Chicago mayor calls for more from state as school budget deadline looms
[August 07, 2025]
By Jim Talamonti | The Center Square
(The Center Square) – With budget deadlines looming for Chicago Public
Schools, Mayor Brandon Johnson has raised the dollar amount he says the
state of Illinois owes the city for public education.
According to interim Chicago Public Schools Superintendent Macquline
King, the district has a $734 million deficit and she needs to present a
budget on Aug. 13.
The Chicago Board of Education is required by law to approve a budget
for the next fiscal year by Aug. 28.
Johnson said Tuesday afternoon that these are challenging moments.
“But it also points back to why we need all of us to come together, the
city and the state, to ensure that the $1.6 billion based on their
calculation, the state’s calculation, that those resources are
delivered,” the mayor told reporters at City Hall.
Johnson says the city’s public education is woefully underfunded.
“As a parent, as the leader of this city, the families of this city
expect nothing less from me than to stand up to make sure that the $1.6
billion that our school district deserves, that we are owed, that we’re
doing everything in our power to secure those resources as well,”
Johnson said.

According to the Illinois State Board of Education’s Illinois Report
Card, CPS spent about $20,000 per student in 2024. The number is
expected to rise in 2025 after CPS agreed to a new labor contract with
the Chicago Teachers Union.
By the time the four-year deal ends, the average CPS teacher’s salary
will exceed $114,000 per year.
The mayor did not offer specific ways he would close the budget gap
without any immediate sources of new revenue. Johnson said he is working
with the school board and “with labor” to find solutions.
“There’s ways in which we can find some more efficiencies, particularly
in central office, where there’s some, I guess, layers of duplicity,”
the mayor suggested.
He then reiterated his call for more money from Illinois taxpayers.
“The state owes the city of Chicago $1.6 billion, and that’s what
families are counting on,” Johnson said.
Chicago 33rd Ward Republican committeeman Jason Proctor said CPS needs
to do better.
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Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson during a news conference in Chicago
June 3, 2025
Chicago Mayor's Office | Facebook

“Thirty-thousand dollars per student and scores have not improved.
That’s a problem,” Proctor told The Center Square.
At least three CPS institutions spent more than $90,000 per student
last year.
According to the Illinois Report Card, Chicago Public Schools had an
overall chronic absenteeism rate of 40.8% in 2024. The chronic
absenteeism rate for CPS teachers was also reported around 40%.
“We need to do better with what we have. We need to have a
foundation of fiscal responsibility to the taxpayer,” Proctor said.
In addition to seeking more money from the state, Johnson has
repeatedly called for progressive revenue measures. The mayor
promised last week that he would not propose property tax increases
in his next budget.
Proctor said just because Johnson said he would not propose property
tax hikes does not mean the mayor won’t approve them.
State Rep. Curtis Tarver, D-Chicago, criticized Johnson at an
Illinois House Executive Committee hearing last Thursday. Tarver
said the mayor was wrong when he said the state of Illinois owes CPS
$1 billion.
“We got here because, in June of 2024, Mayor Brandon Johnson jumped
out and said the state owes CPS a billion dollars. I will tell you
what I said then I think is still true now. I believe everybody
wants to help children. Very few people want to help him based on
his lack of leadership. He was wrong in his position about the state
owing CPS, and his math was wrong as well,” Tarver said.
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