HAS ANY ACTION BEEN TAKEN TO COMBAT OVERCROWDING IN SCHOOLS?
By: Elexis Mitchell
Large, overcrowded classrooms are an issue across Chicago Public Schools, most prominent on the Northwest and Southwest sides of Chicago. Overcrowding in schools has a negative impact on students because with about 30 students and one teacher, students don't get the individual attention they need to be as successful as possible. The question then becomes, if large class sizes impedes students' learning, why hasn't it been fixed? The following are initiatives to combat overcrowding in schools.
One proposed solution to overcrowded schools is turning some of those schools into charter schools. Charter schools are free for students to attend and are funded by the government but operated independently. While charter schools have the ability to set class size and teacher ratios, charter schools aren't a permanent fix to overcrowding. According to this article on The Chicago Tribune's website, " In August [2013], CPS put out a request for proposals for charter elementary schools in nine areas — Albany Irving, Ashburn, Belmont Cragin, Chicago Lawn, McKinley Park, Midway, Little Village, Reed-Dunning and Sauganash — and for charter high schools on the Southwest and Northwest sides." These proposals for new schools were made following the closing of 50 public schools across Chicago. Building these schools does not solve the issue of overcrowding due to the fact that all the students that were crammed into the schools that closed will now be heaped into these charter schools. Also, according to Report: CPS Plan For Charter School Expansion 'Deeply Flawed', Uses 'Misleading Data', “‘It is unacceptable that Mayor [Rahm] Emanuel and CPS is misleading the public to justify charter expansion, while our neighborhood schools suffer,’” CSOSOS student leader Sarah Johnson said in a statement. “What message does it send to students and taxpayers when neighborhood schools don’t have basic educational resources while CPS is investing millions in new charters?” The opening of charter schools means the closing of neighborhood schools. Charter schools are educationally inequitable because every student won't be able to attend one, taking away the chances for a child to be educated. Charter schools are not a plausible remedy to overcrowding in schools.
Building new schools is another prospective solution to overcrowding. New schools would need to be built in order for these plans for charter schools to become a reality. Building the proposed 17 new charter schools would cost about $21 million. "Only five of the 17 proposals are in "priority communities" as designated by the district based on classroom overcrowding." The idea of building a new school every time a school district begins to overflow with students is not logical. CPS is already in debt and closing schools to try to pay off those debts. Spending $21 million on 17 new schools as opposed to spending that money to improve the conditions in the already overcrowded schools is not sensible and ultimately doesn't solve the issue of overcrowding.
Another proposed solution to overcrowding in schools is demountables. A demountable is a portable classroom that can be attached to a school. According to Overcrowding Update: North-Side Schools Report Little Change, "demountables are leased for about $8,000 a year per unit. If you have eight units, that's $64,000 a year. It's not perfect, but it's a relatively inexpensive way to relieve the conditions while new schools are constructed." This article was written in 1990. According to How Much Does a Portable Classroom Cost, today portable classrooms' initial costs are about $10,000 and can be leased for $1,500-$6,000 after that. At schools in the Glen Ellyn School District there are "32 portables that cost roughly $190,000 in annual leasing and maintenance costs". Portable classrooms won't solve the issue of overcrowding citywide because every school district doesn't have the resources required to lease portables. Besides that, demountables are a temporary solution for schools that can afford them. As long as neighborhoods continue to grow, schools will have to continue to expand and a school doesn't have the means to maintain hundreds of portable classrooms. Portable classrooms are not a reasonable way to approach and counteract overcrowding in schools.
