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Diane Ravitch's Blog: Can Anyone from Chicago Explain Mayor Emanuel’s Spending Spree?

How many times have we read stories that Chicago faces a huge deficit? I can’t recall it was $600 million, or some other figure.

But the huge deficit, plus “underutilization,” gave Mayor Rahm Emanuel the change to make history:

He closed the largest number of public schools in history, at one fell swoop (50).

But now he is going on a spending spree, building new schools and pledging to spend at least $90 million for new construction and upgrades.

What happened to the budget crisis? Did the deficit disappear?

Were the schools really underutilized?

There must be a simple explanation.

Maybe a reader from Chicago can translate what this means.

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Diane Ravitch

Diane Ravitch is Research Professor of Education at New York University and a historian of education. She is the Co-Founder and President of the Network for Publi...