No current or former members of the Chicago Board of Education attended Wednesday's marathon session of the City Council’s Education Committee, even after some City Council members threatened to hit them with subpoenas to require them to appear.
Brandon Johnson
“A generation-long persistence in structurally imbalanced budgets, coupled with high pension and debt burdens, mean the city will face enormous budget shortfalls in the coming years,” wrote Joseph Ferguson, the head of the nonpartisan budget watchdog group and the city’s former inspector general.
The board’s monthly agenda review committee meeting, which had been scheduled for Wednesday morning, will not be held as planned, Chicago Public Schools announced over the weekend.
CPS CEO Pedro Martinez said during an appearance on WTTW News’ “Chicago Tonight” he has repeatedly urged the mayor to use funds from the city’s TIF districts instead of borrowing money or making cuts to classrooms.
Mayor Brandon Johnson acknowledged Wednesday he decided not to veto the ordinance because of concerns it would set a “dangerous precedent.”
“I’m not going to cut, and take away, layoff, fire, privatize so that other people can benefit, and the people of Chicago can lose,” Mayor Brandon Johnson said. “Not under my watch.”
Board president Jianan Shi, Vice President Elizabeth Todd-Breland and fellow members Mariela Estrada, Mary Fahey Hughes, Rudy Lozano, Michelle Morales and Tanya Woods plan to step down from their positions this month.
Voters in the Nov. 5 election will pick a member to represent each of 10 new districts as the board triples in size from its current size of seven up to 21 members beginning in January 2025.
The City Council’s Finance Committee unanimously endorsed the plan from R2 Co. and the Campari Group to transform the 14-story office building at 79 W. Monroe St. into an apartment building with 117 units, including 41 units set aside for low- and moderate-income Chicagoans.
“This is still very much a frustration I have,” Mayor Brandon Johnson said. “I’ve been in conversations with the superintendent, with our budget director to come up with better systems.”
The city is on pace to spend at least $258 million on police overtime by the end of the year, even as officials imposed limits on overtime for all city departments, except for police and the Chicago Fire Department, amid a massive budget crunch.
“Borrowing to pay for operating expenses in a business, in a government, etc., is not a great idea unless you know how you’re going to pay for that, because it’s going to come due,” Gov. J.B. Pritzker said, “speaking as a businessperson.”
During the past week, CPS CEO Pedro Martinez has written three times to parents, staff and students, and in each letter, he has promised that he will not close any schools while at the helm of CPS, even as he acknowledged compiling a list of schools that could be closed as part of an effort to compile a five-year strategic plan.
Mayor Brandon Johnson burned a significant amount of political capital to convince the Chicago City Council in April to appropriate an additional $70 million, which the city did not need after a feared surge of migrants failed to materialize.
Deputy Mayor of Community Safety Garien Gatewood told WTTW News’ “Chicago Tonight” program on Monday that city officials are excited to see what kind of technology is available.
A spokesperson for Mayor Brandon Johnson declined to comment on whether he had asked CPS CEO Pedro Martinez to resign, citing the mayor’s policy of not commenting on personnel matters. A spokesperson for Martinez declined to comment.
