By: Ted Dabrowski and John Klingner
We get asked all the time why Chicago parents don’t realize just how bad CPS schools really are. One of the big reasons is politicians like Gov. J.B. Pritzker, CPS CEO Pedro Martinez and Mayor Brandon Johnson only ever brag about record graduation rates and yearly student “growth.”
They never tell parents the truth about how literacy has collapsed in Chicago Public Schools, particularly for black students. Only 2 of every 10 can read at grade level, according to CPS data. In many city schools, it’s 0 out of 10.
Add Illinois State Rep. Kam Buckner to the group of lawmakers who deny Chicago’s education problems. His recent response to Rep. Blaine Wilhour’s comments on the Illinois House floor puts him on the list.
In a speech regarding CPS’ change to an elected school board, Rep. Wilhour said: “The folks in this body should be ashamed. The vast majority of Chicago’s black students can’t read, they can’t do math, at grade level.”
State Rep. Kam Buckner responded: “I’m a little flabbergasted at the gentleman from the 110th district’s diatribe. As a Chicago black student who reads very well, I will say that for those in my district who have reading comprehension issues, I will welcome the representative to refund some of the money that Chicago sends to your district to help us out.”
Rep. Buckner had a chance to be honest about the dismal outcomes in CPS schools and to champion their improvement. He’s a graduate of DePaul Law – he knows how important literacy is for the path to success.
Instead, Buckner essentially denied the crisis in Chicago. He says he reads “very well,” so what’s the problem?
Does he not know how bad outcomes are? Does he not care? Or is he so partisan that he threw the city’s struggling black students under the bus just to score a political point?
Buckner admits to some “reading comprehension issues” for black students. That’s a massive understatement. Here’s a breakdown of black student performance across Chicago:
- On the South Side, just 15% read at grade level. In math, just 8% are at grade level.
- On the West Side, it’s 13% and 7%.
- On the Southwest Side, it’s 12% and 7%.
- On the Far Southeast Side, 18% and 9%.
And then there are the individual results of some majority-black CPS schools:
- At Fenger Academy High School, 0% of black students read at grade level, 0% in math.
- At Hirsch Metropolitan High, 0% and 0%.
- Collins Academy High School, 0% and 0%.
- Chicago Excel Academy HS, 0% and 0%.
- Dunbar Vocational HS, 0% and 0%.
Those are just a few of the 32 schools across Illinois where not a single student can read at grade level. There’s another 67 schools where not a single student is proficient in math.
If you’re having any doubts about the data, take a look at Kam Buckner’s own alma mater, Morgan Park High School, where 9 of every 10 black students can’t read at grade level. And the SAT scores show that the results are even more dire than that. Six of those nine black students are likely multiple years behind.
That outcome is similar for black students across all of CPS.
Buckner should be SHOUTING FROM THE ROOFTOPS that CPS is a failure in making the city’s black students literate. The failure is extreme considering CPS gets a whopping $29,000 per student in state, local and federal tax dollars.
Many will be tempted to blame parents for the schools’ outcomes – and yes, they deserve their share – but as one mother recently told us: “We are working multiple jobs, we are struggling. So we count on the schools to teach our children. But they don’t.”
And yet the school system happily takes the money and always clamors for more.
Anybody who follows Wirepoints knows the problem with Illinois education goes far beyond black literacy in CPS, as covered in our report: Poor student achievement and near-zero accountability: An indictment of Illinois’ public education system
Credit Rep. Wilhour for calling out that broken system.
The statewide failure impacts all Illinois students, regardless of race. And it stays that way because an overwhelming majority of Illinois’ leadership refuses to acknowledge the problems, or worse, they cover them up.
Appendix.
Read more from Wirepoints:
- Get ready for the Chicago Teachers Union’s radical, expensive agenda in its upcoming contract negotiation
- City Club of Chicago plays host to education officials’ latest excuse for dismal student outcomes: The covid pandemic
- Education fail: Not a single child tested proficient in math in 67 Illinois schools. For reading, it’s 32 schools.
- Chicago Public Schools’ twisted goal: End selective enrollment schools while keeping nearly empty, failing schools open
Ted was on The Chicago Way with John Kass and Jeff Carlin to discuss the proposed $5 billion lakefront stadium project proposed by the Chicago Bears & Mayor Brandon Johnson, why Chicago is struggling compared to other metro areas across the country, why the city might or might not go the way of Detroit, and more.
Some Illinois lawmakers continue to deny that covid aid and other federal stimulus bailed the state out of its fiscal mess. But a look at past and projected revenues from COGFA shows just how much the bailouts blew out the state’s revenues. And now that they’re over, how much harder it will be for Illinois revenues to grow.
Election integrity – both real and perceived – is essential to government’s legitimacy and stability. Illinois, like the rest of the nation, better fix its problems now.
