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The Chicago Public School system has 522 buildings, and school
officials claim many are in desperate need of renovations even
though one-third of the city's 473 schools are at less than 50%
capacity.
The report by Wirepoints shows that the schools are seeking
$14.4 billion to address emergency building repairs and that $1
billion of the taxpayer funds is for the district's 20 mostly
empty schools.
Ted
Dabrowski of Wirepoints told The Center Square that CPS should
close many of the schools lacking students.
"They [CPS] are a fiscal mess, to begin with," Dabrowski said.
"One of the big problems they have is that they will not close
empty schools. They won't close those that are literally 5%
filled or 10% filled."
Douglass High School is slated to get $34 million for
renovations even though the school only has 34 students
enrolled.
Dabrowski said CPS could find a better way to spend that money.
"They want to spend billions more, and instead of taking
whatever little money they have and properly spending it to
improve outcomes, they are just wasting money on failing empty
schools," Dabrowski told The Center Square.
With one-third of the schools being less than 50% full,
consolidating the empty schools could be an option.
"Why not have these kids go somewhere else," Dabrowski said.
"Already families have abandoned these schools. The question for
CPS is, 'why are you keeping empty, failing schools open?' Shut
them and use the money elsewhere or give the money back to the
taxpayers."
Student enrollment in Chicago has dropped about 27% over the
past 20 years.
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