>> Chicago public school students are returning to the classroom this week.

But a budget cloud is hovering over the district.

Cps is facing a 734 million dollar shortfall with a deadline to pass a balanced budget.

Coming next Friday.

And with the governor and state lawmakers pushing back on additional funding requests, the options facing CPS board members and its interim CEO appear to be narrowing.

Joining us now to share her thoughts on those financial challenges ahead.

As of course, Stacy Davis, Gates, president of the Chicago Teachers Union.

We did invite CPS, interim CEO Macklin King on the program.

We look forward to having her on as soon as she accepts our invitation.

Meanwhile, Stacy, welcome back.

Thank you for having me.

So let's talk about the first week of school.

Students returned this week.

What are you hearing from your members about how the first few days are going?

Well, I'm hearing elation and celebration.

The first day of school.

>> Was this school year where we went back, where libraries are being reopened with librarians as a result of our collective bargaining agreement.

Class sizes are smaller.

We have more people working with our early childhood educators.

We have more case managers.

But conversely, we don't have crossing guards.

Children are going without hot lunches.

We are seeing this at the same time as Trump is dismantling the Department of Education, which means that special education families have 0 redress.

It also means at the same time SNAP benefits are being marginalized.

Hot lunches are being taken away from public school students in Chicago.

So it is the best of times and the worst of times.

We often know that the first few days of school, especially when the district has not passed a budget when there are times of financial uncertainty of feel like we talked about this in years past those first few weeks can also be there can be some issues that no one was expecting for that Have any of your members raised any of those issues?

So on the 3rd day, we are getting calls and right now because building level administrators have told our members to go soft.

>> On toilet paper and paper towels because of the budget we're hearing from coaches.

We have a coach at Carver Elementary School who has a Fleck football team for the girls and it took him a while to get organized.

And now sports administration Chicago, public schools are telling him that they have no funds for it.

Even though the Chicago Bears are subsidizing the program.

the level of chaos that delinquent in receiving 1.6 billion dollars from the governor and the General Assembly.

This is every August chaos because they refuse to pay the Chicago students with.

They deserve.

I want to come back, of course, state funding because as we we know and as we've mentioned several times on this program, there's that 734 million dollar budget shortfall that the district has to resolve in time too.

Pass a budget by law next Right now the board is split over whether to defer this 175 million dollar pension payment and take on new borrowing.

What are you?

What do you think and how do you expect that to get results when you nearly 2 billion dollars, you don't have any big decisions to make every decision that those people on the Board of Education has to make is a bad decision.

They are caught a fine cuts to the classroom.

They are telling people to go without special education services or even transportation to the school.

Meanwhile, we're hearing and know from our governor and from our General Assembly.

That doesn't compute, especially when and your mother who got a second job over the summer to make sure that she was able to get her daughter to school because she has no transportation.

There is no in a world that someone in charge of this great state can tell.

Children know back in 2022.

CTU at the time said that Mayor Lightfoot was saddling CPS with that 175 million dollar pension payment instead of funding critical positions.

>> Is to you now?

Okay with CPS making that payment rather than the city.

And you know, the mayor, Mayor Johnson, appointed board members are pushing for.

>> No, we're OK with JB Pritzker.

Speaker Welsh incident president harm it, calling a special session and getting their rank and file Super majority Democrats back in Springfield to figure out how to help us make ends meet here in Chicago.

But it's not just Chicago.

It's Naperville which will have of a picket line tomorrow.

It is rock for it is Elgin.

If you push Chicago public schools rochefort schools in Elgin schools, all of the bills that they have do from the state, then that's 2 billion dollars.

Children are going with out math teachers for an entire school year because they won't pay the bill.

So every August there will be chaos in Chicago because they are short the requisite money to run the distric.

Do that said, though, that 175 million our pension payment?

It's turned into a hot potato with everybody sort of passing it back and who who should be taking this on the state of Illinois through our governor or Senate president and our speaker of the House should alleviate that stress.

>> Look, we have board members who are trying their level best to figure out how to fund our schools.

You have a CEO who is upside down with trying to figure the same thing out.

The difference is that both factions have are very small and only difference is brought on because of a 2 billion dollar bill that is going unpaid by a billionaire governor and the Illinois General Assembly.

We need to be very clear that these are the people during difficult things and trying to figure it out.

And we also need to put pressure on our state government to give them some relief.

You cannot get a good decision when your budget doesn't have the revenue that it is legally required to have.

So and to be clear, the 2 billion dollar bill that you're referring to is this the amount that would be funded the city under the evidence base funding formula that the state.

>> Funds schools under.

That's absolutely right.

In 2017, the state of Illinois passed evidence-based funding formula.

One of the best formula is an entire country and the formula needs revenue.

We don't have that revenue and statutorily.

They are in arrears by 1.6 billion dollars here together with Rockford and Elgin is 2 billion dollars, OK?

So we've mentioned Springfield, a number of times, of course.

And we have a little bit of sound from state representatives and Williams and Curtis Farber who joined us on this program last week.

Here's what they had to say about CPS is funding challenges in the possibility of support from Springfield.

>> There are some structural inequities built into how schools are funded.

For example, Chicago public schools pay for most of their own pension payment where schools throughout the rest of the state.

The state contributes more.

I would like to see quite a few changes.

And I think this president for that.

>> We look at the, you know, transit.

There's been conversations about not just sending funds 2 C T a R t without some kind of additional oversight.

>> So what do you make of that?

It Springfield should magically produce more money, that it comes with strings that comes with oversight.

>> I do not understand anything that I'm hearing from Democrats and with a trifecta, a liberal super majority in the House and in the Senate.

If you look at Washington right now, they have a trifecta and they have basically remade this sis.

It and less than a year.

And I have representatives that I know and love who cannot figure out how to Trump roof.

Illinois, how to fund schools for children and how to get us around the city in the state.

I don't understand it if nothing else pay attention to how Trump and his team gets work done.

Another values are messed up.

It is dignified and it is wrong and they get it Meanwhile, these people are talking about problems as if they don't have any power.

I think that's a little too late and too short.

So we also heard from Governor Pritzker at the top of the show.

He was asked a question about this very issue and he said, quote, There is extra money lying around in Springfield given the state's own budget challenges.

>> How do you get Springfield to move on this?

Actually, there is money lying around.

>> Donald Trump gave billionaires in Illinois 5 billion dollar tax break.

The governor, the super majority in the House and the Senate can figure out how billionaires get to pay more.

So there is money lying around and for teachers all over the city and all over the state.

You know what they did?

They found money in their savings account.

They found many out their paychecks.

They found many out of their household budgets to figure out how to buy backpacks, notebooks, shoes, clothes, tall, trees for their students.

It is completely offensive and unacceptable to hear people who have authority and power who have been empowered even to protect this in this moment of tyranny.

Take a pass.