* From CPS…
Chicago Public Schools CEO Forrest Claypool today called on Governor Rauner and leaders in Springfield to fund Chicago students equally, saying the State’s racially discriminatory funding is a cancer on the school system that jeopardizes years of academic gains and the future of hundreds of thousands of school children.
Chicago’s children are 20 percent of the state’s enrollment but they receive only 15 percent of the state’s spending on education.
“This racially discriminatory state funding is a cancer upon CPS. In the past two years, our cuts, management reforms, and enhanced revenues have been mere radiation treatments, slowing down and postponing the cancer’s advance. But no homegrown remedies will ultimately stop its deadly reach. Only the removal of the cancer – by either Springfield or by the courts – will cure the patient…. All our efforts will be in vain if the State is allowed to continue to discriminate on the basis of race in distributing education dollars. Whether our victory comes in the courts or in the political arena, it must come, if we are to protect what we most cherish – the quality of the futures of our children, and everything that means for the future of this great City.”
Claypool pointed to the Board of Education’s continuing lawsuit against the State of Illinois.
“As noted by lawyers representing CPS and five parent plaintiffs in the ongoing civil rights lawsuit against Gov. Bruce Rauner and the State: “Although the State has not installed signs on schoolhouse doors that say ‘Whites Only’ and ‘Colored,’ the State has used its checkbook to accomplish exactly that.’”
Even more frustrating, these budget challenges come at a time of unparalleled academic success for Chicago children.
“These are inspiring stories, tributes to the American ideal that, armed with a quality education, you can rise above adversity and accomplish anything. That is a dream that should be available to all children, regardless of where they live, what their parents earn, or the color of their skin. It’s a dream worth fighting for. To do anything else would be surrendering to the most inconvenient truth of all: our indifference in the face of injustice.”
The full speech is here. I’ve asked the governor’s office for a response.
*** UPDATE *** From Eleni Demertzis in the governor’s office…
A Cook County judge already debunked all of Forrest Claypool’s propaganda. This is just another stunt.
- PublicServant - Tuesday, May 30, 17 @ 1:01 pm:
=== To do anything else would be surrendering to the most inconvenient truth of all: our indifference in the face of injustice.===
Most of the media, save for Rich and a few others, seems to manage doing exactly this every day…just saying.
- Cheryl44 - Tuesday, May 30, 17 @ 1:21 pm:
I’ve decided the thing I like least about Rauner is him making me take Forrest Claypool’s side in an argument.
- Speculator - Tuesday, May 30, 17 @ 1:24 pm:
Is CPS chronically underfunded from decades of fiscal mismanagement and corruption, and because more than a century ago CPS set up their teacher pension system to be completely separate from TRS? Yes.
Have lawmakers, including Democratic governors, and legislators, been deliberately stiffing CPS because of the racial makeup of their students? Absolutely not.
Sadly, there are still way too many actual cases of ongoing racial discrimination in our country, but the CPS funding crisis is not one of them.
- Cook County Commoner - Tuesday, May 30, 17 @ 1:59 pm:
An old adage for courtroom lawyers: If the facts favor you, pound the facts into the table. If the law favors you, pound the law into the table. If neither favors you, just pound the table.
It appears CEO Claypool is at number 3, which sometimes works.
- Stark - Tuesday, May 30, 17 @ 1:59 pm:
You do know the state funded CPS in the 40s and 50s too, right? That’s a broad assertion to assume there were no legislators voting on funding back then who held racial attitudes.
- winners and losers - Tuesday, May 30, 17 @ 2:01 pm:
==“Although the State has not installed signs on schoolhouse doors that say ‘Whites Only’ and ‘Colored,’ the State has used its checkbook to accomplish exactly that.”==
That is the argument for more money for Chicago schools?
- Anonymous - Tuesday, May 30, 17 @ 2:05 pm:
Has the CPS reached the “tipping point” in terms of those using the public schools and those providing the tax dollars to fund the schools?
- City Zen - Tuesday, May 30, 17 @ 2:07 pm:
==“Although the State has not installed signs on schoolhouse doors that say ‘Whites Only’ and ‘Colored,’ the State has used its checkbook to accomplish exactly that.”==
I wanted to buy a house in Lincoln Park but the sign said, “Pritzkers Only”.
- Ed - Tuesday, May 30, 17 @ 2:09 pm:
=that is the argument for more money for Chicago schools?=
Damn right it is. The State is depriving the children of color of hundreds of millions in resources that they routinely provide the white schools. That’s what they used to do in the South.
- Precinct Captain - Tuesday, May 30, 17 @ 3:35 pm:
What’s interesting is what a wedge this crusade from Claypool is driving between him and Rahm.
- Rich Miller - Tuesday, May 30, 17 @ 3:36 pm:
===is driving between him and Rahm===
Emanuel gave the opening remarks today. Don’t believe everything you read.
- Put the fun in unfunded - Tuesday, May 30, 17 @ 4:16 pm:
In 2014-2015 per ISBE, Chicago spent $15,378 per pupil. To pick three larger suburban unit districts: Naperville District 203 spent $14,545. Indian Prairie 204 spent $11,053. Elmhurst 205 spent $13,744. Had Rahm and his predecessor not tied up so much EAV in TIF districts, there would be hundreds of millions more for Chicago District 299.
- Amalia - Tuesday, May 30, 17 @ 4:25 pm:
Cancer? Radiation treatments? ridiculous use of those terms and probably medically inaccurate. Just explain things on a simple basis without waxing ridiculous.
- Dandy Edward - Tuesday, May 30, 17 @ 5:29 pm:
This school funding issue just did not happen over the last two years. Where was Rod, Pat, Mike and John going back to 2003.
- Oswego Willy - Tuesday, May 30, 17 @ 5:32 pm:
===This school funding issue just did not happen over the last two years. Where was Rod, Pat, Mike and John going back to 2003.===
The veto of $215 million, by Rauner alone…how do explain that?
Rauner said it was emotionally done… You?
- IT guy - Wednesday, May 31, 17 @ 9:22 am:
Politicians like Claypool, and his immediate 2 predecessors, running the schools, Are the root of the problem. Sprinkle in cronies in cps leadership and voila! You just popped the cap off the sinkhole!