Education
CPS Board Member, Policy Analyst Weigh in on District’s $732M Budget Deficit
Chicago Public Schools is facing a $732.5 budget deficit for the 2026-2027 school year.
Some policy analysts say CPS is responsible for its own deteriorating finances, arguing the district took on long-term recurring expenses based on one-time COVID-19 relief funds.
CPS leaders, meanwhile, cite rising pension payments and operating costs as factors for worsening the district’s finances. They argue those expenses would be manageable with greater support from state and federal leaders.
Michilla Blaise, a CPS board member representing District 5B, said the state’s own mechanism for assigning funds to school districts, the 2017 Evidence-Based Funding Formula, calls for CPS to be given $1 billion more than the amount currently outlined in Gov. JB Pritzker’s budget proposal.
“They got all the experts together, and they figured out how much CPS should be funded, and from their own funding formula, we’re over a billion dollars short,” Blaise said. “It’s not just CPS, it’s schools from around the state, and so we’re just encouraging them to ramp up their plan to increase the funding for CPS — just get us the funding sooner.”
In a letter to families, CPS CEO Macquline King said the district “will make significant reductions to Central Office, Network Offices, and citywide expenditures.” CPS made $270 million in cuts to similar office positions last summer, and it’s unlikely such reductions will fully account for the deficit.
King said the district will seek to minimize cuts to school-based resources and positions that work directly with students. She said funds will be cut for assistant principal positions at some of Chicago’s smallest schools.
Blaise said investment correlates directly with student performance.
“It turns out the more you invest in our schools, the better they do,” Blaise said. “So cuts to the classroom are gonna be really tough, but they may be necessary if we can’t find the funding in Springfield.”
The latest 2025 performance data shows CPS students are making gains, though fewer than half of elementary school students met proficiency benchmarks in English language arts, and just over one-quarter met benchmarks in math.
Blaise said underfunding is hitting rural schools as well.
“It’s not just CPS, it’s Illinois state schools,” Blaise said. “Our rural areas are suffering as well. And we’ve really got to put our money where our mouth is. We’ve got to put our money where our values are. If we care about educating our students, we have to give them what they need.”
Others argue that CPS and the Chicago Teachers Union have made a series of financial and political mistakes that contributed to the district’s dire financial situation.
Austin Berg, executive director of the Chicago Policy Center, said CPS leaders became hitched to one-time COVID-19 relief funds.
“The district really went on a hiring spree during COVID, against the advice of most financial experts,” Berg said. “They were adding a lot of recurring costs on one-time revenues that they knew would go away after the pandemic was over.”
Since 2019, CPS has added nearly 10,000 new staff positions. Student enrollment declined by 45,000 during that same period. In her letter, King said the additions have been important for improving outcomes, but added that “without federal pandemic aid to fund these positions, it has become extremely difficult to maintain the status quo.”
Berg also said CTU asked too much of the district in the two bodies’ most recent contract.
“The Chicago Teachers Union was demanding, at the bargaining table, things that were going to cost way beyond what CPS could afford,” Berg said. “And even when confronted with that information, they pushed, and they got what they wanted, but the money isn’t there to pay it.”
In April, 2025, CTU and CPS negotiated a four-year $1.5 billion contract, which gave teachers cost-of-living raises and reduced the maximum limit for class sizes.
CPS board members are expected to debate funding proposals later this summer, with an Aug. 29 deadline to pass a full district-wide budget.
WTTW News education reporting is supported, in part, by Press Forward Chicago.
