THE LOOP (WBBM Newsradio) -- Chicago public school students are set to return to class in less than two weeks, as a multi-million dollar question mark hangs over the district's budget.
And now, leaders of two large unions are squaring up publicly over what that uncertainty could mean for the city's schools.
This all stems from the Board of Education's vote July 30 to rewrite the district's proposed budget to take out hundreds of planned layoffs and put in $150 million in new state aid that lawmakers in Springfield would still have to approve.
"We now have the promise that those things are reversed,"Chicago Teachers Union executive vice president Jackson Potter told board members during an agenda review committee meeting Wednesday, noting that House Speaker Emanuel "Chris" Welch has committed to pushing for more school aid during this fall's veto session.
"Our efforts are paying off!" Potter said. "We have to continue to push to get it done," Potter said.
CTU leaders have been trying to increase pressure on state lawmakers and Gov. J.B. Pritzker to provide more funding for schools, and all eleven board members who approved the amended budget have CTU backing.
However, board members also heard from a union leader with a different view: Trumaine Reeves from SEIU Local 73, which represents 16,000 CPS support staffers.
"Eleven members of this board chose to reject a balanced budget based on what should be ... and not based on facts," he told the board on Wednesday, demanding that the board spell out in writing what the district will do if state lawmakers don't approve more aid.
"This is not a request for gaslighting. This is a demand for a plan and accountability," Reeves said. "Eleven board members knowingly made the choice that brought us to this point. We ask that you own it."
CPS says classes will begin starting August 24.
CTU, SEIU on opposite sides of strategy to seek more state aid
CTU, SEIU on opposite sides of strategy to seek more state aid
