By: Ted Dabrowski and John Klingner
Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson recently traveled to Springfield with a big wish list of stuff he wants from state lawmakers. Among them, $1 billion in extra funding for Chicago Public Schools.
We have a host of reasons why his demand should be categorically rejected. Among them, CPS already spends $29,000 per student, Chicago teachers are already among the nation’s highest paid in big cities and the Chicago Teachers Union refuses to close the many empty, failing schools across the district. Not to mention that both CPS and CTU refuse to hold themselves accountable to students. Just 20% of minority CPS children can read at grade level and in math it’s even worse.
Now add to that the growing rate of teachers simply not showing up to school. The U.S. Department of Education’s definition of chronic teacher absenteeism is 10 or more absences in a school year.
In CPS, the share of teachers who are chronically absent has jumped to 43% from 28% just seven years ago. The jump can’t be blamed on the pandemic, as the rate of absenteeism was rising (from 28% to 36%) even before covid hit.
Teacher attendance has a heavy impact on student outcomes. From the Illinois State Board of Education’s Report Card:
“Teacher attendance is a “leading indicator” of student achievement, according to the U.S. Department of Education. Teachers with regular attendance provide continuity of instruction and attention to individual students. The National Bureau of Economic Research has shown that when teachers are absent for 10 days or more, student outcomes decrease significantly.”
Instead of asking for more money, Mayor Johnson should make sure his CTU brethren are actually in the classroom. He should then set dramatically higher reading and math proficiency targets that both he and teachers are held accountable for.
And then the mayor should make those targets public.
Read more from Wirepoints:
- Chicago Teachers Union contract demands are totally divorced from reality
- Chicago needs more champions of literacy like Willie Wilson
- Number of half-empty Chicago public schools doubles, yet lawmakers want to extend school closing moratorium
- What literacy crisis at Chicago Public Schools? Illinois State Rep. Buckner says he can read ‘very well.’
- Chicago Public Schools fails its Hispanic students: Only 17 of every 100 read at grade level. – Wirepoints Special Report
- CPS falla a sus estudiantes hispanos: Solo 17 de cada 100 pueden leer al nivel de su grado. – Informe Especial de Wirepoints
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.
Is BJ or some other moron on here?
There’s always one down thumb on every post.
Wish is showed the people who clicked (like lots of places do)
I want to know how people voted on an anonymous website. Look in the mirror to find your moron. Deeerrrrrrrrrrrrrrr other sites on da World Wide Web do it.
Wow – Just close the damn thing, fire everyone and start over. CPS and CTU issue and the stupidity of Pols will never be solved in Illinois. Far too corrupt. Some of the more stupid moves can be stopped, but really, until it is bankrupt and closed, tweaking is about all that can be done with this ridiculous school system and government. Just breathe and look at how nice it is outside today!
It can be solved! Vote republican all down the ticket. It’s worth a try anyway. 🤷🏻♀️
Right right right again
getting paid for not working…..better yet where are the receipts for the money?? they say…..always follow the money!!
The middle class abandoned the Chicago Public Schools long ago. Profitable businesses are leaving quickly. 25%+ of commercial real estate in the downtown area sits vacant and who would take CTA anywhere? What amazes me is current and retired municipal employees still vote for the same crew and hold out hope they will save the ship.
Why do so many Illinois WP commentors complain and complain but refuse to get out of that lost cause of a state. Newsflash….you are free to leave whenever you want. Instead, you make excuses….my family is here, my job is here. Those of us that left also had family and/or jobs. Of course it’s difficult to leave, but those with self-respect have no choice. Too harsh?
Yes, too harsh. We hold nothing against those who leave and, all other things being equal, that’s prudent for many. But many people are tied here by jobs, family obligations and more. Farmers can’t just pick up and leave. Nor can banks, franchises and other licensed businesses. Countless jobs are based on accumulated customer bases and reputation, from honest car repair people to hair dressers to restaurants to to dentists to accountants and lawyers. Second, extended families are very important to many. My wife’s Southside Irish clan is an example. They support and love each other immensely, and moving the… Read more »
This, all of this. Couldn’t have said it any better.
Ok, I’ll buy part of your argument Mark, but if families all stay in Illinois so they can be together, isn’t that more or less everyone agreeing to go down with the ship? Also, I don’t see the logic of staying to fight when no hope currently exists for meaningful change. When a battle is going badly for your side, the best option is usually to retreat. Illinois can fail, and the United States will be just fine. Other states run by sane capitalists will pick up the slack. The only ones that will be hurt by the downfall of… Read more »
Well, maybe we’re like the British lost brigade –3,000 guys ordered to fight to the end to hold off the Nazis at Calais and delay them from reaching Dunkirk, saving hundreds of thousands there. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5346201/My-dad-heroe-sacrificed-Churchill-save-Dunkirk.html But as I said, I have no problem with leaving, provided you fight from where you are.
