Number of half-empty Chicago public schools doubles, yet lawmakers want to extend school closing moratorium – Wirepoints
April 19, 2024
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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.
I have just one question. Why is a cash bailout for a territory in which residents do not pay federal income tax a serious possibility, but a bailout for a state in which residents not only pay federal income tax, but in which – decade after decade – residents have collectively paid much more into the federal treasury than they have received back in federal spending, beyond the realm of possibility? You may well be right that Puerto Rico will get a bailout while Illinois will not, but if so something is very wrong with our country.