Chicago school board president candidates on how they'd balance the CPS budget

Chicago is about to elect the president of the city's public school board for the first time ever. CBS News Chicago asked all three candidates how they would complete their most important task: balancing the Chicago Public Schools budget.

Jessica Biggs, Hilario Dominguez, and Victor Henderson are all vying to be the city's first elected president of the Chicago Board of Education.

CPS has a $10 billion budget, approved by the school board. It relies on $150 million in unsecured funds from Springfield, which will be on the next board president's plate to deal with.

"I voted against the amendment that assumed revenue that doesn't exist," Biggs said. "We need to build an intergovernmental body of key state legislators, City Council, City Hall, our labor partners, key civic leaders to develop a five-year financial recovery plan."

Henderson said he's focused on cuts to discretionary spending.

"So 20% of the budget, approximately — so $2 billion — I'm gonna call discretionary spending," he said. "Now, there may be people who disagree with that term, but I'd rather cut contracts than teachers."

Dominguez, the former political director for the Chicago Teachers Union, vowed to get Springfield to make policy changes that would come up with the money.

"We'll be down in Springfield during veto session, working in partnership with our state legislators to fully fund our schools, and making sure that it's not going to fall on the backs of working people through property taxes, but instead taxing the wealthy and the corporations that need to pay their share to fund our schools," he said.

Our full interviews with each of the three candidates are available in our Illinois midterm election guide here.  

For more information on who's on the ballot on Election Day, Tuesday Nov. 3, where to vote early, and how to make sure you're registered to vote, visit our Illinois election guide.