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Like other school districts across the country, Chicago 51����s is decrying a budget crisis that could lead to the closure of dozens of schools across the city. However, after a recent audit found a surplus in the district’s budget, some are accusing district officials and the mayor’s office of crying wolf. In fact, recent news about potential budget surpluses has fueled the fire over proposed school closures and sparked more protests by teachers, parents, community members, and the local teachers’ union.

This video reports on a CPS budget crisis.

Does Budget Surplus Suggest Fuzzy Math?

Officials of Chicago 51����s continue to assert that a billion-dollar deficit in the district’s budget is fueling plans to close public schools across the city. However, reports that in the midst of discussions on school closures, a recent audit has discovered that instead of a deficit in the Chicago 51����s budget, a surplus of $334 million was recorded! The district responded that the money came from early payments from the state and county. Other sources claim that the money is a combination of underestimating revenue for the year and underspending.

Truthout further claims that this is not the first time Chicago 51����s has “played” with the budget numbers. The previous year, the district estimated it would suffer a budget deficit of $245 million. The district instead reported a surplus of $316

Like other school districts across the country, the Detroit 51���� system has felt the pinch of the sluggish economy. In an effort to balance an already tight budget, the system has proposed a multi-faceted cost cutting approach that includes the closure of some schools throughout the district. Unfortunately, the repercussions of that decision may be felt by hundreds of students. Some of those hit the hardest could be the students attending Detroit’s vocational schools.

Vocational Programs in Jeopardy

The Detroit Free Press reports that the five vocational centers run by Detroit 51����s could be in financial peril, due to dwindling enrollment numbers and budgetary constraints throughout the system. The centers have provided a wide range of vocational training to Detroit 51����s students, as well as students from outside the district, for a number of years. Vocational training has evolved from the standard automotive and cosmetology offerings to incorporating everything from business administration to hospitality and construction.

Students in the vocational centers attend regular high school course at their neighborhood school before heading to the vocational centers for the rest of their education. In addition to providing students with career-centric training, the courses offer a pathway to a college education that might not otherwise be available. Many of the students and their parents see the centers as an effective way to break the poverty cycle in the city, by providing students with practical training and education they will be able to take with

School reform at the federal level has been highly touted as the way to turn around failing schools and ensure a high-quality education for all students in the U.S. However, opponents of that reform are claiming that the process currently used to improve failing schools is actually having the opposite effect – discriminating against the very students it is claiming to help. Is school reform doing more harm than good? The answer depends on who you ask.

The Advent of School Reform

In 2010, President Obama championed school reform by revamping the . The move increased the annual budget of the program from $125 million to $535 million. The administration also pumped a one-time amount of $3.5 billion in 2010 allocated directly to districts that were willing to undertake one of four jumpstart models toward serious education reform.

The four jumpstart models include:

• Turning a failing school over to a charter operator
• Instituting a new principal and learning strategy
• Replacing at least half the school’s administrative staff
• Closing the school completely

Schools labeled as improvement schools may receive up to $2 million in additional funding annually for up to three years. A number of districts have risen to the challenge, identifying schools most in need of reform and establishing plans to turn those schools around. Unfortunately, the results of those efforts have been mixed thus far.

This TEDTalk explains who the real experts in school reform are.

Students in the public school system in the United States are eligible for a variety of services, depending on their needs. Under Title I, students in need are provided with additional assistance to promote their success in school and beyond. Title I funding is provided to more than 90 percent of the school systems across the country, with the money used in various ways to help low-income students break the cycle of poverty with the tools they need for academic success.

What is Title I?

Title I is one of the oldest public education programs in the United States and one of the largest. The program provides additional funding to school districts with a large population of low-income students to help students in this demographic meet the academic standards assigned by the state. The program was established as Title I of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965, and its purpose is to “ensure that all children have a fair, equal and significant opportunity to obtain a high-quality education,” according to the U.S. Department of Education website.

This brief video gives us an overview of Title I.

The Department of Education also lists strategies that local school districts should implement to achieve that purpose with the provided funding, which include:

• Meeting the educational needs of low-income and minority students
• Holding schools and governments accountable for the academic achievement of students
• Use of tools, assessments, and