Is the System Broken?

I’ve never set foot in a Chicago public school. Four years in this city, and I can’t name a single CPS student I’ve met. I only know a handful of teachers. CPS and I are not well acquainted.

And yet, I know the system’s problems. Not because I lived them, but because I’ve sat through countless interviews with politicians, parents and community members. They all say the same thing: The system is broken.

When I’m not copy editing for this class, I work for the Chicago Tribune’s editorial board. Arguably the most important thing we do is endorse candidates running in both general and city elections. The process is messy. There’s a lot of phone calling, scheduling, rescheduling and interviewing. We just finished bringing in candidates running for alderman and the five mayoral candidates. Education was a hot topic.

These interviews put the problems of Chicago in perspective. When candidates from the North Side came in, we heard grips about housing complexes and parking lots. The South and West Sides, though — that’s where the tougher problems rear their ugly heads.

Poverty, violence and crime riddle many of these wards. They tear neighbors apart. Several candidates mentioned that students can’t walk to school safely or don’t have enough school supplies. Some blamed problems on underperforming schools, others blamed charter schools. No candidate had a sure-fire way to keep kids safe in and out of school.

We are a city divided; no one knows what’s best for our ailing school system. The Chicago Teachers’ Union has poured money into candidates’ campaigns all across the city, hoping to keep our traditional public school system alive through City Hall.

But with a five-year graduation rate hovering at 69 percent (well below the national average of 80 percent), CPS is failing its students.

The 600 schools face a combined debt of $6.3 billion. In the past, the Board of Education took risky financial moves to manage that debt, and will end up paying more because of those dangerous investments, the Tribune reported earlier this year.

Yes, the school system has made improvements; that graduate rate has been on the rise for the last two years. We now have a longer school day and year. For each year CPS lags behind, though, it puts that many more students at a disadvantage.

It’s hard to hear these politicians — who are often parents or teachers — grapple with CPS’s problems. It’s often where we hear the most powerful rhetoric; it’s also where we hear many of the least progressive ideas. That’s the scariest part. We don’t really know where to go from here.

Reading the stories in Mosaic have given me hope, though — at least more hope than many would-be politicians. Chicago’s blend of public, private and charter schools are still breeding grounds for innovation. They’re like little labs, where teachers and students are trying to pull themselves out of the cycle. Public education isn’t dead in Chicago.