Chicago's half-empty schools reveal a crisis city leaders refuse to confront

On the West Side of Chicago, Frederick Douglass Academy had a grand total of 27 students inside a building that was built for 1,000 students.

That is only 2 percent of the building's capacity.

The school was one of 13 Chicago schools that had fewer than 100 students.

Across the city, 35 percent of schools are less than half full.

The Chicago Public Schools system has lost more than 77,000 students since 2010.

So where are all the students disappearing to? The answer is an indictment of the city and its public school sector.

It is true that many families have left the city because of its rising cost of living.

I know many Black families who have moved out, and their numbers are in the tens of thousands.

It is also true that the birth rate in Chicago has dropped by nearly 50 percent in less than 20 years.

It is not surprising that many graduates choose to leave the city instead of staying and starting families here.

NEW YORK CITY'S DECLINING PUBLIC SCHOOL ENROLLMENT PROJECTED TO LOSE OVER 150K MORE AS POPULATION DECLINES But these are not the only reasons why so many public schools are suffering from abysmal enrollment numbers.

The children who live on the West Side and South Side did not all disappear.

They chose not to go to their neighborhood public high schools.

I cannot blame them.