NSR: CHICAGO Political Thread ***HIGHLY TOXIC - ENTER AT YOUR OWN RISK***

Just like Joe:

Israeli forces kill at least 60 Palestinians seeking food in Gaza, health officials say
Dozens more wounded as crowds approached food distribution centres run by Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2...seeking-food-aid-in-gaza-health-officials-say

 

I’m sure this gets abused but it’s also been very real:

The Tunnel That Leads Underneath a Hospital in Southern Gaza
To Israelis, the location of an underground passageway highlights Hamas’s abuse of civilians. To Palestinians, Israel’s decision to target it highlights Israel’s own disregard for civilian life.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/08/world/middleeast/gaza-hospital-tunnel.html

The biggest problem with the left I see is the blinders and inability to discuss this reality. It makes most of the left’s bickering seem like childish stupidity.

 

Whats your take on this?

https://www.propublica.org/article/chicago-public-schools-enrollment-costs

 

Racist white people suck.

 

Funny, a friend sent this over to me earlier today- I let her use my copy of Ghosts in the Schoolyard by Eve Ewing and she thought I might find the article informative. I don’t know that I personally have a take on it other than ‘it’s complex’. As someone that attended an under resourced Chicago Public School, I feel very strongly that every kid in this city deserves a quality education, and that there are few better uses of our tax dollars than ensuring that they receive it. I know some people have said keeping these underattended schools open is a scam perpetrated by the teachers union to protect jobs but the article points out that the costs of re-schooling children are very high and I would have to imagine some of that is staffing up to accommodate them in their destination schools so I don’t know that I buy that argument. I think any conversation around school closings or mergers or whatever should be centered around the communities and students the schools serve - Ghosts in the Schoolyard demonstrates how devastating it can be otherwise (while also acknowledging some outreach efforts were made after the fact).

But yeah, the world is on fire, the country is a mess, and the president is sending troops in to cities and threatening to withhold federal funding from cities like ours that actually contribute to the country’s finances (unlike most red states), and I just… I don’t really know what the solution is but if it doesn’t bring us closer to every kid in the city having access to a quality education then I don’t want it.

What’s your take?

 

Agreed.

Which is one reason why building a bike trail for rich white ässholes on the north side, instead of a desperately needed north-south "L" line sucks:

https://blockclubchicago.org/2025/0...trail-connecting-bucktown-to-botanic-gardens/


That said, it can't be good for the students, the public, or the taxpayer to have 28 students in a school designed for many more than that.

 

Given the hostile takeover of city hall by the CTU, I tend to agree with that as being part of the issue.

I dont know that i buy that, either. I tend to believe that one advantage of living in a bigger metropolitan area is the "economies of scale" that can/should occur. IOW, a kid living in a big city shouldn't have a lack of resources at school that one sees in rural shïtholes.

And the stakeholders in our schools aren't limited to the kids and families that attend, to your point, communities depend on these institutions to deliver. And taxpayers need to get value for cost, as well.

I think that there's a lack of political will to do what is necessary, vis a vis "right-sizing" the physical footprint of CPS to the communities they serve. I think it royally sucks that there are ancient, decrepit, mostly-empty schools for kids and teachers to go to. I think that the racist history of this city/this issue has to be reconciled, such that there are "better" options on offer.

And I think squandering taxpayer money to underdeliver sucks, too.

 

I’d say I disagree with almost any language discussing economies of scale, value for cost, or anything looking at government operations through the lens of a business. We’re gonna end up spending more to make sure everyone has an equal opportunity almost by definition, we have to based on the history of this city and how ravaged some communities have become as a result of disinvestment. That disinvestment, or lack of investment, or decreased investment, whichever may be most appropriate for a given scenario, might look good on a spreadsheet one year or another, but long term there are even greater costs associated to it, and I think that comes across in the purported $93k per student costs the article claims. A quick google search says CPS spends an average of $19,908 per student, compared to $38,000 per student in NY, so assuming that $93k figure is accurate, I would assume some correlation to the disinvestment in the surrounding neighborhood over the years.

Let’s not ignore the fact that the population loss experienced in those areas is also a result of historic disinvestment- it costs us money to cut services in a lot of different ways that will require people a lot smarter than me to explain and fix.

But overall I agree, there should be a plan for "right-sizing" the physical footprint of CPS to the communities they serve. I was shocked at the average age of the buildings the students learn in, and wonder if maybe finding some money in the budget (good luck with that though) for newer buildings with more modern facilities might soften the blow of having to consolidate some of these schools.

Also agree that ‘the racist history of this city/this issue has to be reconciled, such that there are "better" options on offer’ - we have some neighborhood schools that have satellite classrooms in trailers on school grounds, while the schools in the article have fewer students than some high schools have football players- those schools with overflow student classrooms are a lot closer to the rich white assholes on the north side than they are the children in the school with 28 students.

If history has taught me anything though, I would bet the rich white assholes on the north side get their bike path before kids on the south and west side have the same level of education available to them as the kids on the north side do.

 

Close all the predominately white schools and bus the kids to the underutilized schools on the south side. Problem solved.

 

Dont be so quick to judge.

I was only using the phrase, "economies of scale" as shorthand for:

1. There are more people in a larger metropolis like Chicago, thus
2. More taxpayers to fund
3. More schools for students, thus
4. Kids in larger cities shouldn't be short-dïcked due to a lack of support.


TL;DR: Economies of scale.

