A busload of Chicago Public Schools students set up shop outside the Cook County Juvenile Center on Monday, to suggest that’s where they’ll end up, unless CPS eases its disciplinary policies. (CBS Chicago)

IN THE STATE
Dist. 220 parents say funding Chinese program would create hardships. (Daily Herald)

IN THE NATION
L.A. schools Supt. John Deasy said Monday he would support a state audit of the school system’s handling of child sexual-abuse cases. (Los Angeles Times)

The fifth-grade teachers at a top school in New York City received dismal numerical ratings, a consequence of the Education Department’s use of student test results to calculate the scores. (The New York Times)

Our lawsuit (Chicago Urban League, et al vs. State of Illinois, et al) came in response to more than a decade of political gridlock in Springfield which has left the General Assembly and Illinois State Board of Education unable to act to solve the education crisis gripping our state. Year upon year, for hundreds of thousands of children of color, Illinois has failed to provide adequate financial resources to give them the high quality education they need and deserve.

As our lawsuit noted, African American and Latino students commonly attend schools that receive the lowest funding, are saddled with the least qualified teachers, have crumbling walls and leaky ceilings, and chronic shortages of computers and new books. 82% of minority children attend schools that are predominantly minority, while 90% of whites attend schools that are majority white. On average, minority districts have $1,154 less annually to spend per pupil than do majority white districts.

Worst of all, these sad realities create a corrosively low morale inside the classrooms that cripples teaching and learning. Our lawsuit argues that Illinois' property-tax based school funding system as administered by the Illinois State Board of Education disparately impacts poor and minority children, violates the Illinois Civil Rights Act of 2003, and must be changed.

The historic neglect we see in these majority-minority schools can be devastating. A new study by the Schott Foundation for Public Education reports that in Illinois 36% fewer black males graduate high school than do whites. The immediate future looks threatening. Chicago Public Schools, the state's largest system, now faces a budget crisis of unprecedented severity that has triggered layoffs of teachers and other staff, necessitated increases in classroom sizes, delayed crucial facilities maintenance, and created a sinking, Titanic-like atmosphere inside CPS' Clark Street headquarters.

Last spring Chicago Urban League published a policy statement we call the Opportunity Compact: Education, a blueprint that proposes inexpensive but effective strategies to address some of the problems besetting Illinois public schools. Although the Compact recommends that these strategies be implemented in conjunction with fundamental changes in the state's education funding system, the policies are also appropriate in this time of austerity -- delivering lots of bang for the educational buck. Among them: promote and expand early childhood programs to bring in larger numbers of Latino and African Americans; build closer partnerships between schools and communities; raise standards and expectations among parents, students and schools; overhaul the broken teacher tenure and evaluation process; reward high performing teachers for working in low-performing schools; and close or turnaround chronically low-performing schools.

Critics may ask how can Illinois afford to reform our funding system in the midst of a fiscal crisis. To this we remind Illinoisans that it would be a terrible mistake to view education as anything other than the highest economic priority. The swelling ranks of unemployed young people who have dropped out of school and are unable to find work -- thought to be 2 million or more in Illinois alone -- pose a threat to the economic productivity of the state.

The workforce of tomorrow will consist largely of today's young black and brown people, and poor education will likely confine these bright but untrained youngsters to a life of low-wage work. In today's dollars, the average worker with no high school diploma will earn about $8 per hour. That's just $320 per week. But college grads will earn about $25 per hour, or $1,000 per week. Better schooling will also be a boon to the state. Decreasing the total numbers of male dropouts by 5% would add nearly $400 million annually to the state's GDP, in addition to growing the tax base. In the present era of economic contraction, outsourcing of jobs, and heightened international competition, smart and fair education investment will pay the social and economic dividends we need to raise our productivity and climb out of our fiscal hole.

Educational progress and reform need not be costly. The Schott report notes that the city of Newark, New Jersey had the best performance nationally in districts with enrollments of 10,000 or more Black male students. This result can be attributed to increased funding parity under the "Abbott" school equity lawsuit that enabled these low-performing districts to acquire better teaching and better equipment.

The lesson of "Abbott" and one that has relevance to Chicago is that we can bring up the bottom without bringing down the top. So this fall, as the Chicago Urban League, other plaintiffs, and our pro bono counsel Jenner & Block, continue to fight in court, we wish to remind Illinoisans that educational funding reform must remain a priority. It doesn't have to be costly. Just fair.

This column originally appeared on The Huffington Post. David E. Thigpen is vice president for policy & research for the Chicago Urban League.

Sincerely,

Commissioner Mary Ellen Caron, Ph.D.
Chicago Department of Family & Support Services

FAMILIES JOIN LAWSUIT  Twelve families from across Illinois, whose children attend poorly funded schools, have been added as plaintiffs to the Chicago Urban League’s recently filed lawsuit challenging the state’s system of funding education. The Tri-County Urban League of Peoria also joined the suit, which charges that Illinois’ system of funding schools violates the civil rights of minority children and deprives them of an adequate education because it relies too heavily on local property taxes. A number of prominent Latino civic leaders are supporting the lawsuit, including Chicago City Clerk Miguel del Valle; aldermen William Ocasio (26th Ward), Manuel Flores (1st Ward) and Rey Colon (35th Ward); and School Board member Alberto Carrero.

SCHOOL SHUTDOWN, PRINCIPAL AWARD   Big Picture High School in Back of the Yards will close in June. The school, modeled after a successful program in Rhode Island that scraps classes in favor of internships and projects, was ordered to stop taking in freshmen in 2006; at the time, Big Picture and the district were wrangling over how much autonomy the school would have over its curriculum. (See story from Feb. 2007 issue here.)  The school’s principal, Alfredo Nambo, will be honored Oct. 23 with an Immigrant and Refugee Contribution Award from Changing Worlds, a nonprofit educational arts organization. Nambo is a native of Mexico.

