Public education in many, if not most, of the nation’s urban school systems has been an utter disaster for decades. Now come stunning figures reported by Illinois Policy regarding students’ reading and math proficiency in Chicago Public Schools.
The percentage of eleventh-graders in Chicago Public Schools proficient in math dropped from an abysmal 25.1 in 2018 to 20.5 in 2022. The percentage proficient in reading fell from 25.1 to 21.
The standard excuse offered by demonstrably inept school administrators for horrid test scores is a purported lack of funding and resources. Chicago politicians persist in peddling that excuse despite the fact that annual instructional spending per pupil is $15,274 (a 48 percent increase over four years) and operational spending per pupil is $24,132 (a 52 percent increase over four years). The tandem excuse for this educational debacle is racism — even though a substantial, if not overwhelming, percentage of urban school administrators and teachers are black or brown.
These figures are but a snapshot of similarly abysmal national data for urban public schools adduced by the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights over the last two decades. The same excuses are deployed throughout the nation.
China’s 15-year-olds rank first in the world in math. Ours rank 15th. Disparities that broad eventually produce significant consequences.