Education
Facing Shortfall of Nearly $400M, Chicago Public Schools Pushes Back Budget Release to July
(Michael Izquierdo / WTTW News)
Chicago Public Schools, which had been set to release its full district budget for the 2025 fiscal year Wednesday, has announced it will now publish that spending plan next month.
CPS on Tuesday announced the CPS CEO Pedro Martinez had informed network and school leaders the final draft of its FY25 budget would now be presented in July as the district continues “finalizing the total budget.”
“The District will use this additional time to collaborate with CPS stakeholders and do further diligence since the budget model is new and being implemented for the first time,” a CPS spokesperson said in a statement. “The District will finalize a FY2025 budget that will continue to support strong academic progress.”
The district’s full budget must be approved by the city’s Board of Education. That vote is now scheduled to take place at its July 25 meeting.
CPS is facing a nearly $400 million budget shortfall as federal COVID-19 dollars run out and efforts in Springfield to get additional state funding failed to yield immediate results.
District officials believe CPS is owed more than $1 billion from the state in order for it to be fully-funded under Illinois’ funding formula. Martinez said CPS wasn’t pushing for that full amount, but instead advocated for an increase of $550 million to be distributed among schools statewide. Pritzker’s state budget instead included a $350 million increase.
The district this year has also done away with student-based budgeting and moved to a new funding model which it says will guarantee a certain level of resources to all schools.
Last month, CPS published individual school budgets, noting at that time that while the district hadn’t seen any “disproportionate” impact on specific types of schools, resources for some schools would be “tighter” in the next academic year.
Selective enrollment and magnet schools appear to be hit the hardest, but Martinez previously said the programming at those schools “is not declining.”
CPS stated last month that under the new model, those schools will “continue to receive the funding to support the robust and rigorous teaching and learning offerings that have led many of them to land among the state and national top school rankings.”
Contact Matt Masterson: @ByMattMasterson | [email protected] | (773) 509-5431
