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Douglas Henning - Public School Funding

Doug Henning discusses his involvement in a school litigation case in 2017 which argued that the Illinois State Board of Education had created a two-system method of funding that treated Chicago Public Schools (CPS) differently from the other Illinois School Districts. The suit argued that CPS, with 20% of the state’s students, were receiving only 15% of state funds. In addition, Chicago Public Schools were required to pay the full cost of CPS teacher pensions from local funds. This suit was dismissed by the Chancery Circuit Court of Cook County. CPS had the option to file an amendment regarding the pension question. Shortly afterward, the General Assembly passed a new state school funding method which solved some of the questions raised by the suit. Thus, CPS withdrew the suit.