Bankruptcy is the only way out for Chicago Public Schools

The Chicago Sun-Times reports:

More than 600 local governments and municipal corporations have filed for protection from creditors under Chapter 9 of the U. S. Bankruptcy Code. Detroit is merely the biggest (so far). Why not Chicago, the Chicago Public Schools and other Illinois municipal units that have unconscionably overcommitted local taxpayers, in particular over-promising and shamefully underfunding their employees’ pensions?

The Sun-Times’ recent mention of the feared but often realistic word bankruptcy (Editorial, August 10) wasn’t inappropriate, it was courageous. Of course no civic leader wants to resort to bankruptcy, but it offers a legal, rational way to reduce debt to a manageable level and allow the city or town or special district to start over with a clean slate.


Is there any Chicago or Cook County taxpayer out there who truly believes we’re actually going to pay the city’s bonded indebtedness of $8 billion, the CPS debt of $6 billion, the Cook County debt of $7 billion, and so on? Their annual budgets are less than these obligations.

A conservation has begun.