MILKEN WINNERS   Cheryl Watkins, principal of Pershing West Magnet in Douglas, and Ronelle Robinson, 3rd-grade teacher at Cameron Elementary School in Humboldt Park, are the winners of the 2008 Milken National Educator Award. Watkins opened Pershing West under Renaissance 2010 and is an adjunct professor at National-Louis University. Robinson is a mentor teacher. Both will receive $25,000. Candidates for the Milken award are nominated, without their knowledge, by a panel appointed by their state’s department of education.

“I don’t think that this issue is going to be solved unless we do something drastic,” state Sen. Rev. James Meeks said during a panel discussion attended by more than 150 people at the Union League Club of Chicago. Panelists said they support what Senate Bill 2288 purports to do—to increase the personal income tax by up to 5 percent, in order to raise base-level funding for districts with low property tax revenues.

Earlier this month, Meeks led a Chicago Public Schools boycott to bring attention to the inequities and during the panel discussion promised to protest again—this time during a Chicago Cubs playoff game.

The panel was convened by Catalyst Chicago, which released new data along with The Chicago Reporter, the Center for Tax and Budget Accountability and the Community Renewal Society. 

The analysis looked at 376 unit districts, as well as 498 different elementary and high school district combinations, for children entering school in 1994 and spending the next 13 years in Illinois public schools. In 83 districts or paths, more than $125,000 was spent per pupil. But in 79 districts or paths, less than $75,000 was spent. More than 95 percent of the low-spending districts were outside of the six-county Chicago metropolitan area.

When it comes to funding schools, the districts that rely heavily on state funding are typically those that do not generate a lot of money from local property taxes, according to the Reporter.

Another key finding was that 93 percent of black children attend school districts with poverty rates greater than 30 percent.

“School funding has been a major crisis in the state of Illinois for a long, long time,” said Dawn Clark Netsch, a former state legislator who moderated the panel and campaigned for school funding reform when she ran for governor 14 years ago.
 

A kid who lives in Austin is closer to suburban Oak Park-River Forest High School than to Whitney Young, a comparable top-scoring Chicago school. And according to state Sen. James Meeks, that Austin student should be able to enroll, at no cost, in Oak Park, less than a mile-and-a-half away (compared to almost 7 miles to Whitney Young).

While media eyes have been focused on Meeks’ first-day boycott of Chicago schools, another plan from the legislator / mega-church pastor has gotten little publicity: His proposal to allow kids to enroll in any school in the state, without paying tuition. Right now, an Austin kid could go to Oak Park if his family paid the $18,912 tab, which is what the district spends on every student. Compare that to the approximately $12,909 Chicago spends on high school students. For a school the size of Oak Park, with 3,100 students, that’s a stunning difference of $18.6 million a year.

That’s just one of two ideas Meeks is pushing. The second: a pilot project that would send more cash to failing schools--two in Chicago, one in the suburbs, one downstate--to show what difference more money can make.

Both plans have merits. In Austin, residents have been clamoring for years for a new high school, one that would serve kids better than the old, now-closed Austin High, which was a dismal failure. Meeks’ idea—echoed by some national groups—would give at least some kids the chance at a better education by expanding the limited transfer options they now have under federal law. The No Child Left Behind Act gives students a chance to move to better schools within a district, but too often, the choices, as in Chicago, are few.

But a recent report from the non-partisan think tank Education Sector casts a shadow over the idea. Given transportation hurdles and the fact that districts can only accommodate so many new students, the report estimates that, even with plans like the one Meeks proposes, as many as 90 percent of students in failing schools would still be stuck in them.

As for the pilot program, probably the last thing education needs is another pilot initiative, especially one meant largely to prove something that shouldn’t even be in question at this point: Money makes a difference. It stands to reason that, with more money, schools can do more—offer more afterschool programs, more counselors and social workers, additional highly-trained teachers. If it takes nearly $19,000 to give kids in stable, middle-class Oak Park what they need to post higher-than-average scores on the ACT and SAT and pass Advanced Placement tests, it certainly will take that—and more—to do the same for students in poverty-stricken Austin.

Sure, schools are responsible for making wise decisions on spending—even the most ardent advocates of increased school funding agree to that. But in the final analysis, these two proposals are just a drop in the bucket when it comes to really fixing what ails urban education.

It’s time to do more than tinker around the edges. Offering a few hundred seats in suburban schools or launching a pilot to “prove” money matters isn’t enough. Even opening more charters—an argument from those who say more competition will somehow force failing schools to get better—won’t solve the problem. Not all charters are created equal, and most of those in Chicago wouldn’t last long without the added support—read: money—they get from private donors.

Money matters. It’s time for lawmakers to acknowledge that, stop tinkering, and do something about it.

To post a comment, visit Huffington Post Chicago here.

The rollout of a Chicago Public Schools initiative designed to give principals greater spending authority and ensure budget equity across schools has slowed to a crawl.

Chief Financial Officer Pedro Martinez predicted three years ago that all CPS schools would, by this fiscal year, operate under per-pupil budgeting—a funding approach taking hold in urban districts across the country. But just 15 percent of all schools—most of which are charters—now operate under the model. The expansion of a pilot project, now in 14 regular schools, is on hold.

“It’s not dead,” Martinez contends. “It is part of our process of making sure that we continue to push for more equity throughout the system. We’re always doing that.”

Schools using per-pupil budgeting get a set amount of money for each student enrolled, with extra cash for low-income students and English language learners. Schools have the freedom to spend the money as they choose on staff and programs. Under traditional budgeting, spending decisions are made at the district level, where complicated staffing formulas and programming options lead to inequitable school-level funding. (See Catalyst , February 2005.)