Ted joined Dan and Amy to talk about Chicago’s latest bond offering, why Chicago’s dismal home value growth is due to poor policies, the next $70 million to be spent on migrants, the 9% salary hikes demanded by the CTU, and why Illinois lawmakers voting to stop Chicago’s selective enrollment schools from being closed is hypocritical.
Weekly crime statistics from the Chicago Police Department: Report through 4/21/2024.
Buckner’s reading might be fine but he has absolutely no comprehension!
Better ask the illuminati for a new rigged puppet to replace this guy, he’s obviously defective lol
What is needed is something like the flying arrow on Bozo circus to pick a child to play the bucket game. Pick any child at random from any school any class and give them a spot quiz on reading-writing or math questions. Let’s see their answers. This is not to embarrass the kids just to see what they know. They can get a small gift card to a local store for participating. Make this fun for them. Then do the same for the charter schools and private schools all things being equal to compare. It makes me sick that the… Read more »
Yeah? Buckner should release his ACT scores.
That said, Davis-Gates should also release her ACT scores.
Is there any place that tells you at what grade level the students are reading at? If an 11th grader is reading at a 10th grade level that is vastly different from an 11th grader reading at a 5th grade level, yet both would be lumped together.
As someone with a a degree in physics, I can tell you math builds on itself, so it isn’t enough to be proficient at it, you need to master each level or it only gets progressively harder.
Wirepoints has posted reports showing the % of students at each of 4 levels, with proficient the highest level. I don’t remember the specifics, but I do remember that the plurality were at the lowest level, not in the almost proficient level. These kids basically can’t read.
Well Representative Buckner if you can not read and understand the problems with the schools perhaps you can’t read “very well.”
Good old Collins, in the center of Douglas park was built for 900 students to relieve overcrowding at Crane, Manley, Marshall and Farragut. Now Farragut is closed but the other four have a combined enrollment of less than 790. Look at the cost of Marshall High and tell me why there is no consolidation of the schools all in the same neighborhood.
Watch for this. Just like the Chicago Police fiddle with crime stats and case clearance rates, the Dem pols will move the goalpost and switch the testing mechanism so like magic– WALLAH!- all those illiterate students will meet the standard. You know it’s coming down to that. There isn’t any likelihood the quality of education will increase, so let’s lower the standard–again.
WALLAH! lol
Old Spartan complaining about illiterate students and like magic, voila, we now know he wouldn’t meet grade level standards. Time to look in the mirror sparty.
Bill from Oswego, his concern is valid and he’s way past grade level standards. We fully expect ISBE to respond that way. By the way, I see you usually post from the East Coast. And how’s the trip to London? Do you have any connection to Oswego or to the guy you are claiming to be?
Flash news, IL representatives can read! Feel better, now?
Pathetic.
Compared to Joe Biden they are reading at genius level lol
Can anyone say, this is the intentional result the government wants by design…..good night everyone lol
Someone needs to tell Kam, comic books don’t count as reading material.
What are the test scores at private and religious schools? Nobody knows. Easy to criticize, hard to find solutions. Cutting their budget is not the solution.
FYI-
Charter schools are doing better than the standard public schools.
According to the U Chicago Consortium on School Research,
“New research on chicago public high schools shows that charter schools not only score higher on standardized tests than their public school counterparts, but also do markedly better on a range of post -secondary results like college enrollment and persistence…”
that research coming from
https://www.the74million.org/new-report-shows-chicagos-charter-schools-yield-higher-test-scores-and-college-enrollment/
CTU hates charter schools. Why?
Also easy to say that spending more is the solution to everything.
“cutting their budget is not the solution.”
The Ill. State Board of Education ( ISBE) just released a report that analyzes the Invest in Kids Program, the only school choice kids had in Illinois, that Democrats recently killed.
It shows that students with the largest year-over-year learning gains were scholarship students.
But unions want more money from us?
For what?
If this isn’t proof that the exorbitant amounts of money that they already receive aren’t being used
for the benefit of students and teachers they claim to represent, what is?
Rep Buckner can read very well, as can
Baby Huey our governor. Welcome Buckner to the very elite ranks of the
“ usual gang of idiots “. Buckner can read very well but also has advanced degrees in quantum mechanics and nuclear physics.
He might want to have the two Twinkies
Removed from his cheeks.
To admit the failure of the CPS is to admit the scam of paying teachers, administrators etc. good salaries and off the chart pensions for achieving nothing.
Education starts in the home! In this case particularly, homes that vote 95% democrat.
The teachers just pass the students through, do not care about the students.
Shameful and destroys their future.
New CTU contract they want over $100,000 per year, plus huge benefits and for only showing up 180 days a year. After 25 or 30 years retire with million-dollar pension all paid for by the taxpayers.
Hmm, we’ll he can’t read the writing on the wall…..