Chicago Public Schools will allocate an additional $1000 per student under new budget | CEO Pedro Martinez via Chicago Public Schools site
Chicago Public School (CPS) officials announced their plans Tuesday to increase direct funding for school campuses by $150 million in the coming school year, despite declining enrollment. Increases will help to support students with specialized needs, including disabled and non-native English-speaking students.
Funding will increase by approximately $1000 per student, totaling about $12,740 on average. Struggling enrollment numbers and curriculum changes, however, could result in reduced funding for 18 percent of schools. An estimated nine percent of schools will see reduced or static per-student funding.
Principles will receive preliminary budgets on Wednesday, and have until May 4 to review and appeal allotments. After completing the review and appeals process, official budgets will be publicly released.
CPS CEO Pedro Martinez drew ire from the Chicago teachers union last year upon announcing budget cuts to 40 percent of schools, despite an overall increase in school funding of $250 million. Following the review and appeals process however, the number was reduced to only 23 percent.
CPS has outlined their goal to gradually move away from enrollment-based funding, to an approach founded more on student needs, a move supported by union officials. In a statement, Martinez said, “We’re slowly leaving student-based budgeting. Really what we’re trying to look at are the needs of our students.”
In the previous year, $4.6 billion of CPS’s $9.6 billion budget went to schools, while the remainder was divided between district-wide initiatives, staff, debt services, and pension costs. Approximately 43 percent of the latest budgets are determined by enrollment numbers, with the rest based on student demographics, school programs, etc.
Enrollment will remain a partial factor, with Martinez stating, “In a large school district where schools serve 40 students, 400 students, and even 4,000 students, enrollment simply has to play a role in our funding formula.”
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