Update: Chicago school board resignation is giant distraction from the fact that kids at CPS can’t read – Wirepoints

UPDATE (Oct. 4, 2:30 pm): From the Chicago Tribune

All members of Mayor Brandon Johnson’s school board plan to resign, the latest turmoil gripping his administration as it struggles for control of the Chicago Public Schools system led by embattled CEO Pedro Martinez.

Chicago Board of Education President Jianan Shi, along with members Elizabeth Todd-Breland, Mariela Estrada, Mary Fahey Hughes, Rudy Lozano Jr., Michelle Morales and Tanya Woods informed the mayor’s office of their resignations, the mayor’s office announced in a Friday statement. The extraordinary shakeup clears the mayor to reappoint the entire school board.

By: Ted Dabrowski and John Klingner

Don’t expect something transformational from the current infighting between CPS and the CTU – the outcome won’t change what matters most: that Chicago’s children can’t read.

Yes, the recently announced planned resignation of the entire school board is certainly unprecedented, but the ongoing spat between CPS and the Chicago Teachers Union is just part of the cycle that plays out every 2 to 5 years. That’s when the power distribution between the two behemoths needs a reset and CPS officials and union bosses take the gloves off. Teachers even go on strike or stage walkouts like they did in 1969, 1971, 1973, 1975, 1980, 1983, 1984, 1985, 1987, 2012, 2016, 2019, 2021, 2022. And like they’re threatening now.

Despite appearances, both organizations actually get along pretty well. Together they control $10 billion in annual operating funds and $28 billion in future pension payouts. Then there’s the 45,000 teacher and school jobs. And the thousand administrator jobs. The two sides are not about to mess up that partnership for real.

That’s why their fights usually end suddenly. The sitting mayor eventually gets rolled and agrees to CTU’s terms. Money is miraculously found. They borrow it, raid TIFs, or promise “efficiencies.” Deficits are “closed” and a new contract is signed. And just like that, everything is fine again. CPS and CTU officials celebrate their ability to come together and put their differences aside. For the children.

The reality, we know, is far different. The nastiness and rhetoric from the fights force Chicagoans to pick sides and, sadly, the fabric of the city becomes more frayed each cycle. The fiscal and foundational cracks in both CPS and the city get bigger and deeper, fewer kids attend CPS and even fewer kids are able to read.

It’s a consistent and predictable slide that’s been destroying the livelihoods of generations of Chicago children. Norman Lear, the TV producer, nailed it back in 1974 in an episode of his show, Good Times, when he featured how CPS pushes kids to the next grade even if they’re not learning. The episode revealed how the “system” doesn’t care about kids.

If that sounds harsh, consider the student outcomes at CPS. Just 17% of blacks can read at grade level, while only 8% are proficient in math. For Hispanics, it’s just 21% and 14%, respectively.

It’s endemic. Of Chicago’s 614 schools, 436 of them have 15% or fewer kids doing math at grade level.

For many majority-minority schools, the results are even worse.

The real tell of the mess at CPS is how leaders on both sides ignore or avoid the system’s dismal failures.

CTU President Stacey Davis-Gates sends her son to a private high school even after calling private schools “segregation academies” and “racist.” Her son would have reportedly gone to Harlan HS, a public school where just 3% of students are proficient in reading and just 2% in math.

And CEO Pedro Martinez has done nothing for his own alma mater, Juarez Community High School, in Pilsen. Martinez was the CPS budget director and CFO for more than six years in the 2000s and he’s been fully in charge of CPS for three years. He could have used his own school to champion the need for change.

Instead, just 5% of kids at his old school can read at grade level and just 1% are proficient in math. 

That’s the real problem. Nobody in charge is championing literacy in Chicago schools. Nobody. 

And the hypocrisy of it all? Officials at Juarez graduate 87% of their students. At Harlan, it’s 61%.

Chicago voters finally have a chance this November to vote for school board candidates, but nothing will change until Chicagoans finally acknowledge the city and school system’s problems. The fact that voters rejected Mayor Lightfoot and then embraced Mayor Johnson – someone who is committed to doubling down on the current system – is evidence they don’t know just how bad things are.

Which is why we’re going to keep yelling from the rooftops that Chicago’s kids can’t read.  

There’s so much more to this story and for sure there are many different reactions to what we’ve written above. Here are the answers to some of those concerns based on data directly from CPS and the State Board of Education:

• There’s not enough money. Illinois per student spending jumps to nearly $24K, CPS at nearly $30K.
• Teachers aren’t paid enough. Chicago Teachers Union contract demands are totally divorced from reality 
• There aren’t enough educators. Illinois has more educators, less students than ever, yet officials complain about a ‘teacher shortage’
• The CTU is doing what it can. Chicago mayor wants $1 billion more for schools even though 43% of CPS teachers are chronically absent
• There’s no literacy crisis. What literacy crisis at Chicago Public Schools? Illinois State Rep. Buckner says he can read ‘very well.’
• School closings are a problem. Chicago Public Schools is in dire financial straits, yet Chicago Teachers Union blocks closing of near-empty, failing schools.

The problems with Illinois and CPS public education are systemic, as we argued in Poor student achievement and near-zero accountability: An indictment of Illinois’ public education system.