Just in case I haven’t made my views clear, I don’t think the Chicago Public Schools has the dough to pay for what it’s already agreed to and under Illinois it doesn’t have the authority to raise revenues as fast as it must to get into the black. The CPS is required by law to run a balanced budget. To do that it will need to appeal to the state of Illinois, either for more money or the power to raise taxes faster or both. Whatever the state may do, I strongly suspect that the matter will end up in and ultimately be decided by the courts.
If the Illinois Republican Party had a lick of sense, this whole mess would become a major campaign issue here. Not a “hate Chicago” issue or even a “hate unions” issue but a matter of government being required to act within its limits as defined under the law.
Fortunately for Illinois Democrats the Illinois Republican Party went off the rails years ago.
I think its possible for the Republicans to pick up one of the houses. Downstate Democrats were largely thrown under the bus by higlighting the importance of local school funding of the state teacher’s pensions. They’ll lose a lot of seats, probably lose enough to cost the majority, and they’ll need to make them up in the suburbs.