Chicago Public Schools should try to maintain spending levels even as federal pandemic relief funds come to an end

The nation’s third-largest public school system—Chicago Public Schools (CPS)—has begun developing its budget for the next fiscal year. Like the rest of the country’s schools, this budget marks the end of the district’s financial support from the Elementary and Secondary Schools Emergency Relief III Funds (ESSER III) provided during the COVID crisis. CPS invested its ESSER dollars in school staff, and it was the right choice: Chicago students had exceptional academic outcomes compared with similar districts during the pandemic recovery.

Public schools, especially schools that serve students of color, are facing severe staffing shortages that threaten students’ ability to learn. Even with the staffing improvements made possible by COVID-related fiscal relief, CPS per-pupil spending levels are not sufficient to meet recognized educational adequacy benchmarks. CPS’s 2025 budget should target maintaining recent spending levels to support the recruitment and retention of qualified staff, particularly in low-income neighborhoods and schools that serve students of color.

Maintaining school staffing with COVID relief funds was essential to student learning during the pandemic

There were three tranches of ESSER funds. Two were distributed in 2020, but the largest by far was ESSER III, with a total of $122 billion allocated to districts around the country as part of the American Rescue Plan in 2021. School districts were given tremendous latitude in exactly how they wanted to spend that money, but ESSER’s central intent was to improve student learning outcomes. Among its key purposes was a mandate to “address the significant academic, social, emotional, and mental health needs of their students” and to “address the disruptions to teaching and learning resulting from the pandemic.” ESSER III funds must be spent by the end of January 2025, and CPS has already spent 88% of the $1.86 billion it received. This relief, along with additional COVID funding from the American Rescue Plan and the governor’s Emergency Relief fund, amounted to $3,428 per student in 2021, allowing for a 23% increase in per-pupil spending for elementary and secondary education in CPS.

One of the most pressing challenges facing schools over the past few years has been staff shortages. Schools nationwide shed more than 700,000 staff—almost 10% of their entire workforce—during the first two months of the COVID pandemic, as schools shut down and public revenues declined. It took more than three years for numbers to recover, but significant shortfalls still remain. Further, the stresses on student achievement imposed by the pandemic almost surely require higher per-pupil resources in coming years than pre-pandemic standards.

One of the key reasons for persistent staffing shortages in schools has been that pay for educators has failed to keep up with other jobs. Teacher wages are 26.4% below the incomes of similarly educated workers in other industries, and wages of bus drivers and food service workers are substantially below the median worker’s wage. Schools that service majority students of color are more likely to face staff shortages than schools in predominantly white neighborhoods.

Staff shortages in schools are most harmful to students from low-income families. EPI has shown that schools with a higher share of low-income students need more staffing—including more counselors, teachers, nurses, and classroom aides—to provide an adequate education compared with schools in high-income areas.

ESSER funds were well-suited to help school districts address staffing shortages. The key purpose of ESSER was to support student learning, and hiring new staff and retaining current staff are integral to that purpose.

Chicago Public Schools should maintain needed investments in staffing

Given that 76% of CPS students come from low-income families, CPS’s decision to spend nearly half of its ESSER funds on staffing was the right choice. Importantly, this spending did not just maintain existing staff levels. While just 37% of school districts nationally used ESSER funds to create new staffing positions, CPS has added more than 5,000 staff over the past four years. Chicago students were well-served by having more staff, including hundreds of tutors and instructional coaches.

Between 2019–2024, CPS increased staffing in every category. They more than doubled the number of social workers, from 308 to 691. They doubled nurses, from 322 to 661. They created a new position—advocates for students experiencing housing insecurity—and hired 50 of them. They created 306 new case manager positions to coordinate work with students who needed additional help. They also added 575 new custodians, 169 counselors, and more than quintupled the number of instructional coaches, going from 47 to 259.

The wisdom of CPS’s investments in these personnel has been borne out by academic research showing how strongly Chicago students have recovered from the pandemic. According to analysis of large urban school districts nationwide by the Council of Great City Schools, Chicago students were ranked first in reading and 13th in math. While most school districts nationwide are still below their pre-pandemic levels in reading, Chicago is doing better than it was in 2019. The results were even better for Black and Hispanic students. This is a remarkable achievement that shows the importance of increased staffing supports for students. Other research looking at districts across the country shows that federal pandemic relief for education was highly effective for aiding student achievement during the post-pandemic period.

Even with extra relief funding, Chicago Public Schools spending is not adequate

The temporary surge of ESSER funds provided a welcome boost to educational spending in Chicago, but per-pupil spending is still below funding levels required to provide an adequate education. In addition to providing basic funding for instruction, strong school systems try to compensate for factors beyond a state’s control that nevertheless impact a student’s education, such as student poverty or labor costs, by diverting funding into areas that need it the most. Under this principal of school finance, for a given outcome goal such as the average score on a standardized test, funding should be allocated based on student population need and the surrounding labor market and community, with more money going to higher poverty districts and less money going to wealthier districts. New data on school finance adequacy compares actual per-pupil spending with estimated per-pupil spending levels needed for the district to achieve the common benchmark of national average test scores. In 2021, the most recent year we have data from the National Center for Education Statistics, CPS was able to raise their per-pupil spending by 23% from $14,788 to $18,216 with COVID relief spending, of which the ESSER program funded the majority. Yet, this still falls short of adequacy benchmarks estimated by researchers ($21,000 per pupil in Chicago). This adequacy measure provides key context for calls to continue spending at least at levels made possible by federal relief.

ESSER funds allowed Chicago Public Schools to not just weather the pandemic but also strengthen the school system and improve outcomes for children. The end of ESSER funds should not lead CPS to change directions. CPS students, especially those in low-income parts of the city, need adequate staffing to have the best chance at a good education. CPS should continue its focus on recruiting and retaining qualified educators.