Chicago Public Schools this fall recorded one of the sharpest single-year enrollment declines since the district’s student population began a steady downturn 16 years ago.

The 361,314 students counted on the 20th day of classes this fall represents a reduction of 10,000 students from last school year.

A West Side aldermen and the Chicago Coalition for the Homeless today pitched a $150-million-a-year tax on some residential sales that they said could raise badly needed funds to help those without homes—and it well could pass, given the city’s current political environment.

In a statement, the coalition and Ald. Walter Burnett, 27th, said their proposed 1.2 percent real-estate transfer tax would help an estimated 36,000 people over the next decade get new homes, with the money coming only from the “top 5 percent” of residential sales, those of $1 million or more.

Gov. Bruce Rauner’s administration knew in December that toxic air pollution from the Sterigenics plant in west suburban Willowbrook likely was responsible for some of the highest cancer risks in the nation, according to a letter obtained by the Tribune.

The governor’s office and the Rauner-led Illinois Environmental Protection Agency kept the politically explosive information from the public for eight months, then initially downplayed the dangers posed by a company owned in part by the incumbent Republican’s former private equity firm.