Number of half-empty Chicago public schools doubles, yet lawmakers want to extend school closing moratorium – Wirepoints
April 19, 2024
16 Comments
A set of state lawmakers want to extend CPS’ current school closing moratorium to February 1, 2027 – the same year CPS is set to transition to a fully-elected school board. That means schools like Manley High School, with capacity for more than 1,000 students but enrollment of just 78, can’t be closed for anther three years. The school spends $45,000 per student, but just 2.4% of students read at grade level.
Hopefully, all media will get the message, in Illinois, too.
Ted joined Tom Miller of WJPF to talk about Illinois’ highest-in-the-nation property taxes, why lawmakers don’t want to touch the tax’s cost drivers, just how much Illinoisans’ tax burden has grown over the decades, why Gov. Pritzker failed to meet his promise to reform property taxes, and more.
And in other news, real GDP in the United States increased 246% over the 45 year interval from 1971 to 2016. One more thing: does the U of I budget include contributions to SURS? If so, that alone could account for its budget growing somewhat faster than GDP. I bet back in 1971 the university’s pension contribution was minimal as the state deliberately underfunded the system, while it is extremely high now as the state is forced to make up for the resulting shortfall.
You’re right. Illinois used to fund SURS (and other pension funds) on a pay-as-you-go method in the 1970’s. Ironically, one of the governors responsible for that under funding, Dan Walker, received endorsements from both teacher unions at the time. But governors consistently pumped higher ed funding instead into operating expenses, namely professor salaries. So taxpayers have been and will be paying twice.
Even 40 years ago, pension fund leaders knew of the deficits and suggested one obvious solution to what they called a glaring loophole: taxing retirement income. We all know what happened there…
In theory, our economic statistics try to adjust for quality improvements over time, when estimating the “cost of living.” Hmm.
This article is very brief and lacking in detail, but the first question that comes to my mind is how the expansion of the University of Illinois Medical system contributed to the budget and headcount growth? If it is a significant contributor, closer analysis would be appropriate.