A November report from the Chicago Public Schools Office of Inspector General showed the school system spent a whopping $14.5 million in “excessive” travel expenses for fiscal years 2023 and 2024, despite students performing poorly in basic subjects like reading and math.
The spending was deemed highly “questionable” and involved a “broken” process that “opened the door to travel abuses.”
If that wasn’t bad enough, it was “fueled in part by federal pandemic relief money,” the report read.
These funds were mostly spent on out-of-town employee development seminars or overnight student outings. Many trips lacked the necessary pre-approval and exceeded spending limits.
It was also discovered that eight schools used more than $142,000 in CPS funds for 15 staff trips to Finland, Estonia, Egypt, and South Africa for school visits and professional development.
One CPS principal even traveled to Las Vegas multiple times for a conference without proper approval. On one of the trips, he booked a hotel for himself and his wife that cost CPS over $400 per night.
This news comes after data revealed that only 30.5 percent of students between third and eighth grade “were proficient in reading” in the spring of 2024, while only 18.3 percent “were proficient in math,” Fox News reported.
“It is a sad commentary on just how far our city has fallen and how bad the leadership is,” Chicago pastor Corey Brooks told Fox News. “These individuals believe that spending money on themselves benefits our educational system more so than spending it on the children who so rightfully deserve it.”
“In our neighborhood, there’s a 6% reading proficiency,” he added. “And now you’re talking about the overall for Chicago being 30%, that is something that needs to be spoken by everyone who is in power.”
Chicago is being run into the ground by radical Democrats. It’s a slap in the face to taxpayers and parents everywhere for educators to spend this kind of money on travel after such terrible performance.
In addition to violent crime, education is one of the most pressing issues facing the city, and yet local leaders are refusing to address the problem.
The Illinois Policy Institute rightfully criticized Democratic Mayor Brandon Johnson back in April for praising Dyett High School as “a great example of a sustainable community school,” despite only 2 percent of tested students being able to read at grade level.
This type of fiscal malfeasance and political corruption cannot go unchecked.
Congress is currently pushing the Chicago Teachers Union to provide five years of financial audits to investigate how money is being spent, per the Chicago Tribune, but it’s not enough.
Sadly, the federal government can’t just wave a magic wand and fix things. The issue runs much deeper than that.
Chicago’s failing school system, corrupt local leadership, and violent living conditions can only be fixed by those inside the city.
Standards have disappeared within the public school system. Failure is rewarded with higher salaries, pensions, public adulation, and lavish trips. This is simply unacceptable.
Parents must organize and pivot away from public schools toward private and charter institutions. They must also push the state to enact school choice.
There was a period between 2017 and 2023 when the “Invest in Kids” voucher program allowed citizens and businesses to redirect taxes they owed the state into private schools and technical academies.
The law was scheduled to sunset at the start of 2024, but instead of continuing the program, or offering something better, it was allowed to run out.
To no one’s surprise, the Chicago Teachers Union took a victory lap, calling it an “historic win,” despite their terrible track record of not educating students while protecting terrible teachers.
If voters in Chicago and Illinois don’t elect new leaders with a vision for restoring the crumbling education system, it will continue to spiral out of control, resulting in even more corrupt spending while millions of dollars are wasted.
All the while, children will remain indoctrinated, illiterate, and ill-equipped for the real world, while the teachers unions and local politicians give themselves a big pat on the back. For shame.
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