By: Matt Rosenberg
Teachers union power politics, weak administrations, and absent political leadership have left Chicago Public Schools with a glaring and intractable problem: increasingly empty, failing schools.
Of CPS’ 478 stand-alone “traditional” or non-charter, non-contract schools, one third of them, 150, are less than half-full, according to CPS. The 20 most-empty CPS schools are only 5 to 25 percent full – most with depressing educational outcomes, which we detail below.
That CPS and the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) defend keeping open half-empty schools is why parents need more options. It’s why taxpayers should demand real school choice in the form of vouchers.
Take Manley High School. It’s a glaring example of just how far CPS and CTU are willing to go. The school’s capacity? 1,296 students. The number of students now? Just 64 – 4.9% of available seats. Douglas High School? Capacity 888. Seats filled? 44. Uplift High School has a capacity of 720 seats but only 55, or 7.6 percent, are filled. The list goes on.
As the student population continues to plummet in CPS, the number of schools under-enrolled has remained stubbornly high. Overall, 55 percent of the district’s 478 traditional schools fall below CPS’ 70 percent enrollment threshold for efficient utilization. The data are in the district’s spreadsheet titled “2021 – 2022 Space Utilization and Enrollment.” (See distribution in appendix.)
Yet despite falling enrollment and failing academic outcomes, CPS won’t be changing its tune anytime soon.
An all-elected Chicago school board by 2027 means all or most CPS overseers will owe their election to the muscular political action committee of the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU). And the CTU is all about keeping schools – even mostly empty ones – open for the long haul. Even if they do like to shut them down sometimes as a collective bargaining ploy.
The union not only successfully lobbied the state legislature last year to establish a moratorium on CPS school closures until 2025, it even protested the closure of a CPS school with no students.
Despite a long-standing problem with hundreds of under-capacity schools, many of them dramatically so, Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot when elected in 2019 said she opposed closures of under-capacity schools. She subsequently stood by as state legislators last year resurrected until early 2025 a school closure moratorium. A previous five-year ban on Chicago school closures had been agreed to by her predecessor Rahm Emanuel after 50 school closings he forced in 2013 touched off a political firestorm.
It seems to matter little that CPS enrollment has plummeted by almost 25 percent from 431,750 in 2000 to 330,411 in 2021. And that it is projected by the district to decline to as little as 316,000 in 2024 and then further to as low as 262,000 by 2025.
Sober observers and business analysts get what’s wrong with this picture, even if the union and their political protectorate don’t.
Standard & Poor’s Chicago-based credit analyst Blake Yocom told Crain’s Chicago Business this about school closings: “enrollment and the district’s capital footprint have been ‘so mismatched for so long that it’s an obvious expenditure control they could implement given their declining enrollment…CPS is an outlier for ‘such drastic differences in enrollment with their capital footprint.’”
But hand-in-glove with the CTU’s accretion of political power is heated racial rhetoric. And it often manifests when school closures are proposed. Consolidations of facilities may even be called “a hate crime” by a protesting CTU member, and later get shelved.
And now, despite CPS’ own data showing more than half of assessed schools are below the district’s own capacity benchmark of 70 percent, there is growing interest in how to fiscally prop up under-enrolled schools with Covid relief funds and other revenues.
It’s an exactly upside-down approach and not in the best interests of CPS students, especially at underutilized schools, where performance is often notably low.
Empty schools, failed results
Wirepoints looked at the 20 most empty CPS schools, on a percentage basis, and found that that 2019 reading and math proficiency among students was remarkably low.
Most schools had proficiency percentages in the single digits. And sadly, these schools aren’t outliers academically.
Across CPS, outcomes are embarrassingly bad. Only 27 percent can read at grade level and just 24 percent are proficient in math.
Worse, as the enrollment slide and academic failure continue, the present CPS budget process beggars reality.
CPS is proposing to build on a 2021-22 budget that was already artificially boosted with about $1 billion in federal Covid aid. Chalkbeat says that the proposed 2022-23 budget is $9.5 billion. That’s up about 25 percent from the pre-Covid 2019 CPS budget of $7.58 billion.
The ever-growing budget in the face of shrinking enrollment and continued abysmal academic performance shows that the best remedy is to empower families with expanded school choice.
Appendix
Read more from Wirepoints:
- Chicago leaders’ hypocritical stance on school choice
- The opportunity that Chicago – and Illinois – kids need is real school choice
- Why the Chicago Teachers Union Always Gets What It Wants
- Chicago teachers are paid some of the highest salaries of any big district in the nation. What do Chicago parents get in return?
