Education
Students, Families Scrambling as 2 Chicago Charter Schools Set to Close Mid-Year
Aspira Early College High School (WTTW News)
Students and families from a pair of Chicago charter schools are scrambling after learning their schools will be shut down with all staff expected to be laid off next month, before the end of the current academic year.
The ASPIRA charter network intends to close both ASPIRA Early College and ASPIRA Business and Finance high schools by April 3 due to what it says is a “lack of funding,” forcing hundreds of students to transfer mid-year while teachers and staff must now find new jobs.
That announcement comes days after ASPIRA leadership wrote to families telling them they remained “committed to completing the 2025–2026 academic year without disruption.”
Chicago Teachers Union charter rep Caroline Rutherford said the sudden closures and layoffs have been “nothing short of chaos” and claimed ASPIRA’s CEO Edgar Lopez never notified parents or students of the decision.
“Teachers were forced to inform students without any communication or direction from the charter operator or from the school district,” Rutherford told Chicago’s Board of Education at a meeting Monday morning. “Students were crying, calling their parents and coping with massive confusion and stress with no clear path from ASPIRA or (Chicago Public Schools) on what would happen next.”
The two publicly financed, but privately operated charters are located on the North Side and collectively enroll more than 500 students, according to CPS data.
In its closure letter, ASPIRA leadership said CPS “will not provide any additional funding” to the charter network this academic year to help it continue operating the two schools. Lopez at a press conference last week prior to the announcement denied any accusations of financial mismanagement by his charter network and said that the potential closures were instead due to the “failure of a system that’s intentionally choking the life out of charter schools.”
But CPS claimed ASPIRA has provided no evidence that it is unable to finance the campuses.
CPS officials at a public meeting last week said it has already provided $2.5 million in cash advances to ASPIRA to continue to pay staff and continue students’ education, adding that it is barred by state law from providing the charter network with additional funding above the per-capita tuition charge.
“Despite CPS working earnestly to support ASPIRA on their financial issues for the past year, as required under State law, ASPIRA has not provided sufficient evidence that the network can sustain operations through the remainder of the 2025-26 school year,” a CPS spokesperson said in a statement. “To clarify, CPS is not revoking ASPIRA’s charter school agreement but helping students transition to schools within the District in order to help ensure continuity of learning.”
Lopez did not immediately respond to a request for comment Monday.
Transferring students are able to enroll in their local CPS neighborhood school, but the district is also opening seats at four other schools where ASPIRA students can enroll regardless of their home address — Schurz, Kelvyn Park, Foreman and Roosevelt high schools.
CPS has asked transferring students to inform the district of their decision by March 20, though that is not a hard deadline for families to change schools.
According to Rutherford, around 15% of ASPIRA students at the two impacted campuses have already left ahead of the CPS community meeting last week.
She also called on CPS to help ensure graduating seniors from the schools are not only able to enjoy all the milestones and celebrations they would’ve engaged in had their schools not been shut down, but that they’re able to do so together.
“Only you can make the arrangements for them to graduate together at the same school,” she told the board. “We have proposals that can accomplish this, and we’re willing to work with you to ensure this for all 177 seniors. They deserve a prom, a senior class trip, a graduation ceremony — all of which you should be working with the community to achieve.”
