{"id":968367,"date":"2026-07-30T05:13:12","date_gmt":"2026-07-30T05:13:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/968367\/"},"modified":"2026-07-30T05:13:12","modified_gmt":"2026-07-30T05:13:12","slug":"welch-courts-ctu-support-with-cps-funding-pledge-amid-scandal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/968367\/","title":{"rendered":"Welch courts CTU support with CPS funding pledge amid scandal"},"content":{"rendered":"

Illinois House Speaker Emanuel \u201cChris\u201d Welch, facing mounting questions<\/a> within his own Democratic caucus over how his office handled sexual harassment allegations against a now-former lawmaker, moved Wednesday to shore up support with a key progressive ally \u2014 telling Chicago Teachers Union members he\u2019ll push for additional state funding for Chicago Public Schools during the fall veto session as the district confronts a massive budget hole and the threat of hundreds of teacher layoffs.<\/p>\n

\u201cI strongly committed in the veto session to supporting the supplemental funding bill because I know we\u2019re all going to be there (in Springfield) for veto session,\u201d Welch told CTU members at an Illinois Federation of Teachers board meeting, according to a video posted Wednesday<\/a> by the CTU. \u201cYou\u2019ve got my support 110%.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

It\u2019s the latest opportunity the Hillside Democrat has had to court progressive-minded interests as he navigates uncertain support among his own members, many of them progressives, as leader of the 78-member House Democratic Caucus. That uncertainty follows a Tribune investigation<\/a> earlier this month that raised questions over how Welch\u2019s office handled sexual harassment allegations against disgraced ex-state Rep. Harry Benton<\/a>, a Democrat from Plainfield, in 2023.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s unclear where the state would find the money after Gov. JB Pritzker last month signed<\/a> a nearly $56 billion budget that relied on a series of new taxes and other tweaks to come into balance, while also reviving some temporary election-year tax breaks Democrats last used when Pritzker sought a second term four years ago. In the video, Welch didn\u2019t elaborate on his plans or how he would carry them out, and a spokesperson for the speaker didn\u2019t return a request for comment. A spokesperson for Pritzker also didn\u2019t return a request for comment.<\/p>\n

Welch\u2019s signal of support for more CPS funding comes as the city\u2019s Board of Education is slated to vote Thursday on a $9.96 billion budget<\/a> after a projected $732 million deficit and the laying off of more than 700 teachers<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The six-day fall veto session is scheduled to run Nov. 17-19 and Dec. 1-3 in Springfield.\u00a0In the video, Welch said he was unlikely to call for a special session before the scheduled veto session to address the CPS funding issue.<\/p>\n

On Wednesday, CPS CEO Macquline King said the board should pass the budget as-is, referring to cuts CPS had to make nearly a decade ago after the legislature passed a fiscal plan.<\/p>\n

\u201cBack in 2017, CPS\u2019 budget assumption was anchored in actual state legislation that had been passed by the legislature and was waiting for the Governor\u2019s signature. When the legislation was vetoed, CPS was forced to make devastating mid-year cuts,\u201d King said in a statement. \u201cThis time around, state revenue is not promised or secured. The state has not called a special session, the legislature has not passed any legislation providing us with additional revenue, and in fact, the State has already passed its FY2027 budget.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will continue to advocate with our partners at all levels of government to get the funding we know our students need,\u201d King continued in the statement. \u201cBut trying to balance the budget on unrealized state revenue at the 11th hour would be a mistake with devastating short-and-long-term consequences.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the CTU video, Welch spoke to CTU members about the importance of the state bringing in more revenue, including his support for an amendment to institute a millionaire\u2019s tax \u2014 which failed to draw enough support from Democrats in his own caucus during the spring legislative session that ended June 1.<\/p>\n

\u201cI do think that the state of Illinois (can) do better, should do better,\u201d he said in the CTU video while holding a promotional flyer that read \u201clayoff notice.\u201d \u201cThis shouldn\u2019t be happening, and I\u2019m going to keep fighting for you so that we can get more revenue (to) CPS schools.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"InIn an image from video, Illinois House Speaker Emanuel “Chris” Welch speaks to members of the Chicago Teachers Union on July 29, 2026. (Chicago Teachers Union)<\/p>\n

