The board’s resolution called for the district to provide training and support for students, their families, and staff on immigrants’ rights and resources in multiple languages on legal assistance, mental health care, and public safety. It said the district will advocate on the state and federal levels for programs that assist or protect people with varying immigration statuses. The board said it would oppose any legislation that creates “a Muslim registry system” or erodes civil rights.

Compared to many other pension funds in Illinois, Cook County’s pension fund is in a more sustainable financial situation. This is primarily due to employer contributions made by the County above and beyond the amount required by state statute in recent years.

Three members of Mayor Johnson’s City Council leadership team had demanded that Kennedy Bartley, chief external affairs officer, be fired for calling police “f—ing pigs” and talking openly about defunding police in a series of podcast interviews before taking her city job.

In a statement, the Illinois Network of Charter Schools blamed the union for the financial problems at Acero: “The unfortunate reality at Acero Schools is that the challenges were entirely created by the CTU’s exorbitant fiscal demands and its decision to force a strike on the schools several years ago. Acero Schools’ is the same story on a smaller scale playing out at Chicago Public Schools today—declining enrollment, a massive budget deficit, no new revenue, and an exorbitant proposed labor contract by the CTU that will spiral CPS into debt for years.”

Despite its big spending, six of CTU’s favorites were defeated. It’s a stunning rebuke of the union, considering a multi-state study has shown school board candidates endorsed by teachers unions generally win 70 percent of contested races.

While Vice President Harris won Chicago overall in the recent election, President-elect Trump won 101 (of 1,291) precincts that are home to high populations of city workers, Chinese Americans, Orthodox Jewish Americans and incarcerated people.

“With an approval rating that at last tally was 14 percent, Johnson already is one of the most unpopular mayors this city ever has seen. Now, with the school board votes, we have yet more evidence that many voters have an acute case of buyer’s remorse with this mayor. This was an explicit referendum on Johnson and CTU’s agenda for our public schools. The verdict: Voters don’t like it. … They don’t like that their property taxes keep rising to finance a bloated school system in which one of every three schools is half-empty or worse. They don’t like that

A former Chicago gangster-turned-community activist said Mayor Brandon Johnson is “using Black people and Black families as a scapegoat or a tool for his dirty practices and immigration. Tyrone Muhammad slammed Johnson for providing resources to illegal immigrants over citizens and communities “suffering for decades.”

Board members said improved communication will be key to the agency’s survival as it faces down a projected $539 million fiscal cliff in 2026, after the CTA runs out of pandemic-era relief funding that’s been keeping its operating budget afloat in the first quarter of that year.

The war on drugs is one reason some South Side residents say they could be owed a form of reparations.

“We will be watching for passage of a FY2025 budget that sufficiently addresses the structural deficit and does not include an over-reliance on non-recurring revenues or expenditure savings,” Linda Vanderperre, senior director in KBRA’s public finance ratings group, told The Bond Buyer.

Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul bluntly told Mayor Brandon Johnson, “I strongly urge you to reconsider these proposed cuts. … Under the consent decree, the City must provide the `necessary and reasonable financial resources’ required to fulfill those obligations. Cutting much-needed resources from the unit within CPD responsible for developing and implementing the policies, training, and oversight required by the consent decree is directly contrary to that obligation.”

Willie Wilson: “Whenever taxes are raised, there must be shared sacrifice. It is hard to rationalize pay raises for elected officials, city workers and a property tax increase for residents on fixed incomes.”