After a divisive debate, the Chicago Board of Education approved the district’s $9.96 billion budget Thursday, adopting an amendment that anticipates $150 million in state funding to reverse school-level cuts.
The district’s 2026-27 budget originally included the layoffs of 760 teachers, department cuts and a midyear spending freeze to close a $730 million deficit. The controversial amendment eliminates the spending freeze and plans to undo at least some of the planned layoffs.
But it’s unclear whether additional state funding will materialize.
Lawmakers already passed the state’s budget in June — closing their own $2 billion deficit — and Chicago Public Schools leaders say they’ve been given no indication that more funding is available.
CPS CEO Macquline King warned the budget amendment may leave the district vulnerable to midyear school cuts if the money doesn’t come through. Lenders will also “not look favorably” at unconfirmed revenue, which could lead to credit downgrades and higher borrowing costs, officials said.
“We need to learn from our mistakes instead of repeating them,” King said.
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Prior to the vote, CPS Chief Budget Officer Emila Zoko said she would not consider the amended budget balanced as required under state law. She noted that there was no precedent for Springfield allocating new funding for CPS midyear, and even if additional funding was approved, it wouldn’t be available until the next fiscal year.
“If we count on this revenue and it fails to come through, then it will be a disaster,” Zoko said.
The Chicago Teachers Union, along with CTU-aligned board members, countered that assuming the new funds would force state leaders to confront the consequences of years of underfunding CPS, rather than requiring the district to absorb deeper cuts to classrooms on its own. Under the state’s own Evidence-Based Funding formula — which aims to deliver equitable funding to districts based on student need — CPS is just 73% fully funded, down from 81% in 2024.
“They’re going to try and balance the budget without the millions of dollars that they’re owed from Springfield, right?” CTU President Stacy Davis Gates said ahead of the vote. “Solve this problem, Gov. (JB) Pritzker. We know you can.”
House Speaker Emanuel “Chris” Welch signaled to CTU members Wednesday that he would work to pass a supplemental funding bill — but he didn’t elaborate on how he would do so or where the state would find the money. Such legislation would require a supermajority from both chambers of the Illinois General Assembly.
The budget amendment, approved in an 11-7 vote, calls for an additional $100 million through the state’s Evidence-Based Funding formula and another $50 million from mandated grants that support programs such as transportation and special education.
Following the approval of the amendment, the board passed the overall spending plan by the same 11-7 margin. Elected board member Yesenia López, who represents 7B on the Southwest Side, abstained.
Several board members backed by CTU, who hold the majority and introduced the amendment, argued that there is growing momentum in Springfield to secure additional funding, pointing to Welch’s support.
Fifteen lawmakers representing parts of Chicago and the suburbs also told the board this week that they will “call for a supplemental appropriation as soon as possible,” according to a letter obtained by the Tribune.
“We are being asked to bake in nearly 2,000 staff cuts that just rolled out and make them permanent,” board member Michilla Blaise, who represents District 5B on the West Side, said. “After saying, ‘We do not want cuts to the classroom, we do not want cuts to the classroom, we do not want cuts to the classroom.’”
But several board members who voted against the budget argued that relying on unconfirmed state revenue could force deeper cuts later in the year, potentially doubling layoffs.
“Our CFO made it clear: If that money doesn’t come through … we will have to go to school budgets,” said elected board member Ellen Rosenfeld, representing District 4A on the North Side “There will be midyear cuts. I’ll be in this seat in the middle of next school year. I don’t want to clean that up.”
Following pressure from staff unions, CPS earlier this week raised assumed revenue from tax increment financing districts, or TIF, to $285 million to avoid five furlough days. The district called the estimate “conservative” after CPS received a record $576 million from a TIF surplus last year.
Some CTU-backed school board members said that if the district was willing to budget around assumed TIF revenue, it should also be able to assume more state funding. Board President Sean Harden called the district’s TIF assumption “a bit too cavalier,” though he didn’t explicitly say he supported the amendment.
“Just looking linearly at the data, looking at what has happened historically, totally takes away the reality of the politics of the moment,” Harden said.
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District officials noted that CPS receives TIF funding every year when the city declares a surplus, and repeatedly stressed that its projections were grounded in data.
Kia Banks, president of the Chicago Principals & Administrators Association, voiced support for the boosted state revenue assumption but said the district needs to find long-term solutions to its financial challenges. The budget included cuts to 41 assistant principals.
“We have to have a plan now and a roadmap so that we’re not going through this every year,” Banks said.
SEIU Local 73 President Dian Palmer, meanwhile, called the amendment a “risky path,” arguing that “our members cannot afford to go back to the drawing board.” Local 73 represents 13,000 service staff in the district, including special education classroom assistants and bus aides.
“Unsecured state revenue cannot pay a SECA’s rent in September,” Palmer said. “Our students do not get to wait for Springfield to make up its mind, and neither should this board.”
The district faces a structural deficit due to billions in long-term debt, aging buildings with a massive backlog of repairs, rising costs and the loss of federal pandemic relief aid. CPS ended its last fiscal year with negative $642 million in cash, down from negative $339 million at the end of fiscal year 2025, according to a memo to board members obtained by the Tribune.
The district’s cash position regularly fluctuates with the timing of revenue, but that problem has worsened due to repeated property tax delays from Cook County. To make up the gap, CPS has increasingly relied on short-term loans known as tax anticipation notes, or TANs.
Had the budget not passed, district leaders said they wouldn’t have been able to secure the loans in time to make September payroll. But there’s still no guarantee, district leaders said, because the unconfirmed state revenue in the budget may deter lenders.
Students return to the classroom in three weeks, on Aug. 23.