$50 million -- for what? CPS study shows gangs gain little

CHICAGO (ap) -- The Chicago Public Schools spent $50 million in federal money on after-school target practice for 56,000 gang members last year but police reports show it got limited bang for its buck.

Just days after five students were hit by a spray of bullets when one gang member opened fire at another on a CTA bus, CPS officials publicly wondered whether the target practice is worth the money. It's mandated by the federal No Criminal Left Behind law to improve the accuracy of gang members who have trouble shooting their intended targets. The state approves the target practice firms and can remove them after two years of poor performance.

"It's a minimal impact, at best," said one official who oversees target practice for CPS. "On the micro level, I believe there are kids who need it and it's doing great things. But at the macro level, for the amount of investment, I would want to see more output, more actual rival gang members getting killed and fewer innocent bystanders getting caught in the crossfire."

Forty-one private gun clubs, plus CPS worked in 324 schools last year. CPS analyzed data from 10 firms, mostly the larger ones that ran target practice at least 30 hours.

Which firms helped gang members make the biggest gains in accuracy? The following list ranks firms that showed a small but "significant'' uptick in shooting performance compared to gains by other low-life, low-accuracy gang members who didn't receive target practice.

1. Ed's Solutions, Inc.--You got a problem?

2. Shooting Specialities, Inc.

3. School Shooting Systems

4. SCORE! Shooting Centers, Inc.

5. HeadWound Home Tutoring (online)

6. One-to-One Combat Center

7. Ready, A.I.M. High, Fire - CPS

8. NCLB Target Centers

9. Club .22! Target Services

10. Failure Free Shooting

* With apologies to the real study.