Education
Chicago Board of Education Members Call on Springfield to Back Students Over Bears Stadium
Chicago’s hybrid Board of Education meets for the first time at the Chicago Public Schools Loop headquarters on Jan. 15, 2025. (WTTW News) Chicago’s hybrid Board of Education meets for the first time at the Chicago Public Schools Loop headquarters on Jan. 15, 2025. (WTTW News)
Members of Chicago’s Board of Education are calling on state lawmakers to step up funding for Chicago Public Schools as the cash-strapped district faces impending staff cuts to fill a $732 million budget gap.
Board Vice President Angel Velez and five other members called on Illinois legislators to prioritize students over a new stadium for the Chicago Bears and the pending megaprojects bill, saying the cuts announced this week threaten to “devastate classrooms.”
“CPS faces a funding crisis unlike anything we have seen before,” Velez said Wednesday. “This is not just a numbers problem, it is a moral issue.”
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Funding from Springfield has regularly been an issue for CPS, which says it is only getting 73% of what is considered “adequate” under the state’s evidence-based funding formula.
Mayor Brandon Johnson, leaders from CPS and the Chicago Teachers Union have been vocally critical of state legislators for prioritizing a bill designed to seal the deal for a new domed stadium for the Chicago Bears in Arlington Heights.
CPS leaders this week announced the district faces a $732 million budget shortfall they said is driven by a lack of state and federal funding, decreasing student enrollment and an increased need to provide for those students with the greatest needs.
The district hasn’t yet provided specific numbers on its expected number of staffing cuts to help fill that gap, but said this week it will cap the number of teacher losses at four for elementary schools and at six for high schools.
Board members on Wednesday said those cuts will disproportionately harm Black and Brown students, and said cuts are expected to impact teacher, counselor, coaching and classroom assistant positions.
“We cannot allow megaprojects to destroy public education,” board member Debby Pope said. “We cannot tell our children, ‘No, we don’t have enough for you because we’re building a beautiful new stadium.’ What kind of a message is that to our young people?”
Pope and the other board members called on Illinois to tax millionaires, billionaires and large corporations to help better fund public schools in Chicago and around the state.
The full board on Wednesday is set to discuss a resolution calling on state leaders to enact progressive revenue proposals to generate billions in funding for numerous public services, including education. The board will vote on that resolution later this month.
CTU President Stacy Davis Gates called the school budgets unveiled this week “unsatisfactory and dead on arrival.” She told the board Wednesday that education leaders must also work directly with the mayor and City Council to secure additional Tax Increment Financing dollars to prevent widespread cuts.
“You should figure out what the stakeholders need to look like in order to win progressive revenue, because honestly, this is a structural issue,” Davis Gates said during Wednesday’s board meeting. “How do you have school without teachers? … That’s what you have to ask Springfield and that’s what we have to do in chorus.”
Board members acknowledged they must approve a balanced CPS budget by the end of August, and said that while they may have to consider additional borrowing — a major sticking point in last year’s budget cycle —they have not yet begun those discussions.
“We know times are tight but we have to focus on our children,” said board member Michilla Blaise, adding that CPS is a greater economic driver than the Bears. “If we get our schools right, think about how many people will stay in the city, think about how many people will flock to the city if we are able to make sure we have fully funded schools.”
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