By: Ted Dabrowski and John Klingner
A wave of school choice swept across the nation last year as eight states moved to universal programs while another ten enacted or expanded some form of school choice. More than half the states nationally now embrace school choice.
But in Illinois, the opposite is happening. Chicago Public Schools officials recently announced they want to end selective-enrollment, magnet and charter schools. Even more damaging, lawmakers killed school choice statewide last year when they let the Invest in Kids Act scholarship program expire.
It’s a sad situation that will only worsen as politicians and the teachers unions continue towards their goal of monopolizing education. If Illinois parents don’t push back, the only option for most children may soon be their failing neighborhood schools.
That’s already the case for the families of Cicero and Berwyn, where two Catholic schools in those communities have announced they’ll shut down at the end of this school year. Catholic schools have struggled with enrollment for the past couple of decades, but the loss of the Invest in Kids Act’s scholarship students helped push St. Frances of Rome School in Cicero and St. Odilo School in Berwyn over the edge. The Archdiocese reports that a total of 164 students used the scholarships to attend the two schools.
Now the parents of those students are going to have to find a way to pay for another private school, or more likely, send their children to their local public school. In Cicero and Berwyn, their options are pretty dismal.
In Berwyn’s 12 public schools, just 17 to 35 percent of students can read at grade level.
It’s even worse in Cicero, where just 9 to 24 percent of students can read at grade level. Students’ math proficiencies are even worse in both communities.
And as Breakthrough Ideas pointed out recently, if students live a short distance away in Chicago’s Austin neighborhood, their local high school is Austin Community Academy. There, not a single one of the school’s 170 students can read or do math at grade level.
Until Illinois parents rise up and reject the death of school choice in this state, the only education alternative for most will increasingly be schools that lower the expectations’ bar, shun values and virtues, and suppress the rights of parents.
Read more from Wirepoints:
- Chicago Public Schools’ twisted goal: End selective enrollment schools while keeping nearly empty, failing schools open
- Chicago Public Schools: Hundreds of new sexual abuse allegations, not stolen laptops, should get all the attention
- In the name of equity, Chicago looks to close schools with top-performing black, Hispanic students
- RIP Norman Lear. Fifty years ago he scorned Chicago Public Schools for its failures. His criticisms still matter today.
- Illinois per student spending jumps to nearly $24K, CPS at nearly $30K.
Expect no retraction or apology. This what they do.
The state’s existing buyout program for its own pensions is the precedent for Chicago, which should be a warning: Look out for similar exaggerated claims and shoddy analysis.
One of the main reasons for the fall in education is all the woke ideology they are successfully implementing all across the nation. If parents don’t speak up, soon you children will be indoctrinated if they aren’t already with all this gender ideology garbage.
While I’m saddened and support the Catholic schools’ efforts, it’s hard not to see the Archdiocese as having played a role in their own demise. The Archdiocese of Chicago has an appalling record of silence and acquiescing to the political class, no matter how dysfunctional and demonic the governance. It’s silence on abortion is the pinnacle. Soon they’ll standing around wishing; “if only we spoke up”. Sad.
So where are the testing numbers from the Catholic schools? Seems like you have made an unproved argument in your assumptions.
We can conclude that those Democrat politicians who support “No Choice” school policies, our Chicago politicians and CTU officials, see useful purpose in ensuring practice of poorly-educating public school students. The abysmal achievement scores fail to persuade our politicians to protect “School Choice” initiatives. CTU and CPS are intent on destroying Chicago’s acclaimed selective-enrollment schools, stripping students with grade-appropriate achievement levels from high-performance high school educations. Apparently a poorly-educated populace of voters is beneficial to Democrats. Apparently 25% of adult Chicagoans, many CPS graduates, are functionally illiterate. Poorly-educated constituents result usually results in docile voters, content to vote single-party tickets,… Read more »
Right on and well said.
