Exodus: Some Chicago high schools drastically under-enrolled

The Chicago Tribune reports:

Hirsch High School on the edge of the South Side's Grand Crossing neighborhood is stately, historic and nearly empty.

Only 150 students are enrolled in a school built to accommodate more than 1,000 students.

The school is operating at 14 percent of what Chicago Public Schools considers the building's ideal capacity. It is one of 15 Chicago public high schools that were less than one-third filled by the 20th day of classes this year.

Nearly three dozen high schools were less than half full, based on the same CPS formula. Most of those buildings are able to hold more than 1,000 students.

The dramatically under-enrolled high schools represent a costly real estate problem for CPS, which has a extensive portfolio of severely underused buildings in South Side and West Side neighborhoods that have had seen a steady population decline.

But the enrollment issue also raises questions about the district's strategy for schools in vulnerable neighborhoods that tend to serve poor black students who often fall behind academically. The schools are often the only buildings available to students who can't get into charter, magnet or selective enrollment programs.

Great moments of government run education! Progressives sure know how to waste resources.