Having approved yet another unbalanced city budget that does little to address the district’s abysmal academic performance or the absence of real accountability, it comes as no surprise that the district is doubling down on the CTU’s failed “Sustainable Community Schools” (SCS) model. CPS is adding 15 more campuses this year and another 19 next year, bringing the total number of schools in the program to 70.
The program first began in 2018 after the CTU successfully embedded the pilot initiative into its collective bargaining agreement. The program sends roughly $500,000 annually to struggling schools in Chicago’s most economically impoverished neighborhoods, ostensibly to provide wraparound services like mental health care and tutoring. Under this model, local schools contract with community non-profits to deliver services. However, there are virtually no guardrails and no concrete metrics to measure program efficacy.
According to Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) data, none of the active Sustainable Community Schools have shown marked academic improvement; in fact, scores at many campuses have declined. Every single one of these schools performs well below its CPS district and network averages in reading and math. At Richards High School in Back of the Yards, for example, state data reveals that fewer than 3% of students are reading at grade level and less than 2% are proficient in math. These dismal outcomes are, unfortunately, the rule rather than the exception.
These dismal results come at a significantly higher cost to taxpayers. On average, SCS campuses spend nearly $2,000 more per student than traditional public schools, and roughly $4,500 more than selective enrollment schools. Yet there is zero empirical evidence that this additional funding yields positive academic outcomes. Instead, evidence indicates that a substantial portion of these dollars is used to reward CTU-aligned community-based organizations and political allies.
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