- How can 84% of Chicago Public Schools students graduate when only 26% of 11th graders are proficient in reading, math?
- Families continue to flee Chicago Public Schools as it loses 14,000 students in 2022, more than 100,000 since 2000
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.
The Local School Councils emasculate and interfere with the principal hiring process often hiring ineffective turnaround leaders. What does a motley crew of parents and ineffective- teachers know about effective school turnaround and the principal selection process? Why do these idiots wield such power in the school improvement process and in the selection of school-based administrators? These buildings need real change focused on improving student outcomes not teacher pay. You’ll get a pay raise when you start doing your job, increase achievement.
The teachers Union and the power they wield are taking down Chicago, ruining the future of their students by keeping them out of school and standards subpar. Lightfoot, unfortunately, has created this animal and caves to them every time. Where do we go from here?
This letter of mine was published in the Wall Street Journal back in January: “The scandal of the Chicago Teachers Union wouldn’t exist but for the pusillanimous behavior of the organization that theoretically runs the schools — the Chicago Public Schools. Historically it’s been governed exclusively by mayoral appointees and does the mayor’s bidding. This is the body that negotiates union contracts, that establishes the budget, and that is ultimately responsible for schools’ performance. “Over the past twenty years CPS has been the model of incompetence. Enrollment over that period has declined by about 25% (100,000 students). The budget, however,… Read more »
The facts don’t lie! Thank you for sharing information that SHOULD be driving decision-making, but isn’t. The data here make it clear why families of ALL races are rushing to charter schools, private schools, and homeschooling in record numbers. I’ve received 2 text messages a week from my local school district here in Austin, TX, begging me to send my kids there. Chicago Public Schools’ mismanagement by the union cabal is clearly a cautionary tale for the rest of the country.
Here’s another stat that blew me away, and I would love to see verified again: Chicago school spending per student went from 16% higher than the U.S. median in 2010 to 30% higher in 2015. How can anyone honestly say that Chicago schools are “under-funded” when you look at the source of spending and it’s above average, and growing faster than the national average? This was reported by Rafael A. Mangual, who’s new book “Criminal [In]Justice ” is making the rounds, and he was even featured on “The Daily Show” with Trevor Noah. (He was very nice in attempting to… Read more »
Another sad story of how unions control those who feed them. When I hear teacher union say it’s “all about the children”, it’s a lie. The fact is that NO UNIONS should in ANY government entity. NONE. This is a perfect example for why. This whole scenario will continue at the taxpayers expense and the union still will not care along with those who support them. The best thing any parent could do is send their child to a private school or move.
Typical, teachers union wields way too much power. Look what they did to the kids during “pandemic”. No concern for their well being, just themselves.
CTU is simply pure mafia organization.
Remember, it’s been 30 years now, when the scholars at CTU decided teachers needed to learn Ebonics? That was the answer to communicate with Black students, never mind expecting a grasp of the English language to be learned. How did that work out?
Stop being so bias and ignorant. Why is you all so obsessed with Black people. Worry about your own.
Facts and figures used well in this article, thanks for writing. I was lucky enough to be the son of an educator so realized the importance of a school district choice when raising my four kids. Even their suburban district has recently declined with a superintendent and board focused on “AP for all” and other forced initiatives plus per pupil expenditures in the top 1%. This will lead to a decline in property values as taxes grow and results decline. Terrific book I read recently by a life long advocate for education, reviled by CTU and all teachers unions, Betsy… Read more »
A few years ago I saw special about closing some of the Chicago schools in the bad neighborhoods because kids weren’t coming to school. They actually had to have people on the streets to escort them for their safety. They also went door-to-door begging the parents to actually send their kids to school. What a sad situation
I witnessed the hijinks of Tilden tech students (no. 6 on the list) firsthand for 12 years. Barely 100 students show up daily at this school, which 60 years ago was a top technical school. Vest wearing paid volunteers lined the adjoining intersections, trying to maintain order, crossing streets and preventing fights. Down Union street, students walk in the middle of the street blocking traffic, ignoring police squads telling them to get off the street. The CFD helicopter patrolled overhead daily during dismissal, reporting fights to the CPD. When consolidation of schools was tried during the Daley and Emanuel terms,… Read more »
Isn’t it ironic that the white people aren’t running things anymore, and its actually getting worse, despite record funding? Strip CTU power to strike Close. all buildings less than 50% enrolled. Allow students to go to any school in the system, provided there’s space. If their is not space, give the parents 2/3 of the per pupil money to enroll in a school of their choice. We need to establish reasonable benchmarks for learning and test the students, Students should not receive a HS diploma without demonstrating competency in Reading, Writing, Mathematics, and Civics. Give the mopes a certificate of… Read more »
White people were running the CTU (Sharky) and things got markedly worse…It’s not about white people, it’s about the competency of people running things…
Time for tax increases as CPS needs more cash to deal with any problems that arise. Time for reduced classroom hours as CPS teachers are overworked. Time for pay raises at CPS as teachers are scratching out a living while earning minimum wages. Time to reduce classroom sizes even if their classroom has 3 kids in it. Just time to shovel more money into the endless pit of the CPS.
