CPS Cuts 162 Jobs Amid $732M Deficit

Chicago Public Schools has notified 162 central office and citywide employees that their positions are being eliminated as the district works to close a $732 million budget deficit for the 2026-27 school year.

The layoff notices were issued Friday, July 10, and confirmed publicly by the district on Monday. The cuts mark another round of reductions for CPS, which is facing its second consecutive annual shortfall of more than $730 million.

CPS spokesperson Mary Fergus said the layoffs are expected to save about $18 million. According to the district, the reductions were made after departments had already pursued non-personnel savings, including renegotiated vendor contracts and the consolidation of non-essential administrative services.

The eliminated roles include 82 central office positions and 80 citywide positions. Central office employees work in districtwide policy, operations and administrative roles, while citywide employees support individual schools but are funded and managed centrally rather than through school budgets.

The affected departments include the Talent Office, Information Technology Services, the Department of Principal Quality and the Office of School Counseling, among others. CPS did not release a full position-by-position list of the eliminated jobs.

Of the 162 employees affected, 38 are represented by SEIU Local 73 and 25 are represented by the Chicago Teachers Union. An additional 18 employees in the district’s fiscal year 2026 layoff prevention pool were told that their placement had expired.

CPS leadership directed department heads to “prioritize maintaining critical functions that directly serve students, and protect school-based staffing to the greatest extent possible” when deciding where cuts would be made.

The district’s budget gap is tied to several long-running pressures, including declining enrollment, the expiration of federal pandemic relief funds and rising operating costs. CPS received nearly $3 billion in one-time federal ESSER aid between 2020 and 2025, money that helped maintain staffing and programs during the pandemic recovery period.

The district is also dealing with fixed costs tied to pensions, debt service, health insurance and aging facilities. While enrollment has fallen over the past decade, many of those expenses have not declined at the same pace.

Mayor Brandon Johnson has previously argued that the state must contribute more to address the district’s financial problems, saying earlier this year that “for us to repair the structural damage, the state of Illinois has to contribute more.”

The latest layoffs closely resemble last year’s cuts. In June 2025, CPS laid off 161 central office and citywide employees while facing a $734 million deficit for the 2025-26 school year.

CPS is expected to present its full proposed 2026-27 budget later this week. District officials have also proposed cutting another $105 million in non-school-based expenses. The Chicago Board of Education must approve a balanced budget by August 29.

The broader budget process could still bring additional reductions. Earlier this spring, CPS outlined possible school-level cuts, including limits on teacher losses by school, the elimination of more than 120 assistant principal positions and reductions affecting counselors, bilingual coordinators, interventionists, academic coaches, sports teams, music programs and after-school tutoring.

The district’s financial strain also comes as the City of Chicago faces its own fiscal challenges, including a $130 million midyear revenue shortfall and a projected $680 million gap for 2027.

For CPS, the July layoffs address only a small share of the total deficit. The $18 million in expected savings covers roughly 2.5% of the district’s $732 million shortfall, leaving the larger budget fight unresolved as the board’s August deadline approaches.