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For Chicago Public Colleges, 2024 was a 12 months of chaos and battle, political maneuvering and coverage disputes. In 2025, with the district going through extra adjustments and challenges, the upheaval and uncertainty is more likely to carry over.
The district will usher within the new 12 months with a brand new governance construction, after voters for the primary time elected individuals to the Chicago Board of Schooling, and uncertainty over who will lead the district and how much monetary form it is going to be in.
In 2024, the mayor’s hand-picked college board fired CPS CEO Pedro Martinez after a months-long drama throughout which Mayor Brandon Johnson requested him to step down — and he refused. The Board of Schooling resigned en masse in October, however have been busy earlier within the 12 months approving main coverage shifts, reminiscent of eliminating campus police and overhauling college budgets. District officers grappled with a half-billion-dollar finances deficit as federal COVID aid cash ran out.
Because the 12 months begins, there are numerous questions on what comes subsequent for the nation’s fourth largest college district and for schooling coverage throughout the state. Listed below are seven issues we’ll be watching in 2025.
Who would be the subsequent CPS CEO?
On the night time earlier than Christmas break, Mayor Johnson’s hand-picked college board voted to oust Martinez — ending a tumultuous, months-long energy wrestle between the 2 leaders.
However the drama will not be over simply but.
Martinez was fired with out trigger and can stay within the prime job for the subsequent six months by way of the top of the present college 12 months. He’ll then get a lump-sum payout of round $130,000.
Martinez mentioned he would work to make sure a clean transition for the subsequent CEO. However his lawyer additionally took authorized motion earlier than the vote in an effort to cease the board from terminating him.
Now, the query of who will take the reins of Chicago Public Colleges subsequent will fall to a brand new half-appointed, half-elected college board, which will likely be sworn in on Jan. 15, 2025.
One of many college board’s prime duties is to rent and consider a district chief. However who’s up for the job?
How will the brand new 21-member college board govern?
Chicago schooling will enter a brand new period in 2025. For the primary time in Chicago’s historical past, voters elected 10 individuals in November to town’s Board of Schooling. They, together with 11 extra individuals appointed by Mayor Brandon Johnson, will likely be sworn in on Jan. 15.
The elected and appointed members come from various backgrounds — from former educators and nonprofit leaders to a Grammy award-winning rapper and songwriter. Additionally they have totally different alliances. Of the elected members, 4 are backed by the Chicago Lecturers Union and one other three are backed by pro-school alternative and constitution PACs. The remaining three are unbiased of these main curiosity teams.
The 21-person physique — triple the scale of the present board — should be taught the ropes of governing and deciding easy methods to work collectively successfully. We’ll additionally look ahead to adjustments to the logistics of the board, together with whether or not it can launch particular committees that target totally different schooling areas.
However most of all, we’ll be watching what kind of coverage selections the brand new board will embrace. At the very least 15 of the board members are more likely to align ideologically with the mayor, who’s a detailed ally of the academics union, so the board might lean towards making selections that match the mayor’s agenda, which incorporates growing give attention to neighborhood colleges, a key precedence of the district’s five-year plan.
How are college students — particularly probably the most weak — experiencing college?
For the primary time in a decade, Chicago noticed its public college enrollment stabilize final college 12 months. A lot of the shift is because of an inflow of migrants from the southern border. This has had massive implications for Chicago Public Colleges’ segregated college system with bilingual schooling deserts.
Many colleges final 12 months didn’t have employees who might talk with non-English-speakers, a lot much less state-mandated bilingual education schemes. Although this college 12 months noticed an growth of assist for English language learners, has it been sufficient?
Moreover, CPS has seen a rise in college students with disabilities, as documented by Individualized Schooling Packages. On the similar time, there was a scarcity of academics and college employees who’re licensed to work with these college students and vacancies stay. A brand new contract settlement reached with the union that represents college assist employees aimed to deal with these vacancies. The CTU can be pushing for language that would add extra instructor assistants, although it’s inflicting some inner labor battle.
College students with disabilities have additionally been most acutely affected by the district’s transportation woes sparked by a bus driver scarcity. This left many with no trip to highschool over the previous a number of years. Now, CPS is out from below state oversight and increasing bus service once more. However will college students with disabilities nonetheless face hurdles getting to highschool?
Will CPS attempt to shut colleges after a state-imposed moratorium ends?
On the identical day the brand new Board of Schooling is sworn in, a state moratorium on college closures will expire. Which means the board might transfer to shutter colleges.
