Chicago Public Schools won't open in the fall if state government fails to approve an education budget, CPS chief Forrest Claypool said Wednesday.
"Chicago schools would not open, and I suspect most of the schools in the state would not open," Claypool said in a telephone interview a day after divisions among Democrats who control the House and Senate prevented passage of a school funding plan before the end of the legislative session.
CPS is low on cash and has "no ability to access capital markets" because of its junk credit ratings, Claypool said. Many statewide school districts face their own financial woes and likely would face the same predicament if the state fails to provide funding, Claypool said.
"Even those that might open could probably only do so for 30 days or 60 days," he said.
Claypool's predictions came as Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner crossed the state dismissing separate House and Senate plans for funding education as competing versions of a CPS bailout.
Claypool chafed at that contention, saying the proposals merely get CPS within "spitting distance" of equal state funding while taking into account the greater financial burdens of districts that have high numbers of students living in poverty.
"What the governor did today, running around the state and trying to pit one region in the state against the other, that's wrong," Claypool said. "He was elected to lead the entire state of Illinois.
"We would urge him to work with lawmakers to fully fund education for children throughout the entire state and to fix this broken system, which affects not just Chicago but suburban and rural areas from Cairo to Rockford."
Rauner has proposed a school funding plan that would increase overall state educational spending by $55 million, but CPS officials said it would nevertheless mean a $74 million cut in their state funding and result in average school spending cuts of 26 percent.
Looming over the school funding battle are the partisan differences that have divided Rauner and the General Assembly, leading to an 11-month impasse that has prevented passage of a state budget.
The House school funding plan backed by Speaker Michael Madigan, D-Chicago, is part of an overall budget plan that is billions of dollars in the red. The plan backed by Senate President John Cullerton, D-Chicago, is a stand-alone proposal aimed at keeping elementary schools and high schools open. Rauner recently said he's open to approving a stopgap plan to keep schools open and social services operating.
But the difficulty level for crafting an agreement rose when Tuesday's deadline passed. It now will take a super-majority of legislators to pass any bill, requiring a level of bipartisan cooperation that gets less likely as November elections — in which each part hopes to gain a political advantage — gets nearer.
At the same time, legislators seeking re-election don't want to take the blame if schools don't open on time.
The House and Senate school funding plans would provide hundreds of millions of dollars to CPS and other districts that have high numbers of low-income students. Either plan would "turn a catastrophic budget that would decimate our classrooms into simply a difficult budget," Claypool said Wednesday.
But to meet its massive pension obligations, Claypool said CPS still would need concessions from the Chicago Teachers Union — which has threatened to strike over Claypool's call to phase out the city pickup of teacher pension contributions — and rely on Emanuel getting the City Council to authorize a $175 million property tax levy.
Claypool: Chicago Public Schools won't open without state funding
"Chicago schools would not open, and I suspect most of the schools in the state would not open," Claypool said in a telephone interview a day after divisions among Democrats who control the House and Senate prevented passage of a school funding plan before the end of the legislative session.
CPS is low on cash and has "no ability to access capital markets" because of its junk credit ratings, Claypool said. Many statewide school districts face their own financial woes and likely would face the same predicament if the state fails to provide funding, Claypool said.
"Even those that might open could probably only do so for 30 days or 60 days," he said.
Claypool's predictions came as Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner crossed the state dismissing separate House and Senate plans for funding education as competing versions of a CPS bailout.
Claypool chafed at that contention, saying the proposals merely get CPS within "spitting distance" of equal state funding while taking into account the greater financial burdens of districts that have high numbers of students living in poverty.
"What the governor did today, running around the state and trying to pit one region in the state against the other, that's wrong," Claypool said. "He was elected to lead the entire state of Illinois.
"We would urge him to work with lawmakers to fully fund education for children throughout the entire state and to fix this broken system, which affects not just Chicago but suburban and rural areas from Cairo to Rockford."
Rauner has proposed a school funding plan that would increase overall state educational spending by $55 million, but CPS officials said it would nevertheless mean a $74 million cut in their state funding and result in average school spending cuts of 26 percent.
Looming over the school funding battle are the partisan differences that have divided Rauner and the General Assembly, leading to an 11-month impasse that has prevented passage of a state budget.
The House school funding plan backed by Speaker Michael Madigan, D-Chicago, is part of an overall budget plan that is billions of dollars in the red. The plan backed by Senate President John Cullerton, D-Chicago, is a stand-alone proposal aimed at keeping elementary schools and high schools open. Rauner recently said he's open to approving a stopgap plan to keep schools open and social services operating.
But the difficulty level for crafting an agreement rose when Tuesday's deadline passed. It now will take a super-majority of legislators to pass any bill, requiring a level of bipartisan cooperation that gets less likely as November elections — in which each part hopes to gain a political advantage — gets nearer.
At the same time, legislators seeking re-election don't want to take the blame if schools don't open on time.
The House and Senate school funding plans would provide hundreds of millions of dollars to CPS and other districts that have high numbers of low-income students. Either plan would "turn a catastrophic budget that would decimate our classrooms into simply a difficult budget," Claypool said Wednesday.
But to meet its massive pension obligations, Claypool said CPS still would need concessions from the Chicago Teachers Union — which has threatened to strike over Claypool's call to phase out the city pickup of teacher pension contributions — and rely on Emanuel getting the City Council to authorize a $175 million property tax levy.
Claypool: Chicago Public Schools won't open without state funding
