{"id":2002,"date":"2026-09-15T08:50:15","date_gmt":"2026-09-15T08:50:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/urbaneconomynews.com\/?p=2002"},"modified":"2026-09-15T08:50:15","modified_gmt":"2026-09-15T08:50:15","slug":"a-tale-of-three-cities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/urbaneconomynews.com\/?p=2002","title":{"rendered":"A Tale of Three Cities"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Chicago, the so-called Second City, is the third-most populous city in the U.S., but its school district is currently the fourth-largest. (Miami is now third.)<\/p>\n

Read more Morning Greatness: SCOTUS Rejects Trump Bid to Revive Strict Mail-Ballot Rules Before Midterms<\/a><\/p>\n

The city\u2019s schools are in disarray, and students are abandoning them. Enrollment has fallen sharply over the past 15 years, from nearly 403,000 students in 2010\u201311 to just over 316,000 in 2025\u201326. This decline has left about 150 of the city\u2019s schools half-empty, and 47 are operating at less than one-third capacity, driving up costs and limiting course options.<\/p>\n

Stunningly, the Frederick Douglass Academy, with 47 classrooms built to accommodate 1,000 students, has only 27 students. Yet the school has 28 full-time staff members. As a result, in 2023\u201324, Douglass spent $93,000 per pupil.<\/p>\n

Students who remain in Chicago public schools don\u2019t receive an adequate education. The latest National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) shows that only of the city\u2019s 8th graders are proficient in reading and in math.<\/p>\n

At more than 50 Chicago schools, not one pupil is proficient in math. The 20 lowest-enrollment schools, which spend $33,500 per student, have an average reading proficiency of 11 percent.<\/p>\n

Additionally, Chicago is home to what is probably the most detestable teachers\u2019 union in the country, and its membership is quite costly, with dues totaling $1,476 per year. <\/p>\n

And exactly how are those dues being used?<\/p>\n

According to the union\u2019s own accounting, only 18 percent of its budget goes to \u201crepresentational activities,\u201d while most of its funds go to leftist political causes.<\/p>\n

In its latest gambit, the CTU\u2019s House of Delegates voted to celebrate this year\u2019s May Day as a time for \u201ccivic education and action,\u201d designating May 1 a \u201cday of no school, no work, no shopping to turn back the authoritarianism threatening us all.\u201d<\/p>\n

Since 2022, the union has been led by Stacy Davis Gates, who Chicago Magazine ranks as the city\u2019s fifth most powerful person, one spot ahead of Mayor Brandon Johnson, a former CTU organizer.<\/p>\n

Among other things, Gates is a world-class hypocrite for sending her own son to private school after calling them \u201csegregation academies\u201d and labeling school-choice supporters as fascists.<\/p>\n

In 2024, Gates bizarrely told a Chicago radio station that standardized testing \u201cat best is junk science rooted in white supremacy\u201d and that \u201cyou can\u2019t test black children with an instrument that was born to prove their inferiority.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Los Angeles Unified School District, the second-largest in the country, is also embattled and has seen many of its students leave.<\/p>\n

LAUSD\u2019s enrollment peaked in the 2002\u201303 school year at 724,113 pupils but has since plummeted. Projected enrollment for 2027\u201328 is 375,661 students.<\/p>\n

Students in LAUSD are poorly educated. The 2024 NAEP revealed that only are proficient in reading and .<\/p>\n

The already struggling school district is facing severe financial challenges due to declining enrollment, the expiration of COVID-19 relief funding, and rising operating costs.<\/p>\n

Read more It\u2019s Time to Revoke the Activist Teachers\u2019 Union\u2019s Federal Charter<\/a><\/p>\n

The district will face many difficult fiscal decisions over the next several months. Schools will receive their 2027\u201328 budget allocations this fall, and the board will discuss the workforce reductions required to balance the budget.<\/p>\n

Looking beyond the immediate budget crisis, school consolidation\u00a0is likely unavoidable as enrollment continues to tumble.<\/p>\n

As in Chicago, the teachers\u2019 union, the United Teachers of Los Angeles, is more focused on politics than on education.<\/p>\n

In fact, UTLA considers itself a foreign policy authority. In October 2024, its governing body voted to support a congressional effort to block the sale of more than $20 billion in U.S. weaponry to Israel, arguing that American-supplied arms were being used against civilians.<\/p>\n

Because of UTLA leadership\u2019s pro-Palestinian stance, teachers who do not want to be represented by the union filed a lawsuit in October 2024 after UTLA called for the destruction of the plaintiffs\u2019 religious homeland and promoted \u201canimosity and violence towards people of Jewish descent.\u201d<\/p>\n

This past May, the Department of Education\u2019s Office for Civil Rights also launched an inquiry into LAUSD policies. Federal officials said that district agreements with the teachers\u2019 union appeared to automatically reassign\u2014rather than terminate or remove\u2014teachers accused of sexual harassment, abuse, or possession of child pornography, instead of removing them from the classroom.<\/p>\n

Then there is New York City, home to the largest school district in the U.S. It once served a million students but now serves about 781,000. Estimates suggest that number will fall further by the 2034\u201335 school year, with projections indicating that just 628,000 K\u201312 students will be enrolled.<\/p>\n

Reading scores in New York City fell last school year, according to recently released data. Among students in grades 3\u20138, about half were proficient in reading, a 6 percent decrease.<\/p>\n

The downturn in reading proficiency was most pronounced in grades 3\u20135, with a nearly 14 percent decline among third graders. Fourth-grade scores fell by nearly 6 percent, and 5th-grade scores by 13 percent.<\/p>\n

A major issue in New York is chronic absenteeism\u2014defined as missing 10 percent or more of school days in a year. In the 2018\u201319 academic year, the rate was 26.5 percent, and it rose to 34.8 percent five years later. These habits start early, as 37.8 percent of kindergarteners were chronically absent during the 2024\u201325 school year.<\/p>\n

Educating children in New York City is expensive. The NYC Department of Education will spend more than $42,000 per pupil this school year.<\/p>\n

As in Chicago and Los Angeles, New York\u2019s teachers\u2019 union, the United Federation of Teachers, once led by teacher-union godfather Albert Shanker, remains highly influential, prioritizing political influence over student performance and teacher accountability.<\/p>\n

As is typical of teachers\u2019 unions, the UFT\u2019s strict tenure rules and lengthy disciplinary processes make it costly and nearly impossible to fire underperforming or incompetent educators. This, of course, directly harms student learning outcomes, especially in low-income communities.<\/p>\n

Additionally, the union charges teachers more than $1,700 per year in dues.<\/p>\n

Ultimately, in this tale of three cities, unlike the fabled Dickens story, there is no \u201cbest of times,\u201d only the worst of times, with no end in sight.<\/p>\n

Read more The Fantasy House of Mark Carney<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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