Nonetheless, a lot of the present management oppose the deeply unpopular and politically divisive transfer.
On the marketing campaign path, a majority of elected college board members mentioned they don’t assist closing colleges. Johnson staunchly opposes college closures and often reminds individuals of the closure of fifty colleges in principally Black and Hispanic neighborhoods in 2013 below former Mayor Rahm Emanuel. And he’s chosen appointees who additionally disagree with shuttering colleges.
This fall, the earlier Board of Schooling additionally handed a decision launched by CPS CEO Martinez that dedicated to not closing colleges till 2027.
Nonetheless, the district faces a thorny query many different massive districts are additionally grappling with: How ought to it steadiness largely thinning enrollment over the previous decade with its monetary challenges? The district might proceed working small colleges, or it might take a unique strategy.
The Johnson administration’s most popular strategy up to now has been to spice up funding for needier campuses, with the aim of strengthening neighborhood colleges and enrollment — and the brand new board might double down on that.
What’s the state doing to enhance lagging math achievement?
Math achievement took a dive in Illinois and Chicago in the course of the COVID pandemic, in response to state take a look at scores. The most recent information suggests college students are rebounding in studying and to some extent math.
However proficiency in math stays low, in response to the Illinois Evaluation for Readiness for third to eighth grades and the SAT for eleventh graders. The lagging scores in 2024 have some elevating questions on whether or not colleges want a greater strategy to math instruction.
Illinois State Superintendent Tony Sanders informed Chalkbeat in August that officers are taking a look at methods to enhance how math is taught in colleges. And in October, when state take a look at scores got here out, Sanders mentioned the state is engaged on a math and numeracy plan for colleges throughout the state.
He provided few particulars however mentioned the plan can be a “first-of-its-kind” effort and would offer assist to academics round efficient math instruction.
When will CPS settle a brand new contract with the Chicago Lecturers Union — and the way will it affect lecture rooms?
Contract negotiations between the Chicago Lecturers Union and the district have entered their eighth month. The talks have escalated considerably up to now few months, fueling the strain between the mayor and CPS management.
The union has since pared down its sprawling 700-plus proposal bundle — which initially known as for 9% employees raises, hiring 1000’s of recent staffers, and offering further assist for college kids, reminiscent of reasonably priced housing. However either side haven’t but closed in on a deal. At a current Board of Schooling assembly, union leaders argued that accepting their contract calls for now will assist defend the district in opposition to potential main adjustments to public schooling and mass deportation plans that would come below President-elect Donald Trump.
The district has confronted severe monetary questions over the course of bargaining. CPS is projecting a half-billion-dollar deficit subsequent fiscal 12 months, with out accounting for the price of labor contracts. State leaders haven’t signaled that they plan to ship greater will increase in schooling funding to CPS.
With a purpose to pay for the contract, the Johnson administration recommended the district take out a short-term mortgage, which CPS leaders have up to now rebuffed. The most important query is twofold: When will the district settle the contract – and the way will it pay for it?
How a lot cash will the state ship to highschool districts?
College funding is all the time a giant difficulty, nevertheless it’s possible extra prime of thoughts for Illinois districts after billions of {dollars} in federal COVID aid funding for colleges dried up this fall. Plus, the state is coping with a $3 billion finances deficit, Capitol Information Illinois reported.
The lack of these {dollars} led to a giant deficit at Chicago Public Colleges and has raised questions on easy methods to pay for prices going ahead, fueling the district’s months-long energy wrestle with Metropolis Corridor.
Since creating a brand new funding components in 2017, Illinois lawmakers have elevated funding for Ok-12 colleges by $350 million yearly besides in 2020, when the COVID pandemic first hit. However schooling advocates and officers argue that districts want bigger annual will increase as colleges’ wants have elevated through the years.
In Chicago, extra state funding might assist resolve the district’s ongoing monetary challenges and assist pay for labor contract bills, for instance. However Gov. JB Pritzker and different elected officers have mentioned vital funding will increase aren’t coming to CPS.
Nonetheless, Pritzker has signaled extra curiosity in boosting schooling funding. The query, he mentioned, is how.
“To be clear, I want to put extra money into our schooling system,” Prtizker informed reporters in September, acknowledging the state isn’t adequately funding schooling. “The query is, The place do you discover the {dollars} to do this? And that’s clearly one of many largest challenges of being governor.”
Samantha Smylie contributed.