In Springfield and Chicago, irresponsibility abounds.
Chicago school board members appointed by Mayor Brandon Johnson or otherwise aligned with the Chicago Teachers Union rejected the $10 billion budget proposed by Chicago Public Schools CEO Macquline King, which included more than 1,000 layoffs to help plug a deficit topping $730 million.
The 11 board members canceled the job cuts, recklessly assuming that state lawmakers and Gov. JB Pritzker would provide CPS with a $150 million bailout during their November veto session.
CPS’ acting budget director and acting chief financial officer at the Thursday meeting begged board members not to pass the amendment, arguing that it could jeopardize short-term loans needed simply to make payroll in September just after schools open.
The move also is likely to result in credit downgrades that will make debt even more expensive for the junk-rated district, if not shut CPS out of the bond markets altogether.
King emailed CPS parents afterwards, saying, “At this point, we do not know if this will impact the opening of schools on August 24.”
Even WBEZ, a news outlet that’s been consistently sympathetic to CTU, called the decision “shocking.”
There’s a lot of blame to go around for this reckless decision. But in our minds the officeholder most responsible is embattled House Speaker Emanuel “Chris” Welch.
As he faces a crisis resulting from his handling over three years of sexual harassment allegations against a member of his Democratic caucus, Welch met with the CTU on July 29 and promised to push for a supplemental funding bill in November to stave off the layoffs.
That was all the CTU-backed school board members needed to justify ignoring the risks calmly laid out by King and her lieutenants. “Have we ever seen the speaker of the House invite us in, supporting supplemental funding like this?” asked board member Jitu Brown.
Scott Stantis editorial cartoon for July 31, 2026, on Chicago school board’s budget. (Scott Stantis/For the Chicago Tribune)
Welch is the worst of the enabling offenders in Springfield, but he’s not the only one. Senate President Don Harmon, asked for his reaction to Welch’s November plans, was supportive but noncommittal. “You will find no greater supporter of public education than the Senate Democratic caucus,” a Harmon spokesperson said. “The Senate president looks forward to working with our allies and partners to identify resources, and he shared this with the (Illinois Federation of Teachers) board earlier this week.”
Harmon’s spokesperson, of course, didn’t explicitly promise to bail out CPS and didn’t pledge to do so in November. But, hey, details.
Details that did not concern Brown or the 10 other board members.
Alas, we fear that the 11 Chicago school board members who have sent CPS down this budgetary Niagara Falls aren’t close watchers of how Springfield works — at least Springfield in this day and age.
Perhaps they haven’t taken much notice of the travails of their hero, Speaker Welch, but whatever influence he held over the Democratic caucus before the Tribune-reported revelations of his handling of the sexual harassment scandal that led to the resignation of Plainfield Rep. Harry Benton is now a fraction of what it was. Welch’s desperate need for a change of subject surely has as much to do with his avowed fealty to CTU as his concern for Chicago’s public school students. When it comes to pleasing CTU, Welch currently needs all the friends he can get.
Here’s some more clear-eyed Springfield reality for our blinkered school board members.
Any supplemental funding bill will require three-fifths majorities in the veto session. Democrats alone could provide those numbers given their supermajorities in the Capitol. But it’s beyond fanciful to believe that suburban lawmakers are going to support some sort of onerous tax hike just to bail out the profligate Chicago Public Schools, where a third of the schools are more than half empty and one high school built for more than 1,000 students was attended last year by 27.
If any sort of supplemental school funding has any chance, it would have to be statewide. Under the state’s evidence-based funding allocation setup for public education, that would mean hundreds of millions more in additional “resources” to be spread throughout Illinois school districts rather than just the $150 million the Chicago school board majority is assuming in its “budget.”
Where would that money come from? Welch in his remarks to Chicago teachers referenced how he’d been fighting for a 3% income tax surcharge on millionaires. That won’t be happening in November no matter the ultimate outcome of that misguided initiative. House Democrats took a pass in the spring on putting a constitutional amendment that would allow for such a tax on the November ballot. The earliest Illinois voters could consider it is 2028.
Pandering is too nice a word for what Welch pulled on Wednesday.
That leaves one last high-profile Democrat who bears responsibility for this mess.
Pilloried by CTU and its supporters for failing to pay CPS what they say it’s “owed,” Gov. JB Pritzker has been mealymouthed in his response. His position is that, yes, of course, public schools deserve more state support, but there simply isn’t enough cash to do more than pump the minimum $300 million-plus in additional state funding each year per existing state law.
Now, CTU has managed to put Pritzker in a box and is willing to bet CPS’ fiscal future that it can bully him. We hope for Illinois’ fiscal future, it cannot.
The governor, of course, is running for reelection and harbors aspirations of running for president. He now will have to say before he faces voters in November whether he’s committed to helping Welch get CPS its money or not. And CTU has maneuvered Pritzker into a position of either being blamed for hanging CPS out to dry or pushing through a massive tax hike that could well scotch any realistic hopes for the presidency.
Welch, whose record as speaker was poor before this desperate gambit to save his position, is beyond hope in terms of responsible leadership. But what about Harmon and Pritzker?
Time for both to step up and tell CTU and these board members that Chicago must responsibly manage its own bloated school system before it demands favors from Springfield. Most other school districts in the state do a much better job.
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