Chicago’s empty 'ghost schools' teach us about how the system is failing

Chicago's public schools stand as a monument to bureaucratic inertia and misplaced priorities, where vast sums of taxpayer money vanish into underutilized buildings while student outcomes plummet. Frederick Douglass Academy High School exemplifies the dysfunction. Built to accommodate 1,008 students, the school now enrolls just 27, yet it remains open with 28 full-time employees – more staff than children. A one-to-one staff-to-student ratio is a luxury that even private schools can’t offer, but here it yields zero academic progress.