Chicago schools CEO at the crossroads

When Alice Cooper crooned “School’s Out” in the 1970’s it was at least for the students, and maybe some of the teachers, a sense of relief and freedom from the rigors of education, albeit freedom. But for the Chicago Public Schools CEO Macquiline King, summer break has also brought the headaches of leading America’s fourth largest school system serving 322,000 to 323,000 students.

First she had to face off against a barrage of questions from the US House Education Committee, and as local public media station WBEZ reported, “about transgender students, religion and sex education as she testified under subpoena Wednesday at a contentious U.S. House education committee hearing.”

Battle lines were drawn when, “The Republican chair of the committee, Tim Walberg, came out swinging, accusing King and the other superintendents in attendance of representing school districts with “radical” policies that “sideline parents” and “compromise student privacy rights.”

It’s been well established that any reference to transgender students by the Trump administration is bound to appeal to their political base, and it was a major point in the 2024 presidential election, when President Trump faced off Democratic candidate, Vice-President Kamala Harris.

The Republican chair of the committee, Tim Walberg “ went so far as to say that some practices, such as allowing a transgender girl to sleep in the same room as a cisgender girl on an overnight trip, could rise to the level of “child abuse and neglect.” 

“Advocates for transgender youth say such policies help protect trans students’ privacy and safety.”

This session was watched closely by advocates for inclusion and those against it, and especially with the upcoming midterm elections in November, setting the table for issues to garner votes for the GOP.  And, the administration has threatened to withhold funds from school districts that held in opposition of  their own interpretation of student civil rights.

“Republican lawmakers, meanwhile, questioned King about whether she believes that teachers have to disavow their Christian beliefs to teach in CPS and what grade she thinks it is appropriate to start providing condoms to students. To most questions, including those about accommodations for trans students on overnight trips, King flatly told the lawmakers that CPS policies are aligned with Illinois laws.”

King emphasized in her opening statement, that “Our classrooms are not homogeneous. They are vibrant communities where students learn alongside peers whose lived experiences may differ from their own,” King said. “The only way to truly serve a student is to understand and embrace what makes each student and community unique.”

“The fact of the matter is almost 80% of our citizens polled clearly stated they don’t want males in female sports or restrooms, and yet your schools and the state of Illinois rules that you follow, that you, Dr. King, referred to so often, encourages that,” Walberg said.

In a nod to the increasing number of special education students that are enrolled in Chicago schools resulting in increased hiring for specialized teachers, Walberg, said, “Will that funding also be used to teach our children the truth, as opposed to going along with the cultural setting that is trying to change the reality around gender?” he asked. “Those are our concerns.”

King deflected these questions with a steady refrain, later in a written statement released that said,”reiterated that “CPS policies are rooted in law, the District’s mission and values.”

“Above all else, Dr. King emphasized the District must always prioritize the best interests of students and their families,” the statement continued..

As the media noted: “The Trump administration is investigating CPS over its policy that allows transgender students to use the bathroom that corresponds with their gender identity, as well as the district’s Black Student Success initiative, which aims to improve the experiences and academic outcomes of Black students,” which lost a $2 million federal grant for that program.

Chicago School Board President Sean Harden said King “did a fantastic job” explaining to members of Congress what “our values are as a district” and the policies that are guiding CPS. He said the board has “complete confidence” in King.”

“She has shown tremendous leadership,” he added. “Whether it’s building community partnerships, advocating for our schools or testifying before Congress as she’s done today, we applaud her unwavering commitment to keeping students and families at the center.”

The biggest battle for King was crafting a budget for a district that has faced innumerable financial challenges from long-term debt, to a crumbling physical plant to meeting the demands of the powerful Chicago Teachers Union to dwindling enrollment with outside debt totaling $9 billion dollars and debt repayment that is 9 percent of its budget.

With a $732 billion budget shortfall, she has proposed a budget that includes more central office layoffs, and teachers, angering CTU but attempting to preserve a level of education for a student population that is largely Black and brown and which lacks political support.

In an attempt to move away from classroom cuts, King  “proposed [a] $9.88 billion budget to close the district’s funding gap. The plan calls for $200 million in Tax Increment Financing, or TIF, funds from the city, the layoff of 760 teachers and 801 support staff, and five unpaid furlough days for CPS employees” reported WTTW.

In a tone that seemed both philosophical as well as pragmatic she told the media, ““We are not budgeting for the district we had yesterday,” King said. “It is imperative we are budgeting for the students we serve today and the futures of tomorrow.”

“Still, district officials admit it will be a challenge to keep cuts away from the classroom. Emila Zoko, the acting chief budget officer, said Thursday that the district had asked “department leaders to determine what reductions can be made with the least impact on students.”

But “it’s getting harder and harder to make reductions” that don’t “impact direct student programming and student supports,” she said to the Chicago Sun Times.

