Notes on the State of Chicago’s Taxpayer Funded Schools
Inflation-adjusted spending per student is up 74% since the 2002 enrollment peak – and is on track to rise to 84% based on next year’s budget.
1/ CPS enrollment continues to decline, while spending rises – obviously this is not sustainable and there’s a reason why CPS carried a junk credit rating…
Compiled a bunch of CPS operational info. Lots of charts in this thread.
First: Enrollment history
Chicago Public Schools enrollment has declined once again by another 11,500 students to about 304,700, officials said Thursday in announcing preliminary data, the lowest number in more than two decades.
Enrollment had stabilized for two years — even increasing briefly — with the arrival of thousands of immigrant students in 2023 and 2024. But the trend proved short-lived as the district’s 20-year enrollment freefall resumed last year and again this fall, dwindling from its high of nearly 439,000 students in the 2002-2003 school year.
Declining enrollment — and, subsequently, underenrolled schools — have become a key issue in the city’s first-ever school board president race as some candidates suggest revisiting school closures. The district has a moratorium on closings until after this school year. Community groups rallied Thursday morning to call for the prohibition to be extended.
CPS officials are pointing to declining birth rates locally, nationally and globally, in addition to families leaving the city for the suburbs and immigrant population declines spurred by President Donald Trump’s aggressive deportation policies.
