{"id":970806,"date":"2026-07-31T07:33:20","date_gmt":"2026-07-31T07:33:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/970806\/"},"modified":"2026-07-31T07:33:20","modified_gmt":"2026-07-31T07:33:20","slug":"chicagos-school-board-narrowly-approves-amended-budget-plan-assuming-more-state-money","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/970806\/","title":{"rendered":"Chicago\u2019s school board narrowly approves amended budget plan assuming more state money"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sign up for Chalkbeat Chicago\u2019s free daily newsletter<\/a> to keep up with the latest news on Chicago Public Schools.<\/p>\n

Bucking warnings from Chicago Public Schools CEO Macquline King, the school board amended and narrowly passed a roughly $10 billion budget proposal Thursday that assumes the district will receive $150 million more in state funding than projected. <\/p>\n

Eleven board members voted to reverse hundreds of school-based staff layoffs included in King\u2019s proposal, heeding the demands of the Chicago Teachers Union and the principals union. <\/p>\n

Appointed board members Anusha Thotakura, Debby Pope, Cydney Wallace, Angel Velez, Ed Bannon, Emma Lozano, Karen Zaccor, Michilla Blaise, and Norma Rios-Sierra, as well as elected board members Jitu Brown and Ebony DeBerry voted to increase the state funding projection of $2.78 billion by another $150 million. <\/p>\n

Elected board members Angel Gutierrez, Carlos Rivas, Che \u201cRhymefest\u201d Smith, Ellen Rosenfeld, Jennifer Custer, Jessica Biggs, and Therese Boyle voted no. Elected board member Yesenia Lopez abstained. <\/p>\n

We’re on a need-to-know basis.<\/p>\n

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District officials pushed the school board to approve the budget this week so they could secure short-term borrowing by Sept. 2 \u2014 two days before paychecks go out \u2014 and avoid a \u201cde-facto shutdown\u201d of schools. In a statement after the vote, a spokesperson said the district \u201ccannot guarantee that CPS will receive financing in time for the September 4 payroll\u201d given the board\u2019s changes.<\/p>\n

\u201cFailing to meet payroll is unacceptable,\u201d the statement said. \u201cThis places the District at significant risk of being in violation of the law and collective bargaining agreements. It may also damage our credit rating and severely restrict our future borrowing capacity for capital projects and operational needs. Most critically, any disruption in pay directly threatens the stability of our schools, impacting our students, families, and dedicated staff.\u201d<\/p>\n

The vote came after hours of public testimony and an unusual two-hour recess. During that time, CPS lawyers provided legal advice about amending the budget, according to multiple sources. <\/p>\n

Earlier this week, after a push from SEIU Local 73, CPS took furloughs out of its proposal by increasing the amount it expects to receive in special taxing district dollars, known as TIF surplus dollars, which are controlled by the mayor and City Council. <\/p>\n

But board members and the Chicago Teachers Union want more pressure on state lawmakers, who have not yet fulfilled a goal to fund all schools to what it considers 90% adequacy. The state considers CPS funded at 73%. <\/p>\n

\u201cIf we\u2019re not including the state in this conversation, we are fooling ourselves and we are robbing our kids of opportunities,\u201d said appointed board member Michilia Blaise, who introduced the plan to revise King\u2019s budget. \u201cLet\u2019s make it clear to our students that cuts to school communities will not come lightly.\u201d <\/p>\n

With the state\u2019s veto session scheduled for November, it\u2019s not clear any new money would come in time for this school year.<\/p>\n

Some key Democratic lawmakers have promised to help boost school funding, including House Speaker Emanuel \u201cChris\u201d Welch.<\/a> At the board meeting, State Senator Robert Martwick, who represents parts of the Northwest Side and some suburbs, told board members he will fight for more funding. <\/p>\n