The plan is for at “least $105 million in cuts to non-classroom costs, such as reducing the number of custodians and central office staffers.”

Questions have arisen from Board members on how the debt reached a crisis point and “Jennifer Custer, a board member representing District 1B, is pointing the finger at Cook County officials who she says have dragged their feet on disbursing revenue from local property taxes.

“We are having some issues with our short-term cash flow because the county hasn’t delivered some of that money to us,” Custer said.

“Property taxes are the district’s single-largest revenue source. Without timely payments, CPS is forced to take out billions in short-term loans to pay staff and keep the lights on, resulting in millions of dollars in interest payments. That’s money that doesn’t get spent on the classroom,” according to the Sun Times.

At last count that amount is $4.5 billion in property taxes this year.

"As a result, CPS has been forced to borrow money through tax anticipation notes (TANs) to cover short-term costs.” And with a junk bond rating they have spent higher interest rates, of at least 80 million in interest payments.

According to Wally Stock acting chief financial officer at CPS said to Chalkbeat Chicago that, "“This year the situation is a little different. The cash flow for the district is different. In order for CPS to make payroll, we have to secure a short-term loan, and that application is due. We’re expected to close Sept. 2 in order for a payroll on Sept. 4. "

Repeated delays in Cook County property taxes “have worsened the problem” reported the Chicago Tribune; and. “CPS will hit its borrowing limit for its previous fiscal year in August so banks won’t approve new tax anticipation notes, or TANS until the next budget is passed.”

Any loans will be dependent on the lenders feeling that an approved budget will get far more favorable terms than without one.

On Tuesday "Two teachers unions have filed a lawsuit against Cook County Treasurer Maria Pappas, alleging she is not distributing millions of dollars in taxpayer funds to schools and that students are being harmed as a result.

The Chicago Teachers Union and the Illinois Federation of Teachers are seeking a court order requiring Pappas to issue late tax bills and distribute funds to school districts. The unions contend that money collected through property taxes is not reaching schools in a timely manner."

ABC Eyewitness News reported that, "Steve Yokich, an attorney representing CTU and IFT, said the treasurer has a legal obligation to distribute the money.

"It's really important for the treasurer to do her job under the statute. People have already paid their money. They're entitled to get what they pay their money for, which is education for their families," Yokich said.

According to CTU, Pappas is withholding up to $400 million in tax receipts from Chicago Public Schools.

In a written statement, Pappas responded: "No comment on the pending litigation. We have given the Chicago Board of Education more than $4.5 billion. These attacks are par for the course. It's election season."

Civic Federation President Joe FergIn the last budget cycle CPS got a windfall in Tax Increment Financing dollars of $552 million when local alderpeople passed a budget with a $1 billion surplus, something that will probably not be seen this year.

“The CTU claims the district is considering reducing the number of school days next year to save money. Jackson Potter, vice president of the union, said that’s on top of proposed cuts to librarians, tech coordinators and athletic directors.

“In discussions with the district and the city, we are hearing that up to two weeks of the school year could be canceled in order to meet the budget gap that will still exist after these cuts have been imposed,” Potter said at the end of June to the Sun Times,

“But the district denied that option was on the table. A CPS spokesperson wrote in a statement that “at no point has the District considered shortening the school year to alleviate these financial challenges.”

As we’ve reported before Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker has been reluctant to offer more state funds to Chicago emphasizing that there are other school districts in the state, yet “Jitu Brown, a board member representing District 5A, said lawmakers at the state level have not done enough to fund CPS.”

“I think it’s very important to note that you have states like California, where a little over 50% of the local schools’ budgets are covered by the state. In Chicago, we are far below that,” Brown said. “It’s also important to remember that for decades, Illinois, despite having an international city in its midst, was 49th in education funding. … It is time for the state to do some get-right by its children.”

Time is of the essence, say some, plus “Illinois’ evidence-based funding plan, a law signed in 2017 meant to provide more funding to undersourced school districts, says CPS is $1.6 billion short of “adequate” funding." 

Yet the state has expressed that using the 10 year old funding formula is estimated to be 79 percent; to bring the schools to adequate funding.

Custer said that even if a special session were approved and the state agreed to send more money, it’s unlikely that money would arrive quickly enough to help CPS in the short term. 

“Those (state dollars) wouldn’t be realized in this budget to help us in the crisis we’re in now. They wouldn’t show up until next year,” Custer said. “Just because we call for a special session doesn’t mean any of that money will come to our door.”

Questions remain on whether the CTU is working lockstep with other labor organizations and the city. “But Custer said CTU has not made an effort to collaborate on the budget process.