The CTU will hold onto the church/state argument against vouchers like grim death. A pox on them. But thanks, Matt, for the link to a Wirepoints article by Ted from 2018, with a comment by Mike suggesting–even back then–the alternative of trade schools being built in Chicago. A good idea then, even more so now.
Uh-oh sounds like it might be time for some teacher layoffs. We can dream can’t we?
With all the underutilized schools all the people who clean/maintenance/grounds keepers/repairs of equipment/etc how many have gotten reduced hours? I’m sure they are still at a full time schedule with maybe overtime included. Someone needs to check hours worked at these schools. The utilities have to be paid regardless if there is 1 student or a thousand.
Mostly do-nothing political clout jobs, to begin with.
My wife teaches for CPS and I had no idea this was going on. Again, I learn from you, Mr. Rosenberg. What I do know is that public schools have become a jobs program for left-wing activists and a money laundering scheme for the Democrat Party.
One would expect that the smaller student-to-teacher ratio (where enrollment has plummeted) would at least result in improved student outcomes in reading and math proficiency. Those children need someone in leadership who will set higher standards and demand that they be met on all levels.
It’s curious. “Freedom of choice” is valid for only certain segments of our population. “Choice” is sacred if your choice is to Cuisinart your children in-utero. That’s only for you to decide. But if you choose to use your tax money to send your children to the school of your “choice,” it’s sorry, not going to happen. Funny how that works. Matt Rosenberg’s article has this key paragraph: “That CPS and the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) defend keeping open half-empty schools is why parents need more options. It’s why taxpayers should demand real school choice in the form of vouchers.”… Read more »
There are many “must do” government tasks and lots of taxpayers are “demanding” that they be done. Of course, for every demand for x there is an equally loud demand for y. I demand fewer carbon emissions, an end to forest fires, lower temperatures in the desert and the end of potholes in our time. Meanwhile, I will keep my gasoline & corn fueled SUV as long as I can because I understand how meaningless demands and political promises are. Only through the ballot (assuming honest elections) can any change be initiated. And any change will gore someone’s ox. Ignorant… Read more »
At last, 😏finally, some parents understand that government schools are not helping produce Educated children. As More families home school or send their children to private schools or better yet move out of the liberal-run cities perhaps we need to think about re-imagining the entire government education system. As far as I’m concerned it needs to be dismantled.
Yet, Government run schools in China produce stellar results. It starts with the parents.
Yes and no. First of all, the supposedly high scores of China’s students are rigged, like everything else in that country, their figures aren’t trust worthy. Secondly, the good government schools are in rich urban areas with lots of wealth. And like most Chinese things, as soon as you start poking around on the inside of the country, or in poorer areas, the schools are third world. Finally, schools weren’t teaching all students well, and there was a massive tutoring industry that existed so parents could have their children learn outside of school what they were not taught in school.… Read more »
The parents in most cases are also the products of a terrible public education system. In 10 years, those that graduate from CPS schools without learning anything will be the parents of the next generation of students. I think we can predict how that will turn out. And we can also predict that the education establishment will still be claiming that they can’t be expected to actually teach these children; it’s the parents’ fault. If that’s true, might as well just give up now because nothing will ever change.
Vote for Amendment 1 (Senate Joint Resolution Constitutional Amendment 11 in the 102nd Illinois General Assembly) in the November 8, 2022 Illinois election to give unions in Illinois more power.
