Slipping Away

For the first time in some years, the population of the CPS schools has dipped below 400,000 students. To most, that isn't all that meaningful. After all, you teach whoever shows up at the door. I get that point. What is troubling is the fact that the slid has other implications for all of those involved in running and attending the schools.

For one, state and federal funding is affected by enrollment on the 20th day of classes. There is certainly bound to be less of these funds heading to CPS schools due to the decline in enrollment.

Just as troubling, at least to me, is the constant drip of students out of the CPS system into the myriad number of other school systems in the city. The reason I raise the issue is not to take a shot at these systems; rather, the more students who leave CPS the more the negativity surrounds those who remain within the hallways of CPS schools.

Critics of CPS will say that the options offered elsewhere better serve the students. Whether this is true or not may be tough to judge and never really comprehended by the masses.

For me, it is hard to watch the system lose students.

Dick