CTU President Stacy Davis Gates has criticized King’s proposal, calling it “dead on arrival,” and told local media: “Students have had to learn in overcrowded classes, practice under unpaid coaches, and be counseled by caseworkers with loads beyond compare all year, and now CPS thinks they can plan a week of furloughs and tell the staff who serve them they don’t have a job? Please,” 

“I think we’ve heard President Davis Gates come and say all the time, ‘come to the table.’ But I don’t think she’s reciprocating that notion,” Custer said. “If you just come in and say, ‘No, we’re not gonna do this. This is dead on arrival,’ it’s not true collaboration,” 

Meanwhile Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson, a former CPS teacher, and organizer, has said that “to balance the budget off the backs of working people and at the expense of our students, that’s not sustainable.” 

Late breaking news on Tuesday brought a cancellation of the furlough days, based on a revised estimate of $285 million from TIF monies. 

King then noted that “We will continue to advocate with our partners at all levels of government to get the funding we know our students need,” in a statement Wednesday. “But trying to balance the budget on unrealized state revenue at the 11th hour would be a mistake with devastating short-and-long-term consequences.”

For the late money, from the tax coffers, she said in an interview on WTTW, a local public broadcasting station,"We are working with that office, and over the past several weeks it has been a concern that we’ve raised as well. We’re looking to receive a payment as early as next week.” 

Updated 30 July 2026

Chicago School CEO Pedro Martinez is fired

In a not unexpected move this Friday the Chicago School Board fired School CEO Pedro Martinez, in a closed executive session, after members of the public both praised and panned him, citing a failure of leadership, but without specific charges; and, most importantly lawyers for Martinez filed a temporary restraining order, that was too late to prevent such a move.

Well known among residents was the reason: Martinez’s failure to agree to a $300 million high interest loan to shore up teacher pensions and a pending contract, which put a target on his back by Mayor Brandon Johnson a former teacher and organizer for the powerful Chicago Teachers Union, and made him a figure of unofficial censure by many within, and without, the mayoral administration, as well as some teachers and principals.

Things had reached a fever pitch in recent weeks, and there has been a sea of rumors of when, if, and even how, Martinez could be fired, with or without cause. And, in the face of that, nearly one-third of local principals had expressed satisfaction with Martiniez and wrote the mayor a letter expressing support.

In an editorial from the Chicago Tribune the authors noted that, “More than 670 CPS principals and assistant principals — two-thirds of the 1,100 in the district — have signed a letter urging the current appointed board to retain Martinez in spite of the ongoing maneuvering by Johnson and his Chicago Teachers Union allies to remove the CEO and smooth the path to a new teachers contract that would cost an estimated $1.8 billion in the first year and more than $9.2 billion over the full agreement.”

In a prescient move, the Tribune noted: “A messy ouster, most likely accompanied by a payout to Martinez (unless the board can come up with some reason to fire him “for cause” since his contract is not up until July 1, 2026) is not in the best interests of the district. Martinez, at least, is attempting to keep taxpayers in mind by trying to hold the line on teacher contract demands that CPS has deemed “unaffordable,” claims the Tribune.

In the letter, it was noted that: “Pedro Martinez is our 9th CEO since 2009. ... Removing the CEO at this time means less guidance and support for principals and teachers until soon the lack of support hits the very people the system is built to serve — the more than 325,000 CPS students.”

“It is my hope the appointed school board will hold off any efforts for change in CPS leadership,” the principal continued, “until they take the time to speak directly to school leaders and hear how any decision to remove CEO Martinez will impact our ability to lead our schools.”

Do it for the kids is a popular tag line from past CEO battles and this seems to be true than, as it is now, and as the editorial board continued: “Johnson, for his part, won’t score any points with principals with this testy response when a reporter’s asked for his thoughts on the letter: “I actually don’t think much of it. ...Nope. I don’t think much of it at all.”

In an earlier attempt, The CPS Board offered Martinez a contract buyout.but local media reported that he had declined the offer.

"Pedro Martinez intends to honor his contract with the Chicago Public Schools and see that the 325,305 students and parents get the benefit of what they bargained with him," Martinez's attorney Bill Quinlan said.

And it was reported that, “According to Martinez's contract, the school board must find cause to fire Martinez.If not, it could lead to an expensive lawsuit,” just the result that we see going forward.

Coming on the heels of that effort, storm clouds were gathering when this was also reported: "We asked you, the board, to play a more active role in our negotiations because the CEO is supposed to be bargaining on the behalf of the board, and he is doing the opposite," Chicago Teachers Union financial secretary Maria Moreno said.

“In October, Martinez spoke to ABC7, responding to criticism that he has no CPS funding plan, and is relying on proposed cuts.He was also asked if he thought the mayor's picks for a new school board could end up firing him.”

"I don't know. I really don't. I'm being sincere," Martinez said. "I will say what's great right now is that, you know, it's very transparent what my contract says."

In what was an important development that led to Friday’s move, “The previous school board was not willing to fire Martinez or secure the short-term, high-interest loan to help pay for a new teachers contract, which led to a mass resignation in October.”

