Deal to avoid teacher strike to cost Chicago schools $8.9 billion

The cost of the proposed teachers' contract with the Chicago's public school system amounts to about $8.9 billion over four years - a deal that would cost taxpayers at least $100 million more than the one teachers rejected in January.

"I would say this deal has about $100 million more in it," said Robert Bloch, a longtime attorney for the Chicago Teachers Union who was at the bargaining table late Monday when a strike was averted minutes before a midnight deadline.

The additional cost of the four-year contract proposal compared to the previous offer might even go beyond that, Bloch noted, saying the Chicago Public Schools' "finances are so opaque, it's hard to know exactly what they're spending, what the cost is.

"There's not full agreement on the cost of certain elements of the contract, which makes it hard," Bloch elaborated. CPS estimated that salary increases for teacher experience and education would cost $30 million a year, but the union considers it a wash "as people move up the ladder and fall off."

Despite a demand from the Civic Federation government watchdog group to disclose and break down the deal's cost, school officials and Mayor Rahm Emanuel's administration are refusing to spell that out for Chicago taxpayers, who have already have been hit with $1.2 billion of new taxes to solve pension crises plaguing city pension funds as well as the fund that covers school retirees.

Questioned by the Sun-Times about the potential for the new contract to cost more than the one the teachers rejected in January, a mayoral confidant confirmed there would be an increase but contextualized it as relatively small given that the four-year deal would cost about $8.9 billion - or about $2.2 billion a year.

For more, check chicago.suntimes.com.