The acclaimed 1994 documentary “Hoop Dreams” introduced America to two West Side Chicago teenagers — William Gates and Arthur Agee — who believed basketball might lift them to something better. Both enrolled at the mostly white St. Joseph High School in Westchester. But when tuition pressures mounted after freshman year, Arthur transferred back to the Marshall High School.
More than 30 years later, both schools have become symbols of systemic failure. St. Joseph’s closed in 2021. Marshall now enrolls just 226 students, an 80% drop in two decades. Only 63% of its students graduate in four years, just 41% enroll in college, and only 28% stay beyond their first year.
The problem is bigger than two schools. Since 2002, Chicago has lost 58 private schools — many of them affordable lifelines for working-class families. At the same time, Chicago Public Schools clings to 275 underutilized buildings, with one in three desks sitting empty. Enrollment has dropped by roughly 70,000 students since a decade ago, yet CPS has added nearly 7,000 staff. The result? A $734 million deficit this year, while taxpayers are asked to fund more of the same.
Private schools like mine offer more for less. At Chicago Hope Academy we launched a trades program where students don’t just dream — they learn to wire circuits, strip wiring, cut pipe, bend conduit and install light fixtures. Last year, 95 upperclassmen took the course. Eight seniors at our West Side school went directly into union apprenticeships. The rest — all on scholarship — chose college.
Inspired by Gates and Agee, our basketball team won Hope’s first-ever state championship this spring. And while they can flash their medals and rings, all twelve players can also run a Sawzall, rewire a room and cut steel with precision. They can shoot the lights out on the court — and turn them back on in the classroom. Most importantly, they have options.
But those options depend on access. When St. Joe’s closed, four of its last freshmen came to Hope on Illinois’ Invest in Kids tax-credit scholarships. Those scholarships ended when teachers unions lobbied Springfield to kill the program in 2023, slamming the door on thousands of low-income families. Nearly two-thirds of recipients lived below 185% of the poverty line — less than $50,000 for a family of four. More than half were Black or Hispanic.
Now there is another chance. A new federal Education Choice for Children Act, modeled on Invest in Kids, would restore scholarships through tax credits at no cost to Illinois. But Gov. JB Pritzker must choose to opt in. He can side again with union leadership — or with the families who simply want safe, values-based schools where their children can thrive.
In “Hoop Dreams,” William Gates often heard, “When you get to the NBA, don’t forget about me.” But he gave a more haunting plea: “If I don’t make it, don’t you forget about me.”
More than 30 years later, too many kids are forgotten — trapped in empty CPS buildings, while scholarships vanish and dreams fade. But when a teenager leaves my gym able to shoot threes and rewire a circuit, he’s not chasing a dream. He’s building a future. Illinois should give more families that chance.
Ike Muzikowski is the president and principal of Chicago Hope Academy. He lives in East Garfield Park.