By: Ted Dabrowski and John Klingner
Take a look at the below graphic and then decide if Chicago Public Schools and the unions that run them deserve a penny more from city residents – or, for that matter, from any other taxpayers in Illinois or the rest of the country.
That question matters because the current CPS board is set to hike property taxes by 5 percent on Wednesday, maxing out the total it can raise without calling for a referendum. Chicagoans have been hit hard by property taxes already, as we wrote in Part 1, and this hike will only add insult to injury.
The hike is especially galling considering CPS’ total per student spending – including federal, state and local sources covering operations, debt and capital – has jumped 85 percent in the last 6 years. That’s up to $29,200 in 2023 from “just” $15,800 per student in 2017.
And yet black reading results have collapsed in those six years. Take juniors on the SAT, for example. Just 18 percent of those black juniors could read proficiently on the test in 2017. By 2022 the percentage of students proficient had collapsed to only 10 percent. (Math proficiency fell to 8 percent from 12 percent in 2017.)
It’s the same for Hispanics, where reading proficiency on the SAT fell from 26 percent to just 16 percent over the same period. (Math proficiency fell to 17 percent from 23 percent in 2017.)
CPS and the CTU are failing Chicago’s black and Hispanic students, who together now make up nearly 85 percent of CPS. It’s been an absolute dereliction of duty.
Check out Wirepoints’ CPS Report Cards HERE to see student outcomes at your neighborhood school.
And what of the district’s white students? They now only make up 11 percent of CPS enrollment, but for the record, almost half weren’t proficient on the SAT in 2022.
Don’t think this is only an SAT or a “juniors” problem. No, reading and math proficiency for blacks and Hispanics run in the teens throughout the entire school system. The kids just get promoted along from one grade to the next until nearly all of them are graduated by the system.
To see more detail, read our most recent update on Hispanic students: Chicago Public Schools fails its Hispanic students: Only 17 of every 100 read at grade level. – Wirepoints Special Report.
In that report, we go into greater detail on why CPS’ problem isn’t a lack of funding. We examine the district’s high budget growth, highlight the fact that CPS’ spending is the 2nd-highest among the nation’s big districts, and reveal the high pay Chicago teachers receive relative to their big-city peers.
Shrinking
The above numbers have been sparking an “outcry,” but it’s not the one you might expect. Parents, particularly those of black children, have been leaving the city and the school system in great numbers. So much so that CPS enrollment has shrunk to 322,000, down from 438,000 two decades ago – a 27 percent drop.
Those collapsing enrollment numbers have done nothing to temper the arrogance of the administrators and the teachers union.
The worse student outcomes get, the more they say they need.
- Wirepoints’ CPS Report Cards Database
- No, Mr. Martinez, your excuses for Chicago Public Schools’ failure to educate children don’t hold up
- Chicago Public Schools fails its Hispanic students: Only 17 of every 100 read at grade level. – Wirepoints Special Report
- DeSantis’ claims on Chicago kid shootings: hyperbole or fact?
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.
Yes, and yesterday Fox News had an article saying that Catholic schools did not fall behind during the pandemic. The vast majority were open every day and their teachers and parents cared deeply about each child in those schools. And many are in disadvantaged neighborhoods. Wake up, folks ! Private school or home school in Chicago !
Well said.
Chicago public schools are a bottomless money pit. They’ll keep asking for more and more. There’s never going to be enough and your kids are going to be absolutely uneducated. That’s the plan. They’ll become wealthy by ignoring your kids. So far that plan is working. Make some sacrifices, form a neighborhood group, home school your kids. You owe it to them, it’s your responsibility. The CPS, CTU, are counting on you to write off your kids and hand them over to them. Is that what you want to do? If so, start making room in your bank account and… Read more »
The House Judiciary CISA report is out. This is one of the biggest stories of our time. The federal government is illegally censoring your speech and manipulating communication for political gain.
https://judiciary.house.gov/sites/evo-subsites/republicans-judiciary.house.gov/files/evo-media-document/cisa-staff-report6-26-23.pdf
I don’t know why this is news…80% of the voting population in Chicago either voted for this or were too lazy to show up to put an end to it.
Thats pretty well sums it up. I would only add that those who do care, well they simply leave. Perhaps at this point we can conclude that anyone remaining in Chicago either doesn’t care or is on board with the city agenda. Didn’t Wirepoints say that a growing number of their readers are not in Illinois? That would include me. I’m just hanging around to watch the city/state implode. Although that is happening, I hope it picks up the pace. I’m starting to get bored.
The school system has way too many employees they have to get read of 50% of the non teaching staff
interesting. My downstate district pays about half of what Chicago spends per student with much better results. Oh well once again we see,,,Chicago gets the money and for what?
AA hires, top heavy management, social welfare programs and good ole Chitown grift, that’s what.
Maybe it would be better if we gave all the students the $30K per year directly. From K-12 that amounts to $390,000 plus all the compounding interest would be around $500,000 and with 4% interest that’s $20K per year more. How many of us would just like to have the $500K at retirement? Of course they would not be able to read/write or do math but they can’t even if attending school for all those years so nothing lost. Think of it. No salaries/healthcare/building maintenance/pensions. No need for brick and mortar buildings. Just direct payments to the kids. Khan Academy… Read more »
Mississippi just raised their scores and it was school choice. Pritzker has cancelled school choice yet people still vote for him. Our scores are sinking and enrollment is down. Bring back school choice.
