Chicago Public School Pay Raises or Not?
The maze of Chicago Public Schools spending and the difficulties in figuring out exactly where all the tax dollars are going and why.
by Kate Piercy
Check out this revealing (and entertaining) story by Chicago Reader’s Ben Joravsky about the maze of Chicago Public Schools spending and the difficulties in figuring out exactly where all the tax dollars are going and why.
Joravsky’s piece, “A Raise By Any Other Name” particularly addresses how top administrators with Chicago Public Schools “budgeted themselves raises as they threatened to lay off teachers, asked coaches to work for free, and cut sophomore sports to chip away at a deficit approaching nearly $1 billion.”
This story highlights why spending transparency at every level of government, including school districts, is necessary. Posting budgets online isn’t enough, as Joravsky’s story points out. Government needs to post actual spending online, including check registers (monthly) and salary information (including benefit information).
There is simply no excuse for this sort of confusing explanation from CPS about its spending. They need to be held to a much higher level of accountability, and if they won’t do it on their own, the public has the responsibility to start demanding more information about how their tax dollars are being spent.
Amidst teacher layoffs occurring throughout Illinois schools, teachers especially should want spending transparency since they seem to be the first target when conversations about budget cuts start occurring. If there was better transparency and understanding about spending, it would be easier to determine what spending is a priority and what spending is not, instead of looking at cutting teachers first.