Martinez blames the slowdown on the district’s budget woes. But noted expert, University of Washington’s Marguerite Roza, says that explanation doesn’t hold water and CPS, and other districts, are reluctant give up financial control to individual schools.

Martinez explains that, without an adequate, steady flow of cash—the district is getting just $97 million from the state this year, but has a $180 million deficit—moving forward with per-pupil budgeting now would be too complicated. The district cannot dole out enough money on a per-pupil basis to cover basic operations, he says, without losing money that now pays for special ventures like the Chicago Math and Science Initiative and High School Transformation.

“Per-pupil works if you have enough money,” Martinez says. “We’re still looking at it. But for us it’s even more important to get some of those initiatives in enough schools to have an impact. That way, when you go per-pupil, [those programs are] built into it, and that will make a big difference.”

Further, he adds, since schools are asked to create their budgets in the spring—before state funding is typically set—schools could end up in a bind if they create budgets based on one per-pupil rate, only to have their money slashed if state funds fall short.

Control issues?

But Roza, a school finance expert and an advocate of per-pupil budgeting, disputes CPS’ argument.

She suspects the district is simply shying away from transparency and is unwilling to give up control over spending. CPS could dole out the bulk of its money on a per-pupil basis, Roza adds, but hold back enough to run special district-level programs.

“If they did that, it would be very clear [what schools get more money],” Roza says. “I think they’re worried about that.”

And, she adds, if state money falls short, schools will be in trouble with or without per-student funding, and the district could simply adjust the allocation downward in the event of a deficit.

Other school districts have begun to experiment with per-pupil funding in recent years, including New York City; the Oakland, Calif. school district has fully adopted it. But opposition has materialized in some places, like Seattle, where some underperforming schools have struggled to attract enough students to stay financially solvent in a per-pupil system. In Seattle, education leaders have increased district-level spending on intervention programs at failing schools.

“Districts face the [accountability] consequences, so they want to control the money,” says Roza. Even in Edmonton, Alberta—the Canadian school district that pioneered per-pupil budgeting—district leaders have re-centralized some spending decisions.

Flexibility for schools

But local control over his budget is exactly what John Price likes about per-pupil budgeting. He is principal at Audubon Elementary school, one of 14 high-performing schools that have been piloting the approach in Chicago.

“The flexibility is real,” he says, especially with staffing.

As an example, Price notes one classroom teacher who is returning from maternity leave this fall and wants to work part-time. Price hired another part-time classroom teacher and has each of them work a 3-day week—a schedule that is easy to set up with the flexibility of a per-pupil system, but would have taken weeks or months to set up under traditional budgeting, Price says.

With per-student funding, Price has been able to better target his efforts to get outside grants. Instead of applying for every grant that might bring in additional cash and resources, Price now focuses on “easier-to-get” grants, such as those for after-school programs, and uses his regular budget to cover costs that he knows would be difficult to win grants for, such as class-size reduction.

Audubon considered using its budget flexibility to extend the school day and year in 2009, but that idea was nixed in favor of keeping class sizes small. Still, as Price puts it, “these options are things that are at least on the table.”

Switching to per-student funding might also help schools address another vexing problem: faulty enrollment projections that sometimes leave schools scrambling to fill teaching positions and pay for other resources. (See Catalyst, March 2008.)

Last year, a few of the pilot schools enrolled far fewer students than the district projected and had extra cash they were allowed to keep. CPS is capping the amount of money that schools can keep if it happens again this year.

But a per-pupil system could help, Price says. Schools can essentially gamble against projections they feel are too low; if enrollment does end up higher than expected, the extra money can be used to boost spending.

--30--

A new Chicago Reporter analysis of school funding data shows the long-term disparities in school funding as area civil rights leaders filed a lawsuit against the state and its school board for providing that inequity.

The Chicago Urban League and the Quad County Urban League on Aug. 20 filed a lawsuit in Cook County Circuit Court against the State of Illinois and the Illinois State Board of Education, claiming the defendants violated students’ civil rights by providing unequal funding to schools based on race, particularly black and Latino students. [Click here to download the groups' press release.]

The Reporter analyzed funding for 857 elementary, high school and unit districts in Illinois and found wide gaps in funding. According to the Reporter’s analysis:

• Due to the primary reliance on local property tax revenue for school funding, there are massive cumulative gaps in per-pupil spending, particularly in poor or minority communities. The 6,413 students who started elementary school in Evanston in 1994 and graduated from high school in 2007 had about $290 million more spent on their education than the same number of Chicago Public Schools students.

• Many of the school districts that spent the most per-student received at least 90 percent of their money from local property taxes. Yet, these districts tended to tax themselves at far lower rates than their poorer counterparts.

• The percentage of state contribution to school funding has decreased four of the last five years and is one of the lowest in the nation.

“We have an educational system in Illinois that discriminates against minority children and those who should be held responsible for overseeing it, are doing nothing and very little about it,” said Cheryle Jackson, president and CEO of the Chicago Urban League, at a press conference to announce the lawsuit. She was flanked by advocates, ministers and civil rights leaders.

The issue of school funding has long been a contentious issue, recently gaining steam as state Sen. James Meeks rallied for a Sept. 2 school boycott. Meeks, who attended the press conference and planned to hold a rally later that evening at the church that he pastors, Salem Baptist Church of Chicago, would not comment about the planned boycott.

“By definition, lawsuits pit side against side,” said Chicago Public Schools CEO Arne Duncan. “We should all be on the same side when the issue is properly funding the education of 2 million children throughout our state.”

