CHICAGO (Reuters) - Chicago will close 54 schools and 61 school buildings by the beginning of the next academic year in the country's third-largest public school district, a move that education experts called the largest mass closing in the nation.
The district will shutter 53 elementary schools and one high school, primarily in Hispanic and African-American neighborhoods. The district, which has a $1 billion annual deficit, has said it needs to close underutilized schools to save money.
Enrollment in Chicago Public Schools has fallen 20 percent in the last decade, mainly because of population declines in poor neighborhoods. The district said it can accommodate 511,000 students, but only about 403,000 are enrolled. It said that nearly 140 of its schools are more than half empty...
Unless the Chicago school district sells off the unused properties, they may actually continue to drain district resources just trying to keep those properties from falling into cascading degradation. The district could use the revenues for upgrading the remaining facilities and to create a rainy day fund to buffer future unexpected expenditures.
it's interesting to note that the poverty stricken neighborhoods are actually declining in population numbers as many seek their fortunes and futures elsewhere. Will Chicago be another Detroit that saw their population go from a peak of 1.8 million to a population of somewhere just above 700,000 residents? Probably not, but there are no guarantees that it won't.
Needless to say, the teachers union opposes this plan by Mayor Rahm Emanuel, claiming it discriminates against minorities. Exactly how this discriminates against minority neighborhoods is not quite clear, but it makes for a lot of political noise and gives teachers something rally round as they go up against the tightfisted mayor.
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