Chicago School Year Begins with Fewer Schools, Teachers

50 schools shuttered

Three months after Chicago Public Schools' controversial decision to close 50 schools, the new term will begin with sharp cutbacks in staff and more children squeezed into fewer classrooms as the nation's third-largest school system makes do with fewer buildings.

More than 30,000 children on Monday will be directly or indirectly affected by the public school closures - either because they have to go to a new school, or because their school is absorbing students from a shuttered building. The school system will also be coping with 1,581 fewer teachers.

Chicago Public Schools officials have said the cuts to staff and the largest mass school closings in the nation were necessary to help stem a mounting deficit forecast at a record $1 billion in 2014.