CPS Budget

Chicago Board of Education passes budget amidst political uproar

By Jim Vail

Special to News-Star

The Chicago Board of Education passed a budget that will increase spending 8 percent to $7.5 billion amidst cries that it makes no sense to build new schools as the student population continues to dwindle.

Not to mention that schools in working class black and Latino neighborhoods are getting shortchanged while schools on the North Side in wealthier areas are getting more cash.

Chicago Public Schools will spend almost $1 billion on capital projects – building new schools or repairing old ones.

“Though the South and West sides of the city serve more students than the North Side, they are being promised fewer dollars for repairs, renovations, or construction,” WBEZ reported.

Mayor Rahm Emanuel plans to build two new schools and put additions on others in neighborhoods that don’t need it. People in Belmont-Cragin said the proposed new school is not needed because the neighborhood schools are not overcrowded.

Dirksen Elementary School near O’Hare Airport is the only one of four schools getting an addition that was officially overcrowded, WBEZ reported, while there are over a dozen overcrowded schools in the city.

Waters in Lincoln Square, Rogers in West Ridge and Palmer in Albany Park are not considered overcrowded by CPS standards, but they’re getting additions.

Why?

“This is not an education plan – it’s an election plan,” said Chicago Teachers Union Vice President Jesse Sharkey at one of three public hearings CPS held before the board vote July 26.

The thinking is that Emanuel is placating the big players, the ones with money behind their voices to put schools in gentrifying areas of the city who want more magnet schools to serve their children.

CPS says it’s listening to each neighborhood community and planning for the future.

The Mayor has been able to dole out money this time thanks to the state providing funding after a deal was made to allow vouchers (to further decrease money for public schools in the future) that placated Rep. Gov. Bruce Rauner who held up funding for the schools last year.

Usually budget time is crunch time, where painful cuts are needed. Years past CPS chiefs would announce a $300 million deficit that would force teacher layoffs or whatever cuts the mayor wanted, but would miraculously reappear as surpluses once the final budget was registered.

The school budget is very political.

CPS says it needs more than $3 billion for school repairs, but the mayor’s budget allocated just $366 million for it.

The student population is dwindling each year. In 2000 there were 435,000 students, but today there are 371,000, a 15 percent decline, and CPS predicts there will be 20,000 fewer students in the next three years. Chicago also has 182,000 fewer residents than it did 18 years ago, with 220,000 less black people as well as a drop in the number of Hispanics because less immigrants are coming, Chalkbeat reported.

Many critics feel the budget reflects a gentrification plan to build new schools that will further siphon enrollment and resources from existing neighborhood schools. Parents complained several years ago about new charter schools opening in areas where they were not needed because schools were under-enrolled.

Ten percent of Chicago’s public school students are white, and their schools will see close to $2,800 per pupil investment, while schools serving 40 percent black students will get less than half that, and schools serving 45 percent Hispanic will get even less, the CTU stated.

“CPS needs a long-term facilities plan for high-quality neighborhood schools that support working class neighborhoods, which are struggling today in Chicago,” CTU VP Sharkey said.