Poor Chicago Public School children are systematically and deliberately denied their Constitutional Right to a quality education. It’s time for a Federal Consent Decree to restore this right
It’s time for the U.S. Department of Justice to place the Chicago Public Schools (CPS) under a federal consent decree. Only through a consent decree can the barriers erected by the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) and its political allies — barriers that systematically deny poor children, overwhelmingly Black and Latino, their right to a quality education, be dismantled. The objective of a consent decree is clear: To ensure that education funding follows the student, families have meaningful school choices, and local leaders have the freedom to adopt the best models for their communities.
CPS has devolved into a government-sanctioned system of educational apartheid in which poor children, overwhelmingly Black and Latino are, a deliberately and consciously denied a quality education. The CTU’s opposition to reforms that might threaten its power or reduce its membership has had devastating effects. The CTU’s efforts to block poor families from accessing better-performing, publicly funded alternatives to failing schools are discriminatory — if not in intent, then unquestionably in outcome.
The results are plain: Successive CTU-backed contracts have expanded union ranks, raised pay to among the highest in the country, reduced workload, and eliminated accountability. Despite two consecutive $1.5 billion contracts, CPS added neither a single day to the school year nor a single minute to the school day. At the same time, the district reinstated social promotion, removed student performance from teacher evaluations, and stopped publishing school rankings to obscure failure.