Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel To Close 54 Public Schools, Largest Shutdown In U.S. History

While no local schools will be closed, the South Side was hit with a number of school shut-downs.

Chicago Public Schools will close 54 school programs and 61 buildings, officials announced Thursday.

The city was tossed into upheaval as parents and teachers slowly began to learn which schools will be closed at the end of this school year.

Chicago Public Schools officials released a final list at 5 p.m., but principals and aldermen started leaking the information as early as 6 a.m. Thursday.

The announcement made history as the largest amount of school closings the city has ever seen. In total, 71 schools will be drastically changed: six schools were named as turnarounds, 11 will be co-located and 54 will be shut down.

Most are on the South and West sides of the city.

No schools in the 19th Ward were marked for closing either in the final list released Thursday or the preliminary list.

Union officials were even more outraged to learn that Mayor Rahm Emanuel is on a family skiing vacation in Utah during the announcements.

"Today, a vacationing Mayor Rahm Emanuel is sending our school district into utter chaos," a CTU release said. "CPS lacks the capacity to close 50 schools. The CTU contends closing these schools are unnecessary, will not save the district or taxpayers a single dollar, and put students’ safety and academics at risk."

Schools that take in more students will receive extra perks, CPS CEO Barbara Byrd-Bennett announced Thursday. Those include air conditioning, additional library books and discretionary funding for principals.

Additionally, 19 schools will be given new programs in fine arts, Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) and International Baccalaureate.

The promised goods aren’t enough for some principals. Clarice Berry, the president of the Chicago Principals and Administrators Association, spoke to the Chicago Tribune before Thursday’s 5 p.m. school closings announcement.

“I’m angry. I’m upset. I’m shaking to the core. I didn’t think they’d actually go through with this, the largest number of closings ever. There’s been no real planning,” she told the Chicago Tribune.

With nearly half its schools defined as “underutilized,” CPS officials say the school closings are necessary because of a $1 billion budget deficit in the coming fiscal year.

Final list of school closings from CPS:
Close Altgeld into Wentworth @ Altgeld (new STEM program at Altgeld)
Close Armstrong and May into Leland @ May (new STEM program at Leland)
Phase out Attucks over 2 years, close into Beethoven Fall 2015
Close Banneker into Mays @ Banneker
Close Bethune into Gregory
Close Bontemps into Nicholson (new STEM program at Nicholson)
Close Calhoun into Cather
Close Canter into Harte and Ray
Close De Duprey and Von Humboldt into De Diego (new IB programme at De Diego)
Close Delano into Melody @ Delano
Close Dumas into Wadsworth @ Dumas (new STEM program at Wadsworth)
Close Emmet into Ellington and DePriest (new STEM programs at Ellington and DePriest)
Close Ericson into Sumner (new STEM program at Sumner)
Close Fermi into South Shore Fine Arts
Close Garfield Park into Faraday
Close Garvey into Mount Vernon
Close Goldblatt into Hefferan (new STEM program at Hefferan)
Close Goodlow into Earle @ Goodlow (new STEM program at Earle)
Close Henson into C. Hughes
Close Herbert into Dett @ Herbert
Close M. Jackson into Fort Dearborn
Close Key into Ellington (new STEM program atEllington)
Close King into Jensen
Close Kohn into Cullen, Lavizzo, and L. Hughes (new STEM program in L. Hughes)
Close Lafayette into Chopin
Close Lawrence into Burnham @ Lawrence
Close Manierre into Jenner (new IB programme at Jenner)
Close Marconi into Tilton (new STEM program at Tilton)
Close Mayo into Wells @ Mayo (new IB programme at Wells)
Close Morgan into Ryder
Close Overton into Mollison (new IB programme at Mollison)
Close Owens into Gompers (new STEM program at Gompers)
Close Paderewski into Cardenas and Castellanos
Close Parkman into Sherwood
Close Peabody into Otis
Close Pershing West into Pershing East @ PershingWest
Close Pope into Johnson
Close Ross into Dulles
Close Ryerson into Ward @ Ryerson (new STEM program at Ward)
Close Sexton into Fiske @ Sexton (new IB programme at Fiske)
Close Songhai into Curtis
Close Stewart into Brennemann
Close Stockton into Courtenay @ Stockton
Close Trumbull into Chappell, McPherson, and McCutcheon
Close West Pullman into Haley (new Fine and Performing Arts program at Haley)
Close Williams ES and Williams MS into Drake @ Williams; co-locate with Urban Prep
Close Woods into Bass
Close Yale into Harvard
Close Near North and Buckingham into Montefiore
Mason moves from K-11 to K-8*
Co-Location Schools
Richard T. Crane Medical Prep HS with Chicago Talent Development HS and Richard T. Crane Technical Prep HS
Noble-Comer with Revere ES
New Noble HS with Bowen HS
Montessori Charter of Englewood with O’Toole
Kwame Nkrumah Charter with Gresham
New KIPP with Hope HS
Disney II expansion with Marshall Middle
Belmont Cragin K-8 with Northwest Middle (Belmont Cragin preK program remains in current location)
New Noble HS with Corliss HS
Dodge with Morton
Drake with Urban Prep Academy for Young Men – Bronzeville
Turnaround Schools
Barton
Chalmers
Dewey
O’Keefe
Carter
Lewis

Source: Patch

PIIGS In America: Is Illinois Preparing To Request A Federal Bailout?

