CTU President Karen Lewis has acknowledged that CPS is in dire straits – and that her union may have to make concessions in contract negotiations, including ending the practice of the school district – meaning taxpayers – picking up the majority of teacher contributions toward pensions, which has cost $1.3 billion since 2006.

Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services issued a two-notch downgrade to the Chicago Board of Education on Jan. 15, citing failure to address the district’s structural financial problems.

A Cook County judge is scheduled to rule on the constitutionality of Chicago's pension-reform law on July 24. No matter what the outcome is, the pension overhaul will eventually end up in the Illinois Supreme Court. But the ruling may give a clue as to whether or not the city’s reforms will ultimately be upheld.

How Illinois politicians turned what was meant to provide government workers with retirement security into a political slush fund.

As contract negotiations heat up this summer, the facts are hard to stomach.