The Chicago Reporter analyzed CPS’s 2026 approved budget and found that local revenues are expected to grow more than state revenues despite pressure from advocates and board members to get more help from Springfield.
Chicago Public Schools is projected
TCR analyzed the projected revenue sources released by CPS for FY2026 and found that total local revenues, which include property taxes, increased by more than 4 percent while total state revenues increased 3.6 percent. Federal resources are expected to drop by 31.56 percent.
These projections come at a time when advocates, community members and stakeholders have been talking about the need to increase state revenue for schools instead of increasing property taxes–or making cuts to classrooms–to close the District’s $734 million deficit and eventually fully fund Chicago and other Illinois districts as laid out in the Evidence-Based Funding, or EBF model.
“We’re going to be stuck here for the next five years doing the same thing,” CPS teacher Arrita Sanchez said during a community meeting organized by CPS at Back of the Yards High School in July. “There needs to be a potential revenue source outside of property taxes.”
Who gets to pay for schools?
In Illinois, the primary responsibility for funding public education lies with the state, as stated in Article X, Section 1 of the Illinois Constitution.
Still, in both FY2025 and FY2026, the total local operating revenue for CPS was more than double the total state revenue, according to the released budget. The 2026 projection includes $5,425.5 million in local revenues and $2,299.8 million in state revenues, among other sources.
Property taxes, the largest type of local revenue and CPS’s largest single revenue source, grew from $4,009.2 million in FY2025 to $4,241.7 million in the most recent projection, which corresponds to a 5.8 percent increase.
In the proposed budget, CPS attributed the $232.5 million property tax increase to an increase in the District’s Transit TIF collections, levy adjustments and an increase in education levy collections, and included that “the stability of this revenue source [property taxes] is vital to the financial health and viability of the District.”
TCR recently interviewed three legislators from the Republican and Democratic parties who are involved in property tax reform in Springfield, and all of them defended the allocation of additional state funds for Illinois public schools.
State Rep. Abdelnasser Rashid (D), a member of a property tax working group, told TCR that legislators do everything they can to increase state funding for education to meet the EBF target and “release the burden on school districts and community colleges on the property tax front.” He said he thinks Illinois should invest more than the $350 million yearly increase EBF requires.
State Rep. Mary Beth Canty (D), another member of the group, said she has noticed a “real desire” in Springfield to change how schools are funded, but that it will take time. Canty helped pass a law, effective since January, approving plans to conduct an evaluation of the property tax system, including “the State’s reliance on property taxes and the historical growth in property tax levies.”
“It is going to take us some time to get the evidence-based funding model fully funded,” she said. “Sometimes that’s how you have to do things. It’s slow, it’s methodical, but it’s consistent.”
The most recent state budget, signed by Governor JB Pritzker on June 16, included a $307 million increase in EBF funding, an amount lower than the usual $350 million. Illinois announced an additional $76 million earlier this month, Chalkbeat reported.
Republican State Rep. Dan Ugaste supports that Illinois schools rely more on state revenues than on local ones. “First and foremost, it [education] should be paid primarily by the state,” Ugaste, who is the sponsor of a property tax relief bill that proposes a program to use state revenue to award grants to school districts in Illinois, Uhaste told TCR. “That’s in our Constitution, and we just do a terrible job of doing it now.”
However, he said that schools don’t need additional revenue, but that “we just need to have the state pay more and the locals pay less.”
What the community says
Relatively new to Chicago, Sanchez attended the CPS community meeting in Back of the Yards hoping to learn more about the District’s efforts to manage its finances more efficiently.
She holds a degree in political science with a focus on public policy and a minor in public administration, an MBA from Texas Southern University, a master’s degree in teaching from West Georgia University and a doctorate in educational leadership from Lamar University in Texas.
“What is the state doing?” She asked during a discussion about alternative ways to close CPS’s deficit. “ I don’t blame it on the city, I don’t blame it on CPS,” she said later. “To me, the state should be funding and making sure not just the city of Chicago, but the whole state is funded properly.”
Other CPS teachers and parents expressed similar concerns during the latest CPS board meetings. Lori Turner, Chief of Political Affairs at the Illinois Network of Charter Schools, called for increased state funding during the CPS monthly board meeting on July 24.
On August 13, during a board meeting held to discuss the tentative FY2026 budget, CPS parent Yvone Sanchez questioned how property tax dollars are spent. “Why pay high property taxes if my neighborhood school remains underfunded?” she asked the board.
Next steps in Springfield
During the same meeting last week, board member Anusha Thotakura urged her colleagues to take a more serious approach to advocating for new revenue streams from the state and invited them to join her in Springfield in October for the veto session to call for increased funding for schools.
Besides addressing legislation in which Gov. Pritzker has exercised his veto power, the Veto Session, a shorter legislative session typically held in late October or early November, also provides an opportunity for the Illinois General Assembly to address pressing issues and introduce new legislation.
This article highlights the ongoing debate over funding Chicagos schools, emphasizing the heavy reliance on property taxes and the push for increased state funding. Its concerning to see local communities bearing the brunt while the state debates reforms.