Chicago Public Schools has committed to boost climate programs throughout the nation’s fourth-largest school system, bolstered by a teachers union and a school board that want to upgrade old buildings and train students for clean energy careers.
The problem: Funding has gone from tight to dire.
Already facing a $700 million budget deficit, Chicago Public Schools last week suffered another blow when the Trump administration froze billions of dollars in education funding for schools nationwide. The passage of President Donald Trump’s domestic policy bill, gutting green subsidies and grants, removes even more potential funding for Chicago schools to cut their emissions.
Now, despite historic commitments to weave climate and environmental justice throughout the district’s planning and operations, teachers and administrators instead face the possibility of retrenchment.
