Chicago – January 14, 2025
The new Chicago Board of Education being seated Wednesday — the first to have elected members — will stare down a district on the financial brink: an imbalanced budget, rising costs, falling student headcount, a long list of infrastructure needs and steep debt and pension liabilities.
Budget watchdog group the Civic Federation warned current circumstances are “so serious that a state financial takeover … is not and should not be out of the question,” and urged the new board to right-size spending, make a long-term financial plan, and develop plans to advocate for revenue.
Asked about the report at a Monday afternoon news conference, union officials still fighting for a contract reiterated its opposition to cuts. “When the Civic Federation asks about what the solutions are, it is clear we have options. We’re in one of the wealthiest cities in the entire country, so the resources are there. Chicago is not broke.”
The new board’s immediate challenges are well-known: Chicago Public Schools has a $9.9 billion budget for this fiscal year that was balanced on its face, but didn’t include the costs of the first year of a new contract with the Chicago Teachers Union or the principals union. On the lower end, the contract with teachers alone could cost $125 million, but there has been no revenue source identified to pay for it. The current budget also relied on a series of one-time fixes such as remaining federal COVID relief money and a tax increment financing surplus from the city.
Budget gaps for 2026 and 2027 are projected to be more than $500 million.
Meanwhile, outstanding debts that must be paid down over time have grown from $6.7 billion in the 2014 fiscal year to $9.3 billion this year. That doesn’t count pension liabilities, which stand at $13.9 billion.
