>> 53 schools and 61 buildings it plans to close at the end of the school year
Closing 53 schools sounds crazy, but does that mean the attending students will have no place to go next school year?
They have had a huge population loss.
They were structured to handle many more students in the past.
But, the students are not there to fill the schools.
The current students will be absorbed into other schools,
It means they'll go a couple blocks away to another half-empty school building. You do realize that this is all about having to use tax dollars to pay fewer principals, teachers, "guidance counselors", a zillion miscellaneous "administrators", school nurses, janitors, etc., etc., etc.? It's all about the unions. The kids have nothing to do with this battle.
Problem is Chicago enrollment in public schools have dropped badly. They have enough schools for 600,000 pupils, but only 500,000 students attend public schools. Keeping schools open with classrooms short 15 to 20 percent of students cost money to operate, money Chicago does not have.
Chicago is divided into little feudal duchies, and each little fiefdom is savagely protective of it's turf. As long as the little barons declare fidelity to the Man on Five, and provide the requisite number of votes, they are paid, and otherwise ignored.
It's sort of hard on slow children caught in the crossfire, but the smart ones survive and eventually take over their father's baronies.
I'd call it a return to the Dark Ages, but that's racist.
No really crazy....
The Chicago school system has capacity for over 500,000 students....a little more than 400,000 attend...
The laws of economics still apply even in a socialist hellhole like Chicago....
Those students are being transferred to other schools.