Only half of Chicago Public Schools’ $10 billion in yearly spending makes it to the classroom – Wirepoints

By: Ted Dabrowski and John Klingner

Here’s one fact Chicagoans should know as the Chicago Teachers Union demands billions more for its massive labor contract: only half of the $10 billion spent at CPS each year makes it to classrooms and instruction. The other $5 billion goes to fund a sprawling bureaucracy of near-empty to half-empty schools, an increasingly bloated administrative staff and ever more debt, driven largely by pensions. All to the union’s benefit.

The fact that just half of CPS’ spending goes to classrooms is based on an analysis by Wirepoints of the district’s 2025 interactive budget and the State Board of Education’s Illinois Report Card. A look at that budget shows that CPS plans to spend, all-in, nearly $9.9 billion in 2025. That includes operational, debt-service and capital spending.

Of that nearly $10 billion, only $5 billion will be spent on the city’s school network – about 51% of the total district spend. The other $5 billion? Pension contributions consume $1.2 billion, debt repayments eat up $800 million and capital spending uses $600 million. The remaining $2.1 billion goes to district administration and support services.

A second set of data analyzed by Wirepoints, from the Illinois Report Card, gives similar results. There, the state shows that CPS spends $15,700 on instructional spending per student. That’s only about half of the full $30,000 CPS spends all-in per student.

Nevertheless, the union is demanding in its new contract 13,000 in additional staff and all-in annual raises of 10% to 12% per year over four years. In all, both demands would raise total spending over the four years by $5.5 billion and $3.7 billion, respectively.

Where’s all the money going?

We’ve written in detail about the bloat at CPS, starting with the fact that CPS has already been on a hiring spree since 2019. Overall staffing has increased by 25%, or 9,000-plus new employees, since before the pandemic, even though actual student enrollment since then has dropped by 10%.

More than 70% of that staff increase has gone to support and admin staff. That’s hundreds of millions in increased costs – and tax increases – for a district that continues to shrink in enrollment.

Another bad practice that sucks up money and pushes up property taxes is keeping near-empty to half-empty schools open. A decade ago, the district had “just” 75 schools, or about 16% of all traditional schools, at less than 50% capacity.

Today, 163 schools have enrollment at less than 50% capacity. That’s more than a third of all traditional schools. 

Some schools are nearly empty, as the below graphic highlighting the 20 emptiest schools shows. Douglass High School has capacity for more than 900 students and yet it has just 35 students enrolled. Manley High School has capacity for nearly 1,200, but only 78 students attend the school. These are just two of several near empty, failing schools, where lots of money is spent and few students learn to read.

Pensions and pension debts are another big driver of the stress on spending and, subsequently, higher property taxes.

CPS pension debts have jumped by $6.3 billion over the last decade. In 2015, CPS had a $9.5 billion hole in its teacher pension fund. Today, the shortfall totals $15.8 billion. That pension debt has spiked even though the district has contributed a whopping $7 billion toward teacher pensions since 2015. 

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CPS and CTU may cry poor, but their problems are not due to too little money. As we’ve written about extensively, CPS has $2.3 billion more to spend in 2024 than it did in 2019. That’s a big 30 percent increase. When adjusting for the shrinkage in enrollment, CPS has 43% more funding on a per student basis than it did just five years ago – $30,000 vs nearly $21,000. And yet the deficits continue and most kids aren’t learning. 

Instead of forcing Chicagoans to pay higher property taxes – and instead of begging for more money from the rest of the state – Mayor Brandon Johnson, CPS administrators and the CTU should be massively cutting the massive bureaucratic waste. Layoffs, furloughs, school consolidations and a modern retirement plan for new hires should be part of the solution set.

We’re not so naïve to think the mayor and CPS officials will actually make those cuts and changes on their own. The cuts will only happen when enough Chicagoans, sick of property tax hikes, say no. Fortunately, the battle over the city’s $1 billion budget deficit and the rejection of $300 million in property tax hikes is a start to that pushback, with more than a few aldermen calling for layoffs and furloughs at the city.

The real change, however, will come only when state legislators vote for and pass universal school choice – call it educational freedom. Universal choice in Illinois would finally give any family, regardless of race or income, access to a voucher or an Education Savings Account (ESA) to find better schools. That freedom is already happening across the country.

Until choice finally comes around, Chicago’s children – those that can’t leave – are trapped in a real mess.

Read more from Wirepoints:

• Politicians’ five-step guide for making parents think all’s well in Illinois schools
• Fresh data: Illinois officials graduate record 88% of students despite tragic literacy, numeracy rates
• Chicago Public Schools spends $100 million yearly on its 20 emptiest schools. And it wants to spend another $1 billion on them.
• Chicago Public Schools is in dire financial straits, yet Chicago Teachers Union blocks closing of near-empty, failing schools.
• Chicago’s 2025 budget fiascos. First up, Chicago Public Schools.