The Republican governor spoke to reporters in Chicago on Monday, his third news conference on the issue since last week. Chicago has given and given and given.
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Chicago Public Schools officials have proposed a $5.7 billion budget that includes almost 500 teacher layoffs and banks on $480 million in new funding from state government that might not come.
CPS officials said 99 percent of the teacher cuts are due to shifting student enrollment, though a history teacher who got a notice, Allison Valentine, said she didn’t understand it since the department was understaffed and the school was seeing an increase in students.
Rauner restated his belief that changes in collective bargaining should be statewide, and not just for Chicago, if there’s an attempt to alleviate CPS’ cash crunch for the coming school year. More than 400 of the district’s 600-plus schools are seeing reductions.
Chicago Public School officials have backed off from some of their plans to stagger start times at dozens of schools.
Faculties officers Monday stated the district has began to put off academics and help employees impacted by the $200 million in value cuts introduced earlier this summer time.
Rauner said Chicago has, independently among all state school districts, the ability to outsource support services, a provision he said would be beneficial across the state as a cost-savings measure.
Originally, the district was to save $9 million in transportation costs with the new bell times.
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Now, 48 schools will see changes.
