Number of half-empty Chicago public schools doubles, yet lawmakers want to extend school closing moratorium – Wirepoints
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.
The asbestos disaster in Philly schools is another reason to ask if we are seeing a failure of democracy, as Ben Franklin warned us (he said no democracy can last forever because people will keep voting themselves raises and eventually the republic will go bankrupt). Philly schools is out of options–the buildings are past their expiration date, there’s no money to fix them, and any new tax money will go to pensions. The 2020 Board meetings are going to be pretty crazy.
https://thenotebook.org/articles/2020/01/02/new-year-opens-with-protests-concerns-about-health-conditions-in-schools/