Chicago Public Schools teachers to visit Springfield to seek $1 billion more in state funding
CHICAGO (CBS) -- Hundreds of Chicago Public Schools teachers plan to skip school and head to Springfield next week to lobby state lawmakers for more funding for the school district, but lawmakers on both sides of the aisle say the request is pretty much a non-starter.
Mayor Brandon Johnson and the Chicago Teachers Union – for which he once worked as an organizer – are seeking $1 billion in additional state funding for CPS, but it does not appear the proposal will go very far in the Illinois General Assembly.
State lawmakers said there's already additional money in the proposed state budget for Chicago Public Schools, just not as much as Johnson and the CTU are seeking.
With 14 days left for the state to solidify their next budget before the Illinois General Assembly is set to adjourn until the fall, hundreds of Chicago Public Schools teachers plan to make their way to the Illinois State Capitol on Wednesday to try to line up support for their $1 billion funding request.
The plan is for each school in CPS to send one Chicago Teachers Union member on the lobbying trip to Springfield.
In a letter from CPS to parents, the district wrote, in part, "While the state of Illinois has made progress in the amount of funding provided to CPS schools, CPS is not a fully-funded school district."
"The current dollar amount falls far short of what our students need and deserve. This shortfall is reflected in the state's own funding model for schools, and with CPS facing a budget deficit of nearly $400 million going into next school year, the time is now to make our voices heard," the letter states.
Illinois State Rep. La Shan Ford (D-Chicago) said CPS already is getting more money from the state than it has in the past.
"And that's good. That's because of Springfield," he said.
Ford said the state is currently budgeting $14 billion to share across all Illinois schools for kindergarten through 12th grade. The latest budget plan for next fiscal year asks for $500 million more, to be distributed on an as-needed basis.
"If we had to vote on a bill today to send a billion dollars, half a billion dollars to Chicago on top of the money that we already send to Chicago, I would say that the answer is no," Ford said.
Deputy Minority Leader Sue Rezin (R-Morris) and other top state lawmakers met with Johnson this week when he visited Springfield, but she said school funding didn't come up.
Rezin called the planned teachers' trip "tone deaf."
"Asking for a billion dollars for a school system that is, in terms of priorities to receive funding from the state of Illinois, ranked below 340 schools in front of it, who clearly have a much higher need for state funds, is jaw-dropping in my opinion," she said. "There is not support for additional funding for Chicago Public Schools."
Meanwhile, Ford speculated over whether or not Chicago taxpayers will front that $1 billion bill if state lawmakers turn down the request.
"I think that Chicago should be prepared for this administration to reach out for more tax dollars, which means it could be a tax increase," he said.
The mayor's office did not respond to questions about if he plans to propose a tax hike in the event that CPS does not get the $1 billion he's seeking. He previously campaigned on a promise to not raise property taxes, though in a previous one-on-one interview, he would not re-commit.
