CHICAGO – The Chicago Board of Education and a group of parents
"Since action has not been taken to end the separate and unequal education system in this state, Chicago is taking matters to the courts," said the school board president, Frank Clark. "The state has been underfunding Chicago students for far too long, and the students, parents and educators deserve better. We will ask the court to take swift action to end this discrimination."
The district's chief executive officer, Forrest Claypool, threatened such a move last year but the warnings quieted down after the state passed a stopgap budget plan that including additional school aid and $215 million of help in covering the district's $733 million teachers' pension payment due in June. All other districts except CPS receive substantial pension help. The state has countered that instead CPS receives additional grant funds.
Rauner in December vetoed the pension aid as efforts at state pension reforms stalled. The two were linked as part of the stopgap deal. A bipartisan Senate budget fix would resurrect the pension aid, but its fate is unclear.
The district has been moving to trim spending after Rauner's veto, announcing furlough days to save $35 million followed by direct school budget cuts of $45 million and $5 million in administrative reductions. Another $18 million of cuts to charter schools looms.
The latest round of cuts last week prompted a verbal sparring between Claypool and Rauner last week. They traded barbs over blame for CPS' dire financial situation. The Rauner administration offered a more measured tone in its response to the lawsuit's filing Tuesday.
"We have just received the lawsuit and are reviewing it," said Illinois Secretary of Education Beth Purvis. "But it is important to remember that the bipartisan, bicameral school funding commission just issued its report, which recommends an equitable school funding formula that defines adequacy according to the needs of students within each school district.
"The governor remains focused on moving forward these recommendations and hopes that CPS will be a partner in that endeavor," she added.
The suit was filed in the Chancery Division of the Cook County Circuit Court alleging violations of the Illinois Civil Rights Act of 2003.
Under the act, the state may not utilize criteria or methods of administration that have the effect of subjecting individuals to discrimination because of their race, color [or] national origin. If the burdens of a state policy fall disproportionately on members of particular racial groups, the state must advance a weighty justification, reads the complaint.
The suit asks the court to declare illegal the teachers' pension funding system and the aid distribution formula and to halt the further use of those systems in doling out funds.
"The state of Illinois maintains two separate and demonstrably unequal systems for funding public education in the state: one for the city of Chicago, whose public school children are 90% children of color, and the other for the rest of the state, whose public school children are predominantly white," the district said.
The complaint cites the 1954 U.S. Supreme Court decision in the landmark case Brown v. Board of Education that found "in the field of public education, the doctrine of separate but equal has no place.
"Although Brown's historic holding is rightly celebrated, more than 60 years later, the reality is that a child's race continues to dictate whether she or he will receive a good education or something far short," the district's statement said.
African Americans make up 38% of the CPS student enrollment, 47% are Hispanic, and 6% are described as other students of color and 10% are white. In contrast, the overall enrollment outside of Chicago is 58% white, 21% Hispanic, 12% African American, and 9% are other students of color.
CPS educates about 20% of all state public school students. Based on all sources of state funding, CPS said the state spent $9 billion on all other districts and $1.6 billion on CPS.
"CPS, therefore, received just 15% of the state's …education funding, despite having nearly 20% of the students," the district said.
"Chicago students, who are overwhelmingly students of color, are learning in a separate but unequal system," Claypool said. "The message from the state is that their educations matter less than children in the rest of Illinois, and that is both morally and legally indefensible."
The Chicago district spends $1,891 per student on pensions while non-Chicago school districts spend only $86 per student. In fiscal 2017, CPS' statutory funding obligation to the Chicago Teacher's Pension Fund amounts to approximately 35% of CPS' total teacher payroll compared to non-CPS school districts that will contribute only 1.5% of total teacher payroll to the Teachers' Retirement System.
CPS teachers have their own pension fund while other districts participate in the state Teachers' Retirement System.
In addition to CPS' own general counsel Ronald Marmer and his deputy Douglas Henning, the district is represented by Jenner & Block LLP which was hired last year to prepare a possible lawsuit.
The lawsuit's defendants include Rauner, the Illinois State Board of Education, board chairman Rev. James Meeks, ISBE Superintendent Dr. Tony Smith and Comptroller Susana Mendoza.
In its latest financial report, CPS warns of more red ink to come this year and "difficult" decisions next year without additional state help which is crucial to help keep the district afloat. Coupled with district cuts and other cost saving initiatives CPS says it can return to the black, according to its comprehensive annual financial report for fiscal 2016.
CPS closed the books on fiscal 2016 with an operating deficit of $537 million. CPS' GOs are rated junk by Fitch Ratings, Moody's Investors Service, and S&P Global Ratings while Kroll Bond Rating Agency rates the district's GOs in the triple-B category.
The Rauner administration countered some of CPS figures, saying the district had received $74 million "over and above what they should have in fiscal 2016 even though they had declining enrollment, fewer kids in poverty and rising property values." In addition, the district received a $250 million block grant that no other district in the state receives, the statement read.
