Chicago school officials and the mayor have a mantra: CPS is broke. CPS has a deficit of $1 billion dollars.
With that rationale, CPS lays off thousands of teachers and closes dozens of schools.
But at the same time that officials plead poverty, they still find the money to do what they want to do.
Here is this Chicago blogger’s top ten.
It includes the bizarre expenditure of $1.6 million for Teach for America at the same time that CPS is laying off veteran teachers.
There may be others.
And the list doesn’t even touch on frivolities like a new $55 million stadium.
True, it is not from the school budget, but then Chicago has mayoral control and the mayor funds what he favors.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
This is the HUGE problem with Mayoral control…no checks and balances…just totalitarism and barbarism.
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Chicago is not broke and has never been. The US is not broke and has never been. The claim that there is no money to fund public schools, public colleges, public parks, transit, housing, health care, or legal services, has always been bogus, invented by authorities to cut social services in the public sector so as to transfer wealth to the private sector and to undermine communities and unions in those sectors. There is enormous, unimaginable wealth sitting in the accounts of the very rich and their corporations. Corp. acts. alone have about $4.75BILLION in them, untaxed, untamable, untouchable b/c both major parties are the parties of Wall Street. Should we ever get a progressive govt. willing to tax the rich and their corporations, the vast wealth in the hands of the 1% well be spent on public schools, hospitals, and parks for the 99% at last. That great wealth already exists, which is why Mayor Emanuel can throw big money at TFA, or stadiums, but not at amenities for the many at the bottom. Same thing in NYC where a phenomenal real estate building boom continues, with billionaire Mayor Bloomberg handing over pub schls to pvt charters, and public parks to pvt development like a soccer stadium in historic Flushing-Corona. We are not broke, we have never been broke, poverty and budget cuts are forced on us. Our job is force the few to give it up and give it back.
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I’m not sure where you pulled that $4.75 billion figure from, but it has a distinct Dr. Evil “one MILLION dollars” ring to it, especially since you seem to view it as a tax base (potentially yielding “35 percent of $4.75 BILLION dollars!”). The education budget of NYC alone is about $25 billion.
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I cannot believe they did a no-bid contract with a FOR-PROFIT “reform” training academy that has close ties to the superintendent.. excuse me, “CEO”.
Are they TRYING to discredit themselves?
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Folks pointed out to me some of what I left out, and other crazy additions are made every day. So I made another post with the extra bits: http://www.chicagonow.com/chicago-public-fools/2013/07/back-to-school-budgeting-with-cps/ The real whopper here is that CPS added $82M (to the previous year’s $6M budget) to the line item for Office of Portfolio. You know, the office which seeks to ensure “options” for all students.
Thanks for so often bringing Chicago’s situation to the attention of the nation, Diane.
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Hey, what’s more important, sucking up to sports fans or helping Chicago’s kids?
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Chicago has the BULLS at the United Center. This is going to be a stadium for the basketball team of a private Catholic college. It will not generate real estate tax revenues and it’s being funded by TIF (tax dollars).
The city doesn’t need a college stadium and the neighbors don’t want it. What is needed are politicians who listen to the people, prioritize spending and support public education, instead of starving schools of resources, shutting them down and giving them away to charters, as has been the pattern for years and is being ramped up.
http://petitions.moveon.org/sign/join-depaul-in-fight
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