Chicago Public Schools doubled per-student spending since 2012, according to a report by the Illinois Policy Institute. Achievement is down, writes Stephen Green on Pajama Media. Fewer high school graduates are enrolling in college, Chronic absenteeism has skyrocketed. Per-pupil spending is up to $29,028.
State test data released yesterday show 31 percent of Chicago students in grades 3 through 8 could read at grade level and about 19 percent could do math proficiently. That's considered good news: It's up since last year, though math remains below the pre-pandemic numbers in 2019.
Chicago students were out of school for a ver long time during the pandemic: Schools closed in March of 2020 and didn't reopen for all students until fall of 2021.
Where is the money going? Among other things, CPS is spending a lot more money on low-performing schools that follow the "sustainable community schools" model promoted by the Chicago Teachers Union and Mayor Brandon Johnson, a former union official. The money goes for social services for families and after-school and summer programs.
But the 20 sustainable community schools are underperforming, writes Hannah Schmid for the Illinois Policy Institute.
Only 13 percent of community-school students test as proficient in reading in grades 3 through 8, less than 5 percent in math. Four percent of 11th-graders are proficient in reading, 2 percent in math.
"Students at sustainable community schools on average have the lowest reading and math proficiency, highest absenteeism, highest high school dropout rate, lowest graduation rate and lowest postsecondary enrollment rate" compared to students at other traditional public schools. Furthermore, 90 percent are under-enrolled, writes Schmid, and "half are less than half full."
In its 2024 contract demands, the union wants the district to create another 180 "sustainable community schools," she reports.
A Chalkbeat analysis last year compared Chicago's 20 sustainable community schools to other high-poverty neighborhood schools that didn't receive the extra funding, which can be as much as $500,000 per school. Sustainable community schools did the same or slightly worse than other high-poverty schools on attendance and graduation rates, wrote Mila Koumpilova. "So far, the overwhelming majority of those 20 campuses have not staved off steep districtwide enrollment losses."
If kids (primarily black kids) are raised in a "don't act white" culture -- viewing education as an anti-black plot by white supremacists -- no amount of good teachers are more spending will improve their performance.
Combatting this attitude starts at home -- be it a 1 or 2 parent family. Perhaps parents should be bluntly asked "Do you want your kids to grow up to be stupid?" Okay, okay -- TACTFULLY asked. If the answer is "yes" or "I don't care," and their kids are disrupting classes, inform the parents that their kids will be put in "rubber rooms" with the worst teachers -- basically day care/incarceration centers (which is what many inner city minority schools are in now) --…
No one asks why in the same district, in the same schools, with the same administrators and the same teachers, some students are able to pass the tests? What makes them different?
We know why - don't we? Why is there no discussion of their successes?
This just shows that school performance is based upon the type of students and not the teachers or the amount of money spent. Remember, Utah spends less per student than any other state and has schools that perform in the top half.
In Illinois, the lowest funding level schools are the rural schools with mainly poor white students. Those schools are not eligible for as much Title I money and have low property bases for taxes but still have test scores well above the Chicago Public School levels.
There seems to be an opposite correlation to what you might expect: spending more money leads to less achievement. After some optimal point, more money just clogs the system with more useless administrators and progams.
Perhaps the Chicago Public Schools should take Arnold Schwartzennger's weight-lifting advice: "Stay hungry."