Highest Cost per Student. Dead Last in Reading and Math. CPS needs fixing.
We are organizing concerned residents to educate their neighbors, improve public policy at the local level, and fix our schools. Are you in?
Chicago's Educational Failures: By the numbers
The math proficiency rate for CPS students in grades 3-8, and 43% for reading, both measured under the state's newly lowered standards in 2025. Among the four largest cities in the country, Chicago ranks last in both subjects. New York, Los Angeles, and Houston all outperform Chicago despite similar demographics and challenges.
How much CPS owes in outstanding debt, nearly $10 billion total, roughly equal to the district's entire annual budget. The district faced a $505 million deficit in 2025 and a $734 million deficit in 2026. Projections show the deficit growing to $835 million by 2030 even if the property tax levy is raised to its legal cap every single year.
The chronic absenteeism rate in CPS in 2025, meaning 4 out of every 10 students missed at least 10% of the school year. Before the pandemic that rate was 24%. Three years of recovery efforts have barely moved the number. Among Black students in 11th grade, only 11.5% are proficient in reading and 7.4% in math.
That is what CPS must contribute to teacher pensions in 2026, an amount growing by $100 million every year since 2023. No other school district in Illinois faces this burden: the state covers 97% of pension costs for every other district but only 35% for CPS. Last year CPS also paid $817 million in debt service on long-term loans. Together that is nearly $1.4 billion that did not go to a single classroom.
What's Driving It
Policy Failures
A Spending Machine That Is Not Producing Results
CPS spent nearly $30,000 per student in 2024-25, ranking second among large urban school districts in funding per pupil. Between 2020 and 2024, district funding increased 21% while enrollment dropped 7.4%. Staff levels increased 18.7%. Yet fewer than 1 in 3 students can read at grade level and fewer than 1 in 5 meet math standards under the old benchmarks. More money, more staff, and worse relative outcomes is not a coincidence. It is the result of a system that prioritizes institutional spending over student results.
A Structural Pension Inequity That No One Has Fixed
The state of Illinois covers 97% of pension costs for every school district except CPS. Chicago is required to fund its teachers' pension system itself, a historical inequity that now costs more than $600 million per year and grows by $100 million annually. This structural disadvantage was created by state policy decades ago and has never been corrected. It means Chicago families pay twice: once in property taxes and once in educational opportunity, as pension costs crowd out classroom spending year after year.
Illinois Lowered the Bar Instead of Raising Performance
In 2025 the Illinois State Board of Education lowered the test score threshold needed to call a student proficient in reading and math. Under the new standards, CPS proficiency rates jumped from 31% to 43% in reading and from 18% to 27% in math overnight, without a single student learning more. State officials argued the old benchmarks were too high. Chicago parents were not asked. The practical result is that families now have a harder time knowing whether their child is truly on track, and the state has made it easier for a failing system to look like it is improving.
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