Chicago

Many people feel that cultural problems begin with good education or in this case lack thereof. The convention has brought attention to Chicago and in particular Chicago schools. It exposes a failed system. Keeping politics out of the way and not just blaming the teachers union take a look at the facts. According to data provided by the Chicago Public School (CPS) spending per student has doubled since 2012 but test scores have dropped. Only 26% of students in grades 3-8 can read at grade level and only 18% can do math proficiently. These are average scores so when you look at schools that are mostly minority students the scores are lower. Chronic absenteeism is 40%, meaning students miss 10% or more of classes. The students who tend to do poorly in school are more likely to end up on the bottom of the income scale and many will be living below the poverty level. Many come from single parent families and the boys tend toward criminal activities and the girls toward early pregnancy. Many of the problems of racism in the country have been over come but this is one area where progress has been stymied. Many solutions have been tried but to no avail. Discipline problems are all too common as students have not learned respect for authority. It takes only one disruptive student to adversely effect the entire class.