Still, the timing of the announcement also follows Welch being forced to contain fallout from political pressure he\u2019s received from fellow House Democrats, particularly the House Democratic Women\u2019s Caucus, in the wake of the monthslong Tribune investigation that raised questions about the speaker\u2019s handling of sexual harassment allegations against Benton. The Tribune investigation found that a young female now-former staffer for Benton filed a lengthy list of harassment allegations, many of them of a sexual nature, with Welch\u2019s then-chief of staff in 2023.<\/p>\n

But Welch\u2019s office didn\u2019t contact Benton until three months had lapsed and the staffer had quit her job over what she said was fear for her mental health. In addition, there\u2019s no indication Benton faced discipline following the 2023 allegations, and Welch\u2019s campaign operation contributed $1.4 million to Benton\u2019s campaign ahead of his bid for reelection in 2024.<\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t until February of this year that Welch removed Benton from his committee assignments and other caucus duties after at least one other complaint against Benton made its way to the speaker\u2019s office. The Tribune reported Welch\u2019s actions against Benton followed a female lobbyist\u2019s interaction with Benton this winter at a bar in Chicago\u2019s River North, where, she told the Tribune, Benton used his phone to show her pictures of women he claimed to have slept with and made lewd comments toward her. The lobbyist\u2019s complaints about Benton\u2019s behavior reached Welch\u2019s office, and the speaker asked the legislative inspector general\u2019s office to investigate.<\/p>\n

After receiving Legislative Inspector General Michael McCuskey\u2019s investigative report on the case, Welch on July 1 called for Benton to resign<\/a> from the legislature, which he did<\/a> two days later. Benton also dropped his 2026 reelection campaign.<\/p>\n

In the meantime, Welch and Pritzker have called for the report to be released publicly, which the Legislative Ethics Commission \u2014 composed of four Republican and four Democratic lawmakers \u2014 voted unanimously<\/a> to do by Friday.<\/p>\n

Separately, the Tribune also revealed in its investigation that Welch had interactions with the former Benton staffer on social media \u2014 which included him responding with heart-eye emojis to images of her \u2014 as well as a request over the encrypted Signal messaging app to meet in the bar area of a suburban restaurant, a meeting she said she did not attend. The young woman once interned in Welch\u2019s office and, according to the speaker\u2019s spokesperson, he and the woman had a \u201ccordial friendship,\u201d though the communications in question did not occur while she was still interning for the office. The former staffer has told the Tribune that Welch\u2019s emoji responses made her feel \u201cuncomfortable.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Welch has said the findings in McCuskey\u2019s report would show his office acted properly regarding the former Benton staffer\u2019s report of sexual harassment in 2023, it is unlikely McCuskey\u2019s report will judge the appropriateness of Welch\u2019s handling of the 2023 allegations because the one-year statute of limitations for the legislative inspector general to issue findings has elapsed on incidents the ex-staffer described.<\/p>\n

Pritzker has urged Welch to come clean with the public about his actions, and following numerous meetings with Democratic lawmakers, the House Democratic Women\u2019s Caucus called his handling of the case \u201cinsufficient.\u201d<\/p>\n

Also, last week, McCuskey, a former federal judge, made comments in a central Illinois radio interview lowering expectations of any bombshell findings in his report when he said, \u201cIf you read the Tribune, you\u2019ll know more than I do.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Illinois House Speaker Emanuel \u201cChris\u201d Welch, facing mounting questions within his own Democratic caucus over how his office…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":968368,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5124],"tags":[3232,960,42123,16743,139400,388837,5386,1818,388836],"class_list":["post-968367","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-chicago","tag-budget","tag-chicago","tag-chicago-teachers-union","tag-cps","tag-ctu","tag-fall-veto-session","tag-il","tag-illinois","tag-speaker-welch"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/117007220986975299","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/968367","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=968367"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/968367\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/968368"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=968367"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=968367"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=968367"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}