CPS is broke. To preserve funding for the classroom and Chicago's children, and to keep CPS from going belly up, CPS officials must broker significant concessions from the union.

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.