Last week’s news about the 1,000 teacher and administrators layoffs by Chicago Public Schools was met with a mixture of chagrin, regret and anger by teachers, their union, and families across the city, and only added to the often byzantine and bewildering process that is typical of the nation’s third largest school system.
While CPS attempted to minimize their actions, by characterizing them as a cyclical procedure, most who heard the news, were not as sanguine, as CPS hoped they would be. Stephanie Gadlin, spokesperson for The Chicago Teachers Union in their statement, released on Friday, said, in part: “CPS continues to inflict damage on our school district by implementing layoffs, cutting special education services and other programs that help students excel. The gutting of experienced educators and other school employees only weakens schools and puts children at a disadvantage. This is no way to run a 21st century school district.”
District officials counter that “CPS principals continue to do exemplary work protecting their classrooms so that they can build on the remarkable academic progress their students are making,” CPS spokeswoman Emily Bittner said in a statement.
At the heart of the matter, CPS assertions aside, the issue is a lack of funding (tied to a property tax formula) but also part and parcel of a deficit of over 1 billion dollars. And, in turn, that has seen the district attempt to handle with cutbacks to teachers, staff and programs, in both the past, and in the present. CPS charged that "staffing changes are part of the normal process of school planning, and there are more vacant positions in the district than staff who will be impacted today, with roughly 1,000 teaching vacancies to be filled." They also noted that previously when this was done, 60 percent of teachers were rehired at different schools.
Educators note that this type of midstream change can have a deleterious effect on learning, when students have established a positive relationship with a teacher, only to have to begin again, with a new one. One new school on the city’s southeast side was slated to be built with the old teachers going to the new school, but now that is not clear. What CPS has said, is that only 3 percent of teachers will be affected, and that 280 schools will not see any teacher or staff changes.
If past has been prologue, then the very real progress that students have achieved - more than doubling scores in reading and math in fifteen years, has been “threatened by severe financial mismanagement. The district faces a budget crisis driven by the rising cost of past, unpaid bills that is crowding out spending on today's teachers and students,” reported Crain’s Chicago Business.
In their analysis, they note that the.”CPS' budget crisis was not created overnight. For more than a decade, the district has struggled with a widening structural budget deficit. Since 2001, inflation-adjusted spending per pupil increased by nearly 40 percent. In 2001, CPS spent close to $12,000 per student; in 2015, $16,432. Yet revenue has not kept pace: CPS per-pupil revenue has not matched per-pupil spending, with revenue falling short, on average, by $1,000 per pupil since 2001. More recently, the revenue gap has widened to nearly $3,000 per year.”
Coming on the heels of a recent proposed utility tax by Mayor Rahm Emanuel, to shore up a large municipal pension fund, these layoff galvanize his critics who see that “This latest round of layoffs comes when Mayor Rahm Emanuel is seeking more tax hikes from Chicago's working families while he continues to ignore demands that he go after wealthy developers and others who enrich themselves at the public's expense, “ continued the CTU.
To try and address the deficit, CPS has enjoined job cuts, and asked teachers to contribute more to their pension fund, and has not, publicly at least, looked at other revenue enhancement strategies, much to the chagrin of the union, who said,. “If the city and Chicago Board of Education exhibited leadership by implementing progressive revenue strategies, such as declaring a TIF surplus and reinstating a corporate head tax, these layoffs could have been avoided.”
In the past CPS has rejected these suggestions, saying that the contribution from the Tax Increment Financing program would be too little to offer any real help to the ailing school district. The program itself, seen by some as a surcharge, freezes a portion of property taxes and the money is distributed to bank accounts that correspond with designated districts, which are designed to help improve economically depressed sections of the city.
Critics point out that the funds are often misused to help areas that don’t need it such as downtown venues such as The French Market, hardly an economically depressed project, they say.
Those opposed to the way that TIF accounts are managed, also point out that funds for the schools could be obtained from TIF accounts, including Cook County clerk David Orr, as well as CTU. But those funds expected to total $461 million dollars are not expected to go to CPS.
Adding to the byzantine way that the accounts are handled, an admixture, not to be outdone: the mayor is not authorized to directly control any deposits, despite the fact that he can control the funds, once deposited. In fact, all monies are sent to the country treasurer and the county clerk tells the treasurer where the money will go.
The 2015 TIF report, by way of City Hall, reports that there is a $116 million TIF surplus, but what is not clear is which TIFs contributed to the surplus, since the city does not issue a comprehensive audit. But, the funds are said to be returned to CPS.
