Teachers and the Chicago Teachers Union want the Chicago Board of Education to reject the district's $9.88 billion budget plan. But Chicago Public Schools says the plan must pass so it can pay its staff this fall. That split was clear on July 20, when more than a dozen teachers and the union spoke against the plan at one of two required budget hearings, Chalkbeat reported.
CPS CEO Macquline King told Chalkbeat the budget needs to pass. "We really need the budget to pass because ultimately we do not want to disrupt services to our students," she said. King said there is urgency for the district to make payroll in the fall. She called the plan "very painful" and said proposing furloughs was the hardest choice her team made, Chalkbeat reported.
CPS shared the plan the week before the hearing, Chalkbeat reported. It includes furloughs for all staff and a spending freeze in the middle of the coming school year. The plan is meant to help close a budget gap. Chalkbeat reported the gap as $732.5 million. ABC7 Chicago reported it as $720 million.
The union says the furloughs would fall on staff professional development days. It estimates they would mean a 2.3% pay cut for its members, Chalkbeat reported. Emila Zoko, acting CPS budget director, said the furloughs and the spending freeze are "options of last resort," Chalkbeat reported. Zoko said they could be avoided if the district gets $200 million more in revenue, such as tax increment financing (TIF) surplus from the city. CPS is already counting on $200 million in TIF surplus in this plan. So the amount Zoko described would come on top of that. The sources do not say whether this extra $200 million would close the full budget gap, so the two figures should not be assumed to cover the whole gap.
The district is already laying off more than 760 teachers and about 800 paraprofessionals, Chalkbeat reported. It expects to rehire most of them at schools with openings. On ABC7, King said well over half of the laid-off teachers are expected to be offered new jobs. In a system that employs about 37,000 people in schools, the district would cut a net total of 164 school-based workers, Chalkbeat reported. It also laid off 162 central office and citywide workers earlier this month.
Teachers said the cuts would make current problems worse. One teacher in the Austin neighborhood said staff across four grades at her school had received layoff notices, Chalkbeat reported. She said one class could end up with as many as 47 students. That number would break the union's contract with the district.
The union made two main demands, Chalkbeat reported. It said the state should hold a special legislative session and raise money for schools. It also said CPS should sue Cook County Treasurer Maria Pappas over tax bills that arrive late again and again, which delays money the district counts on. District leaders want the board to approve the plan within ten days of the hearing, by July 30, according to Chalkbeat.