More on Englewood

So a new $85 million high school will be built in Englewood that will start accepting freshmen in 2019. $85 million is NOT an extraordinary amount to spend on a school. That being said, $85 million would do much good for the four Englewood high schools that are facing closure not to mention other district needs.

True the enrollments are down substantially at Team Englewood, Harper, Robeson, and Hope. But you can't tell me that closing all four of these institutions will take care of low enrollment, low test scores, students going to schools outside of the neighborhood and more.

Don't get me wrong, the CPS brass should address the above problems and more. But the problems run deeper than merely low enrollments and people leaving the neighborhood. Unless and until the school district, city government and civic leaders sit down to address the larger causal problems then a bright shinny school will not, alone, address the academic deficiencies along with the socioeconomic conditions which the good people of Englewood have long had to deal with.

Dick