@ucbalumnus No, that wasn’t my point. What I’m saying is that schools on the southside are underfunded, and it’s unfair. It’s true that the schools on the southside have a majority black population, but I think this is because of the historical racist divide in our city that is still apparent today. It’s evident that the economics of education in Chicago is not inclusive. I didn’t mean to make this about race, and I’m really sorry if I offended anybody.
My point was that most people on the southside and westside have less access to “selective” education. In our city, we have to take many tests in middle school in order to get into what we call “selective enrollment schools,” and kids are placed under a lot of pressure to get into the top 5 schools, which are mainly all farther north. In turn, many kids from the southside who are definitely high-achieving and deserving of an accelerated program, get left behind. IMO, the tests are stupid and everyone deserves to be able to go to the school they want, but funding makes that difficult. The fact that selective enrollment high schools get more funding and provide more opportunities for their students than other schools makes it a rigged game. Students who end up not making it into the selective enrollment schools because of their performance in middle school are already starting at a disadvantage.
To sum up my point, the education system in Chicago has pockets with a high-concentration of very intelligent kids, but only because the system is corrupt and racist. I think all schools should get the same funding and everyone just attends their neighborhood school, like in the suburbs. Sadly, that’s not the case in Chicago, and I don’t like it.