The Chicago Public School system has long been in a state of decline, with poor student scores and massive budget deficits. Teacher pensions in Chicago have threatened to bankrupt the state after politicians yielded to demands from the powerful teachers’ union. Despite the budget crisis, however, school administrators are burning through money on woke programs and resulting litigation. The latest example is the over $2.6 million in damages that will be paid to students who were forced to participate in a Transcendental Meditation program during classes. Teachers ignored the religious objections to the Hindu-based program, and the school subsequently litigated the case, incurring even greater costs to the system.
U.S. District Court Judge Matthew Kennelly approved the settlement with the Chicago Board of Education and the New York-based David Lynch Foundation to pay $100,000 to the lead plaintiff and between $3,000 and $9,500 to each of the other students in the lawsuit.
Attorney John Mauck, partner at Mauck & Baker, said that students were coerced to go through a Hindu initiation ceremony with offerings to a guru and were told to repeat mantras with the names of Hindu deities.
He further recounted how “[one] student was told, ‘If you don’t kneel before the picture of the guru during your initiation ceremony, it could affect your eligibility on the girls basketball team.’” Mauck claimed that students were instructed not to tell their parents, especially if the parents were religious.
In the litigation, counsel was able to confirm 773 of the students who were required to participate in the program. More than 200 filed claims for damages.
Chicago is now facing bankruptcy and the unpopular mayor Brandon Johnson is calling for massive “progressive tax” hikes to keep the city solvent. Yet, the Chicago school system (which has contributed significantly to the budget crisis) prefers to spend money on these programs and then litigate ill-conceived cases.
The state must come up with $154.3 billion to pay its retired educators. It is $86.3 billion short of that amount. Illinois is ranked as having “the lowest funding ratio for state pensions in the nation at 52%. The Teachers Retirement System is even lower, funded at 45.8%, making it the second-worst funded state teacher retirement system in the nation. Only New Jersey is worse.”
Illinois leaders like Gov. JB Pritzker and Chicago Mayor Johnson are closely aligned with the teachers’ union and have signed generous contracts with crippling pension allotments. The political benefits of such contracts are obvious, but there comes a point when you cannot continue to kick the financial can down the road on the costs.
What is clear from this case is that, despite the financial crisis, school officials are still spending time and money on unnecessary programs. In the meantime, fewer than one in three school kids in Chicago read at applicable proficiency levels.
I have been a strong supporter of public schools throughout my life. While my parents could afford private schools, they helped form a group to keep white families in the public school system in Chicago in the 1960s and 1970s. They wanted their kids to be part of a diverse school environment. I also sent my kids to public schools for the same reason. I view our public schools as important parts of our society as we shape future citizens.
Teachers and boards are killing the institution of public education by treating children and parents more like captives than consumers. They are force-feeding social and political priorities, including passes for engaging in approved protests.
As public schools continue to produce abysmal scores, particularly for minority students, board and union officials have called for lowering or suspending proficiency standards or declared meritocracy to be a form of “white supremacy.” Gifted and talented programs are being eliminated in the name of “equity.”
The school administrators in Chicago would prefer to spend time on eliminating high-achieving programs to erase the gap between students.
It is crushing to see the continued failure of Chicago schools, particularly for poor and minority kids who are locked into cycles of poverty. This case simply highlights the disastrous sense of priorities for school officials in Chicago.
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Author: jonathanturley
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