Chicago Public Schools Maintains Historic School Funding to Continue Academic Acceleration

CHICAGO—Chicago Public Schools (CPS) released its Fiscal Year 2025 school budgets Tuesday, roughly a month before the full District budget will go before the Chicago Board of Education for approval. After gathering feedback from years of public engagement sessions, CPS shared earlier this spring that it was completing its move from a Student-Based Budgeting (SBB) formula to one that still considers student counts but more heavily weighs the varying needs of each of those students. The new approach will provide assistant principal positions and set foundational staffing standards that guarantee teaching positions for every school, regardless of salary. While the full budget is not slated to be complete and posted until later this summer, the SY25 school budgets reflect the District’s commitment to continue the post-pandemic recovery and academic progress of the past year.

“Chicago Public Schools has proven that we offer a good return on investment with our elementary students posting some of the highest gains in reading and math last year among large urban districts and the continued success of our high school students who are posting higher graduation rates each year along with increased post-secondary credits and credentials,” said CPS CEO Pedro Martinez.

“Our intentional instructional strategies are working and despite a tight budget year we are not taking our foot off the gas when it comes to driving academic progress and success in the classroom.”

CPS will maintain the nearly $500 million increase in school-level funding since FY2022 with strong core classroom instruction and supportive learning environments to ensure every school has the resources to provide a high-quality education. The school budgets released today can’t easily be compared to prior year budgets because the new model provides staff as well as discretionary funding with an emphasis on equity and setting universal staffing standards. The new budget model offers the following specific features:

• Every school will receive a core package of foundational positions and resources, regardless of size, school population, or where they are in our city. These include core and holistic teachers, administrative and operational positions, professional development funding, baseline discretionary funding, and out-of-school time activities.
• Guaranteed teacher positions allow schools to hire the most appropriate teacher, regardless of their salary.
• Additional resources and positions will be allocated based on each school’s individual needs. Some schools may serve more students with unique needs, such as students with disabilities, or English Learners. Some schools may need extra support keeping class sizes small.
• All schools will have the opportunity to hire a District-funded assistant principal.
• Large and high-needs schools will receive additional counselor and restorative justice coordinator positions.

Principal Kathy Panagakis of Charles H. Wacker Elementary said this is the first budget year she has had enough teachers to fully staff each grade level and will not have any split-grade classrooms which are especially challenging at the middle school grades. She also appreciates that she won’t have to dip into discretionary funding to fund art, music and foreign language teachers. Additionally, she believes the new budget model will allow her to more easily promote teachers to interventionists, supporting leadership among her staff and offering continuity of services with those who are most familiar with students.

“This new budget shows that District leadership is ‘walking the walk’ regarding equity,” said Principal Panagakis. “Small neighborhood schools finally feel seen and heard after a long period of facing constrained budgets that compromised their financial ability to meet all of their students' needs."

To determine resourcing levels for teachers and discretionary funding, CPS applies its Opportunity Index to school budgets. The Opportunity Index analyzes barriers such as race, socioeconomic status, education, health, for a school’s student body and surrounding community to determine school-level need.

Under the new FY 2025 budget model, selective enrollment and magnet schools will continue to receive the funding to support the robust and rigorous teaching and learning offerings that have led many of them to land among the state and national top school rankings. This new budget model will not disproportionately impact selective enrollment, magnet, or any other type of school.

“The FY2025 budget will carry forward the current year’s commitment that every school has the financial resources to provide a high-quality education,” said CPS Chief Education Officer Bogdana Chkoumbova. “We’ve made extraordinary strides as a District and are committed to supporting school environments where children can continue to grow, excel, and become life-long learners.”

The District’s intentional budgeting strategy, coupled with strong recruitment and hiring initiatives, will allow the District to hire an additional 200 teachers for SY2025 while making adjustments across the District for faculty and support staff in line with the District's priorities.

General education teachers will be up year over year. The total number of assistant principals and restorative justice coordinators, now considered foundational positions, will be up from current staffing levels. Counselors and clerks will remain relatively steady year over year. Special education positions will also be up significantly though schools will see adjustments to reflect the necessary resources for the students they are serving.

Cardenas Elementary Principal Jeremy Feiwell has lived through several types of budgets in his 18 years as a CPS principal and while he lost some discretionary funding for FY25, he believes the new model is a good starting point for CPS.

“It’s heading in the right direction,“ Principal Feiwell said. “Historically, CPS has provided schools with extra positions, with not a lot of accountability. This will level the playing field because we were not one of the schools that received those extra positions. This is an intentional effort to start at ground zero and provide a universal set of resources for all schools.”

The release of school budgets Tuesday, May 28 follows public engagement sessions, Local School Council votes of approval and work to ensure each school can plan for the coming school year. The Office of Network Support and Budget team members worked with school leaders and LSCs to answer their questions and help them fully understand their preliminary budget allocations under the new, more equitable funding model before LSCs finalized, voted and formally submitted their budgets earlier this month. Ninety-eight percent of LSCs approved the new budget.

Next steps include:

June 12: CPS posts the final draft FY2025 budgets to the website.

Summer: The Board of Education will vote on the FY2025 budget. Final school-level hiring decisions will impact each school’s final FY25 budget.

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About Chicago Public Schools (CPS)

Chicago Public Schools (CPS) is dedicated to providing a high-quality education to all students, beginning with the District’s free full-day preschool programming for four-year-old scholars and continuing through neighborhood, magnet and selective-enrollment elementary schools that provide a rigorous K-8 education with schools that specialize in the fine arts, world language and culture, dual language, STEM, International Baccalaureate (IB), classical programs, and more. The rising District-wide freshmen-on-track and high school graduation rates reflect the hard work of the CPS community, including families, staff, and students across 635 schools. CPS celebrates the diversity of its more than 322,000 students who cite 182 home languages. Learn more about CPS at www.cps.edu and connect with CPS on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn.