“Chicago used its whopping $2.8 billion allocation, which it was required to spend by September 2024, to add nearly 8,000 positions to its workforce”
🔻“This is what it looks like when you burn a district down,’ said Marguerite Roza, director of the Edunomics Lab at Georgetown University. “It is a level of dysfunction that feels beyond destabilizing, enough to make people lose confidence in the system.’”
🔻Soon after the federal government approved a historic $190 billion in covid relief funds for schools, experts warned school districts across the country that it would be risky to use the one-time funding for ongoing expenses…Chicago used its whopping $2.8 billion allocation, which it was required to spend by September 2024, to add nearly 8,000 positions to its workforce, budget documents show.
🔻The district has resisted even modest staff reductions, but also had no clear plan for how to maintain that payroll once the covid relief money was gone. It also has promised not to close any schools, although enrollment in the district has fallen significantly over the past two decades.
🔻Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson, a former teacher who is closely aligned with the Chicago Teachers Union, says he won’t tolerate cuts to the schools staff, which he refers to as laying off “Brown and Black women…” the mayor has pressured the schools to consider a high-interest, short-term $300 million loan that some call irresponsible, because it shifts the problem to next year and adds interest.
More, from the Bezos’ Washington Post.
