Chicago Public Schools would get $33.3 million to soften the blow of recent state budget cuts under a plan approved Wednesday by the State Board of Education.
The money is part of a $97 million pot set aside to help struggling schools after lawmakers and Gov. Bruce Rauner agreed to cut education and other state services by 2.25 percent as the state faces a $1.6 billion funding shortfall in the current spending year.
For CPS, officials said that means what was to be a cut of $35 million will instead amount to a reduction of $1.7 million. The district is one of 32 that education officials identified as having less than 30 days cash on hand, though nearly 600 of the state’s 800 school districts will receive some money to offset the cuts.
However, officials acknowledged the cuts are still painful because they come late in the school year and districts had little time to plan for them. Robert Wolfe, the board’s chief financial officer, said it could take as long as three months for districts to receive the payments.
Earlier Wednesday, lawmakers bemoaned the cuts, saying schools for have years shouldered the weight of the state’s ongoing budget crisis.
“The state of Illinois for quite some time has been addicted to cutting schools, and more specifically cutting schools with high rates of poverty,” said Sen. Andy Manar, D-Bunker Hill.