* Overcrowding is a problem in only about 5 percent of Chicago’s public schools…
* Source: Civic Federation…
The recent Civic Federation Financial Landscape Analysis of the Chicago Public School District highlights a long-term issue for the Chicago Public School District (CPS or the “District”): declining enrollment has led to significant building underutilization. Today, a significant mismatch exists between the number of students enrolled in the District and the amount of space available in schools throughout the City. Based on FY2025 CPS data, 58% of District school buildings are underutilized. CPS defines underutilization as enrollment below 70% of a school’s capacity. In 2024, 154 out of 498 CPS schools were at less than half of their capacity. Only approximately 36% of schools are classified as efficiently utilized and 5% as overcrowded.
Operational spending data provides a useful measure to compare schools and identify facilities with particularly high spending per student – in other words, schools that are not efficiently utilized. The Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) defines Operational Spending Per Student (OSPS) as the average amount spent on a school’s operating costs, including instructional costs, per student in a given fiscal year. Out of the 498 CPS facilities for which operational spending and space utilization data are available, 185, or 37%, are efficiently utilized, and 287, or 58%, are underutilized. The following chart compares the average OSPS, as reported by ISBE’s 2024 Report Card dataset for efficiently utilized versus underutilized schools.
The following table lists the utilization status of CPS schools based on FY2025 Space Utilization Data. Based on CPS’ definition, underutilized schools are those at 70% or less of capacity. Severely underutilized schools are classified here as those at 33% or less capacity. See CPS’ interactive map of schools by utilization here to see these schools’ geographic distribution.
A total of 50 schools are operating at 33% capacity or less. The lowest enrolled school in the District, Douglass High School, has only 28 students enrolled compared to its capacity of 912 students (this is based on FY2025 adjusted 20th-day enrollment numbers). For a complete list of those schools, see the Civic Federation’s Financial Landscape Analysis of the Chicago Public School District report. The cost of operation per student at those schools substantially exceeds the costs at better-enrolled counterparts. The average operating cost per student per year among severely underutilized elementary schools is about $28,000 annually, $4,700 more than is spent on average at efficiently utilized elementary schools. The average operating cost among severely underutilized high schools is nearly $36,000 annually, $12,338 more than is spent on average at efficient schools.
- Anyone Remember - Wednesday, Mar 5, 25 @ 2:18 pm:
“… identify facilities with particularly high spending per student … .”
Everything else being equal, that would be older less energy efficient buildings with poorer students.
- Steve - Wednesday, Mar 5, 25 @ 2:22 pm:
Closing schools in Chicago isn’t easy. Parents don’t want their kids traveling long distances. Things are what they are. Chicago voters really do like this kind of space usuage at CPS. Never thought some CPS schools would spend more per pupil than wealthy New Trier but , here we are. Chicago taxpayers really are Frederick Douglass Academy High School students and their staffs.
- Lurker - Wednesday, Mar 5, 25 @ 2:29 pm:
First thing I’d do is close the 14 schools with no data. Then work on consolidating.
- DuPage Saint - Wednesday, Mar 5, 25 @ 2:39 pm:
I do not understand how you can have less than 30 students in a school for over 900? Isn’t that a disservice for the students? What about sports, band, theater or any extra curricular? How does this happen are school boundaries changed? Is the school so bad everyone transferred? Did school age children move?
- Steve - Wednesday, Mar 5, 25 @ 2:42 pm:
-I do not understand how you can have less than 30 students in a school for over 900?-
CPS isn’t just an educational institution . It’s also a jobs program that provides solid middle class jobs.
- Original Rambler - Wednesday, Mar 5, 25 @ 2:47 pm:
The hands of the mayor being tied when it comes to right sizing CPS schools (not that this mayor would do anything about it) is one of the most infuriating issues and contributes to the low favorability ratings of the CTU.
- City Zen - Wednesday, Mar 5, 25 @ 3:03 pm:
CTU member Mackenzie Verdone works at an underutilized elementary school that is within one and a half miles of four other underutilized elementary schools.
CPS could move kids around those five schools to achieve more student-teacher rations, but I’m guessing the parents wouldn’t approve. So we have this.
- Benjamin - Wednesday, Mar 5, 25 @ 3:08 pm:
@DuPage Saint: kids aren’t forced to attend their neighborhood CPS school–they can attend another school through the lottery system. Parents in some neighborhoods choose to send their kids elsewhere due to concerns about academics or safety. So even though a school’s cachement area might have a lot of kids on paper, few of them might be attending that school.
- City Zen - Wednesday, Mar 5, 25 @ 3:10 pm:
==First thing I’d do is close the 14 schools with no data.==
Those 14 schools with no data are all co-location schools, meaning they share a campus with another school.
- 47th Ward - Wednesday, Mar 5, 25 @ 3:15 pm:
===Parents don’t want their kids traveling long distances.===
And yet every day, kids from all over the city get up extra early and rides busses and trains to a school like Lake View HS, miles from their homes. They do this because Lake View is seen as a better option for their kids than the neighborhood schools in many communities.
It isn’t about traveling long distances, it’s about improving the education across the city. The CPS high school admissions test is one of the most stressful and competitive admissions tests precisely because students and parents will go to great lengths to attend the best schools. And this isn’t limited to selective enrollment schools. Senn, Amundson, Von Steuben, are out perform other schools like Mather and Roosevelt in my part of the city.
Wealthy parents like me, have private school choices if we don’t test in to the top selective schools. Poor parents don’t have that luxury, so two hour commutes to school isn’t the concern you think it is.
- Google Is Your Friend - Wednesday, Mar 5, 25 @ 3:18 pm:
==Douglass High School==
With better depth than out of context statistics, Block Club covered this specific school and the wider topic in 2023. Note: 1/3 of students from a closed school leave the district all together.
https://blockclubchicago.org/2023/11/30/why-does-this-west-side-high-school-only-have-33-students/
- Three Dimensional Checkers - Wednesday, Mar 5, 25 @ 3:45 pm:
I always laugh when people say that Mayor Johnson should close schools, like that is a real possibility. This definitely exposes a rift between good government types who think that government should, within reason, efficiently use resources, and the CTU-aligned progressive types.
- Steve - Wednesday, Mar 5, 25 @ 3:54 pm:
-And yet every day, kids from all over the city get up extra early and rides busses and trains-
A large group of parents don’t want this for safety. I’m not denying students travel distances to places like Lane Tech. But, when you start closing schools at the junior level and lower : things get difficult. There are no easy solutions here. A big diverse district with many English Language Learners has many more problems than homogeneous New Trier where everyone is expected to go on to a 4 year college.
- Who else - Wednesday, Mar 5, 25 @ 4:53 pm:
Parents might not want their neighborhood school to be consolidated, but do they and their neighbors want to pay more taxes to maintain an inefficient status quo? Maybe they do, particularly if they feel that the identified inefficiency is something they actually like, like small class size.
I understand the benefit of small class sizes. However, public schools, and government generally, are not job programs, though I imagine that’s an extremely unpopular thing to say in some liberal spaces (particularly in the context of the current federal jobs purge.) Government workers perform vital services until they don’t, and when that happens the government should shift priorities and infrastructure so the work force can adapt and continue to serve a changing population.
- Amalia - Wednesday, Mar 5, 25 @ 5:57 pm:
I’d start mapping this. what is around the school boundaries of the schools with few students. is this a problem of low interest in these schools? or are there few kids especially because of empty buildings and lots? at some point there has to be synergy between construction for affordable housing and schools. close a school and start building around it so it can reopen. strategize about urban policy not just schools policy.