As a result, the Lincoln Square school was entitled to five additional teachers, plus a second assistant principal and a librarian. The audit proved no surprise to Principal Carlos Muñoz, who had expected at least 1,500 students and had appealed—with no success—the district's projection of 1,461.

Muñoz, like dozens of principals put in a similar predicament every year, needed his new teachers on the first day of school, not the 20th. So to avoid a mid-semester shakeup of classes, he dug into the school's own funds and hired several retired teachers to temporarily fill the gap.

In addition to Amundsen, the district missed the mark on enrollment at hundreds of other schools this year, often by wide enough margins to force changes to budgets and staffing. Pritzker Elementary lost, then gained, teaching positions, a snafu caused by inaccurate projections. (For more on Amundsen, Pritzker and other schools, see related story.)

Like Muñoz, most principals appeal their projections. The stakes are high: When projections are too low, a school's discretionary money can be stretched thin to keep teachers already on board and hire substitutes as needed. On the other hand, projections that are too high can mean losing teachers.

Either way, schools and students face potential classroom shakeups that hurt instruction. And principals are left to haggle with the budget office, a process that can be time-consuming and, according to some outside observers, political.

Muñoz says the budget office has been accommodating, especially after the audit. But he adds: "You have to be [persistent] in contacting them everyday."

'A tumultuous first month'

A Catalyst Chicago analysis of enrollment data for fiscal year 2008 shows that projections were off by 30 students or more (roughly the threshold at which budgets are affected) in approximately 40 percent of Chicago's schools. The analysis also shows that:

* One in five schools had enrollment projections that were inaccurate by 10 percent or more.

* Projections for neighborhood schools were generally less accurate than those made for selective and magnet schools, which usually have enrollment caps.

* Schools were more likely to enroll fewer students than projected, putting them at risk of losing teachers once school began.

CPS, for its part, notes that citywide projections for this year were more than 99 percent accurate. And most staff positions are cemented over the spring and summer; according to the district, just 225 positions opened and 100 closed after the school year started.

But when projections are off target, CPS is to blame, says Marguerite Roza, a school finance and budget expert at the University of Washington who says flatly that the district relies too heavily on enrollment projections to drive budgets and staffing. Doing so is particularly problematic, she explains, in a system that offers students and families a wide range of schooling options—something top CPS officials are vocal about providing and, in fact, beefing up.

"The problem isn't in the forecasting, it's in the student assignment [system]," says Roza. "It's the district's fault."

Other districts that offer widespread school choice have computer systems to manage student assignment, leaving far less chance for last-minute enrollment fluctuations. (See story)

The problem doesn't surprise Christina Warden, a longtime budget watchdog. She says principals use a number of strategies to accommodate additional students who show up at the beginning of the year—from hiring substitutes, as Muñoz did at Amundsen, to allowing class sizes to balloon temporarily. Warden worked for the Chicago branch of the nonprofit Cross City Campaign for Urban School Reform before its recent demise.

To solve the situation, principals must negotiate repeatedly with the budget office to get additional teachers. "Regardless of how the principal has configured it," Warden says, "those kids have to go through a tumultuous first month of school."

Under the leadership of David Vitale, the former chief administrative officer, the district started taking steps to eliminate politics and favoritism in the interaction between principals, the budget office and the demographics office, notes Warden. The new mantra: Stick very closely to the staffing formulas. If a school gets extra kids in September, it gets exactly as many teachers as formulas allow; fewer students mean fewer teachers.

But Warden doubts that politics will ever be completely eradicated, especially during the budget season and into the summer, when enrollment remains a guessing game.

Valencia Rias, a local school council advocate with the education group Designs for Change, puts it more bluntly: "Every year, these principals have to fight for [teaching] positions."

How it works

In February, principals pore over enrollment projections that feed into various staffing formulas. In general, the formulas give schools one elementary teacher for every 28 students and one high school teacher for every five fully-enrolled classes.

The projections are made in January by the demographics and planning department, led by James Dispensa, which uses a computer algorithm that relies heavily on past enrollment data. But a number of factors complicate Dispensa's job, including the opening of new schools and the closing of others, which can dramatically shift enrollment patterns; the fact that half of CPS students don't attend neighborhood high schools, where enrollment shifts are prevalent; and ever-changing housing trends.

Dispensa says he tweaks the algorithm on a case-by-case basis to accommodate these factors. His office also is considering a revamp in the way students apply to selective high schools and programs, which could help the district solidify neighborhood high schools' enrollment earlier on. For starters, the district will be automatically assigning all unclaimed 8th-graders to their neighborhood high school by April 26.

Even so, most schools dispute their enrollment projections, and this year was no exception: More than three-fourths of schools filed appeals that were reviewed by a group of district officials from various offices.

Last year, the committee made adjustments to very few appeals—just 60 in total. This year, the number rose to 86.

Facing the ax?

Typically, principals seek to boost their projections, often to save teachers hired the previous year. Where appeals are lost, the budget office cuts staff positions when the fiscal year begins in July. Several principals told Catalyst that they are particularly defensive about losing hard-to-find teachers, such as bilingual or special education instructors.

Budget officials say they will be tightening the rules even more next year if schools enroll fewer kids than projected, which was the trend this year. Schools will face a sharpened ax when it comes to cutting teachers, according to a Feb. 26 memo to principals from Schools CEO Arne Duncan.

In the memo, Duncan warns principals who won their appeals this spring to expect by-the-book staff cuts if their enrollment falls short. The same goes for schools without attendance boundaries, since those schools have more control over the number of children they enroll and should not have last-minute fluctuations.

