catalyst-chicago.org

Next year's round of budget cuts are on the table and according to one watchdog group, Chicago Public Schools has whittled its shortfall down to $45 million. A few months ago, the projected deficit was over $300 million. An increase in base level funding from the state is expected to net the district $100 million.

The rest is a combination of raising lunch fees, reducing costs at central office, tapping cash reserves and, the worst part, cutting programs in reading, math, special education and early childhood education.

On the frontlines of public education, three new teachers are singing the praises of those who helped them learn the ropes. Derrick Kimbrough, a new 5th-grade teacher at Tarkington Elementary, credits a teaching coach who visits and keeps in touch regularly for helping him do a better job teaching language arts and reading.

At Castellanos Middle School, 7th-grade teacher Julie Voynovich says she relies on her "troubleshooter"—a retiree with 23 years of teaching experience—whenever she needs to know anything.

The balance of teacher talent and experience in the city's public schools is often mixed, but for some, the scales are more likely to tip in one direction or the other. A Catalyst Chicago analysis of teacher salary data found that certain types of schools—catch-up high schools for kids left behind and schools with the highest poverty rates—tend to have the lowest-paid teachers on staff. By comparison, selective high schools and elementary gifted centers and magnets have more higher-paid teachers.