Amazing article – We have included your article to our family communication. Dear SFR Families, Thank you again to all who came out on Sunday to passionately demonstrate our commitment to saving our school. As many of you model for your own children, we must lead by example and persist when fighting for what is right. Our voices were heard, but our work continues. I invite you to join us for another community protest on Sunday, January 28th from 10:45 am-12pm. We’ll gather first in the church parking lot. After the protest, we will be walking over to the school… Read more »
It’s absolutely disgraceful how for past several decades Chicago Catholic Archdiocese hasn’t make preservation of its K-12 Catholic schools its absolute first priority. Doing so would both serve priorities needs of its parishioners, and better ensure continued membership attendance. Catholic church attendance has been slipping, alongside Catholic school closures. Parishioners view their school closures as family and community betrayals by larger Catholic hierarchy. Archdiocese seems intent to ignore its Catholic membership’s needs. Chicago Archdiocese hierarchy has long been too busy attending high-society cocktail parties, schmoozing its big donors. Cardinal is more interested in progressive politics than his own membership, disinterested… Read more »
Within city limits, whites have mostly abandoned the catholic church, and those that still attend are progressive leaning. Hispanics have only partially replaced the loss of white Catholics and they are unfortunately too poor to sustain their local parish much less pay full tuition for the attached private school. I don’t know the south side very well, but there a handful of strong catholic communities in wealthier areas on the northwest side, with strong community support and packed private schools. My own mother and grandmother attended catholic schools on the northwest side last century but that was literally a bygone… Read more »
Actually there is another alternative.
Move out of Chicago and give your kids the high quality education they deserve.
Our education system sucks. It’s going to continue to suck and get even worse. Quit your job make the government pay you and stay home and educate your kids. Start a co op in your neighborhood where you and a bunch of parents educate your kids. Understand that a teacher is not a babysitter. Stop blaming everyone else for your problems. You are the parent you know what’s best for your children just do it already! Do you love your kids?
Old Joe was blessed to have been educated by nuns in the 60s. I wouldn’t give those formative years up for anything.
Hey BJ, do you think that my grade school Catholic education has anything to do with the fact that I’m still paying my fair share while pushing 70?
Aside from the three R’s they also teach character, that’s absent in public education.
The program is not dead as we are led to believe. People can still contribute but they do not get a tax credit. Donate or contributing a smaller amount by more people will still allow kids to go to a school of their choice. There should be more media coverage about donating but there is none. Links on how to donate should be available.
One more reason I forgot to mention is that all the money donated goes much farther in the private schools and you can educate twice as many students. Here in Rockford the average costs for private is approx $7,500 vs almost $18,000 for public. Comparing Rockford private school costs vs Chicago we can educate 4 times as many students. At $7,500 per student for all 2M students in Illinois would cost $15B vs over $34B for public. How much could taxpayers save in property taxes if the school portion of their tax bill would be reduced by 60% and how… Read more »
OK – last one, I promise. Create an Unincorporated Association for the educational venue in which is no longer tied to the bureaucratic governmental system and do what has worked for many years and long ago. The expensive administrative bureaucracy of the educational system has wasted much money for very little product. Even the Biden administration by cancelling the school loan debt has basically admitted it was a scam. When most major universities cost inflation has outrun general inflation when their own funding is already full and overflowing.? Just poor business to expect future generations to fund the pensions of… Read more »
The educational system in Finland has ranked near the top for many years. You would think that somebody would actually go and learn something from them? Probably not without a major expensive junket to study and actually change nothing afterwards. Plenty of opportunity but the status quo is not willing to bring up the children with the tools to critically think and reject the process and methods of how things are being done. Shame!!!
To the most casual observer, the “school” system is failing the students and the community at large. And yet nobody wants to change things for the better but just complain they are not paid enough? The complainer don’t deserve anything until they actually produce the intended product of a reasonable education to the students.! Sad state of affairs for sure. The educational system is much like the political system in which they produce little and spend much money not doing anything.!
Look on bright side: maybe if responsible parents with no better choices than public schools are introduced into the corrupt sinkhole of irrationality and casual disregard of law that is public school administration/funding: Maybe if responsible parents: 1. Start attending school board meetings, 2. Scour school budgets and consent agenda expenditures for fraudulent transactions/OMA violations…and ferret out illegal intrafund transfers… AND file tax objection lawsuits to force school boards to comply with the law or personally lose money by continuing noncompliance, 3. Raise issues of negligent malpractice by teachers and refuse to back down until school boards address these issues….… Read more »
I don’t disagree that increased parental engagement is necessary – school is not your babysitter. That said, when the voters of Chicago couldn’t rise up hard enough to fight the machine that is the CTU in a mayoral election, do you truly believe they will hold sway with their increased involvement in school politics and budgets? There is way too much rot there.
If “ the right “ constituates ( sp?) make their voices heard, something with happen . They seem to be pretty vocal ( and successful) when it comes to NIMBY as to illegal immigrants.
When the solution to the problem involves parents becoming forensic accountants, the whole system needs to be shut down and replaced with something more manageable. It is ludicrous to blame parents and voters for this nightmare.
This works in some areas but not in others. It doesn’t work in my area because the parents who care are outnumbered by the progressives with no children in the school system. IL is a blue state and they’ve been infected with the progressive mind virus.