CPS parents are still waiting for state to properly fund schools

As a father of three Chicago Public Schools students, I was encouraged to read that CPS will not reduce instructional time or eliminate Safe Passage as it works to close a $732 million budget gap. Those are the right priorities.

But this moment should also serve as a wake-up call.

Every summer, parents are forced to wonder what programs, staff or services will be on the chopping block. Schools cannot thrive when they spend months planning around financial uncertainty instead of focusing on teaching and learning.

The real issue is not whether CPS can protect instructional time this year — it's whether Illinois is willing to fully invest in the students it serves. According to the state's own Evidence-Based Funding formula, CPS still receives only about 73% of the funding needed to provide an adequate education. That leaves our children competing for resources they should already have.

Parents, educators, community, business and elected leaders should all be working toward the same goal: giving every child the opportunity to succeed. That means finding sustainable solutions that protect classrooms, support educators and provide the stable funding our students deserve — not annual budget crises that pit one essential service against another.

Gov. JB Pritzker recently said, "Our kids deserve every day of education that parents demand."

I couldn't agree more.

Now is the time for the governor and the Illinois General Assembly to convene a special session and identify additional investments in public education, including increasing evidence-based funding. Our children deserve a funding system that matches our state's commitment to them.

Chicago's students should not have to wonder each year whether their education will become another budget negotiation. They deserve certainty, opportunity and leaders who will work together to make that possible.

Claiborne Wade, co-chair, Austin Community Action Council, and chairman, Kids First Chicago's Equitable Funding Task Force

Stalling makes Social Security fixes harder

Each year, the Social Security Trustees Report produces the same bad debate. One side says Social Security is going bankrupt. The other says there's nothing to worry about.

Both are wrong.

The 2026 report doesn't say Social Security is disappearing. It says the system is still paying benefits, but the cost of fixing it is getting larger the longer Congress waits.

The combined trust funds are still projected to be depleted in 2034. If that happens, incoming payroll taxes would still cover about 83% of scheduled benefits. That is not bankruptcy. It's also not stability.

The more important warning is that the program’s 75-year actuarial deficit grew from 3.82% of taxable payroll last year to 4.42% this year. The deadline did not move, but the repair bill got 16% bigger.

As a registered Social Security analyst, I sit across from families deciding when to claim benefits. Many ask whether they should claim early because they fear the system will collapse. That fear often leads to poor planning.

For many retirees, the greater risk is not that Social Security vanishes but living into their 80s or 90s after claiming at 62 and accepting a smaller check for life.

In 1983, lawmakers made changes to Social Security that bought decades of stability. But waiting made the politics harder then and waiting is making the math harder now.

There's no mystery about the possible fixes: raise more revenue, adjust future benefits, change the wage cap, raise the retirement age or combine several tools. Every option makes someone unhappy, which is why lawmakers delay. But arithmetic does not wait for political courage.

Social Security is not bankrupt, but delay is expensive. Retirees should not let fear drive personal claiming decisions. Congress should not let fear drive inaction.

The warning light is on. The car is still running. But the longer Congress drives past the repair shop, the bigger the bill becomes.

Ray R. Harris, founder and president, Social Security Claiming Experts

Superb Snelling

Supt. Larry Snelling last week announced Sun-Times that the city can charge a few thousand dollars for permits for a homeowner to replace a lead water service line. That’s a good way to keep lead pipes in service. If the city is serious about replacing lead pipes, it should waive all permit fees to replace lead pipes.

Tom Vega-Byrnes, Beverly

He probably flunked history

President Donald Trump sometimes gets it wrong. A few days ago, he called three winners of Democratic congressional primaries in New York City “communists.” They are not.

Last year, after the election of Zohran Mamdani as mayor of New York, he said: “For a thousand years communism has not worked.” More than a little off target since the foundational piece on communism, “The Communist Manifesto” by Karl Marx (with the assistance of Friedrich Engels), was published in 1848.

Given that the president has a less-than-solid grasp of history, maybe he thinks that Karl Marx had brothers named Groucho, Chico and Harpo.

Gerald Weisberg, M.D., Lake View