{"id":161736,"date":"2025-08-20T18:20:13","date_gmt":"2025-08-20T18:20:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/161736\/"},"modified":"2025-08-20T18:20:13","modified_gmt":"2025-08-20T18:20:13","slug":"inside-chicago-public-schools-budget-battle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/161736\/","title":{"rendered":"Inside Chicago Public Schools’ budget battle"},"content":{"rendered":"

Chicago Board of Education President Sean Harden challenged the district\u2019s new proposed budget<\/a> Tuesday, expressing doubts about its heavy reliance on revenue from special taxing districts to close a $734 million deficit.<\/p>\n

The hesitancy repeatedly expressed by Harden, who was appointed by Mayor Brandon Johnson, during two public hearings, signals further growing tension within the school board over how to address the district\u2019s deepening fiscal crisis.<\/p>\n

Chicago Public Schools\u2019 fiscal roadmap, backed by interim CEO Macquline King, runs counter to the agenda of Johnson, a former Chicago Teachers Union organizer, who has advocated both now and in the past for borrowing to address budget woes.<\/p>\n

In the auditorium at CPS headquarters in the Loop Tuesday, the board\u2019s divide over the budget \u2014\u00a0between elected and mayoral-appointed board members \u2014\u00a0was on full display. After parents, educators, local officials and advocates weighed in on how best to close the district\u2019s budget gap, Harden led the discussion between passionate board members on both sides.<\/p>\n

Debby Pope, a mayoral appointee representing District 2B on the North Side, raised concerns about relying on uncertain revenue projections.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am not an advocate of irresponsibility. However, I do think it is irresponsible to make assumptions about income, about money we will or won\u2019t get in the future,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Other members expressed support.<\/p>\n

\u201cBalancing the budget on the backs of our children so that we can help out our mayor. That\u2019s not our responsibility,\u201d said Jennie Custer, who was elected and represents District 1B on the far Northwest Side.<\/p>\n

Balancing the budget with tax increment financing<\/p>\n

Among many avenues to shave and save money, the district\u2019s new plan relies on $379 million from tax increment financing districts, or TIF, taxing districts drawn around the city that seek to spur redevelopment through local projects approved by Chicago\u2019s Department of Planning and Development.<\/p>\n

Every year, aldermen allocate extra money from their districts, in what is known as a TIF surplus. The city receives less than a quarter of that money, while CPS receives over half. Established under Mayor Harold Washington in 1984, the TIF system has, in the past, received criticism for its lack of transparency and for taking away money from taxing bodies like the school district.<\/p>\n

\"ChicagoChicago Public Schools board President Sean Harden, center, attends a community engagement session to discuss the Chicago Public Schools budget at Dyett High School on July 14, 2025, in Chicago. (Armando L. Sanchez\/Chicago Tribune)<\/p>\n

Mayor Johnson has promised to phase out the tax tool,<\/a>\u00a0but is also reliant on extra TIF funds to balance his razor-thin budget. Last year, the district received a record $300 million in TIF surplus from the city, and is planning to get $379 million this year, according to Sitkowski.<\/p>\n

Harden pushed back on that notion Tuesday.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is my understanding that the city has moved away from using TIF surplus as a means of balancing the budget,\u201d said Harden. \u201cWhat happens in the event the TIF assumptions that we\u2019re basing this budget on aren\u2019t met, what\u2019s our contingency?\u201d<\/p>\n

CPS Chief Budget Officer Mike Sitkowski said he knows relying on TIF isn\u2019t a long-term solution, but reiterated that \u201cit\u2019s the best option that we have available.\u201d He pointed to policies governing TIF surplus, explaining that the state TIF act and several city policies indicate the money is, indeed, there.<\/p>\n

\u201cWithholding TIF surplus funding from CPS would contradict established city policy or violate state law, and would hurt CPS students,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Several aldermen spoke in favor of the district\u2019s budget proposal and underscored Sitkowski\u2019s point.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn order to solve our own budget, we need to take out a TIF surplus,\u201d said Ald. Andre Vasquez, 40th. \u201cAnyone who\u2019s telling you that we\u2019re going to withhold TIF is lying to you.\u201d<\/p>\n

The pension payment CTU once called \u2018a despicable shell game\u2019<\/p>\n

Ultimately, the discussion around TIF is connected to two items that were markedly absent from the district\u2019s budget proposal, which Sitkowski first presented at a board meeting last Wednesday: accepting $200 million in borrowing and covering a controversial $175 million pension payment to the city for municipal and nonteaching CPS employees.<\/p>\n

Both measures were recently backed by Mayor Johnson, but rejected by interim CEO King, following the lead of her predecessor, Pedro Martinez, who left the district after a high-profile clash with the mayor over finances.<\/p>\n

\"MayorMayor Brandon Johnson and interim CPS CEO Dr. Macquline King greet students at the Courtenay Language Arts Center in the Uptown neighborhood on the first day of school on Aug. 18, 2025. (E. Jason Wambsgans\/Chicago Tribune)<\/p>\n

Whether CPS secures additional TIF funds will likely determine the fate of both the loan and pension payment. The proposed budget includes the potential for the district to make the pension payment, but it is dependent on whether CPS receives more funding, either from the city or state.<\/p>\n