I don’t really view complaining Illinois WP commenters with being big on self-sacrifice. That being said, I liked your comment.
It comes down to this. How many people really know what’s going on in Illinois. The mainstream news media rarely talks about it. Most of the news is Trump’s court drama or Biden’s latest gaffe or the war in Israel or Gaza. The rest is local sports or accidents/barn-house fires/looking for the latest crime perp/etc. Very few people are in the know. If you were to ask any of the questions here on the site about schools/pensions to the general public 99 out of a 100 would be clueless about anything. They are now concerned about the cost of everything… Read more »
Right, Freddy. There’s far more madness going on both here and nationally for most people to keep up on. The far left has flooded the zone.
Neil Steinberg – Northbrook, Joan Esposito- Winnetka, Eric Zorn – Evanston, Chuck Goudie – Hinsdale, 3 other nightly news readers – Ambriance gated community in Burr Ridge.
Baer, Jordan, Ponce et. al., everywhere you look in Chicago media you find legacy hires or political hires. No one thinks for themselves. They just read what their given and avoid upsetting the gravy train.
The gathering of many of the old Southside Irish clans can be found in Homer, unincorporated Lemont/Lockport. I’ll say this about Canaryville/St. Gabe’s – they are holding up better than Davy Crockett at the Alamo.
Translation – Even though the policies of Illinois displease me, the benefits of living in Illinois far outweigh the negatives. Yes, we bitch and moan non-stop about Illinois but deep down it’s clearly not that bad otherwise we would leave. Our constant complaining has really become a hobby and we have no intention of stopping.
“Far outweigh”? When you say something as silly as that you demonstrate you really don’t know anything.
Again moving 20 miles across the border does NOT separate you from your family. That excuse is empty and speaks volumes to how geographically impaired Americans are.
2nd the job excuse doesn’t fly either because the economy is not in 2008 or the 1930s yet. Even with the slowdown it is still possible to find a decent job outside Illinois.
Move the whole clan and save the future generations.
The Irish clan is here because the chose to leave Ireland, a much harder choice than just leaving Illinois.
The battle and the war have both been lost for the State of Illinois.
To think or say anything different is just lying to yourself and others.
It’s not that simple. You may need an extra year or two to vest in a pension. Sell a business. Pick out a new state, where to live, bid on a new house, sell your existing house, or move to a job where you get the benefits you need. It took us two years for things to fall in place and we already had a second home to move to. We were lucky to sell high, but if we didn’t already have the second house, we would have had to buy high. Lot of factors, no matter how determined you… Read more »
Illinois has been going downhill for over a decade. How much time does it take to sell a house or find a job? When people explain these reasons for staying, they sound like excuses to me. I’m guilty of these excuses myself. I stalled too long before getting off my behind and doing what needed to be done.
You’ve been warned to leave Illinois for over a DECADE. After so long the excuses stop becoming credible.
They are just that Indy, excuses. The people that are aware of Illinois and all its problems yet continue to stay have made a choice. They have decided that Illinois, with all of its faults, is better for them than moving to a new location.
When in any gathering in chicago metro, look to your left, look to your right, front, back – there is someone with a government job, government pension or government contract. Last gasps of the Soviet Union.
Having low income b & b kids stuck with substitues for weeks on end at $29,000 a student could never possibly be part of the whole systemic racism disinvested shtick for CTU/Stacy-Brandon & Co
Where’s Mine, Stacy’s kids go to private schools.
Once again, try to google and find # of school days or % of school days covered by substitutes at CPS in a year, it’s top secret impossible. I’m sure it’s impossible at all Illinois crazy +600 school districts as well….don’t parents & taxpayers have a right to know?
some brave rep Springfield legislator could try any introduce a bill requiring each school district to provide # or % of school days covered by substitutes in a year, which of course would be shot down in 2 second flat but at least might draw attention to the scam.
email sent to chris welch (speaker of house, suzy glowiak state senator, and john curran state senator I strongly object to any more of my tax dollars to be directed to the Chicago Public Schools especially to fund the outrageous demands of their new contract. If cost/benefit is a determining factor in allocating taxpayer funds their should be a DECREASE in funding and instead a redirecting to recently expired Invest in Kids program. Attached is article detailing the reasons supporting this view. Thank you for your consideration Mike Marek Western Springs Chicago mayor wants $1 billion more for schools even though 43% of… Read more »
I hope your email makes you feel better. Now, if you want to actually do something that matters, pack up and get out of Illinois.
Brando is just copying his fellow democrat Governor Carnival Barker. Make grandiose claims that are unsubstantiated and demand grotesque sums that are undeserved. Remember when JB said he needed 20,000 ventilators in the first weeks of Covid? Or how he needed tens of millions to build out McCormick Place. Both were ridiculous and were the equivalent of flushing taxpayer money down the toilet. This is the Democrat playbook. Both of these guys just flat out suck.
Spot on
But that’s what the voters want, and also it’s the parents’ fault.