Chicago just boarded up 49 public schools, because of too many empty desks. The Catholic schools, which used to be a huge presence in Chicago, shut down many of their schools years ago, also because of low enrollment. (My dad is a product of Chicago’s parochial schools.)
Public school advocates are up in arms. Diane Ravitch is losing her mind about these closings, which she says were retribution for last year’s union strike.
Why does it matter? The phraseology removes the truly historic destruction that Rahm Emanuel is inflicting on children and schools in his city. He is wantonly destroying public education. He is punishing the teachers’ union for daring to strike last fall. He will open more charter schools, staffed by non-union teachers, to pick up the kids who lost their neighborhood schools. Some of them will be named for the equity investors who fund his campaigns.
Rahm and his friends will laugh about the way he displaced 40,000 kids.
A little much, perhaps.
Cities are changing. Most cities don’t look like New York City, which teams with people and shops even in the poorest neighborhoods. Most cities are vast emptiness of broken buildings being reclaimed by nature. Liquor stores and churches are the only sign of life in these areas. Piles of broken appliances and old sofas. There’s no public transportation.
Schools are very much needed in those areas, but not in the same quantity and size as before. There are 145,000 fewer kids in Chicago than ten years ago. Perhaps this is an opportunity for urban kids. Consolidation might improve the quality of the schools, even if it means a longer trip on the school bus.
Apt. 11d 
“Most cities are vast emptiness of broken buildings being reclaimed by nature.”
This is overly broad, don’t you think? Have you been reading too many articles about Detroit?
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Well, let’s qualify with “most rustbelt cities.” Some numbers here: http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/nation/census/2011-03-09-ohio-census_N.htm
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Thanks :). My own city of Baltimore is struggling with many of these same issues, but the true rustbelt cities have been hit particularly hard.
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Our local schools went from 40,000 kids to 25,000 kids in a little over ten years. It’s leveled off lately, but you really don’t have a way to avoid closing schools with that kind of decline.
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In some ways Chicago is a rustbelt city, but it’s hardly struggling in the way Detroit or Akron is, nor is it in Ohio, which the article you linked to was about. Its population is still growing, albeit slowly. As desolate as most of the Southside is, it’s still not “vast emptiness of broken buildings being reclaimed by nature.”
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According to this site, the city is shrinking, but its surrounding suburbs are growing: http://worldpopulationreview.com/population-chicago/.
As the population of Chicago itself has gradually fallen, the population of its wider metro area has grown, representing both natural growth in those areas and a gradual move of the city’s workforce into its suburbs. Like Chicago itself, the northern suburbs are relatively more affluent than its southern suburbs.
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Each school needs its own administrators–and their staff. Each building needs support staff: janitors, security, cafeteria workers. Then there are maintenance costs, heating, lights, water…
In my opinion, it’s better to run one fully-enrolled school than two half-enrolled schools. It’s not only more efficient. More of the money spent on the system would be spent in the classroom, rather than on administration and physical plant. Some of the schools are presumably so old that keeping them fit for use is much more expensive than it should be.
Why is Ravich so historionic? A system which is $1 billion in the red does not have the capacity to indulge in the luxury of frivolity.
Ironically, some cities, such as Boston, are seeing an influx of students. Improving a city’s array of schools is very important to persuading people to return to the city. Those schools may be public, public charter, parochial, or private. To the families, it does not matter, as long as they feel they can find an affordable, safe, acceptable school for their children.
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Ravitch is exactly backwards: these school closings are not payback for last year’s strike. Last year’s strike was trying to avoid these closings.
IMO, and I know I’m biased as my own spouse works for CPS, this whole action is an attempt to remove highly paid, non-performant teachers from the system. Because the administration is hamstrung in terms of removing individuals, they are closing entire buildings. (It seems to be the ed equivalent of a corporation that chooses to eliminate positions instead of firing people for cause – much less likely to result in expensive litigation.)
It’s incredible to me that the Teacher’s Union is willing to endanger everyone’s job by refusing to do something about the poor performers in their ranks. I don’t know why no one will talk realistically about performance with these selected teachers. Yes, I know it’s hard to fairly judge performance. Yes, I know principals can be total despots. But come on – CTU is seriously saying you can’t judge a teacher on anything but years of tenure?
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Ditto to what Jen said. Same is true in higher Ed. I grew up in a union house and am a union member, and I firmly believe that unions are shooting themselves in the foot by protecting those that are clearly not competent. Many of my younger colleagues agree with me. I’m not sure if this is a generational thing, or if I’ll be like the old curmudgeons in a few decades.
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