Over 60 students and faculty crowded into the Humanities Center amidst pizza and Insomnia cookies on March 29 to hear Chief Executive Officer of Chicago Public Schools and Parker parent Forrest Claypool speak about the current state of The Chicago Public Schools (CPS)–and specifically the teachers strike that was planned for three days later.  Claypool was invited by Parker’s community-service-based Power of Education club, led by junior Yasmine Shafaie.

“I wanted Parker students to be aware of the issues and obstacles that the public schools face when it comes to attaining their education,” Shafaie said. “So overall, it was a really insightful discussion.”  

CPS, which currently serves 400,000 children and has 661 schools spread out across the city, has seen controversy in recent years after news of school closings, bankruptcy, scandals–and most recently the teacher strike, which took place that Friday, April 1.  

CPS is now, according to Claypool, teetering on the edge of bankruptcy and has a 1.1 billion dollar budget deficit, including one billion in loans.

One of the roots of this situation, Claypool said, began a couple of years ago when a formula for funding and economic problems caused the state to cut funding for CPS.  In the last 7 years, Illinois has cut funding to CPS, he said–including 100 billion last year alone.

“The key point is that the state of Illinois mandated that CPS pay the full cost of teacher pensions,” Claypool said. “The costs of pensions have skyrocketed, and Illinois has been paying billions for pensions. The CPS system is the only system to take money out of classrooms to pay pensions.  It’s very costly–almost 2 billion out of classrooms to pay teacher pensions, which is unlike any other school.”

A huge part of the problem, Claypool said, is caused by Illinois standing behind discriminatory funding formulas, where educational funding gives poorer children 73 cents of state funding for every dollar given to children in the rest of the city and suburbs.  More privileged, white children are those who mostly benefit from this system.  

“We’re fighting for equality under the law, for the fundamental American principles,” Claypool said.  “And you’ll see a lot more about this in the coming months because this is going to be a big fight.”  

The other part of Claypool’s 35-minute talk was spent answering questions and explaining how CPS has improved since 1983, a time when Former United States Secretary of Education Bill Bennett filed a series of reports saying CPS was the worst school system in the nation.  

The CPS’s most significant improvement began in 1995, Claypool said, when the Illinois general assembly transferred control of CPS to the mayor of Chicago.  He further credits this improvement to new schools that were brought to the city, such as Charter, magnet, and selective enrollment schools, to competition among schools, to business involvement, to programs like freshman tracking, and to trained school principals.

“All these forces together have made the schools in Chicago better,” Claypool said. “Now, our schools are not Francis Parker.  We don’t have 661 Francis Parkers, and we never will, but the trend has gone clearly upwards in the past 25 years.”

His discussion was met with a mix of praise and negative reactions from students.  Some believed that it was great to hear from someone who has command over CPS and valued his thoughts on the subject, while others challenged the fact that his daughter, a freshman, goes to Parker and not CPS.  

“I think it’s interesting that his entire presentation focused on middle class, mostly white, kids and families,” senior Tania Giordani said, “when he stated during the presentation that 85% of CPS students live at or below the poverty line and are minorities.”

The day after the presentation, someone posted a critique of the event on the Power of Education’s facebook page.  “Mr. Claypool speaks at private, but not public schools where he is employed????” the person commented.  “This shows us who he really is.”

In response, Shafaie said, “Mr. Claypool’s acceptance of our offer to speak at Parker does not mean that he cares more or less about education in public schools.”

Prior to taking the reins of CPS, in July 2015, Claypool held various governmental positions such as Chief of Staff to Rahm Emanuel and President of the Chicago Transit Authority and the Chicago Park District.

During the questions period, some students asked about the strikes, as well as school closings, which he didn’t directly address in his talk. Sophomore Talia Garg, for example, asked about his role in managing strikes while also ensuring student progress.

“I believe that Claypool is trying everything in his power in a no-win situation,” Garg said.  “He has to be able to fight for the teachers and for the schools while making sure all the students are still getting their education.”