Vote against Amendment One (SJRCA 11 in the 102nd ILGA) in the 11/18/22 Illinois election to allow unions to maintain the power they already have been granted over the decades in state laws.
https://ballotpedia.org/Illinois_Amendment_1,_Right_to_Collective_Bargaining_Measure_(2022)
Truth be Told,
Anyone and everyone who ‘we know’… with school age children and living in the city, wouldn’t consider having their child or children in Chicago Public Schools. And whomever might be the exception was lucky enough to get their kid into Payton, Parker, Lane or the Like. It’s the indigent families, the immigrant families and the single parent families who send their children to Chicago’s Public Schools. Just another abuse of the system by career politicians, the massive abuse of those with ‘no voices’.
It’s Chicago, only the names change in this thoroughly corrupt city.
I once read an article/study that stated that the children of public school teachers have the highest percentage of private school enrollment of any profession bar none. What do they know that we don’t know? They even beat out doctors and lawyers. You read that right. Here’s a story for an enterprising Fibune reporter. Investigate where Jesse Sharkeys kids went to school. I don’t even want a cut. Just gimme the facts. For extra credit, who was the last US president that had a child enrolled in the Washington DC public school system? Hint: He was actually a Democrat who… Read more »
The union is always looking for smaller class sizes (more teachers/more dues) to improve student performance. These under utilized schools should have smaller class sizes, why aren’t they doing better?
Exactly! All these kids should be scoring higher than the averages.
Ataraxis, you’re confused with Lake Woebegon.
Although I consider myself well informed, I find these facts/numbers Shocking. I am appalled by this Chicago institutionalized corruption, complicity and theft. These thief’s and scoundrels should be put in prisons. The Patronage Lives, Chicago Corruption Lives on !
So disgusting that these Pigs continue to ‘feed at trough’. How do they look their children in the face?
Public employee unions have become detrimental to the functions they support.
The taxpayers are effectively funding public unions that are often at odds with the interests of the taxpayers. The taxpayer money pays for the union’s organization and special interest campaigns.
If anyone wants to counter them they have to build an organization from scratch with someone’s private money.
Doesn’t it seem wrong that we have to pay taxes so that unions can pad their own pockets?
Just keeps getting more and more sad…..
If layoffs start, union contract seniority provisions will probably retain the oldest (highest seniority) teachers. Some will be dedicated and experienced teachers. Some will be burn-outs. As an economic matter, districts would be better off, short-term, by getting these teachers off their payrolls. The medical costs get transferred to the pension system. The district’s obligations to the pension system will increase over time but for the near term there’ll be budget dollars to hire new (healthier) teachers at smaller salaries. Perhaps some sort of early retirement incentive could be integrated with strategic school closures in a way that savings from… Read more »
Yep. All this stimulus funding will be used for new hires, then when the funds dry up, those same new hires will be the first to go.
Short-term opportunism rules. Even most teachers are smart enough to recognize the inevitable collapse. So, quite naturally, they do what’s necessary to maximize their take while the revenues and the pension assets are there for the taking. Long-term strategic thinking that considers the future of the city and its students is basically beside the point. Mission statements aside, craven greed rules the day.
The CTU’s slogan needs to be revised from Red for Ed to Dead from Red Ed.
Thanks for this kind of information.
Want to fix systemic racism… improve the public schools. Advanced learning will uplift anyone. The teachers unions are domestic terrorists.
You cannot expect children to learn when they’re not fed properly, there’s no one to help with homework and no one to monitor their whereabouts or their friends. No Parents, No Parental Input and more often then not…. no one to read the god damn homework assignment. Is this a Surprise ?
We’ll never find out, but I would love to know the percentage of parents that show up for parent / teacher conferences. If CPS even still does them.
Aren’t most students now offered a well intentioned breakfast, and lunch? Another tax payer funded benefit, that mostly ends up in the trash at the end of the day.
They offer free lunch during the summer too:
CPS offers meals at outdoor school locations throughout the summer through the LunchStop program. LunchStop sites are open Monday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. from June 27 to August 12, 2022. The LunchStop summer meal program provides free, healthy meals across Chicago to all children between 1 and 18 years old. ID is not required.
https://www.cps.edu/services-and-supports/school-meals-and-nutrition/
Matt another good article filled with facts. I know many great teachers in the CPS. Unfortunately their skill and dedication is overshadowed by the mismanagement of the entire School system. We are long past the time for school choice.
Union strong!
