Education
Class dismissed
The city plans to close lots of schools
Mar 30th 2013 | CHICAGO |
From the print edition
THE news that parents had been dreading came on March 21st. As many as 54 of Chicago’s 681 schools have been earmarked for closure. Most of them are doing poorly, need costly repairs, or are undersubscribed: they are part of a system with more than 100,000 empty desks across the city. If the proposals are all approved by the Board of Education in May, the result will be one of the largest closures of schools ever seen in America. It will affect around 30,000 pupils.
The municipal agency that runs the city’s schools faces a $1 billion deficit for each of the next three fiscal years. Although shutting schools is unpopular, it would help the agency, Chicago Public Schools (CPS), to save $43m a year. The policy, under discussion for some time, was the subject of negotiations during a teachers’ strike last year. [http://www.economist.com/news/united-states/21574518-city-plans-close-lots-schools-class-dismissed]