Charlotte Thomson Iserbyt: Former Senior Policy Advisor In The U.S. Department Of Education 'The Deliberate Dumbing Down Of America'

That settles it!

Unless the only alternative is Wichita, I am not going to move to Chicago.

Hell, Teawipe Parrotriots, you all should be on board with this since it is eliminating those tools of liburrel devils - public schools. Just think of all of the tax dollars being saved.

You useless fucks are disgusting. Maybe we will get lucky and your jaws will explode from the rigors of talking out of both sides of your mouths.

That should drop the crime rate there.

The mayor of Chicago is over Chicago's school system? Most cities' schools are not under the mayor's office.

Once again Candy passed the idiot test. Congratulations Candy!

I don't know these schools in Chicago but on NPR a representative for the black community (how do you get that job anyway) said that most of the schools are black schools (I would have figured brick red but you never know)

Since I'm assuming they're all in the hood nobody really would care

Hmmm....so where do all the hood children go?

I applaud the Mayor - we need cost cutters, and the schools are underutilized. Close the fuckers down and save the taxpayers money, and fuck over the union! Good for him.

The more negative press Emanuel reaps the better.

Hell, Teawipe Parrotriots, you all should be on board with this since it is eliminating those tools of liburrel devils - public schools. Just think of all of the tax dollars being saved.

You useless fucks are disgusting. Maybe we will get lucky and your jaws will explode from the rigors of talking out of both sides of your mouths. Originally Posted by Randy4Candy

You can bet your ass that it wasn't conservatives that ran these fucking schools in the ground.

Actually, if the schools are underperforming, and operating at less than capacity, it makes sense to consolidate programs. Maybe the godfather got one right.

He may be right but we need a post mortem on what happened, who is responsible, and how much did it cost. More importantly, was it preventable?

JD's link http://www.zerohedge.com/news/piigs-...ederal-bailout


PIIGS In America: Is Illinois Preparing To Request A Federal Bailout?
Submitted by Tyler Durden on 09/21/2012 16:20 -0400



Moments ago we saw the following amusing headline crossing the BBG:

ILLINOIS TEACHERS' PENSION FUND CUTS RATE OF RETURN TO 8% FROM 8.5%
It's amusing because these are the same teachers who were demanding, and received, higher pay - 17% higher over four years in fact - following a several day strike. It is even more amusing considering that in a fiscal year in which we saw QE2, Operation Twist 1 and 2, and LTRO 1 and 2, the nation's largest pension fund, Calpers, managed to eek out a measly 1% gain (and this is including the end of June surge following the then announced European bailout which turned out to be yet another dud). It is, however sadly, most amusing, because it may be a harbinger of something truly sad: the advent of the "PIIG bailout" to America, when a US state demands a Federal bailout. We have seen how eager Europe has been to bailout its insolvent nations. We are next about to see just how "united" the US is when its own solidarity is tested as state after state repeat the European bailout experience. But hey: at least we have the dollar so all should be well.

From the WSJ:

Now that Chicago's children have returned to not learning in school, we can all move on to the next crisis in Illinois public finance: unfunded public pensions. Readers who live in the other 49 states will be pleased to learn that Governor Pat Quinn's 2012 budget proposal already floated the idea of a federal guarantee of its pension debt. Think Germany and eurobonds for Greece, Italy and Spain.

Thank you for sharing, Governor.
...

Illinois now has some $8 billion in current debts outstanding and taxpayers are on the hook for more than $200 billion in unfunded retirement costs for government workers. By some estimates, the system could be the first in the nation to go broke, as early as 2018.

For years, states have engaged in elaborate accounting tricks to improve appearances, including using an unrealistically high 8% "discount" rate to account for future liabilities. To make that fairy tale come true, state pension funds would have to average returns of 8% a year, which even the toothless Government Accounting Standards Board and Moody's have said are unrealistic.

