WBEZ Public Radio Truth Squad: Enrollment down in CPS, but not by much School officials talk about

145,000 fewer kids in the city; actual enrollment decline in CPS since 2000 is 28,289.
December 10, 2012 By Linda Lutton and Becky Vevea

Chicago Public Schools officials have identified 330 schools they say are underutilized, and the city is bracing for what could be a massive number of school closures. Chicago school officials and the head of an independent Commission on School Utilization have said enrollment problems are caused by a loss of 145,000 kids in the city between 2000 and 2010, an 18 percent decline. But actual declines in Chicago Public Schools enrollment have not been anywhere near that severe. Overall enrollment in Chicago Public Schools has declined 6 percent in the last 14 years, a loss of 28,289 students. In that time, CPS has opened more than 120 new schools, many of them charters, shifting enrollment patterns. The percentage of students attending traditional schools has dropped 17 percent, while the percentage in charter schools (most housed in non-CPS buildings) has increased. School officials say they have not analyzed whether opening new schools has exacerbated the number of empty desks in Chicago. The district has said it wants to open at least 17 more new schools this fall.
CPS Total CPS Traditional CPS charter/contrac school enrollment t enrollment enrollment 426,215 5,535 431,750 428,737 6,733 435,470 431,534 6,084 437,618 429,745 8,844 438,589 423,926 10,493 434,419 414,538 12,274 426,812 405,509 15,416 420,925 394,651 19,043 413,694 384,868 23,733 408,601 376,028 32,016 408,044 372,580 36,699 409,279 359,880 42,801 402,681 355,762 48,389 404,151 350,535 52,926 403,461

Year 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013

Source: Chicago Public Schools. Enrollment data prior to 2006 is from CPS Racial/Ethnic Surveys. Data from 2006-20013 is from CPS 20th Day Membership files, both at http://www.cps.edu/SchoolData/Pages/SchoolData.aspx.

U.S. Census figures show Chicago's school-aged population (ages 5-19) declined by 112,300
1

between 2000 and 2010 (-17.9%). A longer view shows slightly less decline. From 1990 to 2010, Chicago lost 79,140 kids. A greater proportion of the city's children attended Chicago Public Schools in 2010 than 2000.
1990 2000 2010 U.S. Census Bureau population 592,61 513,47 totals 625,776 6 6 for City of Chicago, Ages 5-19 Percent change one decade to 5.60% 17.95 the next % Percent change 1990 to 2010 13.35 % Percent of Chicago's schoolaged kids in Chicago Public Schools
Source: U.S. Census Bureau and Chicago Public Schools

68.99%

79.71 %

THE PROPORTION OF PRIVATELY RUN CHICAGO PUBLIC SCHOOLS TO INCREASE December 11, 2012 WBEZ Public Radio | Becky Vevea At the same time Chicago Public Schools says it needs to close down schools, maybe as many as 100, its planning to open brand new ones. In a promotional video for a new high school called Intrinsic, illustrations of the citys skyline and the EL tracks swirl around cartoon students. The students tout their teachers credentials and brag about the projects theyre working on. The teachers at Intrinsic are great, says the cartoon boy. Theyve worked at schools like Walter Payton and Whitney Young. Intrinsic is not open yet. Its one of at least 17 new schools the district wants to open next fall. Fourteen charter and contract schools, run by outside groups and three district-run high schools. (See complete list at the end of this article.) CPS leaders say 136 schools are half empty. Most of those schools are on the south and west sides of the city. School officials argue it doesnt make sense to keep running those schools, because it costs money to keep the lights on and school resources get spread too thin. They say if they consolidate, or right-size, they can spend more money on the buildings they do keep open adding air-conditioning, art and music, all the things people say are missing right now. But why would the district open schools when it says it has too many already? We also need to be strategic and ensure that we are doing everything we can to immediately expand access to high quality school options for parents in every community, said CPS spokeswoman Becky Carroll. Carroll also points to areas of the city where classrooms are overcrowdedthe heavily Latino north and west sides of the city. She says CPS may need to build or open new schools in those areas.

Phyllis Lockett echoed Carrolls point about quality. She runs New Schools for Chicago, which has raised more than $30 million to help CPS gradually open charter schools every year for the past decade. Saving dollars cannot be the only solution, youve got to focus on quality, Lockett said. While Lockett equates new schools with quality, the fact is, the new schools the city has created over the last decade have had mixed success. Some people have said that closing traditional schools and opening charter schools is actually about privatizing educationnot about quality or enrollment or anything else. Its true that if CPS closes dozens of traditional schools and then opens charters, the proportion of public schools run by private entities jumps significantly. Think about the math. Right now, 14 percent of CPSs 681 schools are privately run charter and contract schools. If the district closes 100 schools, and then opens 60 new charters in the next five years, the percentage of privately run schools could jump up to 27 percent. In a grant application to the Gates Foundation, CPS leaders said they planned to open 100 new schools in the next five years, 60 of them charters. Carroll has said that number was just an estimate based on past growth. Still, a number of charter leaders have big expansion plans. I think that number ought to grow, said Juan Rangel. He runs the United Neighborhood Organization, which operates one of the citys largest charter school networks. Weve been at this for 15 years now, and if anybody told me we would be in the place we are today back in 1997, I wouldnt have believed it, Rangel said. But here we are, and so Im really hopeful that in five years the school district will look very different than it does today. UNO has more aggressive expansion plans. Rangel said he hopes to open five new schools a year for the next five years, bringing UNOs total to more than 30 schools. But hes not alone. The districts biggest high school charter network, the Noble Network of Charter Schools, wants to open two new high schools a year for the next four years, bringing its total to right around 20. And at least four national operatorsRocketship Education, Basis Schools, Concept Schools, and Charter Schools USA-- applied to open schools here next fall, according to Illinois Network of Charter Schools executive director Andrew Broy.

The new schools that have opened in the last decade draw students away from their home schools, even though overall public school enrollment has dropped just 6 percent. The Chicago
Teachers Union has said thats contributed to the problem of underutilization in so many CPS schools. Its unclear how the district will prevent home schools from becoming under-enrolled as they plan to open more new schools.

Part of what Chicago is really suffering from is they dont have a long range plan, said Mary Filardo, the executive director of the 21st Century Schools Fund, a non-profit that studies how school districts manage their real estate.
CPSs Carroll says school leaders plan to sell off the empty buildings, which Filardo warns could be a shortsighted move.

Chicago could find itself in really a pickle, if it does not retain some of its public infrastructure, Filardo said. You dont have age-level enrollment projections, population projections, you dont have a master plan. Do you want 75 percent to be neighborhood Chicago public school based and 25 percent private? Do you want it 5050? I mean where are you going? If CPS does not put together a plan to address those questions, Filardo says, it could find itself in a similar situation five years from now, even if enrollment holds steady: With too many schoolsand a big fight on its hands. Schools slated to open Fall 2013: New School Chicago Collegiate Charter School The Orange School Foundations College Prep Intrinsic Schools Camelot Crane (Medical) HS Back of the Yards HS Disney II HS Marine Military Academy (expansion) Rickover Naval Academy (expansion) UNO Soccer Academy HS UNO elementary campus UNO elementary campus UNO elementary campus Noble - Orange campus Noble - Crimson campus Christopher House LEARN-7th campus LEARN-8th campus Grades served 4-12 K-8 6-12 6-12 alternative students 9-12 9-12 9-12 7-8 7-8 9-12 K-8 K-8 K-8 9-12 9-12 PK-8 K-8 K-8 Approved or Pending pending pending pending pending pending approved approved pending pending pending approved approved approved approved approved approved approved approved approved