Chicago, the so-called Second City, is the third-most populous city in the U.S., but its school district is currently the fourth-largest. (Miami is now third.)
The city’s schools are in disarray, and students are abandoning them. Enrollment has fallen sharply over the past 15 years, from nearly 403,000 students in 2010–11 to just over 316,000 in 2025–26. This decline has left about 150 of the city’s schools half-empty, and 47 are operating at less than one-third capacity, driving up costs and limiting course options.
Stunningly, the Frederick Douglass Academy, with 47 classrooms built to accommodate 1,000 students, has only 27 students. Yet the school has 28 full-time staff members. As a result, in 2023-2024, Douglass spent $93,000 per pupil.
Students who remain in Chicago public schools don’t receive an adequate education. The latest National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) shows that only 26% of the city’s 8th-graders are proficient in reading, and 22% in math.
At more than 50 Chicago schools, not one pupil is proficient in math. The 20 lowest-enrollment schools, which spend $33,500 per student, have an average reading proficiency of 11%.
Additionally, Chicago is home to what is probably the most detestable teachers’ union in the country, and its membership is quite costly, with dues totaling $1,476 per year.
And exactly how are those dues being used?
According to the union’s own accounting, only 18% of its budget goes to “representational activities,” while most of its funds go to leftist political causes.
In its latest gambit, the CTU’s House of Delegates voted to celebrate this year’s May Day as a time for “civic education and action,” designating May 1 a “day of no school, no work, no shopping to turn back the authoritarianism threatening us all.”
Since 2022, the union has been led by Stacy Davis Gates, who Chicago Magazine ranks as the city’s fifth most powerful person, one spot ahead of Mayor Brandon Johnson, a former CTU organizer.
Among other things, Gates is a world-class hypocrite for sending her own son to private school after calling them “segregation academies” and labeling school-choice supporters as fascists.
In 2024, Gates bizarrely told a Chicago radio station that standardized testing “at best is junk science rooted in white supremacy” and that “you can’t test black children with an instrument that was born to prove their inferiority.”
The Los Angeles Unified School District, the second-largest in the country, is also embattled and has seen many of its students leave.
LAUSD’s enrollment peaked in the 2002-2003 school year at 724,113 pupils, but has since plummeted. Projected enrollment for 2027-2028 is 375,661 students.
Students in LAUSD are poorly educated. The 2024 NAEP revealed that only 21% of 8th-graders are proficient in reading and 19% in math.
The already struggling school district is facing severe financial challenges due to declining enrollment, the expiration of COVID-19 relief funding, and rising operating costs.
The district will face many difficult fiscal decisions over the next several months. Schools will receive their 2027-28 budget allocations this fall, and the board will discuss the workforce reductions required to balance the budget.
Looking beyond the immediate budget crisis, school consolidation is likely unavoidable as enrollment continues to tumble.
As in Chicago, the teachers’ union, the United Teachers of Los Angeles, is more focused on politics than on education.
In fact, UTLA considers itself a foreign policy authority. In October 2024, its governing body voted to support a congressional effort to block the sale of more than $20 billion in U.S. weaponry to Israel, arguing that American-supplied arms were being used against civilians.
Because of UTLA leadership’s pro-Palestinian stance, teachers who do not want to be represented by the union filed a lawsuit in October 2024 after UTLA called for the destruction of the plaintiffs’ religious homeland and promoted “animosity and violence towards people of Jewish descent.”
This past May, the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights also launched an inquiry into LAUSD policies. Federal officials said that district agreements with the teachers’ union appeared to automatically reassign—rather than terminate or remove—teachers accused of sexual harassment, abuse, or possession of child pornography, rather than oust them from the classroom.
Then there is New York City, home to the largest school district in the U.S. It once served a million students but now serves about 781,000. Estimates suggest that number will fall further by the 2034-35 school year, with projections indicating that just 628,000 K-12 students will be enrolled.
Reading scores in New York City fell last school year, according to recently released data. Among students in grades 3-8, about half were proficient in reading, a 6% decrease.
The downturn in reading proficiency was most pronounced in grades 3-5, with a nearly 14% decline among third graders. Fourth-grade scores fell by nearly 6%, and fifth-grade scores by 13%.
A major issue in New York is chronic absenteeism—defined as missing 10% or more of school days in a year. In the 2018-19 academic year, the rate was 26.5%, and it rose to 34.8% five years later. These habits start early, as 37.8% of kindergarteners were chronically absent during the 2024-25 school year.
Educating children in New York City is expensive. The NYC Department of Education will spend more than $42,000 per pupil this school year.
As in Chicago and Los Angeles, New York’s teachers’ union, the United Federation of Teachers, once led by teacher-union godfather Albert Shanker, remains highly influential, prioritizing political influence over student performance and teacher accountability.
As is typical of teachers’ unions, the UFT’s strict tenure rules and lengthy disciplinary processes make it costly and nearly impossible to fire underperforming or incompetent educators. This, of course, directly harms student learning outcomes, especially in low-income communities.
Additionally, the union charges teachers over $1,700 per year to be a member.
Ultimately, in this tale of three cities, unlike the fabled Dickens story, there is no “best of times,” only the worst of times, with no end in sight.
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Larry Sand is a retired classroom teacher with 28 years of experience and served as president of the nonprofit California Teachers Empowerment Network from 2006 to 2025. He currently works to raise awareness of the shortcomings of our education system.
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