Backed by Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner, Illinois state Republicans on Wednesday made an aggressive proposal that would wrest control of Chicago’s financially troubled school system from the city and hand it over to the state-selected board of managers.
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The pension makeover plan pertained to a pension bill Senate President Cullerton proposed last May after the state Supreme Court threw out a law attempting to ease the state’s pension crunch by sharply cutting the prospective retirement benefits for current state employees.
Illinois House Republican Leader Jim Durkin (R-Western Springs) said during a press conference on Wednesday that state lawmakers would be throwing CPS “a lifeline.” Salary increases need to be taken out of collective bargaining.
CPS faces sinking bond ratings and more than $1 billion in debt for the 2016 fiscal year, largely due to a massive 6 million pension liability.
“That situation ought to be addressed rather than promoting this far-fetched notion that the state is somehow in the position to take over Chicago schools”, Cullerton said. Rauner says that he’d consider providing aid-though the state’s budget is hardly robust-but only if the schools agree to something in return, namely, reforms that would improve educational quality and stabilize the system’s finances. The mayor wants the state to pick up the cost of CPS teacher pensions, as it does for school districts outside of Chicago.
The district is now working with the Chicago Teachers Union to lock in a new contract that could avoid mass layoffs in the middle of the school year. “This ridiculous idea only serves as a distraction from the state’s problems that these two state leaders should be focusing on”.
“Republicans’ ultimate plans include allowing cities throughout the state to file for bankruptcy protection, which they admitted today would permit cities and school districts to end their contracts with teachers and workers – stripping thousands of their hard-earned retirement security and the middle-class living they have worked years to achieve”, House Speaker Michael Madigan, D-Chicago, said in a statement.
“The mayor has failed on this”, Rauner said Wednesday, according to The Chicago Tribune. That independent authority would have control until the state board determines CPS is no longer in financial peril. They also noted that GOP lawmakers may reveal a bankruptcy plan for CPS and the city of Chicago in the coming weeks, but didn’t offer many details.
The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the person wasn’t authorized to pre-empt the public announcement.
“We hope the Senate President still supports this agreed upon model originally developed by his office”, the governor’s communication director Lance Trover said in an email statement. The proposed changes were never introduced as a bill in the legislature.
Emanuel has stated unequivocally that he is against such a measure, blaming the state’s funding formula and pension laws for the city’s public school system’s continued money woes.
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Due to its looming debt, CPS also is facing midyear layoffs and another potential teachers strike.
