Contining Money Crunch

CPS has its hands full when it comes to financial concerns. The school district is facing a $1.1 billion shortfall and billions more in pension payments. A new note of doom arose recently when the CPS Administration notified the teachers union that it would not exercise its option to extend the teachers contract for an additional year.

Here's why...If CPS DID extend the contract then CPS would be granting raises amounting to $105 million, an amount that CPS says it simply can't afford. So, look for protracted negotiations.

With a good number of communities suffering from blight (an absence of industry and other businesses that would provide a tax base) the various neighborhoods simply aren't able to establish a steady and reliable tax base to properly fund the neighborhood schools. That and other issues are part of the 'money crunch.'

Dick