Duncan is granting some latitude to schools with attendance boundaries. Principals at neighborhood elementary schools will be able to keep up to two additional teachers; in neighborhood high schools, principals will be able to keep one extra teacher. The district's reasoning: Let schools keep the teachers to lessen the impact on class schedules, room assignments and other planning. (For more on the impact of late enrollment on high schools, see story.)

Any change in staffing of special education teachers will be audited.

The budget tightening doesn't sit well with Rias, who wants the district to ensure every child has a "stable teacher" on the first day of school.

"You may have 40 kids in a classroom waiting for that position to open up," she contends. Even if the board approves extra teachers, "unfortunately, not every school has someone ready, willing and able to fill those spots."

Intern Rebecca Harris contributed to this report.

Contact John Myers at (312) 673-3874 or myers@catalyst-chicago.org.

Amundsen: A rising reputation

Amundsen High is a classic example of what Catalyst Chicago's analysis of enrollment projections discovered: Neighborhood high schools are more likely than other schools to have faulty projections.

Estimates exceeded enrollment by 10 percent or more in 11 of the 59 neighborhood high schools, while enrollment ballooned above estimates at Amundsen and four other schools.

CPS projected that the Lincoln Square school would have 1,461 students this year. But Principal Carlos Muñoz quickly appealed that figure last spring, hoping that, with the school's reputation on the upswing, some 1,500 students would show up.

"The magic number for high schools is 1,500," says Muñoz. That number is the threshold that qualifies schools for an additional assistant principal and librarian.

Sure enough, an October 2007 audit showed Muñoz's thinking was on target: Enrollment came in at 1,611. Muñoz had to bring on several former teachers as full-time substitutes in September, until he landed the five additional teachers he needed.

Amundsen's academic star is rising, in part, because of a popular International Baccalaureate program. The school has also added a "freshman academy" that helps 9th-graders adjust to high school, and counselors are busy spreading the word about it.

Assistant Principal Brian Rogers hopes the district's bid to improve how students choose and are assigned to high schools will make for better projections and, in turn, a more accurate budget and staffing process. This spring, CPS will automatically assign students to their neighborhood high school if they have not secured a spot in a selective school.

"It's a good thing," says Rogers. "It provides stability. It helps with the budget. It helps with the planning. It helps. It helps. It helps."

Pritzker: Losing top candidates

Pritzker Elementary is among those schools that will take in displaced students from schools that are closing; Pritzker is slated to take students from Andersen.

CPS is in the midst of redoing enrollment projections that take the closings into account.

But Principal Joenile Albert-Reese already knows first-hand what can go wrong when projections are off, and she's hoping the coming school year won't be a rerun of this one.

When last year's projections came in, Pritzker had 595 students, but CPS predicted that just 525 students would show up in the fall and cut three positions from this year's budget. Albert-Reese appealed, thinking that the school's improved reputation would keep enrollment stable, but lost. (The school also has fine arts and gifted programs, with an abundance of applicants.)

In the fall, 580 students showed up.

Class sizes temporarily rose; one kindergarten class served more than 40 youngsters.

"The teachers were stressed, the kids were stressed, education was compromised, and the parents were upset," Albert-Reese says. "And everybody was looking at me like, 'Why don't you do something about it?' "

By October, the district restored the three positions. Anticipating that she would need some new hires come fall, Albert-Reese had interviewed teachers at a district job fair over the summer, and had resumes on hand for about 10 teachers.

But when she made calls in mid-October, several of her top choices had already been hired elsewhere. Albert-Reese ended up hiring two of the applicants; the third spot was filled by a teacher already at the school who had initially applied for a different position but was never hired due to a bureaucratic mix-up.

Next year, Albert-Reese thinks enrollment will climb to 650 or 700. In addition to 30 kindergarteners, she expects to gain 50 to 60 older students, some following their younger siblings.

Albert-Reese believes low projections are a back-door way for the district to save money. "If you get a whole [unpaid] month of a person's salary, for hundreds of people, you've saved a pretty good penny."

Low projections also hurt schools because the most recent, carefully selected hires are the first to lose their positions, Albert-Reese adds. By the time schools get the positions restored, many of the best teachers have already gotten jobs. "Where am I going to find a teacher of that [same] quality after the cream of the crop has been skimmed off?" she asks.

Already, Albert-Reese has appealed next year's projections. "I think this year they're going to grant my appeal, just because of the big mess we had last year. One would think they'd learn from mistakes, and do it right this time."

Columbia explorers: Facing a reckoning

Columbia Explorers Academy reaped a one-year cash bonanza when the district over-estimated the number of students the school would enroll this year.

As part of the district's pilot program in per-pupil budgeting, Columbia received a lump sum of $5.3 million in July, some $5,460 per student. Enrollment was projected to be 968.

But the opening of a new charter school a few blocks away, by the United Neighborhood Organization, cut into Columbia's enrollment, according to Principal Jose Barrera. Instead of the projected 968, 850 students showed up—but that left Columbia with some $644,000 extra in cash.

The money allowed Columbia to keep class sizes low this year, and the school also spent more than $100,000 to upgrade computers.

For next year, however, a reckoning looms.

Projections were off by 20 students or more in eight of the 14 schools piloting the new form of budgeting this year. Four of the schools received more children than expected; the other four enrolled fewer. Budget officials say the schools that received more students got additional funding. School budgets were left alone, however, wherever enrollment fell short.

Forrest Moore of the CPS Office of Budget and Management says the district is still fine-tuning the per-pupil funding formula and did not want to put the pilot schools in an undue financial bind. Next year, Moore adds, the district may switch the per-pupil model for district-run schools to the same model used for charter and contract schools; in those schools, quarterly payments are made and account for changing enrollment.

Meanwhile, Columbia's latest projections predict an enrollment decline of 113 students for next year.

