Chicago Public Schools officials are using a variety of tactics to siphon money away from the system’s most disadvantaged students, according to an analysis of the district’s 2007 budget to be released Tuesday by a community group.
In a 15-page report, the Cross City Campaign for Urban School Reform charges that district officials have “hidden” administrative positions in the budget, plugged budget holes with federal and state money earmarked for the poorest children, and used questionable formulas to calculate special education needs.
The end result: Disadvantaged students will bear the brunt of next year’s budget cuts, the group contends.
“We are disappointed in the system’s inability to equitably distribute money to schools,” said Diana Nelson, director of Cross City Campaign, which has produced the annual budget analysis for two decades. “The students who need the money the most are the biggest losers in this budget.”
But Pedro Martinez, budget director for Chicago Public Schools, said the Cross City report lacked substance and misread budget calculations.
“I think this report shows a misunderstanding of how things work,” he said.
In June, Chicago school officials adopted one of the system’s most dire budgets in a decade, a $4.7 billion plan that trimmed more than 2,000 jobs and slashed special education programs. The budget also calls for raising property taxes 3.4 percent, the maximum allowed.
District officials called the budget “bare bones” and said they plugged a $328 million budget hole mainly by cutting $25 million from the central office, raising taxes and borrowing from reserve funds.
But the Cross City analysis questions whether such a deficit ever existed, and it charges that district officials simply moved administrative positions into another budget line, giving the illusion of cuts.
The report also complains that the system is “losing credibility” because the budget contains “contradictory, inconsistent and unsubstantiated budget calculations.”
Cross City contends the district is redirecting millions in federal money earmarked for the poorest schools.
Known as “poverty funding,” the money must be spent on supplemental programs for poor students.
In the last eight years, the Chicago district’s share of poverty money has ballooned from $170 million to $300 million.
Yet, it has increased the amount it sends directly to schools from about $135 million to $150 million.
The district keeps the rest under central office control, where there is little public scrutiny, the report contends.
But Martinez argues the district uses the money to run after-school, reading and math programs.
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“Most of those programs are at our neediest schools,” he said.