Chicago school district announce plans to cut bureaucrats

Easing pension costs was made harder after the Illinois Supreme Court last May tossed out a 2013 state law that would have saved as much as $145 billion over 30 years, ruling that public sector workers have iron-clad protection in the state constitution against cuts to retirement benefits.

CPS is cutting staff and borrowing hundreds of millions of dollars to minimize cuts to classrooms as it struggles with a $480 million budget gap.

“What Governor Rauner has done to AFSCME, and what he has demanded at the bargaining table from us, will not fix the state’s long-term structural problems and have nothing to do with the budget”.

Rauner said the so-called consideration approach will be constitutional as long as salary increases are removed from collective bargaining with labor unions. Suburban school districts not only pay some of the highest property taxes in the country, but also many of these districts have taken referendums to their voters for increased levies to fund their educational needs or wants.

The Illinois Policy Institute, a small-government think tank, praised Rauner’s proposal. Jacqueline Y. Collins – whose 16th District includes portions of the city’s Auburn-Gresham, Chicago Lawn, West Englewood and West Chatham neighborhoods – compared CPS’ $500 million budget shortfall “roughly equal” to the additional resources the city’s public schools would receive from the state if the funding formula and pension law treated CPS the same as every other IL school district. “These were raises the city could not afford, and that came with no promise of better educational outcomes”.

The memo followed news that Chicago State could soon run out of money. “This is a key point”, Rauner said. “He’s failed on public safety. And I’m exhausted of it. We have to take action”.

CPS also is in the midst of contentious negotiations with the Chicago Teachers Union on a new contract.

The Republicans said they are not trying to mandate bankruptcy for Chicago’s school system. “He’s not taking them on”. City administrators estimate the district’s debt to stand at around $1 billion and they have fought with teachers over wages and layoffs.

But Rauner may not be able to do anything. The budget stalemate between Rauner and the Democrat-controlled General Assembly means state universities aren’t getting state funding. The district has been asking state legislators to help, but meanwhile, the governor has announced his support for bankruptcy for Illinois’ largest school district.

If lawmakers reject Rauner’s proposal, it’s not clear what will get CPS out of its mountain of financial problems.