Overview

• Interim CEO Macquline King announced 161 central office layoffs and cuts to crossing guard positions as CPS works to close a $734 million budget shortfall.
• Chicago Teachers Union members rallied at district headquarters to demand $1.2 billion in state aid and a special legislative session to address chronic underfunding.
• The federal government’s withholding of over $6 billion in education grants threatens roughly $60 million in funding for CPS next year.
• District leaders are exploring tapping Tax-Increment Financing surplus and considering borrowing to bridge funding gaps ahead of the board’s late-August vote.
• Illinois’s 2017 evidence-based funding formula still leaves CPS $1.2 billion below adequate funding despite a goal of full support by 2027.