CPS sees an increase in budget but budget cut to schools, a decrease in enrollment, and all while having $1 Billion in relief funds undispersed 

Chicago Public Schools Received $4.8 billion for the 2022 - 2023 school year. They have yet to fully distribute the $1.8 billion, which was received from the federal government for covid relief funds. Only 12% of that fund has been spent. 

According to the Chicago's Teachers Union, CPS has received a total of $2.8 billion in federal covid relief dollars, beginning under the Trump administration. Based on what CPS has made available publicly, $1.4 billion of that remains unallocated. CPS did have preset goals on where the money would be distributed across the city’s schools but that has changed. They wanted 850 tutors to schools to help out the students but that number got lowered to 650, and from that they have only hired 460. They also allocated some of the money to schools giving principals the ability to offer more opportunities and support to their students but they’ve only been able to spend about half of that and all the remaining funds will go back to the central budget in June.

CPS is seeing an increase in the budget on top of the covid relief funds while simultaneously seeing a five-year decrease in students losing over 40,000 students since 2017 with dropping from 371,382 to 330,411. On top of that CPS actually lost 40,000 students this school year as well but gained 30,000 causing only 10,000 students to decrease from last year. A few factors could be responsible for the decline in students with 2 of the biggest factors being 1, the gentrification and displacement we are seeing on the West and South sides of Chicago. Families are being uprooted from these neighborhoods and 2, kids are being drawn away from these schools due to the ever-declining resources, to begin with. With the decrease in students, we are also seeing a large closure or conversion of schools with magnet and charter schools becoming more common.CPS likes the idea of charter schools though because they still receive money from them without having to apply proper oversight which is great for them but bad for the students and the teachers in these schools. 

CPS announced in March that it was cutting 40% of schools' budgets by $60 million because of this declining enrollment, which was co-signed by Mayor Lightfoot. With schools losing on average $200,000, and upward to $900,000, along with that these cuts are gonna have the greatest effect on minority communities that were already underfunded. Before the announcement of this budget cut CPS schools were already “drastically underfunded by hundreds of millions of dollars'' according to CTU. The mistreatment of CPS schools' budgets isn't a new problem though with cuts coming before under Rahm Emanuel who initiated the “student-based budgeting” which funded schools based on their enrollment rates and not what students actually needed. This was in fact against the States 2017 reformed school funding formula that gives even more funds to CPS based on student needs but CPS distributes that money based on headcount.CPS’s new CEO, Pedro Martinez has stated that they are trying to move their budget model away from this. This traps schools that are already underfunded and losing students in a situation where they will only ever be on the decline, which is becoming a major problem in schools located on the South and West sides of Chicago, which happens to be where the black and Latino community are the densest and those are the ones who are most affected by this. Martinez dubbed this the “Year of Recovery” but it appears to be far from it. CPS continues to cut funding to these schools due to the lack of enrollment but refuses to put money toward solving this enrollment crisis. Along with that CPS also say that they don’t want to use the relief money to solve and fund permanent positions at these schools in need due to the fact the budget cuts would still need to be made once the money runs out.

CPS Employees at the school level aren't happy about this situation either, I was able to interview Joseline Alvarez who is a not only CPS employee but also someone who's been through the CPS school System herself. When talking to Alvarez about the decrease in enrollment she said

“I'm not surprised kids don't want to go to schools where the doors are falling off and the windows won't open so they are overheating in classrooms and on top of that you got students on the south and west side that need aids that don't got aids” along with that her opinion on budget cuts is also very telling of the disparities in Chicago “And then you think about it and most these schools aren't even asking for a lot, they're really asking for the bare minimum, You go to Lane Tech (Highschool) they got two libraries, tech lab, and a gaming floor then you go to Lindbloom (Highschool) and they don't have nearly as much”

CTU is able to answer the question of why some of these that are seeing a decrease in enrollment is in such poor condition. “CPS confronted a significant structural deficit before the pandemic, as well as a backlog of about $2 billion in facilities needs that have left many schools with leaky roofs, unmitigated asbestos tiling, inadequate heating and cooling, serious ventilation issues, and more” Additionally, the budget cuts that are coming are more intense than they appear on the surface; “the budget cuts to schools are actually much higher than $60M, because CPS also did NOT fund contractually guaranteed cost-of-living and step increases -- expected to increase labor costs by more than 6%. So are the actual cuts to schools, the hit could be double -- or more -- than what CPS has publicly admitted.”

The question still remains; what is CPS doing with all the money they have received if they have all these active problems that could be solved in this chronically underfunded school system? Sadly, there is no answer but it's clear there are more than enough places within the system that could use the $1.4 billion. 

The Chicago teachers union has hope for serious change to occur in the Chicago Public Schools system. They would like for CPS to be more transparent about what is happening with the budget and to take the power over the schools out of the mayor's hand because while CTU acknowledges while Martinez may be the CEO of CPS the mayor plays a bigger role “ she's the boss, not Pedro. I cannot state this strongly enough. Any cuts, any expenditures, any redirection or 'restoration' of funds -- the mayor calls the shots on CPS decisions and practices…She hand-picks the board, and they rubber stamp her wishes. She is the boss because the mayor controls the public schools.” They want to establish a school board by 2026, which will cause the actual schools to be a priority and not just the money that comes from them.

Chicago Public Schools were contacted in terms of the article's content but i did not get a response back.