Leadership of the Chicago Teachers Union likes to shake the couch cushions in other people’s houses looking for change to pay their bills.
Most recently, Stacy Davis Gates — who also leads the Illinois Federation of Teachers, the progressive alternative to the Illinois Education Association — has set her sights on a brand-new pot of money. She’s looking to the $768 million Illinois is set to receive in the coming years as part of a settlement with Meta, which was sued by nearly every U.S. state over allegations that the social media giant intentionally designed their platforms to addict children, creating myriad mental health harms.
Illinois’ chunk of that multistate settlement is certainly a tidy sum that could help chip away at Chicago Public Schools’ budget woes. The district entered this budget cycle facing a roughly $732 million gap, and its approved budget now assumes — on the theory that wanting something enough might make it so — Springfield will provide an additional $150 million.
Could this new cash be the answer?
Gov. JB Pritzker says no.
“One-time money should really be used for one-time needs,” he told reporters Thursday in Springfield. “And while I understand that some people may view the shortfall in the budget in Chicago as a one-time need, it’s not.”
The governor is 100% right, of course, and he even added that if CPS identifies “a real required short-term need” he’d be open to floating some Meta money for it.
Of course, Pritzker well knows that CPS has a habit of running budget deficits year after year. Use the Meta payout to cover this one, and CTU will be back again next year asking for more.
We don’t envy the folks in charge of balancing CPS’ books, including CEO Macquline King and the Chicago Board of Education. We would, however, encourage them to operate within the confines of their fiscal reality.
King’s initial budget announcement drew significant pushback from CTU and others because it included hundreds of layoffs. A group of 11 CTU-aligned board members and Mayor Brandon Johnson appointees subsequently amended that budget, banking on Pritzker coming to the rescue with that extra $150 million in state funding.
That wasn’t a good bet back in July. It looks even worse now.
More Top Picks Best Transparent Overdrive Pedals
But we imagine this bloc of board members felt emboldened to make it after House Speaker Emanuel “Chris” Welch opened the door during a July 29 meeting with CTU in which he promised to push for supplemental funding.
Johnson’s mayoral tenure has been marked by an inability to work with Springfield, a skill deficiency displayed by his staunch allies at the teachers union and the aligned board members on the CBOE.
One hopes that at some point, they’d get the message that wishful thinking doesn’t translate to governing. A good backup plan is for voters to vote in fiscally responsible members to the board on Nov. 3. February — and the mayoral election — follow shortly after.
Attorney General Kwame Raoul said Friday that the state will be using the money on programs meant to address the harms caused by social media.
“People hear of money and they want to spend it real fast, but one of the things I need to make and want to make clear to all who are sort of salivating is that we were very intentional,” Raoul said in an interview Thursday. “It’ll be restricted towards abating the problem caused by social media addiction and other harms caused by social media.”
We’ll be interested to see exactly how that looks. On its face, the decision makes sense, though we’d argue it might make even more sense to let as much of that money as possible flow directly to the families who experienced these harms. The states brought this case over alleged harms to kids from social media, after all.
It’s the parents and kids affected by these harms who should benefit from such a lawsuit — not teachers unions or other political actors looking for another pot of money to spend.
Submit a letter, of no more than 400 words, to the editor here or email [email protected].