Today is a day of such significance, it deserves a longer email.<\/p>\n
But the TLDR is that Mayor Johnson is proposing a budget to Protect Chicago. In the proposal is a never-before historic release of TIF funds that will result in over half a billion dollars for our schools.<\/strong> That\u2019s enough to fulfill the $379M already budgeted, secure Black Student Success regardless of Trump cuts, and kick in for the retirement of the backbone of our schools, the workers whose pensions are in the MEABF.<\/p>\n Now, we need to tell our Aldermen to vote yes.<\/p>\n Tell Your Alderperson \u201cVote Yes\u201d on Today, Mayor Johnson put forward a local answer to the DOGE team at the White House and the DOGE caucus in council. Invest in our communities, protect our city from cuts, put working people first by making the tech corporations pay their fair share.<\/p>\n With all of us pushing aldermen to vote yes and make sure the city does its part, it\u2019ll be up to Springfield to follow suit.<\/strong> This is an incredible and unexpected move to stabilize our schools, but restoring the cuts and the full funding we need can only be done if the Governor and IL General Assembly act as boldly.<\/p>\n So today, we celebrate the difference of having a union man and a teacher as mayor instead of a privatizer, we commit to pushing city council to keep their promise to our schools, and we get ready to make sure the Governor and ILGA do the same.<\/p>\n Now for the background\u2026<\/p>\n One year ago, we were in the fight of our lives. A CEO who refused to prioritize our students. A $734 million deficit that threatened our schools. Donald Trump\u2019s burgeoning attacks on everything we\u2019ve built.<\/p>\n Today, we\u2019re celebrating a historic budget that protects our city.<\/p>\n Our Road<\/p>\n In December, the Board of Education voted for new CPS leadership. After eleven months of bargaining and working without a contract, in April, we won the most transformative contract in CTU history.<\/p>\n We won enforceable class sizes, doubled librarians and bilingual supports, and tripled sustainable community schools. We protected Black history, codified sanctuary school protections, and created LGBTQIA+ safe schools. This contract turned the page on decades of disinvestment in Black children and working families.<\/p>\n But by summer, the state\u2019s perpetual underfunding meant CPS reported a $734 million budget hole. In August, the Board passed a budget that kept schools open but included painful cuts: 480 custodial jobs, fewer crossing guards, fewer hot meals.<\/p>\n That budget relied on a promise from a majority of aldermen<\/a> to deliver a TIF surplus that the very next day we were told wouldn\u2019t be happening<\/a>. But spoiler: the Mayor is helping them keep their promise.<\/p>\n While we faced our local challenges, everything has heightened as Trump wages war on our city and our values. The madman attempted to eliminate the Department of Education, slashed SNAP benefits that feed our families, and cut staff charged with funding special education students across the country.<\/p>\n He unleashed federal agents to terrorize Chicago families and communities, and withheld funding for both the Black Student Success Program and trans student protections that our union fought for and won.<\/p>\n Mayor Johnson passed executive orders to protect the right to protest, stood with us at Funston Elementary, and now is promoting a Protect Chicago budget.<\/p>\n
the Protect Chicago Budget.<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n