The earlier cuts that were announced by Forrest Claypool hit some schools harder than others and while low enrollment was to be one indicator of a cut, that was not always the case.
Working within the government a group of local legislators, aldermen, have proposed a new formula that would increase per pupil funding by at least $1,000,and wants to work with CPS to implement them. “Our children deserve to have small class sizes, teachers who are not afraid of being laid off and schools with enough funding for extracurricular programs and support. For this to be possible, we must increase per pupil funding in Chicago,” said Donna Lechel, a local school council member at Shields Middle School, reported the Sun-Times.
If passed, the “progressive revenue package” would funnel tax increment financing funds to CPS and increase the employee “head tax” and personal property lease tax to generate additional school funding.
On Monday, 10th Ward Alderman, Susan Sadlowski Garza, at a press conference issued a call for transparency ”from CPS Central office and her local school, Jane Addams Elementary. The recent layoff of over 25 educators from 10th Ward schools have angered the Alderwoman, local teachers and community residents,‘ said in a statement released from her office.
Garza, summing her position, said, “The recent news from the Mayor’s appointed CEO has left me, parents, and students with more questions than answers. Working families are being asked to pay more and more through taxes, fees and fines, yet we are receiving less and less every year. Each year we lose more services. We lost mental health clinics, library hours, and then 50 schools now we’re losing 1,000 CPS employees.”
The future of the Chicago district remains one big question mark, but for Garza and others, the future, and especially for city students, leaves much to be desired.
To try and address the deficit, CPS has enjoined job cuts, and asked teachers to contribute more to their pension fund, and has not, publicly at least, looked at other revenue enhancement strategies, much to the chagrin of the union, who said,. “If the city and Chicago Board of Education exhibited leadership by implementing progressive revenue strategies, such as declaring a TIF surplus and reinstating a corporate head tax, these layoffs could have been avoided.”
In the past CPS has rejected these suggestions, saying that the contribution from the Tax Increment Financing program would be too little to offer any real help to the ailing school district. The program itself, seen by some as a surcharge, freezes a portion of property taxes and the money is distributed to bank accounts that correspond with designated districts, which are designed to help improve economically depressed sections of the city.
Critics point out that the funds are often misused to help areas that don’t need it such as downtown venues such as The French Market, hardly an economically depressed project, they say.
Those opposed to the way that TIF accounts are managed, also point out that funds for the schools could be obtained from TIF accounts, including Cook County clerk David Orr, as well as CTU. But those funds expected to total $461 million dollars are not expected to go to CPS.
Adding to the byzantine way that the accounts are handled, an admixture, not to be outdone: the mayor is not authorized to directly control any deposits, despite the fact that he can control the funds, once deposited. In fact, all monies are sent to the country treasurer and the county clerk tells the treasurer where the money will go.
The 2015 TIF report, by way of City Hall, reports that there is a $116 million TIF surplus, but what is not clear is which TIFs contributed to the surplus, since the city does not issue a comprehensive audit. But, the funds are said to be returned to CPS.
The earlier cuts that were announced by Forrest Claypool hit some schools harder than others and while low enrollment was to be one indicator of a cut, that was not always the case.
Working within the government a group of local legislators, aldermen, have proposed a new formula that would increase per pupil funding by at least $1,000,and wants to work with CPS to implement them. “Our children deserve to have small class sizes, teachers who are not afraid of being laid off and schools with enough funding for extracurricular programs and support. For this to be possible, we must increase per pupil funding in Chicago,” said Donna Lechel, a local school council member at Shields Middle School, reported the Sun-Times.
If passed, the “progressive revenue package” would funnel tax increment financing funds to CPS and increase the employee “head tax” and personal property lease tax to generate additional school funding.
On Monday, 10th Ward Alderman, Susan Sadlowski Garza, at a press conference issued a call for transparency ”from CPS Central office and her local school, Jane Addams Elementary. The recent layoff of over 25 educators from 10th Ward schools have angered the Alderwoman, local teachers and community residents,‘ said in a statement released from her office.
Garza, summing her position, said, “The recent news from the Mayor’s appointed CEO has left me, parents, and students with more questions than answers. Working families are being asked to pay more and more through taxes, fees and fines, yet we are receiving less and less every year. Each year we lose more services. We lost mental health clinics, library hours, and then 50 schools now we’re losing 1,000 CPS employees.”
The future of the Chicago district remains one big question mark, but for Garza and others, the future, and especially for city students, leaves much to be desired.
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