{"id":1028958,"date":"2026-08-28T06:19:15","date_gmt":"2026-08-28T06:19:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/1028958\/"},"modified":"2026-08-28T06:19:15","modified_gmt":"2026-08-28T06:19:15","slug":"pritzker-pours-cold-water-on-using-meta-windfall-for-chicago-schools-funding","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/1028958\/","title":{"rendered":"Pritzker pours cold water on using Meta windfall for Chicago Schools funding"},"content":{"rendered":"

MOORE\u2019S SUMMARY: <\/strong>Gov. JB Pritzker poured cold water Thursday on Illinois Federation of Teachers President Stacy Davis Gates\u2019 call to spend the state\u2019s $768 million cut of a multi-state settlement with social media giant Meta for education, saying that \u201cone-time money should really be used for one-time needs.\u201d<\/p>\n

PRITZKER:<\/strong> \u201cAnd while I understand that some people may view the shortfall in the budget in Chicago as a one-time need, it\u2019s not,\u201d Pritzker told reporters in Springfield following a stop on his five-day campaign bus tour. \u201cThere\u2019s an ongoing need.\u201d<\/p>\n

CONTEXT:<\/strong> Meta, owner of social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram, reached a $17 billion settlement with nearly all U.S. states, including Illinois, earlier this week that resolved claims that the company designed its platforms with addictive features and knowingly exposed children to serious mental health harms.<\/p>\n

Davis Gates, also the president of the Chicago Teachers Union, <\/strong>has said for years that Illinois \u201cowes\u201d Chicago Public Schools the nearly $1 billion necessary to achieve the 90% adequacy target under the state\u2019s Evidence-Based Funding formula.<\/p>\n

While annual state funding has increased by $3 billion<\/strong> since EBF\u2019s adoption, more than 63% of school districts<\/a>, including CPS, remain below the adequacy target, with officials estimating that it will take additional $3 billion to achieve that goal statewide.<\/p>\n

The Chicago School Board turned up the pressure<\/strong> last month, approving a budget that banks on the state chipping in another $150 million beyond what\u2019s already allocated. And House Speaker Emanuel \u201cChris\u201d Welch, D-Hillside, told CTU members he\u2019s \u201ccommitted\u201d<\/a> to supporting a supplemental budget bill in the fall veto session that would increase funding for the district, though that\u2019d require a three-fifths supermajority vote.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Governor has said he supports more funding for education<\/strong> but didn\u2019t know where it would come from.\u00a0 The settlement with Meta just made that answer even easier,\u201d Davis Gates said in a statement Wednesday. \u201cSchools from Peoria to Belleville to Chicago are counting on the Governor and the General Assembly to prioritize students the way we\u2019ve seen them prioritize big tech and billionaire stadium owners.\u201d<\/p>\n

ONE-TIME MONEY, ONE-TIME NEEDS:<\/strong> Pritzker said he\u2019s \u201cnot opposed\u201d to using the settlement funds if there\u2019s \u201ca real required short-term need\u201d to fill \u201ca small budget hole.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBut $150 million for Chicago<\/strong> added on top of what is needed across the state, that\u2019s maybe using all of this one-time money for an ongoing need,\u201d Pritzker said.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo the question is, <\/strong>how do we fill the ongoing need?\u201d Pritzker continued. \u201cAnd that\u2019s what I would like to focus on, and not the question of \u2018How do we spend the one-time money that\u2019s coming from Meta?’\u201d<\/p>\n

WHY IT MATTERS: <\/strong>Pritzker\u2019s answer came in the wake of Moody\u2019s upgrading Illinois\u2019 issuer and general obligation bond ratings to A1 \u2014 the 11th time a credit rating agency has upgraded the state\u2019s rating during the governor\u2019s tenure.<\/p>\n

The agency attributed the upgrade <\/strong>largely to governance<\/strong><\/a>,<\/strong> citing \u201ceight consecutive on-time balanced budgets and consistently conservative fiscal management.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Pritzker has made Illinois<\/strong> a bastion of social progressivism during his nearly eight years in office, he\u2019s also constantly emphasized the need to balance the state\u2019s books.<\/p>\n

For example,<\/strong> the state directed most one-time federal COVID-19 relief dollars towards recovery expenses, relief programs for businesses and individuals and to repay federal advances to the unemployment trust fund \u2014 and not towards creating new programs that would become recurring line items in future budgets.<\/p>\n

CPS, on the other hand, <\/strong>devoted a significant chunk of its COVID-19 funds to operating costs, such as programs and staff salaries, that would continue after the one-time relief dried up.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a budgeting contrast <\/strong>worth noting as the current debate over education funding moves forward.<\/p>\n

Welcome to Capitol News Insider<\/strong>, our subscriber-only state government news hub. We\u2019re in a beta testing phase, so we\u2019re offering Insider coverage for free. <\/p>\n

In the meantime, you can sign up for our twice-weekly Capitol News Insider newsletter<\/a>. You won\u2019t be charged, but will have the option to become a paying subscriber to retain access to coverage like this once we fully launch Capitol News Insider.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MOORE\u2019S SUMMARY: Gov. JB Pritzker poured cold water Thursday on Illinois Federation of Teachers President Stacy Davis Gates\u2019…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1028959,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5124],"tags":[54343,960,36515,16742,411466,42123,257368,5386,1818,411467,411468,169568,12084,340,410648,116208,26790,10427,169571],"class_list":["post-1028958","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-chicago","tag-belleville","tag-chicago","tag-chicago-board-of-education","tag-chicago-public-schools","tag-chicago-public-schools-funding","tag-chicago-teachers-union","tag-emanuel-chris-welch","tag-il","tag-illinois","tag-illinois-credit-rating","tag-illinois-federation-of-teachers","tag-illinois-general-assembly","tag-jb-pritzker","tag-meta","tag-meta-settlement","tag-moodys-ratings","tag-peoria","tag-springfield","tag-stacy-davis-gates"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/117171687828518880","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1028958","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1028958"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1028958\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1028959"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1028958"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1028958"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1028958"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}