How many times have we read stories that Chicago faces a huge deficit? I can’t recall it was $600 million, or some other figure.

But the huge deficit, plus “underutilization,” gave Mayor Rahm Emanuel the change to make history:

He closed the largest number of public schools in history, at one fell swoop (50).

But now he is going on a spending spree, building new schools and pledging to spend at least $90 million for new construction and upgrades.

What happened to the budget crisis? Did the deficit disappear?

Were the schools really underutilized?

There must be a simple explanation.

Maybe a reader from Chicago can translate what this means.