The current recession has seriously reduced the tax revenue coming in and government agencies all over the country from national to local level are tightening their belts. Services are being cut. Even our public school systems are not immune to this treatment.
In the Chicago Sun-Times this morning, an article noted that Ron Huberman, CEO of the Chicago Public Schools is considering options to deal with massive budget shortfalls in the next year. Mr. Huberman stated that if CPS receives no new funding from the State of Illinois in the next year, CPS will experience a $700 million budget deficit. Meanwhile the State of Illinois is experiencing its own budget crunch and Governor Quinn is proposing that the legislature cut 15% from current educational funding levels. Huberman says if that happens the CPS shortfall could reach $975 million. That's a lot of teacher salaries. That's a lot of building repairs. That's a lot of after school programs.
This brings us first to the current nationwide push to privatize schools as much as possible. Privately funded charter schools do not cost the taxpayers as much money as do public schools. It should be noted that these privately funded school also do not play by the same rules as the public schools. They pay their employees less (Non-union). Their benefit packages leave a great many of their employees without a decent pension option. Their healthcare packages are abysmal. They usually require employees to work long hours without overtime (They are salaried employees, not hourly.) They do not have to take any student in the neighborhood who applies (Selective enrollment.) They can kick out students who are consistent discipline issues. So what happens to the students who get kicked out? Oh right. They go off to publicly funded schools, or should I say publicly underfunded schools, and the public schools cannot refuse them entry, regardless of the discipline issues.
Meanwhile, as the funding for the public schools gets skimpier and skimpier, these public schools find themselves scrambling for grants to make up for the shortfalls and hopefully to continue offering the programs and services they have been offering. Let's face facts boys and girls, there are a lot of public schools competing for those grant dollars and Bill and Melinda Gates can only fund so many programs. As for all those other big bucks guys, they are often not inclined to give money to schools with a bad reputation. That means that public schools for the academically gifted get a lot of money and schools for the struggling and not so gifted get squat, because only 10-15% of the students in those schools reach national norms on standardized tests. Things only get worse. Sports teams get de-funded. Clerical, security, and various support staff lose their jobs. Then classes get bigger and teachers lose their jobs.
In the Chicago Sun-Times article this morning it was noted that schools have already begun cutting non-varsity sports. Apparently lacrosse and water polo have already gone away from some schools. Excuse me. Lacrosse and water polo? Where are these precious schools that have lacrosse and water polo? My school has teachers who have paid for soccer uniforms out of their own pockets just to see that kids have a soccer team. On the whole we can barely afford uniforms and balls for soccer, basketball, baseball for boys, softball for girls, and volleyball. Most other sports are too cost prohibitive or we just don't have the facilities to provide them.
It should be noted that the current union contract limits classroom size to 28 for the most part. There are exceptions like art, music, and PE. Mr. Huberman suggests that if we could raise classroom size to 31, we could save $40 million. News flash! My classroom size may be officially limited to 28 students, but in my two freshman classes, I already have 33 students per class. By the way, Mr. Huberman readily admits that this larger classroom size would eliminate 600 teacher jobs. For the record, there is a relationship between larger class sizes and diminishing academic achievement.
The kicker is that Mr. Huberman actually said that if we could raise the classroom size to 45, CPS would save $270 million dollars. What planet is this guy from? Oh wait, he did say that many classrooms would not accommodate 45 students so perhaps this was just wishing for too much. Sigh. The fact that anyone could even halfway seriously suggest raising classroom sizes to 45 is a sign that this individual has no real grasp on what goes on in classrooms. I understand the man knows a lot about dollars and cents. He knows not squat about human beings and how to educate them if he can even semi-seriously entertain such a notion.
So what can our schools expect? Huberman wants to get rid of teachers, cut payments for pensions, pack as many kids as possible into every classroom, and streamline the public schools like you would a factory or a business. Why not just give every kid a laptop and have them learn online? Then you could eliminate the school buildings, all of those unnecessary teachers, clerical staff, building engineers, security guards, principals, librarians. What a savings! Realistically, there will be larger classroom sizes, and the magnet schools and schools for the academically gifted will thrive. They will get grants to continue churning out kids who will go to Harvard and the University of Chicago. the neighborhood schools will get poorer and poorer and there will be more pressure to shut them down and privatize them.
America is a place where a lot of people don't want to pay taxes, yet they want their government to take care of them. Doesn't work that way. Want your streets paved? Want police protection? Want any of a million public services? Got to pay for them. Want good public schools? Want to have lower crime in the poorer neighborhoods? Want to offer a future for all children, not just the wealthy and well-connected, not just the super bright? You have to have teachers, buildings, programs, and you have to pay for them. That means taxes. Furthermore, that means that corporations and wealthy citizens need to pay their fair share. The future of this nation depends on it. Otherwise, we descend into 3rd world status. 45 in a classroom? Walk a mile in my shoes Mr. Huberman. Try spending 45 minutes in a classroom with 33 freshmen in the Back of the Yards sometime. Then think about that 45.
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