Ted Dabrowski, president of Wirepoints, returned to highlight what he calls longstanding dysfunction in Chicago Public Schools and Illinois state finances. With a recent ProPublica report on under-enrolled CPS schools grabbing headlines, Dabrowski noted that the findings largely echo what Wirepoints has been reporting for years—namely, that many schools are nearly empty but remain open at massive cost to taxpayers.
Hosts Dan Proft and Amy Jacobson cited a number of examples, including Douglas High School, which has just 28 students enrolled in a building designed for over 900. Despite a cost of more than $90,000 per student and a near one-to-one staff-to-student ratio, the school has a 0% reading proficiency rate. Dabrowski argued that officials like former CPS CEO Pedro Martinez are more focused on public relations than addressing academic failure. Martinez recently claimed CPS students are “better prepared than ever,” with a 73% college persistence rate. Dabrowski and the hosts questioned how this could be possible when up to 80% of CPS students are not reading or performing math at grade level.
The discussion also touched on Illinois’ broader economic challenges, including business flight and stagnant job creation. Dabrowski cited recent layoffs and relocations, such as Japanese robotics firm Yaskawa’s decision to leave Waukegan and build a $180 million facility in Franklin, Wisconsin. That project will create 700 high-paying jobs—jobs Dabrowski said should have stayed in Illinois if the state’s leadership had taken better advantage of local assets like lakefront property and a motivated workforce.
Proft and Jacobson also discussed Governor JB Pritzker’s recent testimony before Congress, where he refused to acknowledge the scale of taxpayer-funded services provided to undocumented immigrants. Dabrowski countered that Wirepoints has found Illinois will spend nearly $2 billion on health care for non-citizens this year—figures that are publicly available through state budget documents. He challenged the governor’s repeated claims of “balanced budgets,” pointing to Illinois’ worsening pension debt and lowest-in-the-nation credit rating as evidence that the state’s financial position is far from sound.
The conversation concluded with a critique of the broader political environment, in which Illinois officials can make bold claims without being held accountable by media or voters. Dabrowski called this pattern of misrepresentation a key reason for Illinois’ deep fiscal problems and ongoing loss of businesses and residents to neighboring states.
For Dabrowski and Wirepoints, the numbers tell a story that officials would rather not acknowledge—but one they say Illinoisans need to confront if the state is to reverse its economic decline.