School board members and union leaders called on Chicago Public Schools Wednesday to pressure the state for more funding as the district faces a projected $732 million budget deficit.
The calls came a day after CPS officials outlined plans to cut regular teachers and more than 100 assistant principals in the 2026-27 school year.
Kia Banks, the president of the Chicago principals union, said that the budgets presented to school leaders were “disappointing” and “frustrating” and will lead to more instability for schools.
She said the union will take “all legal action” to keep assistant principals from losing their positions, and called on the school board to lobby state lawmakers for more funding.
“When are you all going to Springfield, when are you going to find new sustainable revenue, when are you going to ensure that we’re not back at this space every year fighting the same problems, where the needs are growing and the resources are shrinking?” Banks said at Wednesday’s board meeting.
Several board members have traveled to Springfield in recent months to discuss school funding.
CPS said Wednesday that while it adjusted funding for assistant principals at schools with fewer than 250 students, those schools can still use discretionary funds to staff those positions if they want to keep them. A district spokesperson said in a statement that CPS is actively talking with the principals union about “the impact of these budgetary decisions.”
Six board members held a news conference before the meeting to sound the alarm about what they called a funding crisis “unlike anything” the district has faced before.
They urged Illinois lawmakers to pursue increased taxes on the wealthy and corporations and take other steps to fully fund public schools in the state.
The state has revamped its school funding formula in recent years in an attempt to make it more equitable, but CPS still gets only 73% of what it needs to provide an “adequate” education.
The board members said lawmakers should move as swiftly on the matter as they did to come up with ideas to keep the Bears football team in Illinois.
“If the state can engineer a 40-year property tax framework for one of the largest developments in the state’s 207-year history, it can engineer a path to adequacy for the children of working families,” they wrote in a letter with four other board members to state lawmakers.
School board members are also considering a resolution that calls on Illinois lawmakers to pursue taxing the state’s wealthiest residents and large corporations. They’re expected to vote on the resolution later this month.
Board members asked legislators to consider passing other bills currently before the state senate, such as a wealth tax for billionaires and a digital advertising tax.
“CPS has historically suffered from chronic underfunding rooted in an over-reliance on local property taxes, creating profound inequities between high-wealth and low-wealth school districts,” the resolution states. “A robust progressive revenue solution” could address that, the resolution continues, “by generating new, stable, and equitable streams of funding for public education.”
Board member Anusha Thotakura led the drafting of the resolution. Thotakura, whose district includes the Near North Side, said the measure is the only tool for board members to advocate for measures to increase the district’s funding.
Property taxes are CPS’ largest source of revenue and the district has routinely sought to collect as much as allowed by state law, which dictates that tax hikes for education can’t exceed the rate of inflation.
“We cannot get out of this hole by continuing to raise property taxes on our communities,” Thotakura said.
Karen Zaccor, who represents parts of the North Side, said giving CPS more funding would pay dividends for the state.
“The students sitting in our classrooms today are the small business owners, public workers and taxpayers who will keep that engine running tomorrow,” Zaccor said. “Investing in their education is the longest return investment Illinois will ever make.”
Several board members expressed support for the resolution, but Jennifer Custer and Ellen Rosenfeld questioned why the matter wasn’t on the board’s legislative agenda, which sets the district’s priorities in Springfield. Rosenfeld said resolutions like this don’t usually lead to change and likened them to “performative governance.”
Debby Pope, whose district is on the North Side, said the resolution is only part of an overall strategy to lobby Springfield for more money for the district.
“Nobody is saying that resolutions are the answer,” Pope said.
School board members Emma Lozano, Zaccor and Pope said they are already hearing from principals in their areas about how CPS cuts will affect staffing and services for students.
Michilla Blaise, who represents the West Side, said CPS’ financial difficulties threaten the loss of counselors, bilingual coordinators, interventionists, teachers and academic coaches across the district.
“Without action from Springfield, these resources will vanish,” Blaise said.
On Wednesday, CPS said the preliminary budgets schools received do not affect staffing levels for school counselors, bilingual coordinators or sports staff. Coordinators for schools with certain offerings, such as college-prep International Baccalaureate and science, technology, engineering and math programs, aren’t affected either, a CPS spokesperson wrote in a statement.
Chicago Teachers Union President Stacy Davis Gates said the budget announced on Tuesday was “dead on arrival,” and there weren’t enough cuts the district could make to overcome a structural deficit that stems from too little state funding.
She urged the board to unite behind the effort to convince state lawmakers for progressive revenue sources to fully fund the district.
“How do you have school without teachers, how do you have clean schools without custodial staff?” Gates said. “That’s what you have to ask Springfield. And that’s what we have to do in chorus.”