South Central Reporter

In an Oct. 4 Facebook post, Sen. Jason Plummer took aim at Chicago Public Schools. 

Plummer expressed these thoughts by sharing a Wirepoints article written by Ted Dabrowski. 

"We highlighted last week the collapse in Chicago Public Schools’ reading and math scores in 2021," the article said. "Reading proficiency for minorities, already dismal before Covid, collapsed by more than 30 percent compared to 2019. Only 11 percent of black students and 17 percent of Hispanic children in the entire district could read at grade level in 2021. That data was part of a longer critique on the continued shrinkage of CPS, down by 120,000 students since 2000, and the dramatic increase in spending to nearly $30,000 per student. The details are here. A few readers were quick to remind us we’d left off one key point, and that’s how well CPS teachers had been evaluated in 2021, despite the dramatic drop in student scores, the teacher walkouts and the forced remote learning. Some students were out of the classroom for nearly two years." 

Plummer reacted to numbers like these with disgust. 

"This is immoral and unacceptable but no longer shocking," Plummer said. "As a society, we sit back and watch young kids being set up for a hard life because of politics. In Illinois, education is often no longer about providing students with the knowledge and skills they need to be productive members of society. It's often about political donations, unions, votes, patronage and jobs, budgets, indoctrination, and many other things none of which are focused on kids." 

Other Wirepoints articles advocated for more sweeping changes.

"There are really no legitimate arguments left for keeping the system intact," another Wirepoints article said. "The “public good” argument falls flat considering the district’s abysmal results. And the argument for “community schools” is fizzling, too, as schools empty out from shrinking enrollments. A third of CPS schools are not even half-full, while some are at just a quarter of capacity, "

Plummer wants sweeping changes across the state, not just in education.

“Reform is long overdue at the Illinois Republican Party and I will be a strong, independent, and conservative voice for change at the state party,” Plummer wrote. “It is time the Illinois GOP represents the wants and needs of Republican voters rather than the wants and needs of certain elected officials, consultants, and staffers. It's all all about performance and accountability to the voters - the grifting and insider games must end.”