Chicago Teachers Union President Stacy Davis Gates demanded that Chicago Public Schools take out loans to cover the district’s impending $529 million deficit.
The new fiscal year begins on July 1 for CPS. In a 19-0 vote, with one abstention, the CPS board approved a new CTU budget in April that added $1.5 billion in costs for the district over the next four years.
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Gates also called for the Illinois state government to increase its financial contribution to the CPS budget by over a billion dollars. Gates further criticized local Democratic politicians who attacked book bans but did not support a higher budget for CPS, saying, “We don’t need dumpsters like they have in Florida if the library doesn’t exist in Chicago.”
CPS has also been clashing with the Trump administration. Acting Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights at the Department of Education, Craig Tranor, said, “Chicago Public Schools have a record of academic failure … Rather than address its record honestly, CPS seeks to allocate additional resources to favored students on the basis of race.”
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Gates called out the Department of Education, likening the attack on DEI initiatives in schools by the Trump administration to the white supremacist attack on Reconstruction following the Civil War. Gates continued her criticism of political leaders in her comparison by saying, “Reconstruction was hamstrung by elected leaders, [by] political cowardice.”
CPS has still not announced any plans to rectify its budget deficit for the looming July 1 deadline.