Chicago public education can’t get much worse

As Chicago voters prepare to elect either Brandon Johnson or Paul Vallas as the city’s next mayor, the stakes for students are, ironically, low.

That’s because Chicago’s K-12 education can’t get much worse.

The Illinois Report Card, containing education data from 2021-2022, pulled back the curtain on the dismal reality of public education in the state.

Fifty-three of the state’s 4,000 schools don’t have a single student proficient in math, Wirepoints reports. Unsurprisingly, many of those failing schools are in Chicago.

Not a single student can do math at grade level in 53 #Illinois schools. For reading, it’s 30 schools. Not 1 single student. Education data from @ISBEnews

It's yet another indictment of the state’s educational system. Via @Wirepointshttps://t.co/rMZlnHjcgK #twill #SchoolChoice… pic.twitter.com/meKyUDo7sk

— Wirepoints (@Wirepoints) February 14, 2023

While not every school fails so spectacularly, the prognosis for public education in Illinois isn’t promising.  

Districts statewide reported a mere 30% proficiency in English language arts and 26% in math. In Chicago, those numbers were 20% and 16%, respectively. 

SAT scores suffered similarly, with state averages around 29-30% and Chicago averages at 21%. 

One of the sharpest declines was in science, where only one-third of students were rated proficient despite half of all Illinois students meeting standards.  

Yet despite every other metric indicating academic decline, Chicago’s graduation rates have marginally risen. 

Meanwhile in the mayoral election, the Chicago Teachers Union and Randi Weingarten, head of the American Federation of Teachers, have thrown their full weight behind Brandon Johnson, and prominent conservatives are endorsing Paul Vallas.

she's losing control over the minds of other people's children and she can't handle it https://t.co/z7Q9truQKn

— Corey A. DeAngelis, school choice evangelist (@DeAngelisCorey) April 3, 2023

Speaking at a recent rally, Weingarten accused Vallas of “ruining” the New Orleans and Philadelphia districts where he served as superintendent and CEO respectively. 

Weingarten isn’t exactly an unbiased source, but her accusations fall flat anyway. 

If the pandemic taught us anything, it’s that teachers’ unions can’t do anything to make education better, and, even if he tried, Vallas couldn’t do anything to make Chicago schools worse.