Over 600 Chicago teachers hit Sin City on taxpayers’ dime

Using taxpayer dollars intended to educate children, over 600 Chicago Public Schools staffers exploited lax rules to take luxury trips to Las Vegas.

Las Vegas must be a great place to get educated because over 600 Chicago Public Schools employees went there for professional development conferences, costing taxpayers over $23.6 million.

Word “spread like wildfire” among teachers about the Las Vegas trips, according to a report by the school district’s Office of Inspector General. Many of them attended without approval because of “lax, vague, inadequate and unenforced written CPS travel rules, training and procedures,” the report stated.

Many could have attended the same conference in Chicago but chose not to. The conference was offered in Chicago and Las Vegas in 2023, but only 28 employees chose to stay in Chicago. Over 200 jet set to Las Vegas.

When the virtual option was available for the same training, only one person attended online between 2022 and 2024.

The report provided the following additional details on the abuse of taxpayer money:

• 90% of CPS attendees stayed in hotel rooms that exceeded CPS spending limits, choosing to stay away from the conference site and at luxury hotels such as the Bellagio and the Venetian.
• 40% of CPS attendees did not receive required approval to attend the conference yet still used CPS funds to pay for airfare, lodging and registration fees.
• At least 24 CPS attendees took round-trip Chicago to Las Vegas flights costing more than $1,000 each in 2022.
• 372 employees stayed at four- and five-star hotels on the Las Vegas Strip in rooms costing taxpayers more than $400 per night in 2022 and 2023.
• Average round-trip airfare cost about $517 for CPS employees to attend the 2023 conference – far exceeding the maximum amount allowable under the travel policy.
• One CPS principal, who attended the conference multiple times without approval, booked a suite for an unapproved, six-day anniversary trip with his wife, costing CPS more than $400 a night.
• Another principal decided to attend the 2023 conference last minute, booking a hotel room for $945 per night for a three-night stay.
• 24 employees from one school were permitted to attend a Las Vegas professional development conference costing CPS more than $50,000 in 2024.

CPS could have saved taxpayer funds if employees were required to attend the conference in Chicago instead of out-of-state.

Taking $23.6 million from taxpayers is bad enough, but to rob from Chicago’s children is a shameful act of entitlement. For over 600 educators to think it was OK to take “free” Vegas vacations is bewildering.

The report offers recommendations to ensure taxpayer money is being used frugally and responsibly. CPS can start by:

• Converting vacant buildings into professional development spaces.
• Requiring approval for “professional development seminars” out of state and encouraging local options.
• Requiring employees to attend conferences in Chicago when possible instead of at an out-of-state location.
• Switching to flat hotel and airfare maximums, which can more easily be monitored, and requiring employees to pay anything over those maximums.
• Setting flat dollar allowances for meals.

Using CPS funds to attend a professional development conference in the Entertainment Capital of the World may not sit well with the many Chicagoans who just saw their property tax bills increase despite already paying the highest property tax rate in the nation.

While a travel freeze has been implemented across CPS, a little self-accountability by the city’s educators would have avoided this embarrassing abuse.