Rahm's school budget takes from kids with disabilities to give more to charters
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| Rod Estvan |
“This budget does not even attempt to formulate a plan to address the structural deficit the district is faced with.” -- Access Living’s budget analyst Rod EstvanThe latest proposed Chicago Public Schools budget, due to be voted on tomorrow will badly hurt children with disabilities, says Estvan.
The problem is part of the city's inability to generate enough revenue to run a high-quality, equitable school system. It stems in large part, from the mayor's unwillingness to fairly tax the city's biggest corporations and LaSalle St., choosing instead to balance his budget on the backs of those least able to bear the weight -- children with special needs and retirees.
Rahm's hand-picked school board intends to pass his budget in its existing form, which uses an accounting trick of collecting 14 months of property tax revenue to pay for 12 months of expenses. Tim Cawley, the district’s administrative officer,told a crowd at a state-required budget hearing last week that this one-time fix is intended to “buy time” until the state could resolve the pension problem.
Tricks and sleight-of-hand aside, Emanuel has failed to make a dent in the Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Rahm's school budget takes from kids with disabilities to give more to charters: