CHICAGO'S NEAR WEST SIDE (WBBM Newsradio) - The new head of the Illinois Federation of Teachers says Chicago's not the only school district in Illinois that's owed money under the state's formula for education funding.
IFT's new president is Chicago Teachers Union chief Stacy Davis Gates, who's pledging to take education leaders to Springfield every week to call for more money for public schools across the state, and not just in Chicago.
She and Mayor Brandon Johnson have repeatedly demanded that state leaders give Chicago's public schools the funding spelled out under the evidence-based formula Illinois adopted in 2017.
But in an extensive interview Wednesday afternoon at CTU headquarters, she told WBBM Newsradio that many other districts are being shorted.
How much?
"Well, $3 billion dollars for the state," said Davis Gates, adding that's on top of the $1.6 billion she and the Mayor say CPS is entitled to.
She says it's even more critical now that the state steps up to help public schools in Illinois, following the Trump Administration's decision to dismantle the Department of Education and block millions of dollars from Chicago and other school districts.
"We need leadership," she said. "We need to be protected, we need to be supported. President Trump has declared war on us."
When asked if she viewed Democratic Governor J.B. Pritzker as a friend of public school teachers and education, Davis Gates answered "Not yet."
She says friendship would require the state following Chicago's lead ... and finding ways for wealthier people and corporations to contribute.
Davis Gates - a longtime ally of Mayor Brandon Johnson - described the mayor's budget proposal pulling $1 billion out of those economic development accounts known as TIF funds to cover expenses related to schools, parks and libraries as an historic investment in the city's neighborhoods.
“That is probably the single … biggest investment that the city has seen in the public good in that way at one time in a generation or two,” she said.
But during the first day of budget hearings at City Hall on Tuesday, a number of aldermen raised concerns that pulling money from neighborhood TIF funds could hurt potential future growth in their wards.
Davis Gates responded by relating the fate of a Target store at 87th and Cottage Grove in Chatham, which opened with the help of TIF money: “And then when the TIF ran out, the Target left with it.”
By contrast, she suggested the Mayor’s approach will bring more lasting development to neighborhoods.
“An investment in a school community in the Eighth Ward goes further than what I think people recognize and understand,” she said. “People move into neighborhoods because of libraries, schools and parks.”