Education
Board of Education Members Share Concerns Over Cuts, Furloughs in $9.88B CPS Budget Plan
Members of the Chicago Teachers Union gather ahead of a public hearing on Chicago Public Schools’ proposed budget on July 20, 2026. (WTTW News)
With a vote scheduled for next week on Chicago Public Schools’ $9.88 billion budget plan, members of the city’s Board of Education on Monday shared concerns over proposed cuts, a lack of state funding and their voting timeline.
During the first of two public hearings Monday on the district’s spending plan, board members peppered CPS officials with questions about possible ways to avoid five furlough days and the layoffs of 760 teachers and 801 support personnel as part of the budget before an expected vote on the proposal July 30.
Board member Jitu Brown called those “catastrophic cuts” and urged district leaders to look into alternatives “so that this board is not backed into a corner” ahead of next week’s vote.
The board must approve the district’s budget by Aug. 29, meaning that it does not have to finalize the spending plan next week. But CPS budget officials repeatedly stressed that a failure to do so could threaten the district’s ability to cover its expenses, including staffing payroll.
“So I don’t want to be in a position where I can’t make the resources to make payroll, right?” acting Chief Financial Officer Walter Stock told board members Monday. “We still have a mission, we still have a mandate to keep school open and educate and not disrupt services, but I think there would be trouble in the water that we’d have to navigate and I can’t tell you what that crystal ball looks like until we get to that point.”
Last year the board approved the district’s budget on the final day possible before a state-mandated deadline at the end of August, but Stock said Monday it’s “not unusual” for the board to vote instead in July.
In addition to staffing cuts, CPS is counting on $200 million in Tax Increment Financing (TIF) funding from the city, and is planning to shift five professional development days into unpaid furlough days and rely on a mid-year, districtwide spending freeze to plug its $732 million budget gap.
District officials said they’d need nearly double that TIF amount from the city — an additional $197 million — in order to avoid the furloughs and spending freeze.
CPS has also already laid off 162 central office and citywide staff.
Despite some other staffing additions — particularly an increase of around 950 special education teachers — the district’s total school-based staffing allocation is set to decrease by 164 employees compared to last year.
Stock said that although the district’s proposal “may not be ideal,” the budget plan is balanced and one “we can stand behind.”
“We hope that will resonate with all of you,” he said, before adding he also hopes the “severity” of not getting this done next week “will also resonate with all of you.”
Educators and other school staff have demanded Gov. JB Pritzker and state legislators convene a special session to fully fund Chicago Public Schools. The Chicago Teachers Union has repeatedly said the school district has received nearly $2 billion less than it is owed from the state under its evidence-based funding formula.
Members of the CTU once again called on state legislators to call a special session and approve additional funding for CPS. The union has also demanded the district bargain with it over the proposed layoffs and furlough days and urged board members to vote against the budget in its current form.
“It’s absolutely reckless to cut when there’s revenue our district is owed and real solutions to fill the budget gaps,” CTU Recording Secretary Vicki Kurzydlo said Monday. “Our demands are simple: no cuts, no furloughs. This budget can’t be balanced at the expense of our students and the professionals who nurture and care for our city’s children.”
WTTW News education reporting is supported, in part, by Press Forward Chicago.
