Chicago School Closing Legislation Advances Out of Senate

Chicago School Closing Legislation Advances Out of Senate

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Chicago Public Schools may have to change its process for closing schools. That’s if the governor signs a bill that passed out of the Senate this week.

The bill originally would have placed a moratorium on all CPS school closings. That provision was stripped from the final bill. The legislation still forms a task force to come up with rules for how to handle school facilities in Chicago.

MOORE: The bill deals with where schools get built, and how they get built, which schools get repaired first, and also which schools get closed. So it’s a very broad policy that covers all major facilities decisions.

Don Moore is director of a school reform group that lobbied for the legislation. He and others have disagreed with the way the district calculates a school’s capacity. CPS has closed more than 30 schools in recent years that it says were under-used.  Moore also says that buildings in the greatest need of repair aren’t necessarily those that get fixed first.

A spokesman for the district said it’s too early to comment on the bill.