King warns of consequences to revising her budget proposal<\/p>\n

Before the vote, King defended her budget plan, noting that CPS has lost 45,000 students in the last seven years but has hired 10,000 more staffers. Despite school-level cuts,<\/a> she noted most laid off staffers are rehired in other vacant positions and highlighted an increase in special education and bilingual staff.<\/p>\n

She also warned of the risks of assuming more state funds will come through. King recalled her time as a principal in 2017, when CPS had adopted a budget expecting more state funding than previous years that didn\u2019t come through after then-Governor Bruce Rauner vetoed related legislation. CPS imposed big cuts, and King had to lay off staff at her school. <\/p>\n

\u201cThis was severely disruptive to my students,\u201d King said. \u201cThose are the faces that I see. Those are the conversations that I recall, and that is why I put forth the recommended budget that I did.\u201d <\/p>\n

School board has a heated debate<\/p>\n

Board members were starkly divided. <\/p>\n

Several elected board members not aligned with the teachers union and Mayor Brandon Johnson underscored the risks of assuming there will be more state money. <\/p>\n

Elected member Jennifer Custer called the idea of expecting a $150 million increase in state money a \u201challucination.\u201d Elected board member Che \u201cRhymefest\u201d Smith said he will help advocate for more funding from the state and the city. <\/p>\n

Smith, a rapper and songwriter, recited a poem he crafted in response to one delivered during public comment by a CTU member: \u201cThey say the mayor owes a billy, give it again and again, and don\u2019t make us look silly,\u201d referencing the $1 billion in TIF dollars the mayor and City Council surplused last year, of which CPS got $577 million. <\/p>\n

Board president Sean Harden warned TIF surplus is not a guarantee either. <\/p>\n

At least a dozen school staffers, clad in bright red CTU shirts, urged the board to revise the budget and push the state to pay up. Several teachers said teacher layoffs mean bigger class sizes and breaking relationships with students. <\/p>\n

CTU President Stacy Davis Gates acknowledged the difficult decisions King and her team faced and laid the blame on state lawmakers, including Gov. JB Pritzker. She said the union will help CPS pressure the state.<\/p>\n

\u201cLet\u2019s assume that doing this together makes it impossible for people to keep telling us no,\u201d said Davis Gates, who is also the president of the Illinois Federation of Teachers. Board member Jitu Brown also said he believes the \u201cpolitical will\u201d to boost state education funding is there. <\/p>\n

Dian Palmer, president of SEIU Local 73, which represents 16,000 support staffers, remained skeptical that a majority of state lawmakers will agree to increase CPS funding. <\/p>\n

\u201cUnsecured revenue cannot pay our (Special Education Classroom Assistants) rent in September,\u201d Palmer said. \u201cIt cannot guarantee a bus aide on the bus when school opens. Our students do not get to wait for Springfield to make up its mind, and neither should this board.\u201d <\/p>\n

Kia Banks, head of the principals union, supported an amended budget. She said she was encouraged that Illinois House Speaker Welch is interested in boosting funding. <\/p>\n

\u201cIf (funding) doesn\u2019t come through, like in 2017, it\u2019s devastating, and I don\u2019t think they would want that on their record,\u201d Banks said of state lawmakers. <\/p>\n

But Justin Marlowe, director of the Center for Municipal Finance at the University of Chicago\u2019s Harris School of Public Policy, said the state now has \u201cfar less\u201d incentive to act. If the state can\u2019t come up with the money, \u201cCPS will have to own the consequences,\u201d he said in an email. <\/p>\n

Reema Amin is a reporter covering Chicago Public Schools. Contact Reema atramin@chalkbeat.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sign up for Chalkbeat Chicago\u2019s free daily newsletter to keep up with the latest news on Chicago Public…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":970807,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5124],"tags":[40980,960,42123,5386,1818,169571],"class_list":["post-970806","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-chicago","tag-chalkbeat","tag-chicago","tag-chicago-teachers-union","tag-il","tag-illinois","tag-stacy-davis-gates"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/117013434193452679","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/970806","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=970806"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/970806\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/970807"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=970806"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=970806"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=970806"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}