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Quote/Term of the Week

“This also continues the story of playing with the lives of black and brown students and families as though stability is a luxury that these families do not deserve.”

— Dr. Diane Castro, financial secretary of Chicago Teachers Union, calling on the Chicago Board of Education to support families as ASPIRA Charter students leave their schools  months before the end of the year.


[Chicago Board of Education, Feb. 26, 2026]

Trouble in charter

Students at two ASPIRA charter high schools are having to switch schools mid-year after months of financial uncertainty plaguing the charter school operator. 

Chicago Public Schools officials announced last week they will start moving nearly 700 students out of  the ASPIRA Business and Finance and ASPIRA Early College campuses, guaranteeing them a spot at nearby district-run high schools. 

The district’s intervention follows months of scrutiny and criticism about how ASPIRA is handling its finances. ASPIRA administrators claimed they had enough money to keep both schools running through the end of the academic year, but CPS officials said ASPIRA failed to produce adequate evidence of that or of its ability to secure outside funding to stay afloat. CPS has already given ASPIRA $2.5 million in advanced payments to keep it going, while ASPIRA’s CEO has accused the district of underfunding the schools.

ASPIRA students showed up en masse to support classmates and teachers speaking about the impact of the sudden closure. It’s particularly concerning for graduating 12th graders who are worried they’ll lose college credits from advanced classes. 

The closures are the latest in a series of troubles faced by the district’s charter networks. 

Last year, the Chicago Board of Education approved a resolution to enforce new requirements and oversight on charter school operators. The vote took place after Acero charter school network announced a plan to shut down seven of its 14 campuses, affecting 2,000 students and 500 employees. The Board later voted to save five of the seven slated to close.

Also last year, the Board voted to close EPIC Academy, a South Side charter school, after its operator cited financial difficulties. Meanwhile, board members agreed to have the district fully absorb ChiArts, a conservatory-style arts high school in West Town. Former ChiArts board members announced in October they would not seek to renew its contract with CPS to continue running the school, also citing financial difficulties. 

Urban Prep Charter Academy also has faced instability CPS revoked its charter and planned to take over the campuses. The district renewed Urban Prep’s contract last year to keep operating through 2026-27. 

The closures not only spur instability for staff and students, they also have impacted predominantly Black and Latine student bodies. As one Acero parent said in 2024: “This isn’t the normal academic failure story, but the repetitive cycle of the occurrence in Black and Brown communities. This will never happen in a school filled with white or wealthy children. Why isn’t the education of our children treated with the same urgency?”

End of the conservatory era

Since 2009, The Chicago High School for the Arts — ChiArts — has operated as Chicago’s first public high school focused on the arts. The school was known for its conservatory model which included three hours of arts education per day, accompanied by five hours of other core classes. 

Now, CPS plans to modify the curriculum to cut down on the conservatory instruction time , while allowing students to continue participating in after-school arts programs.

Students, parents and staff have pushed back, saying it will undermine the school’s unique structure and overall education. 

As with other arts high schools, CPS will fund the academic costs of the school, but any additional costs for arts programs will need to be funded by private donors. An additional change is that any teaching artists will have to pair up with licensed teachers to meet  graduation requirements. 

What you can do:

Catch up on the headlines:

  • CPS blasts longtime charter operator for alleged financial ‘negligence’ | WBEZ

  • Caught in the middle: More than 500 students to be displaced by CPS shutdown of Aspira schools | Sun-Times

  • Families, teachers in limbo as ASPIRA charter schools face closure | Chicago Tribune

A version of this story was first published in the March 4, 2026 issue of the Newswire, an email newsletter that is your weekly guide to Chicago government, civic action and what we can do to make our city great. You can sign up for the weekly newsletter here.

Have thoughts on what you'd like to see in this feature? Email Civic Editor Dawn Rhodes at dawn@citybureau.org.