Chicago lays off more than 2,000, including 1,000 teachers

Noreen S. Ahmed-Ullah and Kim Geiger:

Citing a $1 billion budget deficit, Chicago Public Schools will lay off more than 2,000 employees, more than 1,000 of them teachers, the district said Thursday night.

About half of the 1,036 teachers being let go are tenured. The latest layoffs, which also include 1,077 school staff members, are in addition to 855 employees -- including 420 teachers -- who were laid off last month as a result of the district's decision to close 49 elementary schools and a high school program.

CPS spokeswoman Becky Carroll said the district was "scraping the bottom" of reserves to provide financial relief and had made cuts in other spending before making layoffs.

"We're not going to be able to cut our way out of this crisis," Carroll said. "Our revenues are simply not keeping in line with our spending increases."

Posted by Jim Zellmer at July 24, 2013 12:29 AM
Subscribe to this site via RSS/Atom: Newsletter signup | Send us your ideas