CPS revokes Aspira’s ability to operate charter schools in Chicago in rare move

The Chicago Board of Education voted unanimously Thursday to end its contract with the financially troubled Aspira charter network — the only time the school district has revoked a charter in the middle of the school year.

The charter will officially become inactive on April 4 and students will not be able to enroll at an Aspira school for next year.

Aspira’s two high schools started the school year with about 600 students, but the campuses are being emptied out. Aspira’s leaders said the organization didn’t have enough money to continue operating through the end of the school year, while the district said state law forbade it from continuing to float Aspira as much cash as it needed.

Board members did not comment before they canceled Aspira’s contract, but in the past, several said Aspira’s poor financial management necessitated the closure. They also said they felt terrible about the students having to transition midyear.

The last time the school board took the dramatic action of revoking a charter contract was in December 2019, though there have been other instances in which the school board did not renew a charter contract, or a charter operator decided to walk away. Over the past 10 years, more than 20 privately run charter or contract schools have closed in Chicago.

CPS interim CEO/Supt. Macquline King said she and her staff did not recommend Aspira’s charter revocation lightly.

“It follows a period of intensive monitoring of Aspira’s financial and operational stability, which CPS has determined to be severely lacking,” she told the board before the vote. “Despite our district providing $2.55 million in emergency financial advances to help maintain school operations, Aspira leadership has failed to provide a verified plan to fund operations through the remainder of the school year.”

Jen Conant, who works with unionized teachers at the Chicago Teachers Union, said at a news conference ahead of the board meeting that she hoped “today’s vote sends a clear signal that charter operators cannot play fast and loose with their money or with students' lives” and that “it helps us keep students from ever facing a crisis like this again.”

Aspira CEO Edgar Lopez told WBEZ on Wednesday that he was already talking to attorneys about next steps if the board went ahead with the revocation. He thinks he has a case because, he said, the school district provides charter schools less funding than they are supposed to receive under state law.

He was angry and distraught over the situation. He said he believes the vote to revoke Aspira’s charter was taken on behalf of the Chicago Teachers Union, which he argues controls the school board. The CTU represents Aspira’s school staff but has long been critical of publicly funded, privately run schools.

Lopez and other charter leaders have accused CPS of underfunding charter schools, and Lopez believes the loss of Aspira’s charter is retaliation for his speaking out about the issue.

A legal battle might also ensue over Aspira’s school buildings. One of the two schools is in a modern, four-story building in Avondale. The other is in an older building that was renovated when Aspira put a school there.

Charter contracts say “any property or assets of the Charter School purchased with public funds for the operations of the Charter School … shall be returned to the Board, at no cost to the Board.”

When the school district laid out its rationale for revoking the charter, officials noted that on Jan. 28, they issued an inquiry to Aspira about property transfers and “received information that ASPIRA transferred two of its properties to a newly created business entity” called the Aspira Illinois Foundation.

CPS asked Aspira for more details, but it is unclear if the district ever received the financial records it was seeking. CPS officials said in a statement that “accounting for all property and assets during wind-down is critical to protecting the Board’s interests and rights under the agreement.”

Lopez told WBEZ that the two properties transferred did not include Aspira’s schools. But he also said that he believes Aspira can retain those buildings as long as they use them for programs.

“This is not going to be turned into a for-profit usage in the buildings. That's not our intent, and it’s never going to happen,” Lopez said. “We're working on different plans, but CPS, they just want to kill us.”

Aspira of Illinois, the umbrella organization that includes the charter network, has been in operation for nearly 60 years, and has some youth programming separate from the school. Aspira also runs an alternative school through a CPS contract with the organization Youth Connection Charter School. CPS says YCCS plans to keep the alternative school open at least through the end of the school year.

CPS and Aspira blame each other for the charter network’s downfall. CPS says that Aspira created budgets based on unrealistic enrollment projections, while Lopez says CPS’ student assignment system directed students away from charter schools like his. He said underfunding and low enrollment made the schools difficult to operate.

Conant of the CTU said the charter network’s mismanagement has produced “chaos” for students and families.

“Given the irresponsible management we have seen this year, and the cost to students' education, the district has no choice but to revoke their charter,” Conant said.

Conant applauded the district for helping students find new schools. Fewer than 50 students remain at the two closing Aspira schools, she added, and the operator has sent the CTU letters indicating they will have no staff or students after April 3. She said the district should now focus on making sure teachers can also join their students.