The city is legally obligated to make the pension payment. And for almost 100 years, the city did cover the payment to the pension, called the Municipal Employees\u2019 Annuity & Benefit Fund of Chicago. Former Mayor Lori Lightfoot asked CPS to begin making payments in 2020, and the district used the flexibility provided by pandemic relief funds to help.<\/p>\n

CTU at the time called the move \u201ca despicable shell game\u201d that \u201crips off CPS.\u201d Johnson included not making the payments in his transition report, but, facing his own budget challenges, last year asked CPS to shoulder the cost. With pandemic funding expiring, then-CEO Martinez refused, and, at the last hour, City Hall absorbed the payment.<\/p>\n

Last Wednesday, board members aligned with Johnson sent a letter to interim CEO King, urging her to revise the budget to include both the loan and the pension payment. Eleven members signed on \u2014 all but two, Jitu Brown and Ebony DeBerry, were appointed by the mayor. The letter was first reported by the Sun Times.<\/p>\n

The liabilities of loans<\/strong><\/p>\n

On Tuesday, Sitkowski presented the same CPS budget plan as he did last week \u2014 with no pension payment and no borrowing \u2014\u00a0emphasizing its aim to minimize classroom cuts while working to keep future debt levels under control.<\/p>\n

He reiterated that borrowing for operating expenses would send the district into a spiral of credit downgrades, pointing out that a decade ago, when the district previously borrowed continuously, CPS received 34 rating downgrades.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve lived through years of forced austerity, and this budget takes necessary steps to protect our schools from reliving this past,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\"ChicagoChicago Public Schools Chief Budget Officer Michael Sitkowski speaks during a Board of Education meeting on Aug. 13, 2025. (Antonio Perez\/Chicago Tribune)<\/p>\n

The district\u2019s debt already stands at $9 billion, and CPS officials plan to refinance $1.8 billion of that prior debt, district officials said Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Borrowing hundreds of millions would ultimately cost the district more because of interest on a loan, CPS Chief Financial Officer Miroslava Meija Krug said, similar to a mortgage on a house. She estimated a $200 million loan would balloon to $394 million over 15 years.<\/p>\n

But board members, mostly those appointed by Johnson, were skeptical.<\/p>\n

Board member Emma Lozano of District 7A on the Southwest Side, appointed by the mayor, said she refinanced her house as a single mom.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want everybody to remember when you have to take out a loan, all of us have done it, and we\u2019ve paid it off, and sometimes there\u2019s higher interest and less interest, but we figure it out,\u201d she said. \u201cThis is an intelligent board, and we can figure it out.\u201d<\/p>\n

The board has repeatedly called for the city and state to step up to help CPS get through its dire fiscal predicament, through TIF, or expanded revenue tools such as a potential state sales tax on services like repairs.<\/p>\n

Elected board member Jessica Biggs of District 6 on the South Side said the way the board acts now could affect the state\u2019s willingness to collaborate on funding solutions.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve heard the state express that they really are interested in seeing some long-term reform before they come to the district\u2019s aid,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u2018We are the backbone of our schools\u2019<\/p>\n

This year\u2019s budget crisis galvanized more parents into action, spurred in part by interim CEO King\u2019s public engagement push. As King navigated mounting fiscal pressure and calls from the city to borrow money, she launched a series of community meetings<\/a> aimed at bringing families into the conversation and the fight for funding. In those sessions, Chicagoans expressed a disinterest in borrowing.<\/p>\n

CTU sang a different tune on Tuesday, lamenting cuts to schools and asking for more creative solutions to the budget woes. The district has already laid off hundreds of custodians, lunchroom staff, crossing guards, teachers and classroom support staff.<\/p>\n

\"ChicagoChicago Teachers Union Vice President Jackson Potter speaks with members of the press outside Chicago Public Schools headquarters while CPS holds public budget hearings on Aug. 19, 2025. (Armando L. Sanchez\/Chicago Tribune)<\/p>\n

While the meeting went on inside CPS headquarters, the teacher union rallied outside, demanding a budget with firm financial solutions \u2014\u00a0not one based on \u201cifs,\u201d paraprofessional Lashawn Wallace argued.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need guarantees. I need guarantees. I\u2019ve worked in CPS classrooms for 32 years,\u201d said Wallace. \u201cWe\u2019re the ones who make children feel safe. We are the backbone of our schools.\u201d<\/p>\n

Keerti Nandan, a special education teacher at Sutherland Elementary, said ongoing uncertainty is straining already limited resources. She said her school is down five paraprofessionals.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s only day two, and as a special education teacher, I can tell you that our paraprofessionals are already stretched to a breaking point,\u201d she said. \u201c(They\u2019re) skipping their own lunches \u2026 just to keep things running.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nandan said wanting kids to have warmth, clean classrooms, safe drinking water and safe streets shouldn\u2019t be too much.<\/p>\n

Originally Published: August 20, 2025 at 11:40 AM CDT<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Chicago Board of Education President Sean Harden challenged the district\u2019s new proposed budget Tuesday, expressing doubts about its…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":161737,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5124],"tags":[3232,960,16742,5386,1818],"class_list":{"0":"post-161736","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-chicago","8":"tag-budget","9":"tag-chicago","10":"tag-chicago-public-schools","11":"tag-il","12":"tag-illinois"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115062481099093908","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161736","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=161736"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161736\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/161737"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=161736"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=161736"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=161736"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}