(The Center Square) – With budget deadlines looming for Chicago Public Schools, Mayor Brandon Johnson has raised the dollar amount he says the state of Illinois owes the city for public education.
According to interim Chicago Public Schools Superintendent Macquline King, the district has a $734 million deficit and she needs to present a budget on Aug. 13.
The Chicago Board of Education is required by law to approve a budget for the next fiscal year by Aug. 28.
Johnson said Tuesday afternoon that these are challenging moments.
“But it also points back to why we need all of us to come together, the city and the state, to ensure that the $1.6 billion based on their calculation, the state’s calculation, that those resources are delivered,” the mayor told reporters at City Hall.
Johnson says the city’s public education is woefully underfunded.
“As a parent, as the leader of this city, the families of this city expect nothing less from me than to stand up to make sure that the $1.6 billion that our school district deserves, that we are owed, that we’re doing everything in our power to secure those resources as well,” Johnson said.
According to the Illinois State Board of Education’s Illinois Report Card, CPS spent about $20,000 per student in 2024. The number is expected to rise in 2025 after CPS agreed to a new labor contract with the Chicago Teachers Union.
By the time the four-year deal ends, the average CPS teacher’s salary will exceed $114,000 per year.
The mayor did not offer specific ways he would close the budget gap without any immediate sources of new revenue. Johnson said he is working with the school board and “with labor” to find solutions.
“There’s ways in which we can find some more efficiencies, particularly in central office, where there’s some, I guess, layers of duplicity,” the mayor suggested.
He then reiterated his call for more money from Illinois taxpayers.
“The state owes the city of Chicago $1.6 billion, and that’s what families are counting on,” Johnson said.
Chicago 33rd Ward Republican committeeman Jason Proctor said CPS needs to do better.
“Thirty-thousand dollars per student and scores have not improved. That’s a problem,” Proctor told The Center Square.
At least three CPS institutions spent more than $90,000 per student last year.
According to the Illinois Report Card, Chicago Public Schools had an overall chronic absenteeism rate of 40.8% in 2024. The chronic absenteeism rate for CPS teachers was also reported around 40%.
“We need to do better with what we have. We need to have a foundation of fiscal responsibility to the taxpayer,” Proctor said.
In addition to seeking more money from the state, Johnson has repeatedly called for progressive revenue measures. The mayor promised last week that he would not propose property tax increases in his next budget.
Proctor said just because Johnson said he would not propose property tax hikes does not mean the mayor won’t approve them.
State Rep. Curtis Tarver, D-Chicago, criticized Johnson at an Illinois House Executive Committee hearing last Thursday. Tarver said the mayor was wrong when he said the state of Illinois owes CPS $1 billion.
“We got here because, in June of 2024, Mayor Brandon Johnson jumped out and said the state owes CPS a billion dollars. I will tell you what I said then I think is still true now. I believe everybody wants to help children. Very few people want to help him based on his lack of leadership. He was wrong in his position about the state owing CPS, and his math was wrong as well,” Tarver said.
