Pedro Martinez, CEO of Chicago Public Schools, said he believes his dispute with Mayor Brandon Johnson “should never have escalated” to this level of public acrimony because he believes their goals for the school system are aligned.
“I never chose this fight. I wanted things to calm down,” Martinez said in a wide-ranging interview with the Sun-Times on Wednesday.
“It was never about a misfire. I always supported the mayor because he was the one who said, ‘We need to invest more in our schools.’ And I said, ‘Absolutely.’ And that was my conversation with him from day one.”
But with funding still short, they disagree on how to move forward. The main source of friction is over whether to take out a short-term loan.
The mayor is promoting a type of borrowing known as tax anticipation notes, a way to obtain cash before tax revenues arrive.
Martinez strongly opposes that, saying it would carry high interest and hurt the school district’s already poor credit rating, which declined after a round of borrowing in the past decade. Mayoral aides said that was among several options presented to Martinez. Other options are not publicly known.
Martinez said he cannot, as a “moral leader,” plunge the district into more debt.
“I have been operating ethically, with integrity, providing information, and always with the attitude of ‘maybe they don’t understand the risks of borrowing.’”
Instead, the schools chief requested a record $462 million from private property tax districts to cover the entire projected shortfall for this school year. Johnson said he would donate as much of that money as he could, but that amount could be politically difficult with City Council members who depend on the money for development in their wards.
The so-called tax increment financing dollars will help CPS take on payments to non-teaching school employees in the municipal retirement fund that Johnson paid to CPS as well as obtain a Chicago Teachers Union contract, Martinez said.
He said he plans to push City Council members on the TIF issue at a hearing on Oct. 22 as the city enters budget season.
“I feel confident that our board members are reasonable and that they care about our district and our city. And by the way, they need that money, too. When they release the TIF surplus, 25{%]goes to the city. When we pay that pension, it goes right back to the city.”
Some who supported Martinez over Johnson have suggested over the past few weeks that CPS does not need more funding. Martinez disagrees.
“This is where I agree with both the mayor and our unions: The district is not fully resourced, and has been under-resourced for decades. I mean it was under-resourced when I was a student in the 70s and 80s,” Martinez said.
“We can’t let Springfield off the hook. They didn’t create this, they inherited it, just like we all did. But we have to work together.”
Both borrowing and temporary investment funds will be one-time enablers. That’s why the city’s mayor and CPS say they’re looking to Springfield for long-term, sustainable solutions.
CTU blamed Martinez for not going downstate earlier in the spring to push for more funding for CPS.
Martinez said Wednesday that the city is largely focused on other issues, such as a few CPS-related bills before the elected school board, school cops and selective enrollment programs.
He added that officials from Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s office told Martinez and Board of Education Chairman Jiannan Shi in a “heated” meeting in May that CPS and the city did not appear to agree on funding as their top legislative goal.
The current conflict is not helping CPS make its case. But Martinez said he would like to get down early in the spring session and make funding a top priority.
In the CTU negotiations, Martinez said progress has been made. But he said he would not agree to all of the union’s demands regarding staffing and other financial matters because “we cannot put the district in financial distress.”
Martinez said he has a good relationship with the Board of Education members who announced their resignations last week, and “only they can answer” why they resigned. He said he was proud of their accomplishments together.
Martinez said the mayor asked him to resign, but he refused.
“I love this job, and my goal is to finish my contract,” he said.
