I did not know whether to laugh or to cry when I heard that the Chicago Public Schools planned to balance its budget by relying on additional state spending. From Paris Schutz NBC 5 Chicago:
The Chicago Board of Education approved an amended $10 billion budget plan that relies on $150 million in additional funding from the state on Thursday, despite warnings that it would be out of balance and could lead to drastic mid-year cuts and layoffs.
A marathon and contentious Chicago Board of Education meeting came down to the wire after hours of debate, testimony, meetings, and lobbying.
“I’m asking the board to pass my budget,” said CPS CEO Macquline King in her opening statements, warning that failure to pass by Thursday’s deadline could lead to a delay in the start of the upcoming school year and a failure to meet payroll in the immediate term.
This budget is built on funding that has not been approved. Unless the state ultimately provides that money, CPS will face the same fiscal problem later in the year.
IMO CPS’s first line of recourse for balancing the budget should be reducing excess capacity. According to Illinois Policy the CPS has nearly 300 schools that are underutilized (meaning a utilization of 70% or less) including a high school designed for 1,000 students with fewer than 30. The cost to operate that high school is estimated at $55,000 per student. Maintaining facilities that empty diverts money from classrooms and places additional pressure on taxpayers.
Given those figures, refusing even to consider substantial consolidation appears fiscally irresponsible.
It also presents an interesting conundrum. The political question is whether Gov. Pritzker will support additional aid for CPS. Outside Chicago, further funding for the district is unlikely to be popular. Supporting higher taxes or additional borrowing to finance it could also carry political costs. Whether those considerations outweigh pressure from Chicago remains to be seen.
The State legislature passed the 2026 FY budget on June 1st and went home. They will not meet again until mid November for the Fall veto session when it takes a three-fifths majority to pass anything. Unless the state budget turned out to be too pessimistic in its assumptions and there is an excess on hand, Pritzker will likely announce that any new spending must be paid for, as well as distributed to schools through the evidence-based formula. Legislators with at least a part of Chicago in their district make up around 27 percent of each chamber, i.e. less than half of a super-majority.