Barrera, however, is taking steps to ensure enrollment bounces back, including a word-of-mouth campaign to coax more families into the school and a bid to the district to scrap the school's multi-track calendar. Several families opted for the new UNO charter school, Barrera explains, because Columbia's multi-track calendar, adopted to relieve overcrowding, put some siblings onto different attendance schedules.

The school's own grade-by-grade analysis shows no enrollment drop is in sight.

"If I have them, I don't know how I'm going to lose them," Barrera argues.

Lindblom: An exception to the rule

Enrollment projections are usually spot-on for selective schools.

"It's easy for us, because we have seats that everyone in the city wants," says Donald Fraynd, principal at Jones College Prep in the South Loop. "We know we have 730 now, and we know we will have 730 next year."

But Lindblom, the district's newest college prep high school, defied the norm this year when a late recruiting push boosted enrollment to 484, compared to a projected enrollment of 340.

(Since opening in 2005 with a freshman class of 110, the school has added grades each year and now enrolls 9th- through 11th-graders. By 2009, the school will have 7th through 12th grades.)

Principal Alan Mather, former assistant principal at top-ranked Northside College Prep, was hired in March 2005, the same week students were required to accept or reject offers to attend the city's top schools. He had 12 acceptance letters in hand when he started culling through lists of students who had qualified for other selective schools, but didn't make the cut at their top choices. Mather was able to boost his freshmen class to 110.

In his second year, Mather and Lindblom's Englewood community were rocked by two separate shooting incidents just before the signing deadline for selective schools. Terrified parents rescinded acceptance letters en masse, Mather says. Enrollment, however, rose to 250 kids.

This year, the selection process ran without a hitch, and Mather doubled enrollment to nearly 500. Mather knew last spring that the school would have a flood of students and would exceed the district's estimates, so he hit the phones, calling James Dispensa, head of the demographics department, as well as the budget office and CEO Arne Duncan's office.

"I made the rounds," Mather says with a laugh. "I think there was always a sense that the people in the central office were willing to look at it ... but it wasn't the most immediate and pressing issue at the time."

He also began looking for top teachers to hire, though he wasn't able to formally offer positions until his budget was corrected in July. Still, Mather adds with some satisfaction, the adjustments were made early enough to give his staff enough time to finish planning for the first day of school.

Lawmakers in coming weeks may consider House Speaker Michael Madigan's proposal to expand gambling and generate $1 billion in state revenue, primarily to support a statewide capital infrastructure plan and possibly also to bail out Chicago-area mass transit.

Any capital plan is likely to include dollars for schools, which have gone begging for additional construction dollars since the state's school construction plan ran out of money in 2004. Lawmakers have considered a number of capital plans in recent years, all of which included a school construction component.

Rep. David Miller, a Dolton Democrat whose district stretches from Chicago's South Side to suburban Ford Heights, says he can't imagine a capital plan that does not cover schools. He adds that dollars must be allocated both for new construction and repairs of aging facilities.

"Although CPS makes arguments for clearly state-of-the-art schools downtown, they can't be at the expense of those on the South Side and southland area," Miller says. "Those schools and children deserve everything just as much as new dollars going toward new construction."

CPS currently has $5 billion in unmet capital needs, according to a district spokesperson. (For stories on capital needs in Chicago Public Schools, see Catalyst Chicago, May/June 2007.)

Beyond funding for mass transit and infrastructure, Madigan's proposal would also generate $300 million for education, to be used to reduce class sizes, hire reading or math specialists, or hire elementary and middle school counselors. At least $60 million of that is slated for CPS.

Despite the high stakes, there is little optimism in Springfield that leaders will succeed in passing a deal by the end of the year. Gov. Rod Blagojevich has called nearly 20 special sessions since the regular spring session expired on May 31, and lawmakers each time moved no closer to compromise with each other or with the governor.

"What I'm anticipating is that the speaker is gonna pass a plan out, and then the Senate might pass another plan out and we're right back where we are right now," says Sen. J. Bradley Burzynski (R-Sycamore), assistant minority leader and a member of the Senate Education Committee.

Then again, last week's federal indictment of Chris Kelly, a close Blagojevich friend and the governor's former campaign finance chairman and adviser on gambling matters, promises to make any push for more gambling an especially sensitive affair. Kelly was indicted on tax fraud charges related to gambling debts.

Madigan had planned to convene the House this week to vote on his plan, but cancelled the session after the charges against Kelly were filed. The Senate also does not intend to meet this week.

Waiting on the governor

Meanwhile, a crucial deadline for school funding is on the horizon. Jan. 4 is "D-Day" for a 2007-08 budget implementation bill, which raises the state's foundation level by $400 per pupil and allow the Illinois State Board of Education to release $617 million earmarked for schools, an increase of $315 million over last year. The foundation level will increase to $5,734 from $5,334.

Overall, CPS stands to get just under $147 million from the state, according to ISBE data.

Legislators passed the bill and sent it to Gov. Rod Blagojevich on Nov. 5, but it remains in limbo on the governor's desk. Blagojevich has said nothing about the measure, other than that he is "looking at it."(The measure covers other matters besides education funding.) The governor may sign it into law or simply ignore it, in which case it automatically becomes law on Jan. 4. If he uses his veto power to amend any part of it, the entire measure will go back to lawmakers, who would need to decide whether to override that veto. If lawmakers can't agree whether to accept or override the governor's changes, they would need to begin anew with another plan.

If the bill doesn't become law, it would be "a disaster," says Pedro Martinez, director of the CPS Department of Management and Budget. A worst-case scenario might include mid-year budget cuts, since the district would not get any of the additional state funds that officials took into consideration when crafting the budget.

