Metro East Sun

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

Plummer shared an article from Wirepoints on his Facebook account that went over issues in Chicago's schools. 

"We highlighted last week the collapse in Chicago Public Schools’ reading and math scores in 2021," Ted Debrowski wrote in the article. "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 posted his reaction on Facebook.

"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 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." 

Wirepoints went on to call for more dramatic changes to Chicago's school system.

"There are really no legitimate arguments left for keeping the system intact," an article from Wirepoints 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."

The goal of Plummer's campaign is to bring about change on these and other issues.

“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.”