Mayor Brandon Johnson’s $16.6 billion city budget plan would declare a $1 billion surplus from special taxing districts known as TIFs. Chicago Public Schools would get more than half.

Math scores dropped during the COVID pandemic and haven’t fully recovered. Illinois’ draft numeracy plan aims to provide districts with resources for improving math instruction.

The new Governor’s Blue Ribbon Schools Program honors 28 schools across the state and locally revives a long-standing national honor that was abruptly canceled by the Trump administration in August.

District officials urged the school board to make ChiArts, a West Side contract high school, a district-run school, and winding down EPIC Academy, a South Side charter high school.

The rise from 47th in the nation 15 years ago is “unprecedented” according to the advocacy organization Advance Illinois, which pushed for changes to the formula for years before it happened in 2017.

Chicago Teachers Union President Stacy Davis Gates said Tuesday the district should take legal action against the U.S. Department of Education for halting millions in previously awarded magnet school grants to the city’s schools.

The U.S. Department of Education said Wednesday it will not grant Chicago $5.8 million this year and $17.5 million in remaining years under the Magnet Schools Assistance Program. CPS had two active magnet school grants that support six schools.

A letter sent by the school district’s acting general counsel called the U.S. Department of Education’s demands to roll back its Black Student Success Plan and overhaul policies related to transgender students “unreasonable and untenable.”

The U.S. Air Force deactivated the Chicago school's program for noncompliance on Aug. 11, one week before school started. CPS announced it would continue JROTC through the U.S. Army.

Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson and interim CPS CEO Macquline King rang the ceremonial first bell to mark the 2025-26 school year on the playground of Courtenay Language Arts Center.