Chicago Is the Latest Example of How Public School Spending Doesn't Prioritize Students

Public school districts have a responsibility to educate students, safeguard taxpayer money, and provide families with opportunities for success. However, Chicago Public Schools (CPS) has become a national example of how a school system collapses under mismanagement, political patronage, and an absence of accountability.

A report from the Chicago Board of Education’s Office of Inspector General uncovered $23.6 million in misused spending—specifically, spending on lavish and often unapproved travel: $1,000-a-night hotel rooms, airport limos, luxury suites, and “professional development” trips that doubled as vacations. One teacher stretched a four-day seminar into a weeklong Hawaiian resort stay costing $4,700.

A principal booked a Las Vegas Strip suite for an anniversary celebration and extended the trip without authorization. In another incident, 24 employees from one school spent $50,000 to attend a Las Vegas conference. More than $142,000 was spent on overseas trips to South Africa, Finland, Estonia, and Egypt—complete with hot-air balloon rides and game-park safaris.

The abuses skyrocketed further when federal pandemic funds loosened district budgets. Of the $23.6 million, $14.5 million was spent in 2023 and 2024 alone. These dollars were intended to address severe learning loss after the Chicago Teachers Union forced schools to remain closed for 78 weeks during the pandemic. Instead of supporting students’ academic recovery, millions became a travel fund.

That level of waste is why students like me need school choice. When a district spends public money this irresponsibly while failing to educate its students, families deserve the freedom to go elsewhere.

Meanwhile, only two in five CPS students read at grade level, and barely one in four meets math expectations. In some neighborhoods, proficiency falls into the single digits. Nearly 45 percent of students—and more than half of high schoolers—are chronically absent. These figures reflect a district that has walked away from its obligation to prepare young people for the workforce, higher education, and civic life.

Chronic absenteeism and low achievement correlate closely with higher rates of youth crime. Chicago’s public-safety challenges cannot be separated from the fact that tens of thousands of teenagers are disconnected from school. No city with these levels of absenteeism and academic collapse can expect improvements in long-term safety.

This pattern of misused funds and misplaced priorities is not limited to Chicago. New York lawmakers continue to steer resources away from academics and toward politically acceptable initiatives. 

In New York’s 2025 “People’s Budget,” Democrats—including Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani, who was serving in the Assembly at the time—proposed an $8 million initiative to “increase teacher diversity” through new recruitment and training programs. Yet New York City’s teaching workforce is already about 42 percent black, nearly double the city’s black population share of roughly 22 percent.

The same budget allocates $250,000 for “racial and cultural inclusivity” initiatives, $3 million for an Adirondack exhibit on African American history, and over $350,000 for statewide conventions for “underrepresented” educators. 

Meanwhile, NYC public schools serve 154,000 homeless students, and nearly half of the students statewide cannot meet basic reading benchmarks. New York spends more than $39,000 per pupil—the highest amount in the country—yet academic outcomes continue to fall.

If the problem were money, New York would be leading the nation. But this is a crisis of priorities.

Charter schools offer a proven alternative that disrupts the cycle of low achievement and disengagement. Unlike traditional public schools, charter schools provide students with 30 percent to 50 percent more instructional time. This extra time correlates directly with stronger academic performance and higher rates of student engagement.

A study found that entering a North Carolina charter school in ninth grade was associated with a roughly 30 percent reduction in a student’s likelihood of committing a crime compared with students in traditional public schools. Research from Milwaukee’s voucher program found that students in choice programs were significantly less likely to commit crimes as young adults.

School choice gives students in failing districts an exit ramp. Programs in Florida, Arizona, and North Carolina show that scholarship and charter systems can coexist with public schools and often improve them through competition.

Chicago’s waste, New York’s misplaced priorities, and the falling academic performance nationwide all point to the same conclusion: Families—not bureaucracies—should decide where and how children are educated.

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Source: https://reason.com/2025/12/01/chicago-is-the-latest-example-of-how-public-school-spending-doesnt-prioritize-students/