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JEFFREY BROWN:The debate over the city of Chicago's plan to close dozens of public schools intensified today. Public school officials cited a billion-dollar deficit and under enrollment as the driving factors behind the move. But critics claim it will hurt the communities where the schools are located, primarily Hispanic and African-American neighborhoods.
The closures could start as soon as this school year ends. This week, parents received letters alerting them to the proposed cuts.
WOMAN:Now we have got to worry about our kids going to another location and worry about what's going to happen to them going to school.
MAN:It's all about routine. And so now you're disrupting the routine of the children.
JEFFREY BROWN:The Chicago Public Schools proposal would close 54 underutilized schools, forcing the relocation of approximately 30,000 students. The district says the move would save $560 million dollars over the next decade.
CPS chief executive officer Barbara Byrd-Bennett addressed the plan in a video posted Wednesday on the district's Web site.
BARBARA BYRD-BENNETT,Chicago Public Schools: What we must do is to ensure that the resources that some kids get, that all kids get. With our consolidations, we're able to guarantee that our children will get what they need and what they deserve.
JEFFREY BROWN:Opponents of the shutdown include the Chicago Teachers Union, whose members struck over demands for higher pay and other issues for a week last September. They have organized a march and rally for next week.
But some parents see the potential change as something positive.
WOMAN:It would be a great opportunity for her to get outside of the neighborhood school and go to a better school.
JEFFREY BROWN:The Chicago Board of Education is expected to vote on the measure in May.
Declining enrollment has also forced other major cities like Washington, D.C., and Philadelphia to close scores of public schools in recent years.
And we take up the debate now with two people at the center of the fight. We start with Jesse Ruiz. He's vice president of the Chicago Board of Education. He was appointed to that post by Mayor Rahm Emanuel in 2011. I spoke with him a short time ago.
Welcome to you.
So, why is such a dramatic action so necessary? Is this resources, money, pure and simple?
JESSE RUIZ,Chicago Board of Education: No. It is twofold.
One, we are looking at a record budget deficit of about one billion dollars next year. So we're looking for every aspect to reap savings in our system. And we have underutilized schools that—as a result from population loss in certain parts of the city of Chicago. And so it's healthy for those schools to right-size, to become fully utilized schools, and thus combining underutilized schools, which happens to then garner us savings that we can reinvest and focus those limited resources we have in one school building, as opposed to multiple, partially used billions.
JEFFREY BROWN:For people around the country, give us a sense of how serious the situation is there. Is there a sense that Chicago is failing some of its students right now?
JESSE RUIZ:I think we have.
We have failed to provide those resources that can give them added benefits, particularly in underserved communities. And so thus we're focusing on these underserved communities. And it happens to be areas where there has been population loss. And so we can consolidate some of these schools, save $43 million a year in operations, reinvest those $43 million into the classrooms, and directly toward our students that will benefit them every single day and help them get a better education in Chicago public schools.
JEFFREY BROWN:One of the criticisms, of course, is that this will hurt poor neighborhoods even more. They will lose a kind of hub of the neighborhood and that many of the students will now have to travel longer distances, in many cases through unsafe neighborhoods.
JESSE RUIZ:Sure.
And we're cognizant of those concerns. We're concerned about those things, and thus looking to repurpose some of those buildings so that they don't stay vacant, that they continue to serve the neighborhoods, just simply not as schools, perhaps as parent centers, other neighborhood centers, perhaps that other NGOs and nonprofits can use those for other services to provide to the community.
Meanwhile, we can take those savings and then also put it into safe passage programs to make sure that students that now have to travel in different routes or a little bit further will have a safe route to get to school and try to ensure that the safety and security of our students is utmost.
And so we're going to reinvest those dollars to make sure they have a safe—and feel comfortable attending a new school.
JEFFREY BROWN:But doesn't that take some money to repurpose those buildings? I guess one argument would be the money you're going to use for that, you could use to do to enhance the buildings right now, keep the kids there.
JESSE RUIZ:Well, we won't repurpose the buildings. Other folks will. We could potentially provide the building to them at little or low cost, and other agencies can do that. We will take the money that we will save, again $43 million dollars a year in simply not operating them.
On top of that, we will save $560 million dollars in the next decade in capital avoidance of costs that we won't have to put into some of these buildings that are very, very old and need a lot of repairs. We'd rather focus those on a newer facility that's more already prepared for 21st century learning with the latest technology and libraries and laboratories that students need and the technology that students need to use to learn today.
JEFFREY BROWN:Another question I have heard is, why all at once? I mean, this is—it becomes a very disruptive thing when you do so many schools at one time.
Is the city prepared for this, when you're going to have thousands of people, many buildings affected?