"I did not expect for this to escalate to the way it did," Martinez said at the time.

“Replacing Martinez is reaching new urgency for the mayor, his school board and their allies at the Chicago Teachers Union, who want to land a new collective bargaining agreement before mid-January, when a new 21-member partly elected school board takes over. The union has accused Martinez of being an obstacle to its demands. Just two weeks ago, the board instructed Martinez to settle the contract in the “coming days.”

“Martinez has defended his record at CPS, saying he helped shepherd the district through the latter stages of remote learning, then the return to classrooms and a subsequent nation-leading recovery in reading and math. He also has pointed to a revamp of the district’s school funding formula that activists, including the CTU, have long requested”

It has been widely noted by local media that “contract negotiations have proven to be a chief point of contention

“When the 21-member board takes office in January, with 10 members elected on Nov. 5 and another 11 appointed by the mayor, it might be harder to reach consensus on a CTU contract. Johnson’s handpicked board members are pushing hard to get a deal with the union now, but some elected board members will be opposed to the mayor and CTU.”

“Martinez and his team seem to be unwilling to meet many of the CTU’s demands, particularly around staffing, which they have said are far too expensive for the cash-strapped district that just faced a half-billion-dollar deficit this year. Martinez, like the mayor and CTU, has pushed for more state funding. But there’s no guarantee that comes through after they were rejected last spring and as the state faces its own financial difficulties,” according to both the Sun Times and WBEZ.

Chicago is the fourth largest school district in the nation, and has had decades of student population turnover, high and lows for test scores, and has faced competition from charter schools. It has also had less money due to a tax based system that often leaves it out in the cold, compared with wealthier suburban schools.

A large part of the challenges that it has also faced was with its predominantly Black and Brown population, and the lack of will by some white lawmakers to effectively fund and support it to meet growing modern day challenges has been a constant.

Martinez,a Chicago native, and graduate of CPS, confronted a maelstrom of discontent and dissatisfaction dealing with these, and would have not been able, under the best of circumstances, to turn the schools around to what the students both deserve, and need, after decades of neglect.

Former Governor Bruce Rauner likened the physical plant of many Chicago schools to “crumbling prisons,” and some, especially in the poorer sections of the West and South Sides of the city do fit that description, as painful as it sounds.

Added to student population mix are many homeless children who face outside pressures of where to sleep and eat, much less to find a place to do homework;and, then less than two years ago the district faced a wave of immigration, first promulgated by Texas governor Greg Abbott, who sent thousands to the city and whose parents, as much as their students faced the same problems of the local homeless population, with the added burden of a language barrier, where teachers often enlisted janitors to translate for Spanish speaking students.

Martinez as noted, is the latest of a series of school CEOs that have had mayoral backing, and then found disfavor as they tried to meet the myriad of issues that the system faced, and one, in particular Barbara Byrd Bennett who went to jail in a bribery investigation and “was sentenced to 4 ½ years at Federal Prison Camp,Alderson in West Virginia”; all of which has made most white parents send their children to private schools, either in the city, or suburbia, and has left the CTU and other educators to try and do the best that they can with limited resources. 

For many, the money spent per pupil, seems high, yet there are problems that money alone cannot solve, for example those homeless and migrant students arriving from South America, who in addition to the language barrier, had not been schooled for many months due to school closures in their native countries, and the violence they often faced, and the dangerous journey across the Darien Gap to reach the United States.

Now, halfway through the school year, these challenges will not go away, nor will Martinez whose contract has him remain in place for 180 days be able to turn around and make any substantial changes to counter his critics.

Floating around is a rumor that there will be an addition of a Co CEO or a reduction in Martinez’s duties, but this would be a direct violation of his contract, and would also expose the city to yet another costly lawsuit, and negative national publicity,which would be ripe for an intervention form the incoming Trump administration, and the undesired attention of Elon Musk.

“Moreno has blamed Martinez for dragging his feet to get a deal done. CTU is anxious to resolve the labor dispute before President-elect Donald Trump takes office. The union originally sent CPS over 700 contract demands, including a 9% raise,” according to recent reportage.

"CPS still doesn't know how to negotiate with its workers. We want to settle via negotiation, and we have provided a pathway to settlement," Moreno said.

With the incoming Trump administration, Chicago is already a target and previous trash talk about the city, its Democratic majority, violence and school issues by Trump has posited it for his attention.

Already in a recent visit to Chicago the newly, but not yet official Border Czar, Tom Homan, a Trump loyalist said to an approving crowd, that “Your mayor sucks,” and added Illinois Governor JB Pritzker to the same torrent of abuse.

Timing is everything and Johnson timed the firing, with what many have seen as a none too subtle push with his chosen board, before the newly elected school board members begin their term in January.