By Diane Pathieu, Sarah Schulte and Rob Elgas, abc7chicago.com
Mayor Rahm Emanuel announced Friday that Chicago Public Schools will remain open until the end of the school year, as opposed to closing 20 days early on June 1.
On Friday, a Cook County judge granted the State of Illinois’ motion to dismiss the Chicago Public Schools’ civil rights lawsuit over school funding. However, the judge is allowing CPS to come back with a new argument.
“Obviously, we are very disappointed in the judge’s ruling that it is permissible for the State of Illinois to discriminate on the basis of race against CPS school children and that there’s nothing in the Civil Rights Act that can prevent that,” CPS CEO Forrest Claypool said.
CPS has been short money since Governor Bruce Rauner vetoed a bill that would give CPS $215 million for teacher pensions.
The school district has threatened to close school June 1. CPS was hoping a civil rights lawsuit would force the state to fund schools more fairly.
CPS accounts for 20 percent of Illinois’ students, but only gets 15 percent of the state funding and 90 percent of CPS kids are minorities.
Read more at http://abc7chicago.com/education/cps-will-remain-open-until-end-of-school-year-rahm-emanuel-says/1928448/
