After two weeks of strikes, the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) reached a deal with Chicago Public Schools (CPS) to return to the classroom. The agreement addresses issues that brought the strike to a head: a pledge for higher pay, smaller class sizes, and more support staff, among other things. However, it failed to address a crucial component that set the stage for this strike, and will again for the next one: the city's catastrophic teacher pension funding crisis.
Chicago's teacher pension system is facing an astounding $11 billion shortfall. CPS's annual budget, for comparison, is $6 billion. In other words — assuming Chicago could magically cancel all its existing contracts and all other financial commitments — the district could totally shut down its school system tomorrow and still take two years to meet their pension commitments.
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