Number of half-empty Chicago public schools doubles, yet lawmakers want to extend school closing moratorium – Wirepoints
April 19, 2024
17 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.
Simple year to year cash accounting is no way to run a government. This year is now balanced!
My prediction: directly or indirectly, most of the money will go into the pension fund where it will likely be beyond the reach of bondholders and will perpetuate pension payments for a few more months. The rest of the money will go toward paying teachers and administrators (a.k.a. educators) or keeping open schools that should be closed. Those who object will become the targets of angry parents and students, egged on by the teachers. The train wreck is not far off so the engineer and conductors are trying to supplement their emergency funds to enhance their survivability in the aftermath.
What’s the big deal? The original story was that the bond issue would be $840 million. Now it’s a billion. So they rounded it up a little bit– only another $160 million. City taxpayers are so uninformed they are getting what they deserve.
The school system is producing economic illiterates and that’s easy to see with the elected officials making the laws ! They pat themselves on the back for outrageous borrowing to keep the status quo humming along (towards the cliff), they love taxing the private sector golden goose (to death)……..and they produce students who don’t understand squat about simple or compound interest. American workers by and large are clueless about finance projections. Actually though, the govt WANTS us to bel clueless, otherwise we’d figure out that 1/2 our paychecks go to govt……add up 15.3% FICA, 20-25% federal, 5-6% state, property tax… Read more »
And these numb nuts are the ones in charge of educating our children? Just keep borrowing money? They think taxpayers are nothing more than money trees, which is why we keep getting plucked. It’s actually future generations that are getting plucked. I felt so sorry for this little girl on the bus to work, must have been 4 or 5. Her dad was helping her with a drawing as I read the Teacher’s actuarial report. If he only knew what was coming for her when she graduates.
Another minute, another fool was born…let me guess. A pension fund will buy these bonds to get the 9% interest rate. So Chicago taxpayers pay. If CPS fails, then the pension fund loses which costs different taxpayers their capital. Taxpayers, always the losers…thanks pols.