RYH Press Release | CPS Budget Cuts | 6.17.13

School-Based Budget Cuts are devastating: Parent Group RYH is tracking the numbers

Despite CPS' contention that school-based budget cuts are “not severe,” Raise Your Hand parent members are reporting massive cuts in the hundreds of thousands  of dollars and even millions at some schools. Raise Your Hand is keeping a list of cuts and with just over 10% of schools reporting so far, there is a loss of just over $45 million.

While per pupil funding is being touted as a way to “give principals more autonomy,” the decrease in overall budgets will only force principals to choose which teachers and which programs to cut within their schools, or whether to have huge class size, or both.  This is not autonomy, this is an atrocity.  At a time when CPS has shuttered 50 schools in order to “save money,” we find it deplorable that less than two weeks later they have not only not saved, but are continuing to make widespread, deep cuts that will negatively impact our school system. CPS was not providing the funding to maintain basic standards for students before these cuts hit.  Cutting any deeper will exacerbate these losses.  

Raise Your Hand finds any cuts to be unacceptable and implores the city to declare a TIF surplus on unallocated TIF funds to make up for any shortfall that they can’t recover from a potential pension reform savings.

RYH Director Wendy Katten said, “We need a long-term sustainable solution at the state level but parents refuse to accept these cuts now while the city is simultaneously handing out property tax money for projects like a $55 million DePaul stadium,, $5 million relocation gift to Vienna Beef to move locations, etc.  A surplus would send money back to the taxing bodies where it belongs. Parents have begun to organizing TIF squads across the city to advocate for this solution.

 Below is a sampling of school based cuts as reported by Raise Your Hand parent members and LSCs.  This list includes those schools that have reported their figures and will be continually updated as more numbers are reported. (*numbers are approximate)

Amundsen HS             $780,000

Audubon                      $400,000

Beasley                       $550,000

Belding                        $400,000

Bell                              $750,00

Burr                            $365,853

Darwin                       $723,700

Gage Park HS             $1,000,000

Gale                             $500,000

Goethe                        $265,000

Grimes Fleming         $458,000

Foreman HS               $1,700,000

Jamieson                    $290,000

Kennedy HS               $2,150,000

Kozminsky                 $250,000

Lane Tech                 $2,000,000

Lincoln Park HS         $1,060,000

Mather                       $1,200,000

Mitchell                      $788,000

Murphy                       $700,000

Pritzker                      $186,000

Ray                            $400,000

Roosevelt HS              $1,100,000

Suder                          $750,000

Sutherland                 $253,000