"There's no way we could continue what we're doing now," Martinez says.

Passing and enacting the budget implementation bill is typically a mere formality carried out in conjunction with passage of the state's budget. But the political feud that raged all year between Blagojevich, Madigan and Senate President Emil Jones—all Democrats—has dominated matters large and small at the Capitol. Action on major initiatives has all but come to a standstill amid posturing and tit-for-tat games.

With all the acrimony, lawmakers failed to restore myriad grants Blagojevich vetoed from the budget in August, including a number of grants to schools. The governor specifically nixed grants secured by Madigan and House Democrats, while preserving grants sought by his ally Jones and other Senate Democrats. Madigan pushed to restore the grants, but Jones blocked that effort.

The grants could be restored in any capital plan brokered this year, but it's not clear whether Blagojevich would allow that.

The legislative timetable effectively starts over on Jan. 1 and that means Madigan has an incentive to run out the clock. Come Jan. 1, it takes only a simple majority vote in the House and Senate to approve most bills. Before then, it takes a three-fifths majority vote because lawmakers are in overtime. Madigan could advance his gambling plan without a single Republican vote, for instance, come January.

Aaron Chambers is Catalyst's Springfield correspondent. To reach him, send an e-mail to editorial@catalyst-chicago.org.

He also cut $5 million statewide for severely overcrowded schools, and $3.5 million in charter school startup grants. For Chicago, that means a loss of $3 million for overcrowding relief and $3 million for charter school startups, according to CPS' Chief Financial Officer Pedro Martinez.

CPS is also losing $3 million that was targeted for eyeglasses for students through the Healthy Kids, Healthy Minds campaign, and $500,000 for arts programs, Martinez says.

"Frankly, those are things that we wish we still had, but at this point we were concerned about losing increases to categorical grants and the [general state aid] foundation level," he says. "Not that we're happy, but it could have been worse."

The governor, who disparaged the $463 million in spending as "pork and non-essential," intends to target the dollars toward expanded health care, though it's not clear how he might accomplish that without the General Assembly's approval.

The governor cut grants for building repairs, operations and after-school programs at three dozen schools but spared grants at another two dozen.

Blagojevich's line-item vetos came 10 days after lawmakers sent him a budget, ending a 10-week standoff. Lawmakers will now consider whether to override the governor.

House Speaker Michael Madigan has indicated he will push the House to override the cuts. But Senate President Emil Jones Jr., a Chicago Democrat who is the governor's staunchest ally in the Legislature, has said the Senate will not override the governor. (Since Jones controls the Senate's agenda, he can prevent senators from voting on a motion to overrule the governor.) If Jones stands by his word, then the governor's cuts appear to be final.

CPS will receive an additional $128 million in categorical and general state aid this year, according to Martinez.

"All the districts were hoping for funding reform, and it didn't happen," Martinez says. The biggest disappointment for all of us is that we're still going [to be budgeting] year to year."

Contributing: Data and Research Editor John Myers

At nine schools Catalyst spoke with, 10 of 13 lead teachers already hired came from within school faculties.

Schools are still hiring for the pilot, which will include 17 lead teachers and 32 mentor teachers, says Sylvia Flowers, senior manager for the program.

Based on the well-regarded Teacher Advancement Program, Chicago's merit pay initiative will provide training, coaching and mentoring for teachers, and a career ladder. The lead and mentor teachers are the linchpin of the program. After this year's test run with 10 schools, another 30 will join over the next four years. The pilot is funded with a $27.5 million federal grant and is the largest such experiment with performance pay in the country. (See Catalyst, December 2006.)

At Gresham Elementary, Principal Diedrus Brown interviewed three outsiders as well as three of her own teachers for two lead teacher positions. In the end, she chose two of her veterans, both "well-respected in the school" and already serving as leaders, she says.

All the candidates were "outstanding," Brown says, but she preferred her own teachers. "I was more familiar with them and their skills," she says. "If there was a possibility that I could work with an outside candidate to build a relationship, I might have selected a lead from outside."

At Cameron Elementary, Principal David Kovach interviewed 10 teachers from outside his school, as well as insiders, for three lead teacher positions. So far, he has filled two of the slots: one of his own teachers and a teacher from Kohn Elementary in Roseland.

All the candidates were initially screened by Flowers and the manager for professional development, Stacy Hunt. Flowers was director of teacher training and development in Wilmington, Delaware before joining CPS. Hunt was a principal in Gary, Indiana.

A chance to grow

The mentor and lead teachers will coach and observe their colleagues, conduct meetings, analyze student performance data to determine what skills teachers need to emphasize in their instruction and ensure the school's achievement goals are being met. Mentor teachers will continue to teach, but lead teachers will be freed of classroom duties and will assist the principal with supervising the program. Mentors will receive $7,000 in additional pay; lead teachers, $15,000.

A leadership team at each school—comprised of the principal, assistant principal and lead and mentor teachers—will implement the program. In July, teams from four participating schools attended a weeklong training on team members' roles, classroom observation and how to analyze performance data. They also learned how to create individual plans for each teacher at a school to help them improve instruction.

LEARN Charter Principal Courtney Francis says the training was "comprehensive and specific," adding that the program is "a great opportunity for growth. [Teaching is] one of the few professions that haven't had much of that."

The Teacher Advancement Program, known as TAP, is overseen by the National Institute for Excellence in Teaching. Todd White, senior vice president of training at the Institute, says the goal is to give teachers a new mindset focused on improved performance.

Says White, "You are changing the way you think, which will change the way you act."

School officials also plan to raise property taxes to the limit, generating about $55 million, and to use about $73 million in reserve funds, to fill a deficit of $165 million and increase educational programs by $60 million, according to Finance Chief Pedro Martinez.

With legislators still at an impasse over the state budget, it's unclear how much state funding CPS will receive. Consequently, the district based its budget on the more conservative of two state spending proposals, pushed by House Speaker Michael Madigan. Budget planners decided not to bank on an alternative plan from Senate President Emil Jones Jr., which would have netted Chicago between $180 million to $190 million.

Madigan's bill provides for increases in state aid that mirror what Chicago received in recent years.

The School Board must, by law, approve a budget by Aug. 31. Required public hearings will be held on Aug. 14 at Lane Tech, Aug. 15 at Juarez Community Academy and Aug. 16 at Morgan Park Academy. All meetings start at 7pm. Officials plan to present a final budget to Board members on Aug. 22.

If state funding falls short of the district's projected $98 million, CPS officials say they will first cut back on $60 million it now plans to spend on enhancing education programs. [SEE SIDEBAR]

Tax hike in the works?

Advocates for school funding reform could still win a significant boost in state funding. A recent move by three powerful unions just might provide the necessary support.

The Illinois Education Association, the Illinois AFL-CIO and the Illinois Federation of Teachers (the Chicago Teachers Union belongs to the IFT) last week called for a ¼-percentage-point hike in the income tax to fund schools and other priorities. That would raise nearly $800 million extra for schools, they estimate.

The labor groups may be able to persuade the Democratic legislative leaders to give their support. Madigan recently said that the state should consider an income tax hike, and Jones said he was open to the idea.

But time is of the essence. Even if more money comes to Chicago, the district and schools will need time to figure out how best to spend it.

"One of the most frustrating things that I've had in my six years in this job is that every year we come to Springfield, hat in hand, looking for what our resources are going to be the next year," CEO Arne Duncan said during a recent visit to testify to legislators. "There's no ability to plan long term."

3-percent raises

Meanwhile, contract negotiations and the prospect of a teachers' strike are looming over the district.

Teachers are negotiating a contract for the first time since 2003 and want beefed-up benefits and job protections to go along with raises. They got 4-percent raises in each of the last four years, compared to the 3-percent "placeholder" raises the district planned for while crafting its new budget. (Martinez says ongoing negotiations with CPS' other employee unions factored into the 3-percent figure.)

Joey McDermott, a union delegate and social studies teacher at Crane Tech, says he and other teachers expect a 4-percent raise at a minimum.

"We're not thinking about the [state budget crisis] at all," he says. "Right now teachers are talking strike."

Mike Vaughn, a CPS spokesman, describes the 3-percent raise as "a very soft number" that is subject to negotiation. An additional 1 percent would cost the district nearly $25 million, he says.

The district may have some wiggle room for negotiation. Cash reserves are currently hovering around $300 million, nearly $50 million above rating agencies' expectations, according to officials.

Springfield correspondent Aaron Chambers contributed to this report.

District-wide and miscellaneous cuts:

$5 million for severely overcrowded schools

$3.5 million for charter school startup grants

$625,000 for schools in Edgewater and Rogers Park

$500,000 for auditorium renovations at Nettelhorst

$150,000 for the United Neighborhood Organization to build a new charter school at 47th and California

$150,000 for the United Neighborhood Organization to build a new charter school at an unspecified location

$50,000 for Pedro Albizu Campos High School for its dual enrollment program

$50,000 for Tonti for a new playground

$50,000 for an alternative energy careers program at Chicago High School for the Agricultural Sciences

$25,000 for Amundsen High for computer lab improvements

$25,000 for UPLIFT School for security cameras

$25,000 for Clemente High college prep programs

$20,000 for Farnsworth for a park project

$20,000 for Ravenswood for library improvements

$20,000 for Jacqueline Vaughn Occupational High for unspecified programs

The following schools lost grants for repairs and operations:

$25,000, Powell

$25,000, Murray Language Academy

$25,000, Arnold Mireles Academy

$25,000, Canter Middle

$25,000, Carnegie

$25,000, Bradwell

$25,000, Black Branch Magnet

$25,000, Parkside Community Academy

$25,000, O'Keefe

$25,000, Ninos Heroes

$25,000, Bouchet

$25,000, Sullivan

$25,000, James N. Thorpe

$25,000, Shoesmith

$25,000, Ray

$25,000, Bret Harte

$25,000, Carver Primary

The following schools lost money for after-school programs:

$25,000, Burroughs

$25,000, McCormick

$25,000, Christopher

$40,000, Earle

$20,000, Falconer

$20,000, Goethe

$20,000, Avondale

$20,000, Barry

$20,000, Darwin

$20,000, Logandale Middle

$20,000, Monroe

$20,000, Schubert

$20,000, Yates

$20,000, Chase

$20,000, Brentano

$20,000, Alexander Graham

$20,000, Julian

$20,000, Kids Off the Block Organization at Curtis

$20,000, Brock Social Services Organization at Dunne

$20,000, Aspira Alternative High

These grants remain part of the budget. Money for some of the grants at individual schools is not earmarked for specific programs:

$3.4 million for charter school assistance

$75,000, Norwood Park, capital improvements

$75,000, Onahan, capital improvements

$75,000, Ebinger, capital improvements

$75,000, Oriole Park, capital improvements

$75,000, John W. Garvy, capital improvements

$30,000, Mayer

$30,000, Waters

$30,000, Prescott

$30,000, Coonley

$30,000, Jahn

$30,000, Hamilton

$30,000, Lincoln

$30,000, Agassiz

$30,000, Alcott

$30,000, Drummond

$30,000, Audubon

$30,000, Bell

$30,000, Blaine

$30,000, Burley

$25,000, Lane Tech High

$25,000, Lakeview High

$25,000, Lincoln Park High