Chicago Board of Education set to vote on 2025 CPS budget
CHICAGO (CBS) — The Board of Education will vote on Thursday on the 2025 budget, with Chicago Public Schools hoping to close a large budget gap. However, the Chicago Teachers Union is planning to rally against it.
CPS is proposing to close a $500 million budget gap, which the board says it has a plan to fill. The plan includes cutting main office staff, restructuring long-standing debt, and eliminating at least 300 vacant Chicago Teachers Union positions.
The school district is counting on those vacant positions to cut $220 million from the spending plan.
The district says it found the savings by examining natural attrition — that is, staff turnover — and calculating the time it takes to hire and staff positions.
CTU has been highly critical about the budget, rallying outside of Board of Education meetings.
"There are over 50 vacancies for these roles on CPS website right now. How many will stay empty? And how many students will go without?" said Kizzy Evans, who was laid off from CPS last month.
The budget move comes even after the union's endorsed candidate, Brandon Johnson, won the mayoral election and appointed an entirely new board in 2023.
The union says the cuts and unfilled vacancies will impact the districts' most vulnerable students on the city's South and West Sides.
A group of CTU members and CPS parents rallied outside the Board of Education meeting on Thursday to urge the board to reject the budget plan.
"We need to have … CPS reject this budget. We need to have promises kept of the commitment that we were going to have an equitable school system. Where is the budget that says this is an equitable-based formula?" said CPS parent Brenda Delgado.
Meantime, CTU also has call for the school board to continue pushing for more state and federal funding instead of making those staff cuts.