Students exit Roosevelt High School in Albany Park after their first day of school Aug. 21, 2023.
Tyler Pasciak LaRiviere/Sun-Times
Chicago Public Schools recently released their preliminary school budgets for the next school year. The biggest change in this new formula is that it will no longer fund schools solely based on student enrollment but rather focus on a need-based, equity formula. While CPS is to be commended for addressing long overdue funding inequities and empowering students with the most need, CPS can do more to ensure it properly funds equity in the classroom.
There are a few key questions: How is a school’s need specifically determined, and how can it be revised or appealed? And how much transparency is in place to communicate cuts in teachers, staff and school operating expenses?
School budgets were only released internally, and all the information needs to be released to the full public in a transparent and timely manner for proper examination. If the whole point of changing the funding formula was for more districtwide equity, it is concerning that some schools report the exact opposite.
It would be a disservice to simply say CPS funding is now going from schools in affluent areas to schools in less affluent areas. It would be a shame if any students are negatively impacted and, to ensure this doesn’t happen, more scrutiny is needed. Unfortunately, voting on this school budget is scheduled for the next few weeks.
As a CPS civics teacher and an elected member of the local school council advisory board, I applaud CPS for changing its formula to focus on equity and need. At the same time, I urge the district to make all detailed school budgets publicly available and be more transparent about how school budget allocations were calculated.
Finally, I implore all of us to act altruistically in the spirit of helping those who need it most. The best way for CPS stakeholders to get involved is to be more informed and active in their school budget discussions, advocate for their budget priorities and ultimately collaborate on a decision on whether to vote to approve their budget.
Froylan Jimenez, teacher and local school council advisory board member
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