The "$93k/student" only pertains to one underutilized school cited in the story, not the entire CPS system.

Right. And concomitant to that is to "right size" the services to local demand. Whatever the cause of the population loss (closing the Robert Taylor Homes, for example), does that neighborhood still need a high school built for 2K students?

Perhaps not.

Thats the sad thing for me. No one wants to take responsibility for plotting a course for the future of the system as a whole; they'd rather kick the can down the road for future generations to pay the price. They'd rather keep underused (and aging) facilities open, than take on the hard question of what the future holds for CPS and this city.

Absolutely. It can't "just" be 'let's close DuSable High School,' IMO. It has to be, "let's right-size the system by closing some schools, while opening modern ones that fit what Chicago is/will be."

Sure.

Unfortunately, this mayor, who is wholly pwned by CTU will kick the can down the road, so that he can keep their support, so he can win re-election. And those in the school board will shirk responsibility as well, rather than taking up this question with any degree of seriousness and sincerity to make matters better.

But hey, at least some rich white north side ässholes will get to ride their $2,000 Specialized bikes in their fücking spandex, without THE AGONY of having to deal with cars. And yes, schools in the south/west sides will continue to suck, and the L will continue to lack a straight north/south connector. But, 3 of 10 schools will be mostly empty.

Yay.

 

This is why libertarians need to be as far away from government as humanly possible. They’re self-centered idiots.

The real solution is repopulating the city. The difficulty with that is that Chicago is part of a larger capitalist structure that makes living too costly for most people.

 

I was not showing the $19k per student average cost to refute the articles claim of $93k per student, I was using it to show the deferred cost of disinvestment- the additional cost per student for those schools where we as a city purportedly have to take it on very likely correlates to previous disinvestment in the neighborhood. So while it may seem smart to ‘cut costs’ today, one way or another, we’re going to have to pay a dividend on those savings. I don't feel the need to engage much further because I can appreciate that there are a few things we’re likely not going to agree on, and that’s fine, but felt it was important to better clarify the point I was trying to make with that figure.

 

Who's a libertarian?

 

As I read it, the cost/student at Douglass went up, because enrollmentbwent way down, not due to any deferred cost of disinvestment.

it can't be great there for the students, not having a large enough student body for sports, for example. Or, for the other extracurriculars they can't support, for a lack of numbers.

No worries, I don't expect anyone to agree on every point.

I donthink we agree that it kinda sucks for all parties.

 

The deferred cost of disinvestment is the enrollment going down, causing the cost per student to go up. That isn’t stated in the article, it is me editorializing based on the history of this city and my understanding of the first round of school closures that I read about in the book Ghosts in the Schoolyard. People with the resources to leave disinvested neighborhoods generally leave disinvested neighborhoods, which is part of the reason enrollment has dropped (plenty of others as well). Sorry if I made it seem the article was claiming that.

 

This is a terrible solution.

 

Wait, divesting in schools is a bad thing? Interesting.

 

Too costly in "desirable" neighborhoods.

 

There are many facets to this issue and NO simple fix.
As a CPS teacher at a neighborhood school in South Shore (look up where that is) I am an active participant in alot of these issues. The population drop is a large part of this (see neighborhood disinvestment note above). There's parents, very reasobably, want their grade school kids to go to school in the neighborhood (like many of us did, though not me 'cause I was a Catholic school kid). Class sizes at a large majority schools are more than enough to make delivering sound education to each kid tough. Then there is the teacher shortage. PreCovid Illinois was 2100 teachers short. Post Covid Illinois is 4000 teachers short, but again you can only put so many kids in a class. There are alot layers to it and it ain't pretty. I'm kinda burned out as today was the last day of the school year, so this isn't as sharp as I would like. Just keep digging for info on the subject and keep processing. Have opinions and keep expressing them. Just remember that what you feel to be the deal is a work in progress.

 

CPS has lost 100k plus students in the past 20 years. The answer isn't to lose another 100k. The current system already incentivizes well off individuals to move to the suburbs to a "good" district. My daughter goes to neighborhood CPS high school where around 40% of the students are white.

 

That’s why I said this:

I’m being facetious when saying we should shut down North side schools.

What would entice people to return from the suburbs and repopulate area around underutilized schools? What resources do they need that could be in those schools? Mental health services? Grocery store? Library? Immediate care facility? Housing? A community center that encourages activity and life.

“Even though more than 65% of Chicago’s population is Black, Latino, or Asian as measured by the 2020 census, efforts to dismantle segregation’s legacy has proven largely ineffective, with its hidden tentacles upholding a system that seems to many Chicagoans immutable. But the bill has come due for Chicago, and the city is paying the price in the form of grinding poverty, heartrending violent crime, and racial strife.”
https://www.wttw.com/firsthand/segr...so-segregated-by-inventing-modern-segregation

Desegregation and repopulation are the only solution.

 

Where do you want to live?

North side bike infrastructure:



South side bike “infrastructure”:

 

“The system that first forced Black Chicagoans to live separately from White Chicagoans and then later expanded to exclude Latino Chicagoans remains deeply entrenched, in part because it is a home-grown structure crafted by some of the city’s earliest power brokers who wanted to shape Chicago into a haven for White people through the force of violence supplemented by the weight of the law.”
https://www.wttw.com/firsthand/segr...so-segregated-by-inventing-modern-segregation

Think of our schools and school resources as those maps of bike infrastructure. Fill in the gaps.

 

Photo from Block Club: