Close Chicago schools that are severely underenrolled, now

As negotiations heat up between the Chicago Teachers Union and their former employee, Mayor Brandon Johnson, CTU Vice President Jackson Potter argues that CPS needs to focus on green initiatives.

His environmental concerns ring hollow. The truth: His union is to blame for the most wasteful, expensive energy policy in the entire city. CTU is forcing the district to heat, cool and maintain massive school buildings with empty classrooms.

Three out of every 10 seats in the district are empty. Six in 10 schools are underused. But none of those buildings can yet be repurposed, consolidated or closed.

Why? As part of the 2021 state law establishing an elected school board for Chicago, the union lobbied for a moratorium on closing school buildings until 2025.

As a result, the district is a mess. Students at Jahn Elementary, where Potter mentioned mold was found, are stuck in underutilized, empty classrooms while students at George Washington High School, where the ceiling caved in, feel crammed and overcrowded.

The worst example is Douglass Academy in Austin, with some two dozen teachers and other staff members serving about 30 students in a building originally built for 888 students. It’s virtually empty, spends some $68,000 per student a year, and had the largest budget increase of any school in the newly passed budget. The 2016-2017 school year was the last time a single 11th-grade Douglass student was reported to read or perform math at grade level.

CPS needs a capital plan focused on more efficient space utilization. This could free up resources for necessary repairs and ensure balanced class sizes throughout the district. But CTU would never go for it, because it could reduce the number of dues-paying members and thus the union’s political power.

CTU is seeking a contract estimated to cost a historic $51.5 billion or more, chock-full of showy, environmental demands including a 100% electric bus fleet, solar panels and complete carbon neutrality.

When you read about CTU’s demands, remember: It’s not about "green" initiatives for saving the planet. It’s not about moving the district to the future. It’s about retaining dues-paying members and maintaining political power. Environmental justice claims are nothing but greenhouse gas.

Austin Berg, vice president of marketing, Illinois Policy Institute

Where are the adults when it comes to closing schools?

Only in Chicago could we have grappled with a $500 million budget gap in our public schools and not consider the most obvious solution: close some of the schools that are more than 90% empty.

For instance, Douglass Academy High School had 35 students and now appears to have 31. It has a capacity for 900, meaning it is just about empty. Not one of its students tested as proficient in math or reading, according to the Illinois Policy Institute. (State report card data on achievement have been redacted.)

Funding is $68,000 a student. And in response to this, the Chicago Teachers Union — that humane body dedicated to the students' needs — would not just keep the school open, but add more staff members.

If it weren't so sad, it would be comical. Seriously, where are the adults in the room?

Schools, and especially high schools, need a critical mass to flourish. Try offering band class with 35 students. Or field a football team. Or any team. Or a school play. Or robust course offerings.

You'd think the smallest high schools in Illinois would be in far-flung rural areas. You'd be wrong. Many are right here in Chicago. Manley High School can seat about 1,300, yet has 70 students. Austin Career Academy can seat nearly 1,800, yet has just 170. Hirsch can seat about 1,000, yet has 100.

Hurry, close them all. Don't overthink it. Doing so will help, not hurt, most of the kids there. Let's not mince words: though most individual teachers are hard-working and dedicated, the CTU is an impediment to kids' learning and progress.

The massive underutilization is hardly surprising when you consider that the district has shrunk by almost 25% since 2000. Most of the families who have left are Black families, who have wisely fled for better schools. They're not coming back.

And now CTU "negotiates" a new contract with Mayor Brandon Johnson, their old colleague. Must be nice. Just remember, "it’s all about the kids."

William Choslovsky, Sheffield Neighbors

Harris’ historic run

In 1862 our greatest president said, “In giving freedom to the slave, we assure freedom to the free. … We shall nobly save, or meanly lose, the last best hope of earth.” It is almost scarily appropriate that Kamala Harris is a woman of color.

Through these eyes of mine, around long enough to have seen for myself a “whites only” sign in a department store in Jacksonville, Florida, where my mom grew up, Harris remains our “last best hope of earth” to save the country from existential evil. In so doing, she would extend Joe Biden’s legacy in perhaps not the way he had envisioned. His self-sacrifice gives him a golden stature he perhaps also had never imagined. Wins all around. God Bless America!

Rob Hirsh, West Ridge

Caving in to the CTU

Could I ask what the purpose was of the public CPS-Chicago Teachers Union meeting? CPS is playing with money it doesn't have. CTU wants everyone else to chip in and pay for what CTU wants. And Brandon Johnson has already announced he won't accept any deal involving cuts. Neither will CTU, despite schools operating at low capacity.

So why was this meeting even held unless CPS is supposed to simply cave in to what CTU wants and then try to figure out how to pay for it, with pandemic funding running out and Gov. J.B. Pritzker already announcing that no more is coming from Springfield?

Laurence Siegel, Manteno