Declining Enrollment Leaves 150 Chicago School Buildings Half Empty, Spending Tens of Thousands for Each Student

There are currently as many as 150 Chicago school buildings that are half empty, due to lower enrollment in the city.

The city has been run by Democrats for decades and their closest allies are the teacher unions. There is absolutely no excuse for this disastrous mismanagement of the city’s schools.

The pandemic, and the shuttering of schools for months, certainly didn’t help.

FOX News reports:

Chicago schools face enrollment crisis with 150 buildings half-empty

A new report showed that declining enrollment in Chicago leaves about 150 of its schools half-empty.

The report, authored by ChalkBeat and ProPublica, found that 47 schools are operating “at less than one-third capacity, leading to high costs and limited course offerings.”

Chicago Public Schools had roughly 325,000 students enrolled this year after losing 70,000 students from a decade ago, according to the report.

“District officials project that three school years from now, there could be as few as 300,000 or, in a best-case scenario, as many as 334,000 students. Those estimates are based in part on the city’s sharply falling birth rates. Citywide, from 2011 to 2021, the number of births dropped by more than 43%,” the authors of the report wrote.

While the city faces enrollment struggles, the city spends about $18,700 per student. Some schools are “double or triple” that number the report stated. One school that enrolled 28 students costs $93,000 students…

Frederick Douglass Academy High School, which has 28 students this year, reportedly costs $93,000 per student.

This is one of the reasons why more and more Americans are beginning to favor school choice, including homeschooling.

Chicago is a case for national school choice:

– Spending up to $93,000 per student
– 150 schools are half-empty
– Fewer than 1-in-5 can do math at grade level
– Fewer than 1-in-3 students can read at grade level

It's time to EMPOWER parents to find the education that best fits… pic.twitter.com/ZECYL31qVk

— Erika Donalds (@ErikaDonalds) June 18, 2025

Yes, at one public school in Chicago it literally costs $93,000 per pupil per year.

The teachers union, which is so corrupt refuses to fix the system, neither will liberal politicians. https://t.co/Yenl8Rg2xW pic.twitter.com/fzk32x8aIy

— Ryan James Girdusky (@RyanGirdusky) June 18, 2025

This is what years upon years of one-party rule by Democrats has done to Chicago. Half empty schools spending tens of thousands of dollars per student and still getting horrible results.

(Image:Source)

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