Time to Pay the Piper

Chicago schools, the third largest system in the US, is back in the news six months after settling a teachers strike. 

In round numbers there are 400,000 public school students in Chicago, 50,000 of whom attend Charter Schools. Th yesr 2012 was the first in history the graduation rate in Chicago reached 60 percent. The schools had somehow racked-up a deficit of $700 Million. 

The teachers struck for more money, and in protest of the City’s plans to open more Charter Schools (eventually planned to serve 100,000 students), and partly over the upcoming Teacher Evaluation plans that had been making news here in NY and elsewhere around the country.

They settled the strike, teachers ‘won’ raises equaling 4.15 percent per year over four years, that deficit has now grown from $700 Million to $1 Billion, Long Term Debt is at $6.4 Billion and has been downgraded by Moody’s after the strike settlement.  Now it is time to pay the piper.

This week Chicago released the list of 54 schools that would be closing in order to save money. These were schools with low enrollment, mostly in minority neighborhoods. Now the predictable outcry and backlash has begun.

Chicago schools are indeed the third largest in the nation, and they are in really big trouble, financially and academically. The third largest school system in the nation does not operate in a vacuum any more that Wantagh or Seaford schools operate in a vacuum.

While there are no immediate corollaries to be drawn from Chicago’s plight to Wantagh or Seaford, neither can any comfort be derived from the fact that 40% of Chicago’s 400,000 children are not receiving a sound, basic education.

A fair inference can be drawn that, eventually, financial and instructional resources from outside of Chicago, outside of Illinois, are going to have to be directed toward fixing Chicago’s public schools.

With current price tag exceeding $1 Billion and continuing to mount, the cost must inevitably affect the rest of the nation, probably including Wantagh and Seaford.  Is Chicago all alone in their plight?  Or could very similar articles be written about other really big school systems in our nation?

For additional information, you may contact the author at chriswendt117@gmail.com