The CTU has failed to recognize its role in preventing youth crime
Sadly, the relative silence from Chicago Public Schools leadership on what it can do to address youth violence is deafening. This is not just about the increasingly frequent teen gatherings that disrupt public spaces and sometimes lead to tragedy. It is about the broader crisis of violence involving school-age youth — both as victims and perpetrators.
While public attention often focuses on these high-profile gatherings, the larger and more persistent issue is the ongoing level of shootings and killings involving young people. Chicago continues to experience among the highest totals of youth violence in the country and ranks high among major cities on a per capita basis.
The gatherings themselves can be addressed through targeted enforcement tools. Chicago Police Superintendent Larry Snelling should have the authority to implement limited “snap curfews” when credible intelligence indicates an imminent threat. Similarly, a strengthened city nuisance ordinance could provide law enforcement with tools to deter organized street takeovers, including fines and penalties for those who engage in violence, destruction of property, or threats against police.
City leadership has shown a willingness to continue collecting roughly $300–$350 million annually from red-light cameras, speed cameras, and parking enforcement — revenue that disproportionately impacts lower-income residents. Yet, there is far greater reluctance to impose consequences for behavior that directly threatens public safety and disrupts communities.
Much more troubling is the lack of sustained attention to the rise in shootings involving school-age youth, particularly those 17 years old and younger. In 1992, the Chicago Tribune’s “Killing Our Children” series documented 57 child homicides in the region. During the extended pandemic-era school closures — when CPS campuses were closed for roughly 78 weeks — Chicago saw approximately 100 school-age youth murdered and nearly 900 shot and wounded.
The University of Chicago Crime Lab found that during the pandemic there was a significant 50 percent increase in youth involvement in gun violence, with school-age youth accounting for a measurable share of shootings and carjackings. While correlation does not prove causation, the timing closely tracks with prolonged school closures and disengagement from school.
Pandemic-era school closures — the longest among major U.S. districts — coincided with a significant decline in student engagement. CPS lost more than 36,000 students during this period. Meanwhile, chronic absenteeism has remained unacceptably high, with nearly 40 percent of CPS students, including over 70 percent of high school students, classified as chronically absent in recent years. Last year, 25 percent of CPS high schoolers missed 35 or more days.
With large numbers of dropouts and chronically absent students, it is little wonder youth violence remains elevated. Recent data show dozens of school-age youth continue to be victims of gun violence annually in Chicago. Chicago again led the nation with 49 murdered and 185 shot and wounded last year.
Meanwhile, CTU finds any excuse to reduce and disrupt student instruction. Strikes and threats of strikes are a principal feature of the union’s political strategy. The union opposes any extension of the school day or year while pushing for increased teacher preparation time, which reduces students’ instructional time. CTU initiatives like “Bargaining for the Common Good” and organized school-day demonstrations tied to CTU policy goals take students out of class and often out of school altogether.
Meanwhile, the CTU leadership has demonized Chicago Police, poisoning the relationship needed between officers and students to help keep them safe. The union has been among the loudest and consistent supporters of the “defund the police” movement and organized marches and public demonstrations to pressure the school board to remove uniformed officers from the city's schools. The union also has consistently framed the presence of police in schools as detrimental to minority and vulnerable students.
The CTU was a critical supporter of the compulsory Burge curriculum requirement at Chicago Public Schools (CPS) that mandates that 8th-grade and 10th-grade students learn about the history of police torture committed by former Chicago Police Commander Jon Burge. The coursework, titled “Reparations Won: A Case Study in Police Torture, Racism, and the Movement for Justice in Chicago,” has gone a long way toward undermining trust in the police among school-age youth.
Chicago’s progressive tropes on race double down on disinformation, riven with the arrogance of unfettered power and callous indifference to wrenching daily tragedies in the city’s Black communities, even when they involve schoolchildren. The excuse for murder, shootings, carjackings, auto theft, retail theft, and robbery is “inequity.” They are essentially saying that until outcomes can be equalized, violence will reign, so get used to it.
We are well past the arguments against parental school choice for lower-income and poor families, given the disastrous performance of the city’s public schools in contrast to private schools, particularly during COVID. School choice is certainly not a funding issue, as the per-pupil cost of most private schools is much less than public schools. Illinois Policy Institute, for example, estimates the district actually saves almost $12,000 for every student who leaves the district.
However, the fact remains that close to 90 percent of Chicago school-age youth will continue to be educated in public schools regardless, even if the state restored the “Invest in Kids” private school scholarship program and Governor JB Pritzker elected to participate in the new federal scholarship tax credit program. This requires public schools be a big part of the solution to the chronic violence that plagues the city and the dramatic increase in violence that is consuming Chicago youth.
Neighborhood schools should serve as community hubs, with expanded access during evenings, weekends, summers, and even holidays. Keeping campuses open for structured activities during these peak hours for juvenile crime provides safe alternatives and consistent adult supervision. These programs can be delivered in partnership with park districts, universities, and community organizations, many of which have grants available and are in need of facilities to offer services.
CPS must also take the lead in identifying students at greatest risk of disengagement. Using its data, the district should match these students — beginning in middle grades — with long-term mentoring, tutoring, and enrichment programs. Nothing closes the achievement gap more effectively than more instructional time on task, even if in the form of tutoring. This must be a sustained effort, ideally spanning ages 10 through 18, with accountability for outcomes.
In addition, schools should expand access to school-to-work opportunities. City departments, as well as city contractors, should be required to offer work-study opportunities, while city businesses can be invited and incentivized to participate. Paid work-study programs provide students with real-world experience, income, and exposure to positive role models. Models such as the Cristo Rey High School demonstrate structured work programs can be integrated into academic settings effectively.
Finally, CPS must expand alternative schools and pathways for students who have dropped out, many of whom are too old to return to neighborhood high schools. Programs like “Youth Connection Charter,” with its 17 small community schools — which have awarded over 24,000 diplomas to former dropouts since 1998 and graduated over 1,200 last year — show what’s possible. Illinois has already authorized more adult high schools, yet Chicago has not fully utilized this option.
Providing those additional supports is not a budget issue but a budget priority issue and requires a willingness to make a concerted effort to partner with other institutions and organizations to align the school district’s needs with available resources. This effort can be aided and abetted by the state opting into the new federal school scholarship program, which the CTU and their allies are aggressively lobbying against, forgoing hundreds of millions of dollars.
Will Governor Pritzker cave to the CTU and spurn hundreds of millions of dollars in federal school grants that will help both public and private middle- and lower-income families across Illinois with their children's education? These monies could be made available to help low-income families pay private school tuition but can also be used for an array of supports for both public and private school children, including tutoring, mentoring, enrichment, early college, job training, and paid work-study.
Failing to fully leverage schools as part of a comprehensive strategy to address youth violence is a serious mistake. Reclaiming student dropouts, expanding interventions and support for at-risk students, providing safe and structured environments beyond the school day, and introducing students to the work world and providing employment opportunities — these aren’t optional but essential. Without such actions, violence will continue to plague young people and the city.
