Friday Morning News, Part 2 Teen Rejects Homeless Label WBEZ
There are a number of Chicago teens who didn’t get the traditional high school experience of dating, sports and extra-curricular activities. Some were homeless and had a tough time getting through high school period. A local scholarship program recognizes their efforts to make a better life.
The grass is greener -- in the 'burbs Chicago Sun-Times
BY KARA SPAK Staff Reporter/kspak@suntimes.com Alis Priebe loved her life in Chicago, but ultimately Wheaton had more of what she wanted -- great schools, ...
Eight nominated for Woman of the Year honor Southtown Star
In 1995, she created PACT, Pro Active Chicago Teachers, a committee for the advancement of teacher-led school reform. From 2000 to 2004, she served as ...
Glenbard East's new principal ready for start of school year Lombardian
He worked in the Chicago Public Schools system for six years. "I learned a lot," said Chambers of his time with the Chicago Public Schools. ...
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Fri Aug 8, 2008 at 9:16 AM
Friday Morning News, Part 2
CPS continues to spend money on employees who break for other jobs in the suburbs as soon as they can. I hope he paid his debt to Teachers for Chicago, and if not, who will do anything about it?
As long as we cannot keep great teachers in ALL of the CPS schools, CPS is lost.
As long as we cannot keep great teachers in ALL of the CPS schools, CPS is lost.
Fri Aug 8, 2008 at 10:40 AM
Friday Morning News, Part 2
Regular readers of this blog will recall that not long ago we had an interesting exchange relating to a Chicago Tribune article that effectively claimed that more middle class families were moving back into the city and enrolling their children in CPS. I posted data indicating a decline in white students over the last few years from about 10% down to about 8% in the CPS.
Kara Spak’s Sun Times article confirms on the county level basically the same thing CPS data is showing. The relevant statements attributed to Loyola University demographer Kenneth Johnson are “in both the city and suburbs, more whites are moving out than in” and “it’s partially because a lot of the people of childbearing are leave Chicago or Cook Count for the other suburbs.” These numbers now include Blacks with 1.3% of that population fleeing Chicago and Cook County annually.
All of us involved with the CPS need to grasp this reality. From 2001 to 2007 CPS has lost 7% of its students. I am seeing similar trends in special education data.
The CPS workforce is shrinking and that includes teachers in charters and contract schools. In FY09 CPS is projecting having 22,798 teachers which is almost exactly how many CPS teachers there were back in FY95 (22,222) before a population increase driven by Hispanic immigration to Chicago. In May 1994 CPS had 121,211 Hispanic students, by 1999 there were 147,705 Hispanic students. Within five years CPS experienced a 22% increase in Hispanic students.
The current decline in enrollment and flight out of Cook County is in my opinion driven by the high cost of living in the city relative to the collar counties. No small part of this is taxation. Another significant aspect is the cost of housing, and the export of employment to the collar counties.
All of this data and the trend for declining enrollments really raises some questions about the expansion of new schools, capital projects like Westinghouse H.S., the creation of additional magnet schools, etc. For members of the CTU and the IFT it raises very serious questions about political power in Springfield, because most of the expanding school districts are organized by the IEA. For Senator Meeks and those seeking a property tax income tax swap it represents a political problem. Because there is no evidence of political support in Kendall and Will Counties for an increased income tax and fundamentally property taxes in these counties are not high and you can still buy new homes for $180,000.
Rod Estvan
Kara Spak’s Sun Times article confirms on the county level basically the same thing CPS data is showing. The relevant statements attributed to Loyola University demographer Kenneth Johnson are “in both the city and suburbs, more whites are moving out than in” and “it’s partially because a lot of the people of childbearing are leave Chicago or Cook Count for the other suburbs.” These numbers now include Blacks with 1.3% of that population fleeing Chicago and Cook County annually.
All of us involved with the CPS need to grasp this reality. From 2001 to 2007 CPS has lost 7% of its students. I am seeing similar trends in special education data.
The CPS workforce is shrinking and that includes teachers in charters and contract schools. In FY09 CPS is projecting having 22,798 teachers which is almost exactly how many CPS teachers there were back in FY95 (22,222) before a population increase driven by Hispanic immigration to Chicago. In May 1994 CPS had 121,211 Hispanic students, by 1999 there were 147,705 Hispanic students. Within five years CPS experienced a 22% increase in Hispanic students.
The current decline in enrollment and flight out of Cook County is in my opinion driven by the high cost of living in the city relative to the collar counties. No small part of this is taxation. Another significant aspect is the cost of housing, and the export of employment to the collar counties.
All of this data and the trend for declining enrollments really raises some questions about the expansion of new schools, capital projects like Westinghouse H.S., the creation of additional magnet schools, etc. For members of the CTU and the IFT it raises very serious questions about political power in Springfield, because most of the expanding school districts are organized by the IEA. For Senator Meeks and those seeking a property tax income tax swap it represents a political problem. Because there is no evidence of political support in Kendall and Will Counties for an increased income tax and fundamentally property taxes in these counties are not high and you can still buy new homes for $180,000.
Rod Estvan
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