CPS proposes cuts after adding positions that enrollment, finances couldn’t justify

Chicago Public Schools followed Chicago Teachers Union’s staffing-first approach. Now the district faces cuts.

After years of adding staff and expanding programs while enrollment declined, buildings sat underused and academic results remained weak, Chicago Public Schools proposes eliminating about 120 assistant principal positions as it faces a projected budget deficit of $732.5 million.

CPS has been pushed in this direction by the Chicago Teachers Union. Recent contracts increasingly go beyond traditional issues such as wages and basic working conditions, with agreements including costly, personnel-heavy initiatives such as sustainable community schools.

Those demands increase costs and reduce flexibility, making it harder for CPS to match spending to enrollment, school use and student outcomes.

Sustainable community schools show the weakness of this approach. The original eight high schools have seen enrollment fall 25% since 2018, compared with an 8% decline among CPS high schools overall. Those eight schools also posted lower academic proficiency rates, higher absenteeism and higher per-student spending than district averages.

In other words, the CTU is pushing CPS toward a model that spends more without delivering better results.

The district’s decision in 2023 to put an assistant principal in every school is a clear example of adopting the same approach: promising more staff without regard to whether enrollment and finances justify it. Initially arguing that the positions would provide additional support, CPS now proposes eliminating them in schools with fewer than 250 students.

That raises an obvious question: If these positions were essential, why is the district ready to cut them so quickly? If they were not essential, why did CPS add them in the first place?

The assistant principal expansion came as CPS was already struggling with excess building capacity. According to district data, 58% of its schools were underused in fiscal 2025, meaning enrollment was less than 70% of capacity. The district’s 10 emptiest schools averaged only 11% utilization while costing nearly $38,000 per student.

Rather than adjusting staffing to reflect fewer students, CPS continued adding personnel.

The proposed assistant principal cuts show what happens when CPS adopts CTU’s staffing-first approach, prioritizing that over fiscal discipline and student results.