CHICAGO – WBEZ reports that despite getting $250 million more from the state of Illinois in the latest education budget, the Chicago Public Schools will lose thousands more students this year, as it did last year.
It's part of the biggest loss of black students since Chicago's white flight in the 70s, the radio report says.
CPS has been hemorrhaging students for years, and it expects enrollment will drop this year by another 8,000 students. Last year, CPS saw an enrollment loss of 11,000 students, the largest single-year drop in recent history. More than one-third of the district’s African-American students — 83,000 black children — have left the school system since 2000. It’s the largest exodus from Chicago schools since white flight in the 1970s. These major student declines mean cuts to individual school budgets, layoffs, and potential school closings. This year, CPS expects 306,000 students in the district-run public schools and another 58,000 in the city’s charter schools, which are privately run but publicly funded.
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