Northwestern Side, North Side and West Side, just 16% of children are able to read at grade level and just 10% are proficient in math.
The city’s best results are found in District 4, covering the city’s North Side. But even there, just 57% of children can read at grade level and only half are proficient in math.
Those facts, and much more, can be found at KidsCantRead.org. There we provide not only the ten district report cards, but a report card for every single public school in Illinois. All the underlying data comes directly from the State Board of Education’s Illinois Report Card.
CPS’ dismal educational outcomes threaten the future of Chicago. Yet the district and the press go out of their way to downplay those results. Parents are told their children are passing and that their schools and teachers are commendable or excellent, yet a vast majority of students graduate without core reading and math skills.
Parents deserve to know the truth – that many of their Kids Can’t Read. And that they’re trapped in a broken system that spends, all-in, nearly $30,000 per student.
Parents and residents should use these report cards to demand change. And demand choice.
Read more from Wirepoints:
- The evidence so far on Illinois’ ‘Evidence-Based Funding’ for K-12 schools: It’s a flop – Wirepoints Special Report
- Up to $410 million extra being spent on children of illegal immigrants at Chicago Public Schools
- The big myth that needs debunking: Illinois needs more money for education – Wirepoints Special Report
- Chicago mayor wants $1 billion more for schools even though 43% of CPS teachers are chronically absent
Audio and summary 
If this bill passes, say goodbye to local control over all Illinois parks and expect to see open drug and alcohol use, needles, no sanitation and fire hazards, but no ordinary park users.
This entire election process is a looming disaster. So the same semi-literate voters who elect Kim Foxx, the Mayor, 15 socialist aldermen, and dozens of toady state legislators are now going to elect candidates to run the public schools. Lord help those poor children who are already suffering in crummy schools. This will only accelerate the race to collapse of an already miserable school district.
Destruction of CTU and school vouchers for all should be the goal of all School Board Members. Expulsion of all CTU funded school Board candidates should be board action 1. CTU is a poisonous cancer upon Chicago. The day that CTU is exterminated will be a new birth of freedom.
Is there any data for those kids who left CPS or a public school and went to Invest in Kids or home schooled to see how they did? I am trying to compare apples to apples not gifted to see how they are doing from the same starting point. Some parent who decided to take their kids out of public and who did not have the means to pay and sent them to private schools most likely with a scholarship
Freddy, check out ”: The Illinois State Board of Education released a late, flawed report on the Invest in Kids scholarship program. Despite comparing apples to oranges, the report shows the Invest in Kids program worked for low-income kids.” By Hana Schmidt. In Wirepoints.ILLIi TAX-CREDIT SCHOLARSHIP STUDENTS SEE LARGEST YEAR-OVER-YEAR LEARNINGit GAINS
Have you noticed, the poorest black districts have the worst scores. Looks like it’s CTU that are the racists.
No worries, reparations and more funding as dictated by CTU will fix all. Just ask Don Quixote Johnson 🤡
The only way to break the circle of poverty is education and CTU is not educating our children. The Invest in Kids program was working but the legislature tabled it. When will the public wake up?
Never……..judging by all the down votes……they like being ignorant!
The down votes are from the CTU assigned goons. They keep close watch on the comments and will try to take things down.