Chicago Public Schools' Enrollment Crisis Is Caused by Poor Leadership and Union Politics, Not Just Demographics
Source: "Chicago Public Schools lose students to charter and magnet schools | Fox News." September 22, 2026. www.foxnews.com
The Gist
Chicago's public schools are losing students in droves, with some buildings barely occupied at all. The author argues this isn't just because people are leaving the city or having fewer kids—it's because the schools themselves are failing due to poor discipline and a teachers' union more focused on politics than education, so families are choosing charter, magnet, and private schools instead.
Conclusion
Chicago Public Schools' dramatic enrollment decline and half-empty buildings are primarily caused by failures of school leadership and the teachers' union prioritizing politics over education, not just demographic shifts like population loss and falling birth rates.
Premises
- CPS has lost more than 77,000 students since 2010, with 35% of schools less than half full and some schools at 2% capacity
- While population decline and falling birth rates explain some enrollment loss, they don't account for all of it, since children still living in the city are actively choosing alternatives
- Students report that traditional public schools lack discipline, teachers cannot control disruptive students, and some teachers pass students without real learning occurring
- Black students in selective enrollment schools are three times more likely to read at grade level and five times more likely to be proficient in math than Black students in traditional public schools
- CPS's enrollment share dropped from 75% to 71%, representing roughly 18,000 children choosing charter, magnet, parochial, or private schools instead
- The Chicago Teachers Union spent $4.2 million on politics and lobbying in 2025 while spending less than 18% of its budget on representing teachers, and helped elect a mayor who then froze school closings and fought school-choice initiatives
- CTU helped kill Illinois' Invest in Kids scholarship program and uses 'days of action' to promote activism rather than academics, with the union head not even sending her own children to CPS schools
Assumptions
- Parents and students are rational actors who choose schools based primarily on educational quality and safety outcomes
- The correlation between school choice enrollment growth and reported quality problems in traditional schools implies causation
- Union political spending and school choice opposition directly harm students rather than reflecting legitimate policy positions
- Discipline problems and grade inflation are widespread systemic issues rather than isolated incidents
- School choice alternatives (charter, magnet, private) are genuinely superior rather than simply serving self-selected populations