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.
Can we learn something (anything?) from Pacific Gas & Electric? Customers who decided to live in fire zones lost their houses and filed so many suits against the power company that it is now bankrupt. This season, the company is shutting off the power when there is increased fire risk. Naturally everyone complains. Likely the complainers are many of the same folks who condemned PG&E for the fire risk. This new proactive stance has literally and figuratively made the complainers “powerless.” Rather than let the union bankrupt the city and the schools, shut the schools down. Is this a greater… Read more »
The flaw is assuming that the parents actually care. The politically active parents are mostly wokesters who support the striking teachers and the slightly less progressive parent left CPS before they even enrolled their first kid. It’s a bit like the Salem witch trials, the entire community was nuts and there was no one left but the witches to object to the insanity.
You’re good, Cass. Really good.
I don’t know what the end game is here and I don’t think the union or lightfoot does either. Kind of like Cruz’s government shutdown back during the Hussein years, not sure why it shut down and not sure if it really even mattered. Didn’t Trump have a shut down in there somewhere too?