My first question is are the teachers still receiving a salary for classrooms with no children? If so why? Reading the list of declined enrollment I recognize schools my south side school played against in sports. This is sad. Do children involved in extra curricular actives do better as a whole? It wasn’t that long ago my own children were in school. It was strongly suggested that attendance was not only important, failed attendance could be met with parents being legally punished. And failure of said student. Does this still exist? It’s past time things change. The money should follow… Read more »
I’ll just say it. Parents living in Chicago are by definition, bad parents.
The Chicago Public Schools are operated primarily for the benefit of adult employees and contractors. The situation facing most kids attending them is nothing short of tragic.
The notion of a large city school system being at its core a jobs program for adults was revealed in the Kansas City school system. Faced with evidence of racial disparities, and a school system presenting almost no defenses, a federal judge ordered the levy of billions on taxes on Missouri citizens. This money was funneled to the schools, with new buildings and programs and higher compensation for teachers and staff. Both scores and student population declined despite the billions. One of the many problems was that teacher jobs were very much desired by the community. Similar to post office… Read more »
Willow, regressives have stacked the deck to keep out otherwise good teachers because they don’t have the right “credentials.”
For example, Albert Einstein if he were still alive, couldn’t teach a physics class in Chicago public schools because he never obtained State of Illinois teaching certification.
Old Joe – the certification process is a racket. My brother was a graduate assistant coach at a top 25 university – part of his fellowship package to be reasonably well paid in obtaining his PhD. A number of athletes were not effective students – don’t underestimate the amount of admissions push schools give top flight scholarship athletes – and my brother noticed that many of these athletes landed in the education department, which had no calculus, no statistics, no programming and no senior paper requirements. My brother stayed on for a couple of years after his PhD in the… Read more »
Sorry, but a 19 ACT doesn’t cut it in early child ed any more than for AP chem. Different, but no less rigorous, knowledge base needed. And both need good people and communication skills.
I’ve worked with many prospective teachers in their observation hours or student teaching. Unfortunately, the teacher colleges push through unqualified mouth-breathers because “they love children”. Yeah? So do pedophiles. Don’t want them around my kids neither.
The CTU is nothing but a protection racket. This is embarrassingly shameful, and proof the whole system needs to be turned over.
The problem is the CPS population is not a true representation of Chicago’s demographics. Chicago is not 90% minority nor is it entirely poor like North Lawndale, but we fund CPS like it is.
If Chicago wants to fund its under-enrolled schools, it can do so via a massive property tax hike. Leave the rest of us out of it.
The data presented here on capacity is basic. The utilization of the CPS footprint is so bad, that you have to be corrupt to defend it.
Chicago’s Crooked And Corrupt Teachers Union Has Made CPS Education Worthless — Expect The Current Steady Out-Flow Of Students To Become A Tsunami
According to our legend in his own mind Governor Pritzker, there’s nothing to see here. Teacher Unions are good, just need more money not Charter School options.
Borrowing from Obama, Hope We Can Believe In. Sadly, I no longer have such hope here.
The Marxist Chicago Teachers Union, and their bought-n-paid for “everyone who’s not white is a victim of something” woke political lynch mob know that it’s easier to buy votes with convenient (and expensive) nanny-state day care in buildings full of empty classrooms than it is to actually teach poor black children how to read, write and understand basic math. Keep the cafeteria’s open, the school busses to and from them running, and obfuscate academic failure with a new set of subjective “everyone get’s an A” standards whenever too many people notice that CTU students can’t understand the menu boards at… Read more »
Saw a chart the other day that gave the scores, broken down by country (and for americans, race) of the PISA – Programme for International Student Assessment test, that tests 15 year olds world wide in OECD countries for academic performance. It showed that non-white 15 year old american students actually scored better than their counterparts back in their country of origins, and better than many other places in the world. US asians scored the highest, of course. American blacks scored higher than mexicans, Filipinos and serbians, and US Hispanics scored higher than russians, chilians, and italians. US whites scored… Read more »
Who paid for this study?
The U.S. should be number one, especially when compared to the third world countries our immigrants flow in from.
This study doesn’t even account for the undocumented flood of non-English speaking students in the last two years, we will have to try and educate.
https://nces.ed.gov/surveys/pisa/
https://nces.ed.gov/surveys/pisa/participation.asp
Like Trump lamented, our immigrants aren’t coming from Norway anymore.
When some future Edward Gibbon writes his magnum opus on Chicago he’ll have a chapter dedicated to the CPS/CTU.