Chicago Public Schools Out of Money: CPS' billion-dollar budget hole leaves unappealing options

The Chicago Tribune reports:

With a nearly empty rainy day fund, a bond rating on the edge of junk status and a new round of teacher contract negotiations underway, Chicago Public Schools has no clear way to fill its projected billion-dollar budget hole.

After decades of poorly planned borrowing and delaying pension payments, the district faces crushing bond and pension debts that are diverting more and more funding away from its educational mission.

District leadership is in flux as schools chief Barbara Byrd-Bennett last week took a leave an absence in the face of a federal investigation into a $20.5 million no-bid contract given to one of her former employers.

This will be the third straight year that CPS has been dealing with untenable pension payments. The district is running out of easy fixes. And this budget crisis is playing out against the backdrop of Gov. Bruce Rauner's efforts to tame public employee pensions and deal with powerful unions.

This is the front page headline story of the Chicago Tribune today.