CPS students, families can't afford city's $175 million pension demand

As a former Chicago Public Schools principal and a current CPS parent, we know firsthand how smart financial decisions can transform our schools and expand opportunities for students.

Even modest funding improvements — from hiring additional teachers to upgrading technology — have meaningful, positive impacts in classrooms every day. Every dollar invested in education matters, now more than ever.

That's why we’re troubled by Mayor Brandon Johnson’s insistence that CPS pay $175 million toward a pension obligation that is the legal responsibility of the City of Chicago. Agreeing to this demand would directly harm our students, compromise our schools, and undermine the district's fragile financial stability. The Board of Education must reject this request, not because pensions are unimportant but because we must protect limited resources for our students’ education and future.

The Municipal Employees’ Annuity and Benefit Fund, established in 1921, provides pensions to city workers, including certain non-teacher CPS staff. Illinois law explicitly states that the city is required to fund this pension, not CPS.

However, since 2020, the city has gradually shifted these costs onto the district. Initially, the payments were relatively small — $60 million — and manageable due to federal COVID relief funding. Now, those funds are gone, and the pension demand has ballooned to an unsustainable $175 million.

CPS simply does not have the money. The district already faces immense financial pressures, including new labor agreements with the Chicago Teachers Union and the Chicago Principals and Administrators Association. CPS has budgeted its remaining $139 million from tax increment financing surplus funds to help meet these labor costs, leaving nothing available to cover this additional pension demand that remains the city’s legal responsibility.

If forced to pay, CPS would be confronted with severe consequences, including mid-year layoffs of teachers and school staff, expensive borrowing at high interest rates, or reliance on risky debt refinancing strategies.

Disruptions for students

Each scenario would negatively impact students, causing immediate disruption in classrooms. CPS already spends approximately $817 million per year— around $2,200 per student — servicing existing debt. Increasing that debt burden further would be financially reckless and rob resources from the classroom.

As a CPS parent, it’s especially frustrating to watch these decisions being made without meaningful input from families. We attend board meetings, voice our concerns and urge leaders to prioritize staffing, academic supports, and after-school programs. But too often, our voices seem dismissed or ignored. Decisions made without real community input affect our children’s lives directly and negatively.

The responsible action is not to burden CPS with unsustainable funding obligations, forcing the new school board into a fiscal bind — either mid-year layoffs or costly debt financing.

Instead, we must focus on long-term structural solutions. The city must identify stable, dedicated revenue streams to fund obligations to the Municipal Employees’ Annuity and Benefit Fund rather than shifting responsibility onto an already financially strained school district.

Additionally, reforming TIF policies to deliver consistent, predictable revenues to CPS could help secure more stable school funding well into the future.

We’ve seen the alternative scenario play out before. Beginning in 2014, CPS faced a series of budget deficits that it initially covered through borrowing and assumptions of future revenue. But in the 2015-16 school year, when that anticipated revenue never materialized, our schools endured painful mid-year budget cuts.

School principals were forced to lay off teachers, creating uncertainty and stress among educators about who would remain or leave. Principals had to explain these difficult decisions to local school councils, whoich were understandably frustrated by the sudden loss of valued staff and critical resources. The principals met with students to discuss the layoffs of some of their most beloved teachers.

This kind of instability not only disrupts student learning, but also undermines trust between CPS, students, parents and educators.

This vote ultimately comes down to a choice between the city’s short-term convenience and the long-term health of our schools. Approving the $175 million payment would mean deeper debt, severe budget cuts and ongoing instability. Rejecting it would compel city leaders to develop responsible, sustainable solutions that protect our students.

As a parent, I want to see the board genuinely listening to families before making decisions that impact our children’s futures. And as a former principal, I know that sustainable financial decisions come from real collaboration with educators and communities — not by shifting the city’s legal obligations onto the backs of students.

Our children deserve leaders who prioritize their education and well-being. We urge the Board of Education to reject this short-term fix so that our students aren’t forced to shoulder the city’s financial burdens.

Pilar Vázquez-Vialva, Ed.D., was the principal of Theodore Roosevelt High School from 2013 to 2016. Ana Espitia is a parent of a first-grade CPS student.

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