The city is already facing upwards of a $1 billion deficit next year with hundreds of millions of dollars in annual pension costs for retired teachers coming due. But despite the fiscal imperatives, the negotiation didn't even discuss pensions. The final deal gave unions a more than 17% raise over four years, while they keep benefits and pensions that workers in the wealth-creating private economy can only imagine.

As a political matter, public unions are pursuing a version of the GM strategy: Never make a concession at the state level, figuring that if things get really bad the federal government will have no political choice but to bail out the pensions if not the entire state. Mr. Quinn made that official by pointing out in his budget proposal that "significant long-term improvements" in the state pension debt will come from "seeking a federal guarantee of the debt."
So when the time comes to bail out Chicago we can just tell America's insolvent state(s), who will soon pursue the MAD strategy of Europe's PIIGS, to demand a bailout with the ECB. We are confident the ECB will be more than happy to comply: after all quite soon Mario Draghi will realize that his goal should be to push the EUR down not up, and taking on more and more bailouts and money printing is precisely what he should be doing to once again retake the lead in the global FX race to debase.

After all, as it was already made clear earlier, Obama's promise in exchange for European votes, is to bail out Europe. It is only fair that Europe reciprocate after the election.

Quid pro quo.

And now: the End of the Beniverse

Must be a way for him to profit from closing the schools. My bet would be kick-backs for the construction of the reaming schools to accommodate the larger enrollment. Chicago politics at it's finest.

JD's link http://www.zerohedge.com/news/piigs-...ederal-bailout


PIIGS In America: Is Illinois Preparing To Request A Federal Bailout?
Submitted by Tyler Durden on 09/21/2012 16:20 -0400



Moments ago we saw the following amusing headline crossing the BBG:

ILLINOIS TEACHERS' PENSION FUND CUTS RATE OF RETURN TO 8% FROM 8.5%
It's amusing because these are the same teachers who were demanding, and received, higher pay - 17% higher over four years in fact - following a several day strike. It is even more amusing considering that in a fiscal year in which we saw QE2, Operation Twist 1 and 2, and LTRO 1 and 2, the nation's largest pension fund, Calpers, managed to eek out a measly 1% gain (and this is including the end of June surge following the then announced European bailout which turned out to be yet another dud). It is, however sadly, most amusing, because it may be a harbinger of something truly sad: the advent of the "PIIG bailout" to America, when a US state demands a Federal bailout. We have seen how eager Europe has been to bailout its insolvent nations. We are next about to see just how "united" the US is when its own solidarity is tested as state after state repeat the European bailout experience. But hey: at least we have the dollar so all should be well.

From the WSJ:

Now that Chicago's children have returned to not learning in school, we can all move on to the next crisis in Illinois public finance: unfunded public pensions. Readers who live in the other 49 states will be pleased to learn that Governor Pat Quinn's 2012 budget proposal already floated the idea of a federal guarantee of its pension debt. Think Germany and eurobonds for Greece, Italy and Spain.

Thank you for sharing, Governor.
...

Illinois now has some $8 billion in current debts outstanding and taxpayers are on the hook for more than $200 billion in unfunded retirement costs for government workers. By some estimates, the system could be the first in the nation to go broke, as early as 2018.

For years, states have engaged in elaborate accounting tricks to improve appearances, including using an unrealistically high 8% "discount" rate to account for future liabilities. To make that fairy tale come true, state pension funds would have to average returns of 8% a year, which even the toothless Government Accounting Standards Board and Moody's have said are unrealistic.

The city is already facing upwards of a $1 billion deficit next year with hundreds of millions of dollars in annual pension costs for retired teachers coming due. But despite the fiscal imperatives, the negotiation didn't even discuss pensions. The final deal gave unions a more than 17% raise over four years, while they keep benefits and pensions that workers in the wealth-creating private economy can only imagine.

As a political matter, public unions are pursuing a version of the GM strategy: Never make a concession at the state level, figuring that if things get really bad the federal government will have no political choice but to bail out the pensions if not the entire state. Mr. Quinn made that official by pointing out in his budget proposal that "significant long-term improvements" in the state pension debt will come from "seeking a federal guarantee of the debt."
So when the time comes to bail out Chicago we can just tell America's insolvent state(s), who will soon pursue the MAD strategy of Europe's PIIGS, to demand a bailout with the ECB. We are confident the ECB will be more than happy to comply: after all quite soon Mario Draghi will realize that his goal should be to push the EUR down not up, and taking on more and more bailouts and money printing is precisely what he should be doing to once again retake the lead in the global FX race to debase.

After all, as it was already made clear earlier, Obama's promise in exchange for European votes, is to bail out Europe. It is only fair that Europe reciprocate after the election.

Quid pro quo.

And now: the End of the Beniverse Originally Posted by IIFFOFRDB

Yes, and we the sheeple are going to get screwed by the bastards.