This week, we’re reading about Illinois’ regressive school funding formula, how Chicago communities are fighting deportation, and how CPS policies have worked to segregate Black students as well as Black teachers. A Just Chicago will have more on the new… This week, we’re reading about the illusion of school choice and how Chicago communities are pushing back against it, the impact of Chicago’s demographic changes, and some real solutions for CPS’s budget woes.
1. The Real Problem with Chicago’s Shrinking … 
A review of the hundreds of expenditures every year authorized by the unelected Board of Education shows hundreds of millions of dollars in payments to vendors. These vendors are seldom required to prove that they are worth the money paid to them. 
Community groups, members of Chicago’s Puerto Rican community, religious leaders, and union members made a joint statement on Thursday, decrying the predation of financial institutions on Puerto Rico’s public services and residents, and calling on the U.S. Federal Reserve Bank to step in and offer Puerto Rico assistance similar to which was given to big financial institutions over the last decade. 
Just days after schools found out about another outrageous round of cuts to their special education staff, the district’s Office of Diverse Leaners and Support Services (ODLSS) offered a defensive presentation to the Board of Education filled with even more distortions. District Chief Education Officer Janice Jackson prefaced their presentation, stating that misrepresentations were circulating about special education, that the district would explain how the layoffs were decided, and repeated their assertion that the district was committed to meeting all legally required services in students’ IEPs. 