…but the predictable solution from the teachers union is to spend more and hire more staff.

The Illinois Policy Institute has run through the numbers. Douglass Academy High School has 35 students enrolled for the 2023-2024 school year in a building with a 900-student capacity. It also has a 64% absentee rate.  That means, on an average day, this building has 16 students… and 23 staff. Yet the Chicago Teacher’s Union demands the school add eight more staff, including a “librarian, librarian assistant, social worker, newcomer liaison, case manager, restorative justice coordinator, ‘Climate Champion,’ and gender support coordinator and/or LGBTQ+ lead/specialist.”

According to IPI: “Douglass already spends over $68,000 per student. All that money and all that potential staff attention, yet it failed to produce even a single student who was proficient in either reading or math on a recent SAT.”

This is the most extreme example, but many public schools in once-great American cities are overfunded, underattended, and failing to educate children. Opponents of school choice want families to have no real alternatives.