Chicago Flips Red calls for audit after public schools report
[January 12, 2026]
By Jim Talamonti | The Center Square
(The Center Square) – A grassroots Chicago group is calling for a
forensic audit of the city’s entire public school system after a
scathing report by the Chicago Board of Education Office of the
Inspector General.
The OIG’s recently-released annual report details falsified federal
grant applications, false reports on employee income statements, sexual
abuse cases and other alleged misconduct at Chicago Public Schools.
The falsified grant applications led to several investigations,
culminating at the federal level.
The U.S. Department of Education found that CPS received nearly $1.2
million in federal funding based on data the district was unable to
verify. CPS has since agreed to pay the money back by October 2026.
Chicago Flips Red founder Zoe Leigh called for a forensic audit of
Chicago Public Schools, the Chicago Teachers Union and the Chicago Board
of Education.
“We need to know about anything that you want property tax-wise going to
the schools when we have a failing school system. The whole school
system has failed, from the sports to the executives. CPS is
embarrassing at this point,” Leigh told The Center Square.
Leigh said even the charter schools need to be audited.
“That’s the only way we’re going to be able to clean up some of this
swamp, because it’s a lot,” Leigh added.
Leigh said she wanted to thank Inspector General Philip Wagenknecht for
providing the report and said there are a lot of criminals and
“scammers” in CPS, CTU and the CBOE.
The OIG report also found that more than 600 CPS employees listed
incomes on forms for the 2023-24 school year that “appeared to falsely
identify them as ‘low-income’ — including more than 100 who were making
at least $100,000 a year at CPS.”
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The low-income identifications qualified the employees’ children for
student fee waivers and entitled their schools to extra funding.
At the OIG’s recommendation, CPS this school year stopped using
Family Income Information Forms, filled out annually by parents, to
determine school funding.
According to the report, the OIG’s Sexual Allegations Unit closed
335 cases with 55 substantiated findings of misconduct. The office
said it substantiated 26 cases in fiscal year 2025.
Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson was asked about the report during a
press briefing at City Hall.
“Well obviously this is absolutely disturbing to hear. Our
communities, particularly our school communities have to be a safe
space,” Johnson said.
Leigh said the mayor and Chicago Teachers Union leaders don’t speak
about misconduct in Chicago Public Schools.
“They talk about police brutality. They’ll talk about fighting law
enforcement. They’ll talk about trying to do the racial divide,”
Leigh said.
Republican gubernatorial candidate Ted Dabrowski detailed what he
called “legal corruption” in CPS when he held a press conference in
downtown Chicago Monday.
Dabrowski said the Chicago Teachers Union pressures the Illinois
General Assembly to keep failing schools open.
“And the legislature buckles,” Dabrowski said.
Since Gov. J.B. Pritzker took office in 2019, CPS enrollment has
fallen by 45,000 students but employment is up by 8,000.
“Most of that is coming from administration and support staff,”
Dabrowski said.
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