“Chicago Public Schools will spend nearly $135 million covering pension contributions that teachers were supposed to pay themselves in fiscal year 2025,” reports the Illinois Policy Institute:
Most workers are responsible for saving for their own retirement, but Chicago Public Schools has an unusual shift of that burden from employees to taxpayers.
By law, teachers in the Chicago Teachers’ Pension Fund must contribute 9% of their salary toward their pensions [which doesn’t cover most of the cost of their pensions]. But since 1981, teachers hired before 2017 only pay 2% and Chicago Public Schools pays the other 7% of what the teachers are supposed to be paying: a deal known as a “pension pickup.”
That pickup comes at a steep cost. In fiscal year 2025, the district will spend nearly $135 million covering pension contributions that teachers were supposed to pay themselves….
And that’s on top of the growing bill taxpayers face for pension costs. Chicagoans already fund Chicago Public Schools’ employer pension contributions through their property taxes. They’re also responsible for the state’s five other pension systems, which consume nearly 20% of the state budget each year and are still $144 billion in the hole.
The fact that taxpayers fund a defined benefit pension plan with good benefits should be enough. Employee contributions exist for a reason, and the concept of picking them up, even for only employees hired before 2017, is unsustainable.
In addition to Illinois pensions being $144 billion in the red, Chicago has more than $42 billion in debt, not counting Chicago’s own unfunded pension liabilities.
These pensions drive up taxes in Chicago and Illinois. Due to really high sales taxes in places like Chicago and Cook County, and Illinois having the nation’s second-highest property tax rates, Illinois has the nation’s highest state and local taxes for people with median incomes.
Cihicago’s left-wing mayor, Brandon Johnson, forced out school board members who objected to fiscally-irresponsible policies promoted by the Chicago Teachers Union, which has played a key role in making Chicago’s schools dysfunctional. The mayor also pushed to remove the Chicago school superintendent after he objected to fiscally irresponsible school policies, resulting in the school board voting to fire the superintendent.
Due to unnecessary spending, “Chicago Public Schools is in dire financial straits, yet Chicago Teachers Union blocks” the “closing of near-empty, failing schools,” reports WirePoints.
Indeed, the union wants more staff to be hired for schools that are almost entirely empty and have hardly any students. “Illinois Policy Institute Policy Analyst Hannah Schmid said the Chicago Teachers Union is emboldened with Johnson in the mayor’s office.” “We’re seeing these extreme demands” like the demands for “nine new staff members at every school, even those schools with 4% of their building filled with students,’ Schmid told Center Square.
Breaking campaign promises, Chicago’s left-wing mayor, Brandon Johnson, has sought to get rid of high-achieving high-schools in the name of “equity.”
Chicago’s mayor has proposed left-wing policies that would shrink the quantity and quality of housing in the city.
Thousands of Chicago school laptops have been stolen and ended up in China, Africa, the Middle East, and Latin America.
Illinois’ public pensions are worst funded in U.S.,” noted the Illinois Policy Institute. Illinois is showering taxpayer money on left-wing public-employee unions that help elect Democrats. When Illinois began paying illegal aliens’ healthcare costs, it cost far more than the state expected,
Violent crime has risen in Chicago as only 13% of violent criminals are arrested.
