More than $200 million in federal aid is earmarked for the city’s homeless shelters, direct financial assistance to struggling Chicagoans and programs that aid victims of gender-based and domestic violence. The city estimated 4,477 were people experiencing homeless in Chicago during a “point-in-time” count conducted in January.

“The Bears’ calculus is corporate at its core — what’s good for taxpayers is not in their playbook. The latter is Lightfoot’s job, and the job of state government, which would fail Illinoisans miserably if they allowed the Bears to once again tap into taxpayer money for what should be private ventures.”

Despite shrinking enrollment, the Chicago Board of Education approved a $9.3 billion budget for Chicago Public Schools, an increase in spending of nearly $1 billion from the previous year.

The good news for the new CEO is that CPS is relatively financially stable, at least in the short term. CPS is also graduating more students and sending more of them to college. However, the school system is grappling with plunging enrollment, a thin leadership bench, and a dysfunctional relationship between the mayor and the teachers union.

“The residents of this neighborhood are not just experiencing one pandemic, they’re are experiencing two,” Chicago Teachers Union VP Stacy Davis Gates said. “A pandemic of violence that seems unrelenting and the pandemic of COVID-19 that seems equally unrelenting.”

Last week, the mayor said she has had “great conversations with most unions” representing city workers regarding her plans for a vaccine mandate, but has not gotten anywhere with the Fraternal Order of Police or other unions representing members of the Chicago Police Department.

“Either way, one POTUS publicity tour, or two, Chicago keeps bleeding… And none of the politicians are doing much about it. They talk and talk and spin numbers and talk some more and cozy up to each other since they’re all Democrats with elections to win. They bask in the reflected glories of the current and former POTUS.”

Details of the arrangement — including whether the two newsrooms would continue to operate independently — could not be confirmed.

While students were home from school, they lacked the necessary support to stay engaged in their classes because the district didn’t have a plan in place for remote learning, teachers said. The school was not supplied with enough digital devices to make sure students had laptops and tablets to work on while at home, said Carrene Beverly-Bass, a teacher and union delegate for Jensen.

“There’s something particularly painful about living somewhere for so long and then having to leave the place and then returning to see it sold for some inflated price and feeling like you never really had a chance to be a part of that sort of wealth building,” creator Christian Mejía said.

“We remain committed to continuing the work to keep the team in Chicago and have advised the Bears that we remain open to discussions. However, just as the Bears view this as a business decision, so does the City,” a mayoral spokesperson said.