Changing the boundaries of schools to accommodate the amount of students has also been a proposed solution to overcrowding. Changing the boundaries of schools means changing which neighborhood school belongs to each neighborhood. In an article found in the Chicago Tribune, District 230 Boundaries Change Upsets Some Parents, the members of the District 230 school board decided that it would "send some of its future students who traditionally would attend Sandburg High School in Orland Park to Andrew High School in Tinley Park instead." District 230 decided to move these students in order to prevent Sandburg High School from overcrowding and taking away from current Sandburg students' academic experiences. Similarly, in 2011, there were plans for CPS to move potential Abraham Lincoln Elementary School students to LaSalle Magnet School. And in School District 97 where Longfellow Elementary School is already filled to capacity, the school board discusses changing the boundaries in order to prevent Longfellow from overcrowding. According to this article, the difficulty with changing boundaries is making sure the redirected students are being fed into a school as good as Longfellow. Another problem with changing school boundaries is that it won't work all over Chicago. The curriculum at some schools is more rigorous than that of others which could cause problems if students are moved to other schools. While this may be a problem, moving school boundaries is the best way to tackle overcrowding that has been proposed thus far.
Conclusion
Overcrowding in schools is a problem in a lot of CPS schools and it will take more than any of these one proposals to fix it. The problem with overcrowding is not so much the lack of space in classrooms as it is the lack of individual attention each student is able to receive. These proposals have been made to reduce class size in order to boost student achievement. However, changing school boundaries or purchasing portable classrooms only tackles the concern of space. All of these proposals are temporary solutions to the problem of overcrowded classrooms. School boards cannot change the boundaries of a school every time their school starts to get too full. All school cannot be made into charter schools because that doesn't solve the problem, it creates a new problem- an inequity in education. If all schools were selective enrollment charter schools then certain students wouldn't be able to get in and they wouldn't receive an education. Portable classrooms cannot begin to fill school grounds when a school is constantly refused the funding they need to expand. What needs to happen to fully expel overcrowded classrooms in schools and the negative effect it has on students' education is new schools being built so that students can learn comfortably as well as a plan to make sure that every student gets the individual attention needed for them to be as successful as possible.
works cited
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Bibbs, Rebecca. "District 97 may have to change school boundaries." Oak Leaves. N.p., 29 Dec. 2013. Web. 28 Feb. 2014. <http://oakpark.suntimes.com/news/schools/redistrict97-OAK-11282013:article>.
Fortino, Ellyn. "Progress Illinois." Report: CPS Plan For Charter School Expansion 'Deeply Flawed', Uses 'Misleading Data'. N.p., 23 Oct. 2013. Web. 28 Feb. 2014. <http://www.progressillinois.com/quick-hits/content/2013/10/23/report-cps-plan-charter-school-expansion-deeply-flawed-uses-misleading>.
Fullerton, Ian. "CPS eyes shrinking Lincoln Elementary boundaries." Skyline Newspaper. N.p., 14 Dec. 2011. Web. 28 Feb. 2014. <http://www.skylinenewspaper.com/news/12-14-2011/CPS_eyes_shrinking_Lincoln_Elementary_boundaries>.
Joravsky, Ben. "Overcrowding update: north-side schools report little change." Chicago Reader. N.p., 7 June 1990. Web. 24 Feb. 2014. <http://m.chicagoreader.com/chicago/overcrowding-update-north-side-schools-report-little-change/Content?oid=875807>.
Rueff, Ashley. "District 230 boundaries change upsets some parents." Chicago Tribune. N.p., 1 Oct. 2012. Web. 28 Feb. 2014. <http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2012-10-01/news/ct-met-district230-attendance-zones-20121001_1_superintendent-james-gay-fewer-students-sandburg-high-school>.
Slivinski, Krystyna. "Proposal would remove portable classrooms at 4 Glen Ellyn schools." Chicago Tribune. N.p., 27 Sept. 2013. Web. 28 Feb. 2014. <http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2013-09-27/news/ct-tl-glen-ellyn-d41-portables-0926-20130927_1_four-portables-oldest-portables-elementary-schools>.
Smith, Ashley. "How Much Does a Portable Classroom Cost?." Free Portable Classroom Price Quotes. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Feb. 2014. <http://www.costowl.com/b2b/office-trailers-portable-classroom-cost.html>.