BETTING IT ALL ON THE HOUSE ONLY GAMBLE LEFT FOR CPS?
The Chicago Public Schools have precious few options now that Gov. Bruce Rauner’s surprise veto has blown a hole in its budget already precariously balanced on the promise of $ 215 million in state pension help from Springfield.
Once again, district leaders have rolled the dice on hundreds of millions arriving from the state, and unless the House follows the Senate’s lead on overriding the governor’s veto, classroom cuts are all but a certainty.
CPS CEO Forrest Claypool wouldn’t speculate on what those cuts could look like after lambasting Rauner Thursday afternoon for acting “in a fit of pique and anger and recklessness . . . to hold nearly 400,000 schoolchildren hostage to his political agenda” in the middle of the school year.
The district apparently hasn’t yet formalized any plans for what to do with its students, teachers and other staffers who would bear the brunt of such a large budget hole after years of funding cuts. CPS wouldn’t say whether the veto would affect approval the school board is scheduled to consider next week on its budget amended after securing a new teachers’ contract.
The House has 15 days to try to override the veto, and convincing its members to push one through, albeit on a specially called session day, may be the best option for Mayor Rahm Emanuel and the families of 380,000 CPS students.
That favored political script would duplicate what happened last spring with legislation giving Chicago 15 more years to ramp up to a 90 percent funding level for police and fire pensions.
Three Republican crossover votes pushed Emanuel over the finish line, giving him the 71 votes needed to override the governor’s veto of the police and fire pension reforms and to dodge another sizable property tax hike. The question is, can he do it again? “It’s not impossible to do, but it’s not going to be easy, either. It’s a high threshold to reach. Funding for Chicago Public School students is a polarizing issue when it shouldn’t be,” said a top mayoral aide, who asked to remain anonymous.
“People understand that pensions need to be funded, which is why we were successful on police and fire. With CPS, it’s not just teacher pensions but also the impact on the operating budget, students and teachers. That’s a dif- ficult thing to vote against. That’s what we have going for us. What we have going against us is a governor who has chosen to play politics and use children as hostages to get the reforms he wants. And he has a lot of influence in this Capitol.”
Ald. Pat O’Connor ( 40th), former longtime chairman of the City Council’s Education Committee, said he’s not optimistic about override prospects.
“It seems to me that people have pretty much dug their heels in. There’s more at play than policy here. Personality is also a big part of it. If you look at the way it’s been going and the difficulty they’ve had in basically trying to even discuss the problems, resolving them seems to be far off.”
Claypool told reporters at CPS headquarters that the district’s “strategies now are to fight.”
“We are going to fight on multiple fronts. First we’re going to fight in the political process. Then, if necessary, in the courts.”
Civic Federation President Laurence Msall urged the mayor’s handpicked school team to get out the budget ax — and even entertain another round of school closings — instead of focusing solely on a House override.
“Because they’ve waited six months into the fiscal year, the cuts will have to be that much larger to close that hole. Everything has to be on the table,” Msall said. “Waiting and hoping that they’ll get the money is not the answer. It’s what led to the problems we have already.”
The last time Emanuel signed off on a school budget balanced on the promise of state pension help that never came, CPS was forced to plug a $ 480 million hole with a devastating round of mid- year budget cuts last February and to borrow even more money at exorbitant interest rates.
This time, the budget cuts could be even more devastating considering how schools that had any reserves depleted them last year. They would surely hit classrooms, something Emanuel has tried desperately to avoid.
Msall said that another round of borrowing to plug the $ 215 million gap would “fly in the face of the difficulty” CPS is already having securing short- term lines of credit.
“They’ve spent down their reserves. They’re operating without a long- term plan. They don’t have anything to secure another $ 215 million,” Msall said.
If the House override fails and borrowing is foreclosed, the only other option would be to ask the City Council to ride to the rescue of CPS.
But after authorizing a $ 1.2 billion avalanche of tax increases to solve the pension crisis at the city and the public schools, Education Committee Chairman Howard Brookins ( 21st) sees no appetite for that option, either.
“I don’t know where we would get the money. I don’t know what other tax we could raise. I don’t know if the general public would have the stomach for another fee or tax. We already took tough votes. I don’t know if the will is there,” Brookins said.
“WE ARE GOING TO FIGHT ON MULTIPLE FRONTS. FIRST WE’RE GOING TO FIGHT IN THE POLITICAL PROCESS. THEN, IF NECESSARY, IN THE COURTS.” FORREST CLAYPOOL