The Chicago Principals and Administrators Association (CPAA) recognizes the seriousness of the fiscal challenges facing our school district. As the Chicago Board of Education and CPS leadership consider how to close a projected $734 million deficit for SY25–26, CPAA makes clear that we do not take a position on how the district or the Board chooses to balance the overall district budget.
What we do take a position on—firmly and unapologetically—is the continued commitment that every school will receive a budget that equips its school leader with the staffing, resources, and support necessary to educate students in clean, safe, and healthy environments. We intend to hold the district, the Board, and all governing entities accountable to that promise, by monitoring decisions closely, demanding transparency in budget allocations and publicly elevating whenever promises to schools are broken.
Let us be absolutely clear:
We urge the board to reject any budgeting strategy that results in mid-year cuts, furloughs, or any reduction in salary, compensation, or benefits for school leaders.
We will not stand silent while this deficit is used as an excuse for disinvestment in school-level safety, instruction, or wellness.
We will continue to insist on a process that includes collaboration, transparency, equity, and sound fiscal planning that protects schools and the children they serve.
CPAA has spent the last decade fighting for full recognition, full rights, and full participation in decision-making that affects our schools. We did not build this union to have these decisions that impact our schools be made without us. We call on CPS leadership and the Board of Education to engage early, transparently, and collaboratively with CPAA as fiscal planning continues.
We refuse to accept the damaging pattern of last-minute, reckless budgeting that leaves school leaders to absorb the chaos and explain broken systems to communities they were never consulted about. We call for immediate engagement—not crisis-time consultation.
Our members are the ones who deliver the academic results that the Board of Education and City leaders love to boast about in press conferences and political speeches. We have made progress in gaining a seat at the table, but too often the most critical funding conversations still happen without us. There is no credible or lasting solution to CPS’s budget crisis without principals and assistant principals at the decision-making table from the very beginning. The City and the Board of Education—not school leaders—are responsible for securing the revenue and passing budgets that provide the stable and sustainable funding our schools require. For far too long, shortsighted financial decisions, predatory borrowing, and devastating debt service have strangled our budgets and undermined the stability of our schools.
We also call on every partner who cares about equity to join us in demanding more from the State of Illinois and from city leaders who have long failed to commit adequate and stable public funding to Chicago’s public education system.
We will lend our voice—and the strength of our membership—to any effort that demands real accountability for the predatory lending, high-interest borrowing, and unsustainable debt service imposed on our schools by prior city administrations and Boards of Education. These financial decisions were made without our consent, but their consequences are ours to bear—and we will no longer do so quietly.
We remain committed to:
Centering the needs of students and communities,
Fighting for equity and efficiency in budget allocations,
And defending the professional authority of school leaders to use resources wisely to improve student outcomes—the way only principals and assistant principals know how.
The stakes are too high for short-sighted decisions. Let us plan responsibly, act collaboratively, and advocate boldly—together.