Pritzker by default, is a racist.
CPS is a woke madrassas designed to produce activists. Rep Delia Ramirez (IL-D), Ald. Carlos Ramirez-Rosa, Cook County Commissioner Anthony Quezada. All CPS grads. I don’t think Rosa or Quezada even went to college, and Ramirez ‘graduated’ from Northeastern with a degree in ‘justice studies’. We know these reps are barely literate and have a minimal education; but they are progressive activists, and that’s all that really matters. They want to transform America into the $hithold countries their families left to come here illegally. If they love Latin America so much, why don’t they just go back?
Careful, the white hood is slipping off of your head the longer you speak.
It isn’t lies…
You must be a CPS grad. Maybe you’re confusing La Raza (The Race) with the KKK. I don’t know. The National Council of La Raza (“La Raza”) is a left-of-center Hispanic group that opposes many American immigration laws. La Raza describes itself as a civic-minded Hispanic advocacy group. Critics complain La Raza supports amnesty for illegal immigrants. La Raza believes that Hispanics in America are victims of terrible racism.[1] La Raza opposes English-only laws.[2] Critics contend that La Raza (literally translated “the race”) is part of a larger movement that seeks to extinguish United States borders and control much of the American… Read more »
Broken promises and racial injustice by IL/CHI CIG (corrupt; incompetent; greedy) politicians. No money for nuthing except lavish public sector pensions and medical–to fund the corrupt bargain between IL/CHI politicians and the public unions.
Maga will highlight all of this leading up to the Dem convention next year….IL/CHI totally mismanaged.
I feel sorry for the kids, most are destined for poverty, jail or the grave. The responsibility is with the parents who voted to hand more power to the CTU and second again, on the parents for keeping their kids in these schools instead of moving. ( The cost to move is much less painful then burying your son)
Maybe WP already covered, but a couple of suggestion for future WP CPS articles: 1.) I believe only appox 1/2 of the crazy $29,206 spent per student goes into classroom teaching. Astoundingly, the rest goes to central office staffing, pensions & benefits, & debt payments. It would be great to get a breakdown of where those non-class room $ are spent per $29,206 per student? How does non-class room spending compare to other school districts or out of state school districts (in IND or something)? 2.) Instead of just reporting the abysmal proficiency test scores for whites, blacks, hispanics, etc… Read more »
It is so damn obvious that the system is set up to make money for adults (teachers?). It is not about education at all. Much of this money goes to paying for overly generous pensions.
To make matters worse the money is being spent in Florida to help their economic activity, which is just booming. Pensions get paid for 30 to 40 years, with 3% increases every year.
Maybe the black students don’t want to learn
Or maybe their chosen occupation doesn’t require reading to succeed
Always many exceptions. but your comment has more validity than many would like to admit.
While working in Gary, IN over 15 yrs ago I got to meet one of the original Tuskegee airmen. Quentin Smith had retired as principal of a Gary grade school and as a former aerospace engineer/physicist we had a great conversation regarding inspiring ghetto students for greatness. He taught them single engine aircraft flying providing that they maintain a minimum GPA. His airplane was flown from Meigs Field until the corrupt environmentalist scumbag Daley destroyed the airfield and Quentin’s program. Quentin’s life story is amazing and can found on the web; he refused to be held back due to skin… Read more »
WP has presented so much data on CPS – very admirable. Is there anyway to summarize what CPS students are doing after they ‘graduate’ from CPS HS?
I think that the local nightly news gives us an insight as to what the passed along are doing after the last school bell rings for them
It’s pretty self-evident that SAT grade-level results don’t really matter much to a majority of the stakeholders in this mess – parents, taxpayers, teachers, administrators, guvmn’t, certainly not students. Taxpayers get a bigger bill every year for ever-worse academic performance from declining numbers of students, and that’s been pretty much the new normal for a long time. Aside from the property tax bill, the only number that goes up is the ‘graduation’ rate. We ought to just quit wasting money and time on academics. Ditch the SAT. Send out a survey every year asking respondents to rate the quality of… Read more »
One of the lessons of the aftermath of the Kansas City schools litigation in the 90’s where taxes were increased on all Missourians is the more money than in the past did nothing for academic performance. One thing that was underestimated was just how important school jobs were in the community. More money for increased salaries made it challenging to get poorly performing teachers to move on. Query whether the same issue exists in Chicago
Wow, this graph shows that a decrease in spending would improve reading scores a boost enrollment!
COs is not so much a school that teaches anything useful — it is more of a money laundry for the crooked corrupt CTU and Illinois Democrat Party
Not to excuse the CPD system, but in looking at this considering the socio economics, the schools are being asked to do much more than educating children. They are expected to provide them breakfast and lunch and teach them to behave. Children shouild be provided for a home with adquate food and be provided the discipline to behave in school. Teachers and educators are expected to do more than educate children. Until we come to grips with the realities that teachers are facing, nothing will change.