Philadelphia and Chicago public schools’ experiencing similar fates

The Philadelphia and Chicago school systems are both in trouble. Decades of mismanagement have left both districts in financial free-fall. Philadelphia has a $304 million deficit. It has already taken some steps to address it – closing 24 schools this summer and laying off more than 4,000 employees, including almost 700 teachers. District leaders tried...

The Philadelphia and Chicago school systems are both in trouble. Decades of mismanagement have left both districts in financial free-fall.

Philadelphia has a $304 million deficit. It has already taken some steps to address it – closing 24 schools this summer and laying off more than 4,000 employees, including almost 700 teachers.

District leaders tried earlier this year to get $180 million more from the city and state. Instead, the Republican-controlled General Assembly gave Philadelphia the power to keep a 1 percent sales tax increase that was set to expire, which is expected to bring in $120 million to schools.

The state also agreed to give the district a one-time $45 million grant – not nearly enough to close the budget gap.

Unfortunately, Chicago is in much worse shape.

While its $1 billion deficit was taken care of this year from savings generated by closing 50 schools and laying off more than 3,000 employees, and by accessing more than $700 million in reserve funds, next year it faces a similar deficit with no realistic plan to pay for it.

The cities’ financial troubles aren’t the only thing they have in common – they also both have unreasonable teachers unions.
Philadelphia teachers are currently working without a contract because their union’s leader refuses to agree to a 10 percent across-the-board pay cut and begin paying a share of their health-care premiums, even though these two actions are necessary to prevent the school district from declaring bankruptcy.

In Chicago, Karen Lewis, the president of the Chicago Teachers Union, pushed for a contract that increased teacher salaries by 17 percent over four years, did nothing to address pension costs and gutted accountability measures aimed at increasing student outcomes even though she knew the district couldn’t afford it.

It’s time for district leaders to spend money wisely and efficiently, and for teachers union bosses to stop only looking out for their own interests and instead trying to create an education system that is financially viable and works for the students.